Xiaomi 13 Ultra is DXOMARK's 14th best cameraphone

08 June 2023
Exposure instabilities, shutter lag, and some HDR halo are cited as issues.

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Marco M, 13 Jun 2023Because they needed their help at first, then got the compe... moreits a common scenario with collaborative works.

    Inedian, 12 Jun 2023Because DxO is a joke.DxO was a darling while they placed xungming on first position and now its just joke? xungming fans are real funny.

      mr.base, 11 Jun 2023Well, i don't know why this was my experience. I had f... moreThat's strange. I tried the Chinese variant. Vivo's x90 will give you quick shutter speed every time even indoors. I find Xiaomi's to be hit or miss. It doesn't fire quiet often for me in indoor situations and sometimes when it does fire it chooses a shutter speed than is a little too slow to completely eliminate blur. Vivo's on the x90 basically increases the shutter to a much higher speed than Xiaomi. However, the downside to the Vivo is sometimes it isn't necessary to increase it to such a high level. For example it might choose 1/1000 in an indoor environment where 1/300 would be sufficient

        DarlingYext, 13 Jun 2023Yeah, yeah yeah, sure. Of course that would be the reason.Yes, companies grow and invest into key areas they see help them sell. Nothing new about that.

        Huawei's camera performance pre-Leica was not great. Just look at the P7 and P8, which were both equally bad, but the P8 was lagging even further behind the competition as they had improved from 2014 to 2015 and Huawei not. Their phones was like your typical OnePlus, decent HW for the money, but lacking in the camera dept.

        The P9 started to close the gap in 2016. How much of that is due to Leica, or just a massive investment into camera tech is of course not something I know. In 2017 they bested apple and in 2018 they took Samsung. Their cooperatoin with Leica stopped in 2022, so who knows even how far they had gotten into the development of the 2023 devices at that point. Maybe they hadn't even started. For all I know, Huawei only used Leica for optics and PR, over time, then did all the software themselves.

          Nick Tegrataker, 12 Jun 2023I believe Leica's involvement in JPEG post-processing ... moreThat may be so now, but a few years back - before their cooperation with Leica - Huawei's camera performance was definitely not the reason people chose them. It is of course good to see they still manage on their own.

            Marco M, 13 Jun 2023Because they needed their help at first, then got the compe... moreYeah, yeah yeah, sure. Of course that would be the reason.

              Nick Tegrataker, 12 Jun 2023In the camera app, you also have a Leica NAT filter that ca... moreThe most neutral mode should be default, not hidden :-)

                DarlingYext, 12 Jun 2023"Or indicative of Huawei needing Leica's help..&q... moreBecause they needed their help at first, then got the competence in house and didn't need them anymore :)

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                  • Inedian
                  • L2r
                  • 13 Jun 2023

                  DarlingYext, 12 Jun 2023I would like to agree with that, but Huawei still rocks whe... moreHuawei was always good and among the best camera phones and still is.

                  I just can't DxO seriously (but even before that i just didn't take them seriously), because of having Vivo X90 Pro+ and Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, where Vivo is clearly better, especially in video, while XM11U leads in their overall score and also video score, which is just not true.

                  I also have Note 20 Ultra (SD version), which is still good camera phone and my friend had until february Huawei P40 Pro and Note 20 Ultra was always winning when we were comparing cameras. Maybe he had faulty unit, because it just wasn't that impressive, while most others, including GSMarena were praising it.

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                    • Anonymous
                    • q{3
                    • 13 Jun 2023

                    DXOMARK has the credibility of a used kleenex.

                      Inedian, 12 Jun 2023Because DxO is a joke.I would like to agree with that, but Huawei still rocks when it comes to photography. OS? Not so much.

                        Xiaomi is a master it f. up the camera software and lately the whole OS :) I remember dumping my Mi4 or Mi5 due to the bad camera performance and laggy OS ....

                          Marco M, 12 Jun 2023Or indicative of Huawei needing Leica's help, whereas ... moreI believe Leica's involvement in JPEG post-processing became fairly minimal after the P30 series - There's nothing Leica-like about Leica Standard mode on Huawei phones since then. If you look at their older phones (P9/P10, Mate 10/Mate 20) you can see that the colours are tuned to be slightly more "artistic" with deeper contrast without even using the Leica Smooth or Vibrant mode.

                          They keep topping DxOMark regardless of whether they are having a partnership with Leica or not because their camera is very *consistently* good in real life, but also behaves in a way that it scores high under DxOMark's testing protocols (e.g. Automatically closes down an aperture for group portrait shots).

                          Essentially, Huawei knows their stuff more than Xiaomi does, and actually does their homework to perform well in both real-world AND synthetic shooting scenarios.

                            Marco M, 12 Jun 2023Also highlighted is the color science and halos. Color ... moreIn the camera app, you also have a Leica NAT filter that can be applied on top of Leica Authentic/Vibrant mode if you want a more neutral colour reproduction.

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                              • Inedian
                              • L2r
                              • 12 Jun 2023

                              DarlingYext, 12 Jun 2023"Or indicative of Huawei needing Leica's help..&q... moreBecause DxO is a joke.

                                Marco M, 12 Jun 2023Or indicative of Huawei needing Leica's help, whereas ... more"Or indicative of Huawei needing Leica's help.."

                                So why is Huawei the number one on DxO's list without Leica?

                                  Dtruth IsBitter, 10 Jun 2023You are not funny at all *is it WEEDs manifestation? . S... moreMan you are extremelly funny. If you read all comment below most people will tell you Xiaomi is way better than Samsung for a very simple reason they trying to fix a hardware error or bug by Software update which is a tottal crap.
                                  Its like fixing a broken leg with a plaster.
                                  Would pick Xiaomi over samsung anytime a day for a much ligher UI for a charger in the box a true fast charging speeds and a case in box as well. In case of top models you can find even earphones inside.
                                  In case of S23 ultra you get an empty box with a phone for which you have to pay 400 extra no thanks.

                                    Nick Tegrataker, 09 Jun 2023Hint: it's mostly the AF score (which also takes the d... moreAlso highlighted is the color science and halos.

                                    Color science criticism also fell on the 12S Ultra. I get that Leica want's to have their signature color science, but the default mode should be balanced and realistic. Both Leica Classic and Leica vivid are over saturated. The second one makes sense, but if even Leica Classic is over saturated, then they should either fix it or add a third mode. Leica neutral.

                                      Kriegsherr, 11 Jun 2023If Huawei could be benefitted from Leica cooperation and xi... moreOr indicative of Huawei needing Leica's help, whereas Xiaomi does better than Leica on it's own. Halos and over saturated colors falls inn under Leica's scope in this collaboration. The exposure instabilities could be both to blame.

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                                        • thefearfulsilence
                                        • pJW
                                        • 12 Jun 2023

                                        Dzo, 10 Jun 2023It's a bloody test 😄 you bought a bad phone so whatThanks for totally misunderstanding my comment and consequently having a misdirected rant instead.

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