As we enter the final month of 2022, Xiaomi is launching its new Xiaomi 13 and 13 Pro flagship smartphones during its product launch event happening this week. This could be Xiaomi’s first smartphone with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip and it could be released globally including in Malaysia during the first few months of 2023.
The Xiaomi 13 launch event is happening at 7:00pm (Beijing/Malaysia time) on Thursday, 1st December 2022. Besides the Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro, the Chinese tech brand is expected to introduce other devices such as a computer, WiFi router and various IoT products including a smartwatch and wireless earbuds.
From the teasers, it looks like the Xiaomi 13 series will come with a flat-screen and flat-edge appearance which is similar to the current iPhone 12, iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 series. One of their teasers on Weibo has talked about using new innovative materials such as “skin/nano-tech” which we are guessing is vegan leather.
In terms of display, it seems that the Xiaomi 13 series will feature a new OLED display with almost symmetrical bezels for the top, sides and bottom. The company is boasting ultra-thin bezels as thin as 1.61mm. Xiaomi said the Xiaomi 13 series will come in two sizes which will have their own strengths. We reckon that the smaller 13 is expected to be the new king of compact Android smartphones beating the current Asus ZenFone 9. Out of the box, the new Xiaomi flagships will run on MIUI 14.
The full spec sheet isn’t revealed yet but you can expect both devices to feature Leica co-engineered cameras and this would likely be the first Xiaomi x Leica smartphones to go on sale outside of China. The Xiaomi 12S series is their first smartphones with Leica collaboration but it was only sold in China. For other markets including Malaysia, we got the Xiaomi 12T and 12T Pro instead which feature a higher 200MP resolution camera but without the Leica “upgrade”.
Hopefully, it won’t take too long for the Xiaomi 13 to come to Malaysia. The current Xiaomi 12 series was first introduced in China towards the end of December last year but it was only launched globally in March this year. Don’t expect these Xiaomi flagship smartphones to be as cheap as before. The current Xiaomi 12 was launched with a starting price (8GB + 128GB) of RM2,899 while the Xiaomi 12 Pro (12GB+256GB) was priced at RM3,899.
Related reading
- Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept has a second 1-inch sensor you can attach a Leica lens to
- Xiaomi 12T & 12T Pro Malaysia: Is a 200MP camera worth RM2,699?
- Here’s the definitive guide for buying a 5G smartphone in Malaysia, from below RM1000 to flagships
- Xiaomi smart devices 2022 Malaysia: Smart TVs, earbuds, speaker, lights and even an air fryer
