We expect the Xiaomi 13 to be the next flagship phone range from Chinese tech giant Xiaomi and it could land soon, with an announcement before the end of 2022 looking like a clear possibility.
Will it really be Xiaomi 13, even though this number is unlucky for some? We imagine so – Xiaomi is based in China, where 13 is not an unlucky number (four).
We don’t know much about the Xiaomi 13 itself yet, but there has been an extensive leak describing the Xiaomi 13 Pro, which you can find below.
But as the company’s next true flagship phone, the Xiaomi 13 is naturally where our thoughts drift, especially as it will be a big competitor to the Samsung Galaxy S23 and iPhone 14.
In this article, we’ll list any big leaks or rumors as they arise, and you’ll also find a wishlist of what we want to see in the Xiaomi 13.
To the point
- What is this? Another flagship phone from Xiaomi
- when is it coming out? Either late 2022 or early 2023
- How much does it cost? Several premium phones at different prices
Xiaomi 13 release date and price
Xiaomi often releases its new flagship phones at the end of the year in China but waits until February or March before making them available worldwide – and that’s just for the “main” phone, with the Lite and Ultra versions often arriving later.
For this reason, it’s hard to pinpoint a vague release window for the phones, let alone a more specific release date – but we’ll likely start hearing leaks that will give us more information before it’s too long.
One of the leakers, however, believes that the premiere will take place in November 2022.
This is according to one of the earliest Xiaomi 13 leaks that comes from a fan site called Xiaomiwho found the model numbers for four of Xiaomi’s upcoming flagships (two of which are Chinese versions of the other two) – claims they are the Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro, and further suggests that the discovery of these model numbers suggests the phones will arrive sooner than expected .
Since Xiaomi phones belong to the family, there will be many mobiles available in different price ranges. You can expect a Lite version for users on a budget, the 13T series in late 2023 at a mid-range price, and the Xiaomi 13, 13 Pro and 13 Ultra are likely to be premium phones, with the Ultra touting a super-high price.
Xiaomi 13 news and leaks
Now we’ve got our first look at what the Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro could look like, courtesy of some unofficial renders from a reputable source. You can see some of them below.
For the standard Xiaomi 13, the design looks like a mix between the Xiaomi 12 and the iPhone 14, while the Xiaomi 13 Pro shown here has a much more curved look thanks to its curved screen.
A small number of specs were also included with these renders. The Xiaomi 13 will apparently have a 6.2-inch screen, while the Xiaomi 13 Pro will reportedly have a 6.65-inch screen, plus a 50.3MP main camera, measuring 163.0 x 74.6 x 8.8mm (up to 11.8mm at the rear bump camera) and will be available in shades of black, white, pink and green.
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Elsewhere, the Digital Chat Station – leaked with a solid track record – has said that the Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro will use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, arrive on Android 13, and that the larger of the two (probably the Pro) will also have a 2K display – all this points to it being an iterative update over the Xiaomi 12 counterparts, unless more improvements are hiding in other areas.
A more detailed leak has since surfaced, but it only covers the Xiaomi 13 Pro. Apparently this phone will have a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, up to 12GB of RAM, up to 512GB of storage, a 6.7-inch 2K display, a 4800mAh battery with 120W charging and will apparently run on Android 13.
It is also said to have a 50MP main camera with a massive 1-inch sensor, paired with a 50MP ultra wide-angle camera, a 50MP telephoto camera, and a 32MP selfie camera.
Xiaomi 13: what we want to see
Here’s our wish list for the Xiaomi 13, looking at the company’s previous phones and other things going on in the mobile industry.
1. Telephoto
Xiaomi is trying to position its phones as masters of photography and videography, but the lack of a telephoto lens really hampers them chops in these departments.
Telephoto lenses are usually used for zoom photography, but they are also great because they create a more attractive depth effect and also allow you to get closer to subjects without having to move. Both of these reasons are as important for filming as they are for photographing.
While Xiaomi sometimes packs telephoto lenses in its high-end phones, the standard Xiaomi 12 didn’t get it, and the Lite and T versions usually don’t either. However, we would like to see Xiaomi commit to more use of zoom lenses to really give their phones a chance to compete with the Samsung Galaxy S series.
2. Lower reserve price
Xiaomi offers Lite versions of its flagships for people who cannot afford more expensive family members, but does not introduce them at the same time. You often wait months for a budget alternative and usually around six months for the T version, which is a mid-range spin on a flagship.
To give phone fans on a budget something to buy right away, we’d like the standard Xiaomi 13 to start for less than the $749 / £749 that the Xiaomi 12 started at. Fine if it’s the Xiaomi 13X (was a 12X but missed out for sale worldwide) – we just want a mid-range phone that will take us all the way to the T series.
3. Cleaner software
We’ve been moaning about Xiaomi’s MIUI Android fork since the beginning of the story, and while improvements have been made (and Xiaomi is no longer the worst culprit), the smartphone’s operating system is still far from perfect.
One of our concerns is bloatware as company phones tend to have a bunch of third party apps pre-installed which you usually remove. The other problem is that phones often have quite buggy software and features crash or break more often than competing phones.
For Xiaomi 13 to be a true flagship that rivals Galaxies and iPhones around the world, Xiaomi needs to make MIUI a premium operating system that is clean, has useful extra features and doesn’t fall apart all the time.
4. Continuous design improvements
The Xiaomi 12 was the first Xiaomi flagship that could really catch the eye – it had a soft textured back, came in lovely pastel colors and used a two-tone design that made for an appealing look.
We would like Xiaomi to continue this trend of creating attractive smartphones, perhaps with bolder color choices (we’re always fans of red or gold devices) or with a redesigned camera bump that’s more eye-catching.
5. Simultaneous launch
While the Xiaomi 12 series launched in China in December 2021, it went on sale in the rest of the world just a few months later – by then the hype around the phone had died down after its initial debut.
Xiaomi isn’t the only company getting an early start in China, and it’s not the only company suffering from hype train derailment.
This is especially the case with Xiaomi, which is increasingly trying to be a bigger player in the phone space – Huawei only became a giant when it realized that it had to debut its product with great fanfare for the whole world, not just for one region .
With this in mind, we would like to see the Xiaomi 13 launched and released in one go in all regions of the world – just like Samsung and Apple do. We don’t want to get bored with the phone before it goes on sale.