Xiaomi’s 12S Ultra, while featuring an impressive array of rear-cameras, remained exclusive to the Chinese smartphone market. While its successor has been in the rumour-mill since the past few months, Xiaomi at the upcoming Mobile World Congress 2023 (MWC 2023) announcement is expected to focus on its partnership with camera brand Leica. However, as per the latest leaks, the Chinese smartphone brand is also expected to announce the new Xiaomi 13 series at MWC 2023. And just like clockwork, a previously unseen Xiaomi 13 device has just shown up in the rumour-mill.

The highlights of Xiaomi’s MWC 2023 announcements are expected to be the Xiaomi 13, Xiaomi 13 Pro and the Xiaomi 13 Lite handsets. But new images from what appears to be a hands-on, have surfaced on Chinese microblogging platform Wiebo. These suggest the first visuals of the unannounced successor to the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, the Xiaomi 13 Ultra.

The clear image comes from a Wiebo user called Yulingtang (Translated from Chinese) and shows a photo of the phone, which appears very much like the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, but with a visually lowered camera bump as a third of the rear panel has been raised around the camera module. The rear panel also suggests a faux leather finish around the large circular camera module, which includes four cameras and an LED flash module.

A leaked image of the Xiaomi 13 Ultra
Photo Credit: Yulingtang (Weibo)

Another Weibo user going by username Digital Technology Big BangWW (Translated from Chinese) leaked two more photos along with a schematic of the unannounced device. While the blurry images appear similar to the one shared by the first source, the 3D schematic is spot on, adding some credibility to the leaked images.

The Xiaomi 13 Ultra has been in the rumour-mill for a while, and rumours so far point out that it will feature four rear-facing cameras, with two 1-inch type sensors. The phone just like the Xiaomi 13 Pro will also have the Leica branding and should support 90W fast-charging. The handset is also said to get a vastly improved periscope camera and is tipped to come with 16GB of LPDDR5x RAM and 512GB or 1TB of UFS 4.0 onboard storage.

Xiaomi has been quiet about which smartphones will be announced at its upcoming MWC 2023 announcement, but a previous tweet by Xiaomi founder and CEO, Lei Jun does clarify that when the Xiaomi 13 Ultra does launch, it will be announced globally, unlike the previous model.