18 April 2023. Following the recently successful global launch of the Xiaomi 13 series, Xiaomi and Leica Camera AG today introduce the flagship of the series: The Xiaomi 13 Ultra. This marks another important step in the strategic collaboration between Xiaomi and Leica in the field of mobile imaging. The Xiaomi 13 Ultra will be available from April 21 in mainland China, and in the next few months internationally.
As the new flagship of the series, the Xiaomi 13 Ultra is equipped with a quad camera system, a variable aperture 1-inch main camera and the most advanced Leica Summicron Lens in a mobile phone so far. Inspired by the lenses of the legendary Leica M series, the Leica optical system of the Xiaomi 13 Ultra combines the characteristics of compact size, large aperture, high imaging performance, reliability, and durability.
“We believe that the perfect lens should have a large aperture, a compact size and a high imaging performance over the entire focal length range. Thanks to the persistent efforts of both teams, finally, our customers can enjoy this amazing experience on a mobile phone. The Xiaomi 13 Ultra is a magnificent device that can rightfully call itself the flagship of the series and will set an exclamation mark in the field of mobile photography,” said Marius Eschweiler, Vice President Business Unit Mobile Leica Camera AG. "I am very glad to celebrate the next level of our strategic cooperation in mobile imaging and looking forward to intensifying our future R&D plans."
The Xiaomi 13 Ultra features a quad camera system with Leica optical lens. Compared to its predecessor, the Xiaomi 12 Ultra, the field of view of the ultra-wide camera was further increased to an equivalent focal length of 12mm while the distortion was reduced to an absolute minimum, enabling the photographer to capture even more of the given scene at a higher image quality. The aperture of the 120mm tele camera was significantly enlarged to increase low light performance at high magnification and the integration of a second tele camera at 75mm allows the photographer to take high quality shots at this classic Leica portrait focal length. The four cameras cover the corresponding zoom range from 12 to 120mm equivalent focal length in an unprecedented smooth experience.
The main camera of the Xiaomi 13 Ultra is equipped with a one-inch IMX989 sensor and a new physical aperture, which can realize two-stop aperture switching of f/1.9 and f/4.0, offering the ability of light and depth control. Based on the hardware capabilities of the one-inch main camera sensor plus the variable aperture, the Xiaomi 13 Ultra introduces a new "Fastshot mode" inspired by the "hyperfocal distance" shooting method commonly used by street photographers. This means setting the focus point manually, so focus-free snapshots can be taken. Thanks to the acceleration engine of Xiaomi's imaging engine, it only takes the smartphone camera 0.8s to turn on and capture the moment. This style of shooting was coined by Leica M-System's unique design and way of operation.
As with the Xiaomi 12S Ultra and the Xiaomi 13 series, consumers can also choose between the "Leica Authentic Look" and the "Leica Vibrant Look", two different image profiles and a novelty in the smartphone camera segment. Leica fans in particular will be delighted with the "Authentic Look" specially developed by Leica and will delight all other customers with smartphone images in the iconic "Leica Image Look". Leica Image experts have designed the Authentic Look with a focus on aesthetically pleasing and natural colour reproduction, well-drawn shadows, realistic local contrasts and excellent reproduction of fine details and a moderate amount of sharpening. In addition, the "Authentic Look" features reduced vignetting correction to achieve minimal light fall-off between the centre and corners of the image, giving it the typical look of a picture taken with a Leica Summicron lens.
The "Leica Vibrant Look" was developed jointly by Xiaomi and Leica. Combining Xiaomi's expertise in smartphone photography with Leica's signature image aesthetics, this look allows photographers to perfectly capture the emotion of the moment in a vivid yet realistic colour world.
With the support of the Xiaomi Imaging Engine, the Xiaomi 13 Series has the most powerful computational photography capability of any Xiaomi flagship device. Based on its powerful operating efficiency and expandability, it can not only support RAW-level computational photography by utilising the parallel computing pipeline to greatly improve the speed of photography, but also utilise heterogeneous graphics processing capabilities to achieve Xiaomi ProFocus. The Xiaomi 13 Series also offers great creative freedom to professional photographers. The professional mode of the camera app allows manual adjustment of shooting parameters and supports shooting of photos in 10-bit RAW format calibrated by Adobe Labs, as well as 4K 10-bit Dolby Vision HDR videos and 4K-bit LOG videos.
