Xiaomi 13 Ultra review

28 April 2023


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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • g4b
  • 06 May 2023

Lmao, 05 May 2023Honestly, as a professional photographer, I'm telling ... moreYou sound like someone that's never held a camera before. Considering you're using a mi 11 I'm guessing poor? Fear not, you can buy a mirrorless camera and decent lens from 2010 and you'll still run circles around any smartphone camera. As another user stated, it's simply physics, bigger sensor and better glass will always look better.

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • X5u
    • 06 May 2023

    Leanzazzy, 05 May 2023I'm actually really surprised by the performance of th... moreXiaomi is using very advance liquid cooling tech which will further improve with updates so expect it to get even better

      • P
      • Product Research Out
      • 8vQ
      • 06 May 2023

      Is Xiaomi 13 waterproof?
      Is Mi 10 Ultra worth buying?
      Why Mi 11 Ultra is the best?
      How much is Xiaomi 13 Ultra in Singapore?

        • ?
        • Anonymous
        • 0p}
        • 05 May 2023

        14 to use new 1/1.28" .
        14 pro to keep imx989..

          I'm actually really surprised by the performance of this phone. Yeah, I expected the camera to be Heaven on Earth (and it is) but I am surprised at how stable the phone is and how consistently it performs under sustained load.

          No doubt some of that is due to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (which is literally the best and most stable SoC Qualcomm has made since the SD 870), but other phones that have it still do throttle and overheat.

          To maintain such a high score for the GPU stress test (3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1080p)) is nothing short of amazing. Not only that, but it maintains 90% stability, which literally puts it at the same level as the ROG phone 7 Ultimate, a phone that is literally dedicated to gaming and built for gaming.

          That is the score the ROG phone 7 Ultimate achieves in X-mode with the AeroActive cooler 7 attached. This phone doesn't have any external cooler so technically, it actually beats it.
          Even in the CPU stress test, this phone beats the ROG phone 7 Ultimate.

          Again, considering this phone is not centred around gaming and performance, it is extremely surprising.

          The only drawback is the ramp and back, which looks quite ugly. I am also concerned about how well the ramp and sides will age with time.

            • ?
            • Anonymous
            • 3p7
            • 05 May 2023

            My 13 Pro is ready in my pocket, but when i eant serious photos, i take my mirrorless, so much better quality and fun.

              Nick Tegrataker, 05 May 2023My point is the fact that the anonymous user I was replying... moreAs for resolution and lenses. You can find calculators online for light diffraction limitations, and for S23 Ultra is around 70-80 Mpix from the pure sensor and lens size. And adding materials to the equation gives for sure less than 50Mpix. And that is accurate from what I was checking with my mirrorless camera and S23 Ultra - images from A7III are more detailed than those from S23 Ultra.
              But I would say that cameras with a 1" sensor are in a better situation than S23. A bit bigger lenses with a smaller sensor, and make them resolve details better. And that is for me about a sweet spot for sensor size and lens size in the smartphone world. Higher resolution in smaller sensors is just a number.

                Nick Tegrataker, 05 May 2023My point is the fact that the anonymous user I was replying... moreYeah, got it. I just used your comment as a starting point with an explanation. Sorry for making you feel that it was directed at you. :)

                  SirArtur, 05 May 20231. Lens size limits the resolution of the image almost in t... moreMy point is the fact that the anonymous user I was replying to has been intentionally underselling to push their narrative that "Phone lenses cannot resolve more than 8MP", a ridiculous claim that has been proven false by GSMArena's own comparison chart for a long time now. Phone cameras use plastic lens elements due to the ease of machining, and while they are less transparent than glass, that doesn't mean they cannot handle modern high-resolution sensors before becoming completely diffraction limited.

                    Ottonis, 05 May 2023Any info on potential pricing? The Xiaomi 13 pro costs aro... moreYeah, smartphones got insanely expensive. I got my old Honda Civic a few years back for 1/4 of the new S23 Ultra price... :D

                      Any info on potential pricing?
                      The Xiaomi 13 pro costs around 1300 EUR in Europe, so the Ultimate will probably be in the vicinity of 1600+ EUR.
                      Let's make a comparison: Just a few years ago one could get the Huawi P30pro (which was the king of cameraphone photography back in its day), for around 600 EUR.

                      So, the prices for the best available hardware have extremely increased in the past few years - a development that may have many reasons.

                      I think that the most interesting market segment may be just that one around 500-800 USD/EUR. And here, it may pay off to wait a year or two for ex-flagships to come down in price: The Sony Xperia 1 iv, for example, had an MSRP of 1399 EUR whent it was announced last year, and now it is currently being sold for around 950 EUR.

                        Nick Tegrataker, 05 May 2023"Our pal keeps saying crap plastic lenses on phones ar... more1. Lens size limits the resolution of the image almost in the same way as a sensor. There is something called light diffraction. which makes small details more fuzzy as the diameter of the lens in front of the sensor decreases.
                        2. Material used in the lens as well affects resolution. To put that in perspective, you can try to look at something through a plastic bag - a transparent one. This will make everything very blurry, as this material is very bad for transmitting light, and does affect how light behaves when going through it. The same is with every material. Some are better, some are worse than others. Glass used in proper lenses is better than the plastic used in the smartphone world. Of course, there are far better than my example with plastic bags. There is a reason why there are no good professional plastic lenses.

                        Putting that together results in the very limited ability of smartphones for capturing high-resolution images.
                        I was trying my A7III and S23Ultra, and despite Samsung having more resolution (200Mpix), the image from Sony was more detailed. So the resolution of the detail was higher on the Sony.
                        And of course, Smartphones are using tricks to fake that detail, and use a lot of sharpening of out the box, so that image looks better at first glance, but you cannot simply cheat on physics.

                          • L
                          • Lmao
                          • kex
                          • 05 May 2023

                          SirArtur, 04 May 2023True, but does it mean that smartphone is a better camera t... moreHonestly, as a professional photographer, I'm telling you that the tech in smartphones is BLOWING full frames outta the water. Our pro cameras are barely evolving. I purchased an mi 11 ultra and get compliments on shots with it consistently. Often, I get better shots with less required editing due to the faster focusing and what not. Everything gets smaller as tech progresses. These devices have more processing power than most high end cameras. They key is picking a sensor that doesn't over do post processing like Samsung and iphone.

                            Anonymous, 04 May 2023Gizmochina camera review : these are the cons " Ju... more"Our pal keeps saying crap plastic lenses on phones are on pair with glass on cameras"

                            I love how you're shifting your argument from "Plastic lenses cannot resolve more than 8MP" to "A phone camera lens cannot compete with a lens on a dedicated camera". The vaguer your claim, the more leeway you have to push your narrative more freely. Keep running away.

                              • ?
                              • Anonymous
                              • 3p7
                              • 05 May 2023

                              SirArtur, 04 May 2023What I mean is only that you cannot say that smartphone is ... morePoint is photo quality and options. Cameras are much better.

                              With phone u just cant make good photos.. sport, wildlife, portrait (software bokeh is ugly), astro etc etc...

                              With phone u can make just monents for s**tbook.

                                • J
                                • Jesus
                                • 3p7
                                • 05 May 2023

                                Jesus, 05 May 2023My high end mirrorless giving me bug fun and top quality ph... moreBig fun* lol

                                  • J
                                  • Jesus
                                  • 3p7
                                  • 05 May 2023

                                  My high end mirrorless giving me bug fun and top quality photos.Smartphone is just dmartphone, not fun with taking photos. Most of photos never use nowhere.

                                    Anonymous, 04 May 2023Isn't this GSM Arena?? The way things are going it loo... moretrue. this is the reason the conventional digital camera industry going to go down further. They are lucky they can still scam some users with vlogging cameras whereas it can be done with smartphones at a fraction. Simple things like built-in battery and storage still not standard or larger brighter displays.

                                      • r
                                      • regs
                                      • swN
                                      • 04 May 2023

                                      Main camera is actually pretty good in low light. Even little better than nova 9, which is though have better color reproduction. But Galaxy S23 and especially iPhone 14 Pro are falling far behind.

                                      Would be really nice if ultrawide and telephoto cameras also added to Photo Compare Tool.

                                        Anonymous, 04 May 2023Isn't this GSM Arena?? The way things are going it loo... moreWhat I mean is only that you cannot say that smartphone is better or the camera is better, as someone here was trying to prove.
                                        Better in what? A number of functionalities? Sure, the smartphone easily wins.
                                        Available storage - easy win for smartphones as well.
                                        Screen - bigger and better on the smartphone.
                                        How pictures look on the small screen out of the box - another checkbox for smartphones.
                                        Image quality and what you can do with the output? Easy win for cameras.
                                        Camera in smartphones is one of the functionalities, so it has to have some compromises in e.g. lens quality.
                                        Stating that the camera is worse than a smartphone because it does not have a pick brightness 2600 nits is like saying a tractor with a trailer is better than any Ferrari by far because you cannot load Ferrari with tons of fruits. The camera does not have it, because it is a camera, nothing less and nothing more.
                                        My point is - comparing them without context does make any sense. If you want the best possible picture quality - you go with the camera. If you go with quick and ready-to-post right-away pictures - you go with the smartphone. And the price tag does not matter here, as these are completely different devices!