Xiaomi 13 Ultra first impressions: a phone that looks Leica camera

Last year, Xiaomi unveiled the 12S Ultra globally. This was the first phone to showcase the brand’s partnership with Leica, and the results were quite impressive. The Xiaomi 12S Ultra never made it to India, but the company did bring the Xiaomi 13 Pro earlier this year. For all intents and purposes, the Xiaomi 13 Pro is Xiaomi’s flagship phone for 2023 and for India. So it makes sense that the Xiaomi 13 Ultra won’t make its way to the country.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about the Xiaomi 13 Ultra. Launched in China in April, the Xiaomi 13 Ultra is set to make its way to European markets on June 8th. I got to spend a few hours with the phone in Coonoor, largely checking out its Leica camera system.

Visually, the Xiaomi 13 Ultra and Xiaomi 13 Pro have identical displays. The back is where things largely change. The 13 Ultra goes for a leather finish compared to the glossy ceramic panel on the 13 Pro. Both look premium in their own ways, but the 13 Ultra’s textured back makes it easier to grip the device. The large, circular camera module is the phone’s statement feature. There’s enough protrusion here to make the phone wobble on a flat table. The top half of the rear panel is sloped in a way to mimic Leica’s analog camera design.

Talking about the hardware real quick, you won’t find a lot that’s different between the 13 Ultra and 13 Pro. Both phones offer a 6.73-inch 2K OLED display with up to 120Hz refresh rate. But only the 13 Ultra gets a bumped-up peak screen brightness of 2600 nits. You get the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip powering both devices, but only the Ultra model gets up to 16GB of RAM. Lastly, the Xiaomi 13 Ultra gets a slightly bigger battery than the 13 Pro, but fast charging drops to 90W from 120W.

Coming to the star (or rather stars) of the show – the Leica camera system. Xiaomi has had a couple of attempts prior to the 13 Ultra to improve its Leica cameras. With the 13 Ultra, the company has taken it up a notch. While the 13 Pro comes with three 50MP cameras, the 13 Ultra gets four 50MP sensors. Xiaomi wants to ensure that you get consistent shots across all the cameras, which is why all four rear cameras get a 50MP sensor, with the primary one being the Sony IMX989 and the rest using IMX858.

The primary camera has a 1-inch sensor with a variable aperture and HyperOIS support. The other sensors consist of a telephoto lens, an ultra telephoto lens, and an ultra wide-angle lens (that can also shoot up to 5cm macro shots).

Along with these Leica-backed camera sensors, you get Leica-backed software features as well. The camera app lets you switch between Leica Natural and Leica Vivid modes, with the added help of filters like Leica BW Natural and BW HC to capture moody black-and-white shots. Enough talk though, check out some of the camera samples below to get an idea of what the cameras can do.

Since I had the device only for a few hours, I couldn’t test the cameras a great deal. So, we’ll reserve our verdict for another time. However, our first impressions of the phone and its cameras are positive. This is hardly surprising since the Xiaomi 13 Pro impressed us as well. You can read our review of the Xiaomi 13 Pro here to know more about what the Leica cameras can do.

While the Xiaomi 13 Ultra is unlikely to come to India, you really won’t be missing too much. The Xiaomi 13 Pro offers pretty much the same level of experience that the 13 Ultra does, which is why it is currently one of the best flagship phones in the market if you’re looking for a premium camera smartphone.