Review: Xiaomi 13 Ultra

The expensive end of the smartphone market has gone a little crazy. More affordable hardware means mid-range phones are enough for most people, and phone makers are scrambling to justify the premium tier. The answer is impressive camera systems meant to nix your need to ever buy a professional camera, and the Xiaomi 13 Ultra epitomizes this trend.

There are a grand total of four cameras on the back of this smartphone, honed through a partnership with Leica. It's no one-trick pony either. You might primarily associate Chinese phones with value, but Xiaomi’s flagship boasts quality in every department and is ready to go toe-to-toe with the best smartphones. Sadly, it’s not sold in the US, and you need to jump through hoops to sort out the software, but when the hardware is this good, it may be worth the effort.

Photograph: Xiaomi

High-end smartphones tend to be disappointingly conservative in design (aka boring), so the unusual look of Xiaomi’s flagship is refreshing. You can't miss the colossal circular camera module, but the surrounding golden chamfer is classy against the olive green of the faux leather back (it also comes in black or white). The textured finish is comfortable and enhances grip, which is just as well, because I almost dropped the phone a couple of times trying to get used to the weight—the upper half of the back bulges out, making the device top-heavy when you hold it.

Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus protects the screen, and the phone has an IP68 rating, meaning it's decently scratch resistant and can survive a short dip in water. However, I worry about the camera module, which the phone naturally rests on when you lay it down. I suggest using a case. Thankfully, there’s a slim one included in the box that adds a protective rim around the camera.

The 6.73-inch AMOLED display is among the best I've laid eyes on. It boasts a top resolution of 3,200 x 1,440 pixels with a 120-Hz refresh rate. Xiaomi claims a peak brightness of 2,600 nits, but this is a bit deceptive, as the entire screen rarely (if ever) goes that high. It doesn't really matter, as I never had any trouble with it in direct sunlight. Even at the lowest default settings, this display looks great.

With a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor inside, backed by 12 GB of RAM, the Xiaomi 13 Ultra is a smooth operator. Taps and swipes are slick and responsive, as is the in-display fingerprint sensor. It had no trouble running games like Real Racing 3 or Call of Duty: Mobile. The 13 Ultra also has the stamina for long gaming sessions, and it kept cool when I played Kingdom Rush Frontiers for several hours. It handles movie and music streaming equally well, and the stereo speakers offer a surprisingly balanced sound.

Photograph: Xiaomi

The 5,000-mAh battery is ample. Most days, my battery was around 40 percent at bedtime. Even after a busy day of navigating, photography, and several hours of screen time, the 13 Ultra had a little left in the tank. It’s worth noting that cranking all the display settings to the max exacts a toll on battery life. Turn some of this down, though, and you can stretch it to two days between charges.

Unlike most other flagship smartphones, you get a 90-watt charging adapter in the box. I juiced up the phone from 34 percent to 63 percent in just 10 minutes, which is fantastic. The phone also supports 50-watt wireless charging, though this will only work with Xiaomi's 50-watt wireless charger. If you snag it, you can purportedly recharge the phone fully in under 45 minutes, but I haven't tested this yet.

The first thing everyone notices about the Xiaomi 13 Ultra is the camera module with four lenses and Leica branding. There’s a 50-megapixel, 1-inch Sony IMX989 sensor with a variable aperture (f/1.9 to f/4.0), a 50-megapixel telephoto lens offering 5X optical zoom, and a 50-megapixel telephoto with 3.2X optical zoom, all with OIS (optical image stabilization). As if that wasn’t enough, there’s also a 50-megapixel wide-angle lens with macro mode for close-ups.

Xiaomi worked with Leica to create various filters, styles, and effects. There are countless options in the camera app, including some smart features that can help you remove unwanted objects or people from shots, like Google’s Magic Eraser. It takes practice and know-how to squeeze the best results from this phone. You can tweak everything using the Pro mode, but you can also rely on the automatic settings to snap some lovely photos by just pointing and shooting.

The 1-inch camera is the standout. Smartphone camera sensors are usually small, which affects every part of the resulting photograph. With a larger sensor, you can capture greater details and a higher-resolution photo. It also offers better low-light performance, as the sensor can take in more light, and better dynamic range in high-contrast scenes. All of these ring true in the Xiaomi 13 Ultra.

We first saw a variable aperture in a phone with Samsung's Galaxy S9. It felt gimmicky then, but with larger sensors like the one in the 13 Ultra, changing the focal length has more impact. It is one of the reasons that the Xiaomi 13 Ultra can capture landscape shots that look crisp in their entirety without blurred areas, and then also capture close subjects with that lovely blurred background bokeh effect. There’s little need for the dedicated portrait mode here.

The 13 Ultra captures richly detailed shots. Using the default Leica Authentic style, colors are more natural than on other Xiaomi phones, such as the Poco F5 Pro I tested recently. (There’s a vibrant option if you prefer colors to pop.) What impressed me most was the depth of field, which adds drama and interest to outdoor photos. I also like that the automatic macro mode kicks in and does a great job with extreme close-ups, and Xiaomi's night mode makes the most of low-light scenes. It's almost impossible to dislike the photos that come out of this quad-camera system.

The only weak spot is the 32-megapixel front-facing camera, which tends to over-brighten selfies. The portrait mode struggles with the usual stray hairs, and I found that selfies often look better in the standard camera mode.

The Xiaomi 13 Ultra can record 8K video at 24 frames per second (fps) and 4K at up to 60 fps. I don’t think people need to be recording in 8K right now, especially since it means large video files, and it doesn’t seem to offer a big jump in quality unless you zoom in, but the 4K footage is excellent. The stabilization does a great job of eliminating shakes or walking movement, and you can track subjects smoothly.

The Xiaomi 13 Ultra runs Android 13 with a topping of Xiaomi’s MIUI 14 software interface. This is just about the worst part of the phone for me. It’s a little too busy and brash for my tastes. It takes time to get used to if you're coming from a Google Pixel or a Samsung phone. Because my review unit is the Chinese version, it had tons of Chinese apps installed, pop-ups in Chinese, and Xiaomi apps as the defaults. I had to dig into the settings to toggle on Google apps, and I was able to install the Google Play Store and the rest of Google's more intuitive software. This shouldn't be an issue if you purchase the European version.

Speaking of, the European model of the Xiaomi 13 Ultra costs 1,499 Euros (around $1,613), though discounts are likely not far off. At that price, it rubs shoulders with Samsung's S23 Ultra and Apple's iPhone 14 Pro Max. The S23 Ultra keeps pace, and you might prefer the more helpful software smarts found in the Google Pixel 7 Pro, but it’s tough to find anything else to match the Xiaomi 13 Ultra. Xiaomi says the device will get three Android version updates and five years of security patches, which puts it on par with Google, but Xiaomi tends to be slower to roll them out.

I was willing to overlook software issues that bugged me with the Poco F5 Pro because everything else about the Xiaomi 13 Ultra is so good. The screen is near perfect, the performance is flawless, and the camera is outstanding. Naturally, here's the part where I remind you that you absolutely don't need to spend this much for a good phone, but if you're after the best in every sense of the word, the Xiaomi 13 Ultra is a real contender.