Xiaomi 13 Ultra: Tests show worse display efficiency than the Xiaomi 13 Pro

Xiaomi's latest flagship phone, the Xiaomi 13 Ultra, debuted earlier this week and was widely marketed for its ultra-bright display. Brightness, of course, isn't the ultimate metric for judging a display's quality, and it appears the new flagship's panel doesn't quite match up to the competition in terms of efficiency.

In an efficiency test by Chinese outlet Xiaobai Evaluation, the Xiaomi 13 Ultra's Huaxing C7 display can be seen to be worse than the E6 display on the cheaper Xiaomi 13 Pro. While both are neck-in-neck at 100 nits, by 350 nits, the E6 on the 13 Pro shows an efficiency advantage, consuming just 0.933 W versus the Xiaomi 13 Ultra's 1.055 W. At the peak manual brightness of 510 nits, that gap widens further—the Xiaomi 13 Pro's display uses up 1.570 W while the Ultra's C7 panel guzzles 1.771 W of power.

Admittedly, that's just a 10% efficiency advantage for the E6 panel on the Xiaomi 13 Pro, but that gap is likely to grow the brighter both displays get. Likely, Xiaomi opted for the Huaxing C7 over panels from Samsung in an attempt to keep costs down. It's not a surprise the Xiaomi 13 Ultra, despite its many camera improvements, costs only a tad more than the Xiaomi 13 Pro —bragging rights for having the brightest smartphone on the market may just have come as a bonus. 

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