My favorite phone of the year is the Xiaomi 13 Ultra — it has the best cameras of any phone today, the hardware is exquisite, and it has all the extras I need. It edges out the Galaxy S23 Ultra in several key areas, but convincing somebody to pick up the phone in lieu of Samsung's offering is a different matter altogether.
The decision has nothing to do with hardware, but Xiaomi's cachet in the high-end segment. Although the brand has been making premium phones for nearly a decade now, it's still thought of as a budget-focused brand, and while it tried to shake off that image with a rebranding effort — pushing the Redmi series into its own label, while launching mid-range and high-end devices under Xiaomi branding — it's safe to say that hasn't paid off.
