You might have thought the iPhone 14 is this year’s biggest smartphone launch – after all, the last few months of each year are usually dominated by Apple and its newest lineup of devices – but you could be wrong.
It looks like the Xiaomi 13 could launch long before its time and could end up stealing some of Apple’s thunder if it turns out to be as exciting as we’d hoped. This comes from the top leaker digital chat station (opens in new tab)who used the Chinese social media platform Weibo to share the good news.
Apparently the Xiaomi 13 could be released in November 2022 – this is sooner than we expected as the Xiaomi 12 debuted in December 2021. The leaker says that progress is a month ahead of last year, which would suggest a previous release.
That’s all about the China launch of Xiaomi’s flagship – if you’re wondering why you only saw ads for the 12 after December, it’s because the global launch was in March 2022. We expect this pattern to repeat itself for the Xiaomi 13 phones.
If the Digital Chat Station is correct, then the Xiaomi 13 could arrive a month early and as such be a closer rival to Apple’s newest iPhones, which likely won’t arrive much sooner than that, although it’s a surprisingly early release. We would also likely see the global reveal early, which could put its global launch around the same time as the Samsung Galaxy S23 family.
The leak continues that the new phones – note the plural, with two mentioned, likely meaning a Xiaomi 13 Pro alongside the standard model – will get the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset (a probability given that all 12 models have the 8 Gen 1) and will use Android 13, while one of the phones (probably the biggest) will have a 2K display.
None of these specs exactly change the game – they’re basically exactly what we’d hoped for – but they do start to paint a picture about this upcoming phone series.
Analysis: what about the arrival of the real rival?
With the Xiaomi 12 series, the company has made a firm move to rival other similarly priced flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S21 and iPhone 13 by downsizing its vanilla flagship to create a small-bodied phone.
But Xiaomi probably won’t be able to release a full set of phones to rival Apple’s, judging by the reference to just two 13 phones coming, and that Xiaomi typically staggers its flagship series releases.
As the Xiaomi 13 Ultra will likely only be released in mid-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 is unlikely that there will be a Xiaomi 13 device for rival the anticipated iPhone 14 Max.
Xiaomi can offer something Apple cannot: an affordable alternative. The Xiaomi 12T range will likely launch in August or September as a mid-range Android phone with Xiaomi 12 series features but a lower price point than (and than iPhones), and we’ll likely see a Xiaomi 13 Lite at some point. also.
Apple and Xiaomi target different audiences, so it makes sense that while they have some devices that compete, they both have devices that stand out. But people who can afford a premium phone and want the best camera features might find it hard to choose between the Pro phones each one offers – and we’ll have to see where the Xiaomi 13 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max are on our list of the best. camera phones.
