New Year with the Xiaomi 13 Ultra

Happy New Year to all, and this is an increasingly rare post on what I have been up to! Maybe my New Year Resolution should be to blog more often. This was going to be a review of the rather fabulous Xiaomi 13 Ultra. However, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is now hitting the shelves and it is obviously going to be newer and better. I’ll stick to what I am best at and shut up whilst the pics do the talking.

Phu Quoc

Christmas was spent in Phu Quoc, in the South of Vietnam. The Xiaomi 13 Ultra has a Leica Lens which is pretty good, so I jumped on the bandwagon and left my DSLR at home. The positive side of this is obvious and it was nice to travel light. But would I miss having a proper camera?

Image Quality and Handling

Yes, I did miss my Sony! Although not as much as I thought. The image quality from the Xiaomi is good enough, if a little over saturated. What I missed are the controls you have with a dedicated camera. Even with the camera kit that improves the phones handling, it cannot replace a DSLR. On a positive note, I enjoyed editing pics on the fly and posting them to social media within minutes.

And note – the camera kit that you can purchase as an add on is nowhere near as tough as it should be. My case has already fallen apart.

Conclusion

Would I go on holiday with just my phone again? No, though good, the quality of the images from the Xiaomi 13 Ultra still does not match that of a dedicated camera. In addition, I miss having dedicated controls at my fingers. As a happy snapper though, the camera is fun and creates pics that have punch on social media.

Now should I upgrade to the 14?

Happy New Year, and keep clicking, Chris x