The biggest mobile launch of late 2022 is likely to be the iPhone 14as Apple usually dominates the tech airwaves with its annual launches in September, but it sounds like Xiaomi wants to steal some attention as it could bring forward the launch of its next flagship.
According to prolific and fairly reliable leaker Digital Chat Station (opens in new tab)the xiaomi 13 could start in November 2022 – this is earlier than we expected, as the xiaomi 12 debuted in December 2021. The leaker says the progress is a month earlier than last year, which would indicate an earlier launch.
This all has to do with the launch in China of the Xiaomi flagship – if you’re wondering why you didn’t see ads for the 12 until long after December, it’s because the global launch was March 2022. We expect that pattern to repeat for the Xiaomi 13 phones.
If Digital Chat Station is right, the Xiaomi 13 could land a month earlier and as such be a bigger competitor to Apple’s latest iPhones, which probably won’t land too long before that, although it would be a surprisingly early launch. We would also likely see the global unveiling brought forward, which could allow the global launch to happen around the same time as the Samsung Galaxy S23 family.
The leak goes on to say that the new phones – note the plural, with two mentioned, probably a Xiaomi 13 Pro in addition to the standard model – will get the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset (probably given the 12 models the 8 Gen 1) and will use the 8 Gen 1). Android 13while one of the phones (probably the bigger one) will have a 2K display.
None of those specs are really groundbreaking – they’re actually exactly what we expected – but they’re starting to paint a picture of this upcoming phone series.
Analysis: What about the real rival arrival?
With the Xiaomi 12 series, the company took a firm step to compete with other flagships with similar prices, such as the Samsung Galaxy S21 and iPhone 13by reducing the size of its vanilla flagship to create a small-body mobile.
But Xiaomi probably won’t be able to launch a full lineup of phones to rival Apple’s, judging by the reference to just two 13 phones coming, and that Xiaomi tends to waver the launches of its flagship ranges.
Since the Xiaomi 13 Ultra will probably not be launched until mid-2023, a real rival for the iPhone 14 Pro Max probably won’t show up, and while the standard and Pro Xiaomi and Apple phones will likely be similar, it’s unlikely there will be a Xiaomi 13 device to rival the expected iPhone 14 Max.
Xiaomi may be able to offer something that Apple cannot: an affordable alternative. The Xiaomi 12T range is likely to launch in August or September as a mid-range Android phone with Xiaomi 12-series features, but a lower price point than it (and then the iPhones), and we’ll likely see a Xiaomi 13 Lite see at some point point too.
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 folks who can afford a premium phone and want top-of-the-line camera features might find it hard to choose between the Pro phones each offers — and we’ll have to see where the Xiaomi 13 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max both make it into our list of the best. best camera phones†