Xiaomi 13 Pro review: Finally, a Xiaomi flagship with a great camera

Xiaomi is the world’s third largest smartphone maker, but sometimes it doesn’t feel that way, especially if you live in the US.So Samsung in fact Android phones with the occasional Motorola or Google Pixel.

However, although Xiaomi’s brand is stronger in Asia and Europe, the company still makes excellent phones. A case in point is its new flagship, the Xiaomi 13 Pro. After many tries with different designs and features, it seems that Xiaomi has finally settled down and produced a true flagship his killer.

elegant, smooth and slippery

The Xiaomi 13 Pro doesn’t sell on looks alone. Xiaomi is directionless when it comes to smartphone design, changing things radically with each new flagship and never sticking to a recognizable and consistent design language. It has a nice square camera bump (compare this to the 12 Pro, which has a huge main camera lens that dominates the back of the phone) and prominent Leica branding. It features tinged edges and feels like a high-quality object.

The unit I got is all black and can be generously compared in look and feel to a luxurious black limousine. , can look a little bland. I’d like something more colorful. The global version of the phone also comes in white, which (judging by the promotional photos I’ve seen) is a better fit.

The rounded display edges and ceramic back, while very nice to the touch, make the phone very slippery and you definitely need a case for this.Xiaomi is very basic We shipped a see-through case with the phone, but you’ll probably want something better.

Beautiful display, large capacity and good battery life

The display is a 6.73-inch, 120Hz AMOLED with a resolution of 3,200 x 1,440 pixels (must be manually turned on in settings; the phone defaults to a lower resolution to save battery life) . It’s gorgeous, with accurate colors, deep blacks, and plenty of brightness when you need it. , I compared it to the iPhone 14 Pro Max, and I wasn’t sure which display was better.

I blew the sound to the max while I was doing so. The Xiaomi 13 Pro has stereo speakers (down from the 12 Pro’s quad speakers) and boasts Dolby Atmos sound with head tracking (similar to Apple’s Spatial Audio). The sound is good, but not as loud and punchy as the sound from the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Xiaomi is the first company to unveil a phone powered by Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, the same chip found in Samsung’s Galaxy S23 series. No need for more power. Everything was smooth and responsive no matter how many apps I had open in the background.PUBG games flew at the highest possible settings, and I had a lot of work to do to further optimize my gaming phone’s performance. A popup window appeared, but I didn’t see much of a difference.

Having reviewed most of the major Xiaomi flagships that have come out in the last few years, there was always something missing. I’m happy to say that we’ve reached the point where we can install it. Some highlights include extremely fast wired charging that can charge the phone from 1% to 100% in about 20 minutes, Wi-Fi 7 capability, Bluetooth 5.3 support, and IP68 dust and water resistance.

Battery life was excellent. The phone lasted about two days, except when I pushed it to its limits in games. But with charging this fast, it didn’t matter, just plugging it in for a couple of minutes was enough to get me some extra battery juice to last me another day.

moderate amount of bloatware

Software has traditionally been the part where Xiaomi (and most other Chinese manufacturers) phones don’t feel very premium. Some are pre-installed. Most of them are very common like Netflix, Spotify, Booking.com, but I prefer to install the necessary apps myself. Thankfully, all can be uninstalled.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro runs on MIUI 14.0.11, the latest version of Xiaomi’s Android skin, with Android 13 underneath. This is a nice and stable combo that doesn’t hesitate to borrow some features from iOS. New features compared to MIUI 13 include new menu icons that are a bit cleaner and the ability to create folders about four times the normal size. My main phone is an iPhone but I liked the changes on the Xiaomi 13 Pro and it made me feel right at home.The biggest problem I had was finding awkward options in a sea of ​​settings But it’s a common ailment among Android phones.

What bothered me was the constant notifications pestering me to install apps or do things I didn’t really care about. I can not do. Instead, the software asks you to interact with them or even turn on options before the notification bubble disappears.

much improved zoom

It has power and it has all the features. Aside from the price, this phone’s camera quality makes the 13 Pro a true competitor to Samsung’s powerful Galaxy S23 Pro and Ultra phones, as well as Google’s Pixel 7, which doesn’t boast very high megapixel counts. It means you are more likely to decide if there is, but you can beat Google’s image processing power.

Despite the different appearance of the camera system compared to last year’s model, the Xiaomi 13 Pro has similar camera specs. The rear camera still has his three 50-megapixel sensors for wide-, ultra-wide-, and telephoto cameras. Sound systems, at least on paper, but the camera performance of Xiaomi phones has been a bit uneven in recent years.

With the Xiaomi 13 Pro, the company (along with camera partner Leica) seems to have finally found a good balance.The phone produces very good photos in all scenarios, even at night.

I was most impressed with the telephoto camera, which took incredibly sharp shots in the twilight. In a head-to-head comparison between the Xiaomi and the iPhone 14 Pro Max, we were blown away when it came to zooming in in low light.

During the day, the iPhone’s telephoto camera produced slightly sharper photos, but I preferred the much more natural look of the Xiaomi’s. Xiaomi’s software defaults to 1x, 2x, and 3.2x zoom. Pinch out to zoom further and you’ll see 10x and 70x options. I was surprised at how well it looked even in a 10x photo.

All of this is in stark contrast to last year’s Xiaomi 12 Pro, which had an underwhelming telephoto camera. Despite the same 50-megapixel count, the telephoto camera has been upgraded from a 48mm to a 75mm lens, offering 3.2x optical zoom (compared to his 2x optical zoom on the 12 Pro). .

Xiaomi’s main camera is mostly excellent, taking very bright and detailed photos even in low light. Occasionally, low-light photos tended to yellow, over-processed, making photos unnaturally bright, and leaving strange artifacts around light sources (see image below).

Unsurprisingly, Xiaomi took great photos during the day. The Leica-tuned camera software offers her two basic shooting modes: ‘Leica Vibrant’ and ‘Leica Authentic’. I mostly continued to use the latter, but the difference is subtle, with ‘Vibrant’ producing slightly brighter photos with more vibrant colors.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro’s ultra-wide camera is of poor quality and should only be used if the main camera isn’t wide enough.

Beyond Xiaomi’s basic camera features, tapping the “More” button in the camera software reveals even more options, including exotic ones like Supermoon. That will open Pro Mode, where you can control almost every aspect of the camera, including white balance, ISO sensitivity, shutter speed, etc. Overall, there are tons of settings to go through. I think only the most persistent users try them all.

Finally, the selfie camera is a 32-megapixel shooter that comes with tons of options, including tons of filters and beautification options. Do not go overboard. Otherwise you end up looking like a cartoon character. With default settings, the photo is very detailed, but soft and slightly washed out. This can be easily fixed in the settings.

Overall, it looks like Xiaomi has finally managed to put together a smartphone camera that can take great photos in most scenarios. It can’t win every battle against other top phones, but it’s always competitive.

The best Xiaomi phone in a while

I like this phone more than any other Xiaomi phone that has come out in the last few years. Its design might not be the most exciting, but it’s nonetheless pretty sleek, with a gorgeous display and a fancy ceramic back (check out both colors and see which one you like It matches the power and features of Samsung’s recently released Galaxy S23 Plus, with a very capable camera system. Charging is very fast and the battery lasts up to 2 days.

At the time of writing this article, there was no information about the key piece of the puzzle: pricing. In terms of features, the Xiaomi 13 Pro is a mix of the Galaxy S23+ and Galaxy S23 Ultra starting at $999.99 and $1,199.99 respectively. If the Xiaomi 13 Pro is reasonably priced (for example, the Xiaomi 12 Pro starts at $999), it will be a strong competitor to any Android flagship.