Xiaomi 13, a month early
This year’s iPhone 14 unveiling may not be the most anticipated.
Even though the final months of each year are normally dominated by Apple and its newest range of devices, you might be wrong about the iPhone 14’s status as the year’s biggest smartphone announcement.
Xiaomi 13 could be released months ahead of schedule and steal some of Apple’s thunder if it turns out to be as spectacular as we expect. Digital Chat Station(opens in new tab), a well-known Chinese leaker, announced the good news on the social media platform Weibo.
The Xiaomi 13 is likely to be released in November 2022, which is earlier than predicted, as the Xiaomi 12 was released in December 2021. If the leaker is correct, this suggests that the debut date will be earlier than last year.
All of this relates to the Xiaomi flagship’s China premiere; if you’re wondering why you only saw advertisements for the 12 long after December, it’s because the global launch was March 2022. For the Xiaomi 13, we might expect the same scenario.
If Digital Chat Station is true, the Xiaomi 13 could be released a month earlier than expected, making it a more direct competitor to Apple’s upcoming iPhones, which are expected to be released within the next few weeks. Global revealing may also be shifted up, putting its global premiere around the same time as the Samsung Galaxy S23 family’s release.
The new phones – not just one, but two – will be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 CPU and run on Android 13; one of the phones (presumably the larger one) will have a 2K display.
These aren’t exactly game-changing specifications; they’re pretty much what we expected; nonetheless, they do begin to form a picture of this next phone series.
Analysis: what about the real rival arrival?
Using a smaller form factor, Xiaomi has reduced the size of its vanilla flagship to compete with similar-priced flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S21 and iPhone 13.
With only two 13 phones on the way and the fact that Xiaomi normally releases its flagship series over a period of several months, it’s unlikely that Xiaomi will be able to produce a comprehensive lineup of phones to compete Apple’s.
Since the Xiaomi 13 Ultra is expected to launch in the middle of 2023, a real rival to the iPhone 14 Pro Max is unlikely to appear, and while the standard and Pro Xiaomi and Apple phones are likely to be comparable, it’s unlikely that there will be a Xiaomi 13 device to rival the anticipated iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Xiaomi, on the other hand, may be able to provide consumers with an affordable alternative to what Apple has to offer. As a mid-range Android phone with features from the Xiaomi 12 series but a cheaper price than it (and than the iPhones), we may expect the Xiaomi 12T line to come in August or September, and we’ll likely see a Xiaomi 13 Lite at some time as well.
In order for Apple and Xiaomi to create smartphones that compete with each other, they have to target separate markets. People who can afford a premium phone and want the greatest camera features may find it difficult to pick between the Pro phones each offers, and we’ll have to see where the Xiaomi 13 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max both rank in our ranking of the best camera phones.