Xiaomi's 13 Ultra comes to Europe to take on iPhone 14 Pro Max and Galaxy S23 Ultra

Xiaomi has announced that it will be bringing the Xiaomi 13 Ultra to Europe on June 12 after a successful launch in China. This follows the release of the excellent Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro, both of which are made to compete with the best Android phones. 

The company’s officials have confirmed via press release and social media posts that the Xiaomi 13 Ultra will be coming to France, Germany, Italy, and Spain for around €1,499 which converts to around £1,300, $1,600, or AU$2,400.

It's worth noting that a UK release hasn't yet been confirmed, but TechRadar has reached out to Xiaomi directly for this information, so check back soon. The 13 Ultra will very likely not be coming to the US.

Xiaomi’s 13 Ultra offers a lot of features that see it go head-to-head with the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra – including a powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset – and the iPhone 14 Pro Max. It comes packing a large and bright 6.7-inch Full HD+ 120Hz display, up to 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage.

As with all of Xiaomi’s Ultra phones, the main reason you’ll be spending that much money is the quad-camera layout at the back. A result of the company’s Leica brand partnership, you’ll get four 50MP cameras that run the gamut of what the best camera phones should have. There's a wide lens, an ultra-wide lens, a 3.2x telephoto lens, and a 5x periscopic telephoto lens.

 An excellent smartphone held back by availability  

Though we haven’t reviewed the Xiaomi 13 Ultra, we have reviewed the Xiaomi 13 Pro and 12S Ultra, and we've found their cameras to beexcellent. Xiaomi makes good-to-great phones across a range of price ranges, and we’ll be happy to see the company go to the top shelf.

Premium smartphones are resonating more and more with buyers, according to research from Counterpoint and Canalys, even as the smartphone market contracts. The regular Xiaomi 13 was one of the smartphones identified as a top-selling premium device, for example.

Xiaomi has been held back primarily by the availability of its devices, with the company preferring to sell its phones in its home market of China first and foremost – where it’s among the top five smartphone brands, in terms of market share, for years. It’s a strategy that – combined with selling products for every conceivable price point and market – has borne fruit in the past, allowing the company to grow rapidly.

That said, the company has seen a recent sales slowdown, in line with the current smartphone market. Perhaps, that strategy has outstayed its welcome, and a global shot of premium is just what the doctor ordered.