More than just some great cameras?

Xiaomi began out as a value-for-money participant, nevertheless it’s more and more taking a premium method throughout the board. This method is exemplified by the Xiaomi Extremely collection, bringing top-flight efficiency, cameras, screens, and extra at a substantial price ticket. Now, the corporate has launched the Xiaomi 13 Extremely in China, however is it price forking out on this system? It’s time to go hands-on.

Unbox the Xiaomi 13 Extremely and also you’ll be greeted by one of many extra fascinating designs of 2023. You’re not getting a glass sandwich, with the corporate utilizing a silicone leather-based again and aluminum body. The rear cowl even has a slope to it slightly below the digicam housing, like a ramp taking place to the remainder of the quilt. Xiaomi says this again materials is immune to fingerprints, however the identical doesn’t apply to the digicam housing, as you’ll be able to see within the picture above.

The very first thing I observed after choosing up the cellphone was simply how heavy it was although, being noticeably heftier than my private Pixel 6 Professional. I positively observed this disparity when carrying the cellphone in my breast pocket. The Xiaomi 13 Extremely is top-heavy too, doubtless as a result of all of the digicam {hardware} Xiaomi has stuffed into the housing. So it’s best to hold this in thoughts in the event you’re accident-prone like me.

Talking of the digicam bump, the cellphone unabashedly rests on the housing when positioned flat on a floor. That is positively not going to win awards for ergonomics. But it surely’s actually an announcement of types relating to the cellphone’s true goal.

Xiaomi is bringing a formidable Leica-branded digicam system to the 13 Extremely, with 4 50MP sensors in a big, round digicam bump. A lot of the consideration through the launch was positioned on the principle digicam, which is a one-inch IMX989 sensor. This is similar sensor that Xiaomi collectively developed with Sony for the China-only Xiaomi 12S Extremely launch final 12 months. However the huge distinction this time is that Xiaomi is providing a twin aperture design as properly (f/1.9 or f/4.0).

In any other case, the corporate has you lined throughout quite a lot of focal lengths with a 50MP ultrawide digicam, 50MP 3.2x telephoto sensor, and 50MP 5x periscope lens.

Xiaomi additionally used the launch occasion to extol the virtues of extra pure, much less sharpened images on the 13 Extremely. It is a radical departure from the extreme sharpening seen on telephones from many different gamers.

It appears to be like like the corporate is tentatively dwelling as much as this purpose with the Xiaomi 13 Extremely. The cellphone rapidly spat out some great-looking footage in our brief time with it, delivering vivid colours, an inexpensive degree of sharpening with out going overboard, and extensive dynamic vary out-of-the-box. It’s also possible to change to a extra subdued colour profile for extra life like colour seize if you wish to get even nearer to that conventional digicam aesthetic. There does appear to be a noticeable shift in colour and white stability between these lenses although.

The cellphone additionally comes with a digicam choice that permits you to rapidly take a snap in 0.8 seconds from a locked display, and I used to be fairly impressed with these outcomes. It’s not one thing I’d exit of my approach to make use of nevertheless it’s good to know the choice is there to rapidly take nice pictures in a pinch.

We’ll have to spend extra time with the Xiaomi 13 Extremely earlier than we are able to conclusively declare it to be a class-topping digicam expertise. However, between the spectacular digicam {hardware} and the acknowledged objective of extra restrained picture processing, Xiaomi has all of the instruments to get nearer to that vaunted DSLR look.

You wouldn’t count on Xiaomi to scrimp on horsepower for an Extremely cellphone, so it’s no shock to see the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor on board. That is paired with 12GB to 16GB of RAM and 256GB to 1TB of storage. This all sounds unbelievable in principle, however on-paper specs are one factor. So how does the Xiaomi 13 Extremely fare in follow?

I had completely no complaints about efficiency in my transient time with the system, delivering a particularly fluid expertise when launching apps and multitasking. Xiaomi says it’s centered on enhancing cooling for situations like video recording too. It’s too quickly to guage, however I used to be capable of report some (very regular) video clips at a restaurant with none heat-related points. That’s fairly a change from my Pixel 6 Professional and its tendency to warmth up in numerous situations.

Viewing these movies again on the 6.73-inch display is a deal with as properly. Xiaomi is providing a QHD+ 120Hz OLED display right here, and the corporate says it has a high-brightness mode of 1,300 nits and a peak brightness of two,600 nits. I’m unsure how typically the display is hitting these peak figures, however that is actually the brightest OLED show I’ve used on a cellphone. The in-display fingerprint sensor can be a really speedy affair when in comparison with an older Pixel handset. However then once more, a great deal of telephones beat older Pixels on this class.

Our evaluate unit remains to be operating the Chinese language model of MIUI (with MIUI 14 and Android 13), so this received’t be consultant of the worldwide expertise. That is clearly a great factor because the Chinese language ROM lacks the Play Retailer and different Google providers. In any case, I’m nonetheless not offered on MIUI proper now as the corporate must carve its personal visible identification reasonably than sticking with the iOS-like aesthetic. However other than the visible design, I discovered it to be a fluid expertise to this point.

Xiaomi hasn’t dished out world pricing however the cellphone will certainly land exterior China within the subsequent few months. Sadly, US customers might want to import this one.

The Xiaomi 13 Extremely will begin at 5,999 yuan (~$873) in China. That’s a wonderful worth, however the Xiaomi 13 Professional launched at a equally spectacular 4,999 yuan (~$727) in China after which landed in Europe for an eye-watering €1,300. That leads us to imagine that the Xiaomi 13 Extremely may retail for €1,400 or extra relating to world markets.

The most important rival to the Xiaomi 13 Extremely in Europe needs to be the Samsung Galaxy S23 Extremely ($1169.99 at Amazon). It prices €1,400 in Europe and shares frequent options like a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, a 5,000mAh battery, wi-fi charging, and an IP68 ranking. The Samsung cellphone additionally brings an extended replace pledge, an S Pen slot, and a devoted 10x digicam. In the meantime, the Xiaomi handset serves up a extra spectacular important digicam, a brighter display on paper, and sooner charging throughout the board.

It’s just a little too quickly to make a definitive verdict on the Xiaomi 13 Extremely, then. However the prospect of an ultra-premium price ticket and stiff competitors from Samsung means discerning digicam fans will doubtless be the first viewers.