Xiaomi 13 Pro Review: great battery life and a solid camera, but at a very high price
Xiaomi 13 Pro Intro
Nearly three years since it first dipped its toes into flagship territory, Xiaomi is finally bringing the big guns, its ultimate "flagship killer".
The Xiaomi 13 Pro is the dream phone that many have been waiting for as it combines the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, a chip that fixes many of the issues that plagued Android phones just last year, and on top of that you have the second iteration of the most advanced camera phone sensor on the market.
The Xiaomi 13 Pro also introduces a brand new MIUI 14 interface running on top of the latest Android 13 and it has typical goodies like a super fast 120W wired charging support and a large battery inside.
So can this new phone be the one that finally moves the needle for Xiaomi in the flagship space and propels it to the top ranks? Let's find out.
What’s new about the Xiaomi 13 Pro
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip inside
- Uses faster LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 4.0 storage
- Triple camera system with 1-inch type Sony IMX989 main cam sensor
- 6.7-inch screen with latest E6 Samsung OLED panel
- 4,820mAh battery
- 120W wired and 50W wireless fast charging
- Debuts new MIUI 14 interface
Table of Contents:
Xiaomi 13 Pro Specs
Here is a quick look at the Xiaomi 13 Pro specs:
| Specs | Xiaomi 13 Pro |
|---|---|
| Size and Weight | 163 x 74.6 x 8.38mm, 229g (ceramic) 163 x 74.6 x 8.7mm, 210g (plain leather) |
| Display | 6.7" E6 Samsung OLED panel LTPO 4 120Hz dynamic refresh rate |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 4nm, made by TSMC |
| RAM and Storage | 12GB LPDDR5 RAM + 128GB UFS 4.0 base 12GB RAM + 256GB storage 12GB RAM + 512GB storage |
| Software | MIUI 14 on top of Android 13 |
| Cameras | Main camera with 1" type sensor, 23mm, f/1.9 75mm 3.2X zoom with OIS 14mm ultra-wide Single front cam |
| Battery Size | 4,820 mAh |
| Charging Speeds | 120W wired charge with Surge chip for battery protection 50W wireless charging 10W reverse charging speed |
| Price | from 1,300 euro in Europe |
Xiaomi 13 Models
The Xiaomi 13 series are sold in Europe, a welcome change from the otherwise exciting Xiaomi 12S Ultra, which was only sold in China. Unsurprisingly, the Xiaomi 13 family will NOT be sold in the United States.
As far as models, there are two phones in the Xiaomi 13 family, the vanilla Xiaomi 13 which is a more affordable and smaller (6.36") phone with a flat screen but also with a few of the advanced features missing, and then you have this here Xiaomi 13 Pro with a 6.73" curved screen and it is packed to the gills with all the features. The company has also unveiled a Xiaomi Lite model for half the price of the vanilla Xiaomi 13 model. The Xiaomi 13 Lite version lacks the Leica branding and runs on a slower Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chip.
Xiaomi 13 Pro Design & Colors
Ceramic finish, slim bezels and excellent craftsmanship all around
It comes in three different versions:
- textured leather-like finish in blue
- "field green" color with ceramic back
- white version with glass back
Each of them has its own advantages. The leather finish is warmer to touch, and it's also a tiny bit lighter than the other two. Glass is what we all know and the ceramic version has better scratch resistance than glass and a slightly different feel.
The Xiaomi 13 Pro features IP68 water and dust protection.
Xiaomi 13 Pro Display
(Image Credit - PhoneArena) Xiaomi 13 Pro comes with 6.7" curved display using the latest Samsung E6 OLED panel
Bezels around the screen are actually smaller than what you get on a Galaxy or an iPhone, something that Xiaomi is really proud of.
It comes with LTPO 4.0 technology and it supports a 120Hz dynamic refresh rate for smooth scrolling.
Xiaomi 13 Pro Camera
Sensor size matters
(Image Credit - PhoneArena)
The triple camera system is housed in a glass rectangle on the back of the phone and it all grows organically out of the phone, a nice design touch.
Most importantly, these are some really powerful cameras. Here are the Xiaomi 13 Pro camera specs:
- 1-inch Sony IMX 989 Main cam, 23mm f/1.9
- 75mm 3.2X Zoom with floating lens, close-up focus at 4in (10cm), OIS
- 14mm f/2.2 Ultra-wide
The gigantic Sony IMX 989 1-inch type sensor is what all the buzz is about. It's a bigger sensor than what you get on a Galaxy Ultra or iPhone, and this alone is an important advantage.
Main Camera - Day
The main camera captures vibrant colors during the day. Images look good, but a bit too saturated, and we would have preferred a slightly more toned down look.
You do get a Leica mode for more natural colors, but it comes with a lot of vignetting, so we have a hard time recommending it.
Main Camera - Night
Photos in low light are outstanding as the 23mm f/1.9 lens has a fast enough aperture and a wide look that makes it very versatile.
Zoom Camera and Macro
Xiaomi goes with a 3.2X telephoto zoom lens, a change from longer-range periscope lenses, but this might be actually a worthy change as the new telephoto lens also works in dim conditions and is very versatile.
One cool trick of this new zoom lens is a floating element inside that allows the lens to zoom at just 4 inches (10cm), so you can shoot these close-up photos. It's a stunning look that you usually expect to get out of a dedicated camera, but not a phone.
Ultra-wide
Ultra-wide photos look good both during the day and at night, as the camera is able to capture more light than you'd expect and produce solid looking shots.
Selfies
Selfies, however, are a disappointment on the Xiaomi 13 Pro. They look incredibly overprocessed, with washed out colors, and they lack detail. This is really a shame as this is not what we expect on a flagship phone of this level.
Xiaomi 13 Pro Performance & Benchmarks
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, LPDDR5 RAM, UFS 4.0 storage, or in other words — cutting edge performance!
(Image Credit - PhoneArena)
Xiaomi is not cutting any corners with the Xiaomi 13 Pro, it goes all out: Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage, and the storage alone delivers a marked improvement in speed.
UFS 4.0 brings a huge leap in read/write speeds, plus it allows the actual chips used to be smaller. You get double the speeds compared to UFS 3.1, with UFS 4.0 reaching up to 4,200MB/s for read and 2,800MB/s for write. This type of flash memory is the biggest upgrade in the field in the last three years.
Performance Benchmarks:
Performance is excellent all around and particularly good for gamers as the thermal management of this new chip is improved, so it does not throttle as easily as previous ones.
Xiaomi 13 Pro: MIUI 14 on top of Android 13
The Xiaomi 13 Pro will also serve as the launch pad for the new MIUI 14 custom interface on top of Android 13.
This is a huge release for Xiaomi and is expected to come with a slew of new features and improvements.
We have a love-hate relationship with MIUI. It's a well optimized interface for speed and it runs very smoothly, but also it aggressively kills apps running in the background which results in problems with timely delivery of push notifications. In other words, some apps may not deliver important notifications in real time and in our experience, the few toggles that Xiaomi provides to fix that don't really work.
Let's see if Xiaomi even addresses those issue with this new release.
Xiaomi 13 Pro Battery
Just slightly smaller than most, but much, much faster to charge
(Image Credit - PhoneArena)
PhoneArena Battery Test Results
The Xiaomi 13 Pro aces our battery tests with simply incredible scores.
It almost matches the excellent iPhone 14 Pro Max in web browsing with a great score of around 19 hours, and it also lasted nearly 11 hours for YouTube video streaming, which was another close call with the iPhone.
In real life, this phone can comfortably last you around a day and a half, and with a quick top-up, you can get two or even three days, thanks to the...
Xiaomi 13 Pro Charging Speeds
While the 13 Pro might not have the largest battery, but with 120W wired fast charging, it certainly has one of the fastest charging speeds on a mainstream phone. It fills up the battery from 0 to 100% in less than 30 minutes.
You also have 50W wireless charging, and the phone can also act as a wireless power bank of sorts with the reverse wireless charging feature at 10W.
Xiaomi 13 Pro Audio Quality and Haptics
(Image Credit - PhoneArena)
The Xiaomi 13 Pro loses the Harman-Kardon branding, but still features quality speaker system with a bottom firing main speaker and a helper speaker in the earpiece.
There is no 3.5mm headphone jack on the phone.
Xiaomi 13 Pro Competitors
The Xiaomi 13 Pro is a full-fledged flagship and it is going against the very best phones.
Here is the list of its competitors and why you might prefer one of them over the Xiaomi 13 Pro:
- Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra — S Pen support, larger battery, Samsung UI, telephoto zoom
- Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max — Apple ecosystem, iOS platform, ease of use
- Google Pixel 7 Pro — Affordable, great camera quality, day one Android software updates
- Vivo X90 Pro Plus — Similarly advanced camera, Vivo software
Xiaomi 13 Pro Summary
(Image Credit - PhoneArena) The Xiaomi 13 Pro steps up the camera game and battery life, but is also very expensive
The Xiaomi 13 Pro is an exciting flagship, but is it as good as a Galaxy or an iPhone?
We think that Xiaomi has done a very good job improving the camera and night shots in particular are among the best we've seen on a phone. Other fundamentals like battery life and performance are also well covered, and the zippy charging is an extremely neat feature to have.
There are a few quirks: the MIUI interface works smoothly, but is aggressive with killing apps in the background and some apps might not deliver notifications because of that, which is a pretty big problem. We also would have liked if the camera captures less saturated colors during the day and the selfie camera was disappointing.
At the end of the day, the Xiaomi 13 Pro is an excellent phone, but at 1,300 euro it is too expensive, especially considering that you can get a Pixel 7 Pro for a good deal less than that.
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