Xiaomi 13 review: Fantastic Flagship

Value When Reviewed

Not out there in US

Xiaomi’s subsequent era of telephones are right here, kicking off a wave of latest gadgets at MWC 2023.

The common Xiaomi 13 reviewed right here is the center choice, priced between the Xiaomi 13 Professional and the Xiaomi 13 Lite. Nonetheless, make no mistake – that is nonetheless a premium cellphone, with a high-end construct and a few spectacular cameras. 

Just like the era earlier than, the Xiaomi 13 is available in a barely smaller measurement than the Professional variant, so it’s excellent for anybody not on the lookout for a ginormous cellphone. Nonetheless, is it a flagship knockout? I’ve spent a while with the Xiaomi 13 – right here is my expertise.  

Design & construct 

• Solely black model out there in UK
• Gorgeous glass construct
• IP68 ranking

Make no errors, the Xiaomi 13 has a stunning construct. It is available in three color choices: black, white, and inexperienced, which I examined. 

I’ve a love of pastel inexperienced and blue telephones, however regardless, the Xiaomi 13 bought plenty of compliments throughout my time testing it. It has a 2.5D glass again with a beautiful sheen – although it does choose up fingerprints fairly simply. That is complimented by a turquoise aluminium alloy chassis. 

Sadly, solely the black model is out there within the UK, which is a disgrace contemplating this distinctive colourway.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

The cellphone is 7.9mm thick and weighs 189g. This isn’t the slimmest flagship cellphone I’ve seen, however I’ll take it for the premium physique. The curved edges additionally make it a cushty system to carry. 

It’s one of many extra compact flagships in the marketplace proper now at simply 152mm lengthy. As somebody with smaller fingers, this can be a welcome aid – and it’s good to not have to fret concerning the cellphone half-hanging out of my jean pocket.

The Xiaomi 13 comes with an IP68 ranking, which implies it could face up to being submerged in water and is protected against getting mud inside. It is a welcome step-up from the Xiaomi 12, which has no IP ranking in anyway.  

The cellphone has a USB-C slot for charging, however no 3.5mm headphone jack – a standard theme in flagship telephones. It solely has one SIM port, and no micro-SD card slot.  

Display screen & audio system 

• 6.36in AMOLED show
• FHD+ decision
• Twin audio system with Dolby Atmos

The Xiaomi 13 has a 6.36in AMOLED show, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. It has a 2400 x 1080 decision, together with help for Dolby Imaginative and prescient and HDR10+. 

It has wonderful readability and is nice for watching YouTube movies and streaming exhibits on the likes of Netflix. If you need a better decision than the FHD+ right here, then it’s price contemplating the 13 Professional, which comes with a WQHD+ panel.

Colors are vivid and hanging, and Xiaomi claims that the cellphone reaches a peak brightness of 1900 nits. In actual phrases, I used to be ready to make use of it below brilliant daylight with minimal glare, and nonetheless see all the things fairly clearly.  

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

The cellphone defaults to a dynamic refresh charge out of the field, however you’ll be able to select to have it completely on both 60Hz or 120Hz. You may as well toggle which apps use the upper refresh charge.  

For players, the Xiaomi 13 has as much as 240Hz contact sampling charge, and a devoted Sport House mode which lets you select between numerous settings relying in your preferences, together with a power-saving mode, a stability mode, a high-quality mode or a customized one.  

Haptics on the cellphone are brief and clipped with first rate suggestions, and don’t make an excessive amount of noise. There may be an under-display fingerprint sensor for biometrics, and I discovered no points with this in any respect. You may as well use face recognition, or a conventional password or PIN do you have to favor.

The cellphone options twin audio system with Dolby Atmos help. Sound is loud and punchy, making it nice for podcasts and movies. For music, there’s plenty of depth and a few bass, however it isn’t fairly as spectacular as another costly gadgets just like the Samsung Galaxy S23 Extremely.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Specs & efficiency 

• Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
• 8GB/12GB RAM
• 128GB/256GB storage

A flagship cellphone deserves a flagship chip, and so the Xiaomi 12 runs on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. That is paired with both 8GB/12GB RAM, and 128GB/256GB of storage. UK patrons can solely get the 8GB/128GB variant.

As you would possibly anticipate, efficiency is strong on the cellphone. I multitasked between streaming, social media and calls with no stuttering in anyway. It’s quick, clean and ought to be fairly future proof for many duties, even heavy-duty ones.  

That is additionally mirrored in our benchmarking assessments, with the cellphone outperforming all different Android fashions examined to date on Geekbench 5 (together with the Xiaomi 13 Professional), and solely being bested by the monster scores set by the A16 processor on Apple’s iPhone 14 Professional. Clearly, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is optimised effectively for this cellphone.

Gaming-wise, I used to be capable of run the high-demand Genshin Impression on medium settings with out it overclocking or stuttering. For reference, that was the identical setting that I ran on the devoted gaming cellphone, the Vivo iQoo 9 Professional Legend.  

The Xiaomi 13 solely bought barely heat throughout the gaming session – that is doubtless as a result of vapour cooling warmth dissipation sink which covers virtually half of the physique of the cellphone.  

Connection clever, the Xiaomi 13 affords Wi-Fi 7 help, in addition to Bluetooth 5.3.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Digicam & video 

• Sturdy 50Mp essential lens
• As much as 3.2x optical zoom
• No so spectacular wide-angle digital camera

As soon as once more, Xiaomi has opted for a 50Mp essential snapper, however this time round it has partnered with Leica. It makes use of a Sony IMX800 sensor, the identical seen on the Honor 70, in addition to a f/1.8 aperture and optical picture stabilisation (OIS).

What this ends in is obvious, crisp and detailed images. It’s simple to get an ideal trying photograph, each indoors and outdoor. Textures resembling garments and animal fur look lifelike, while tones are brilliant with out feeling washed out or oversaturated. 

The addition of Leica picture processing means that you may select between Vibrant and Genuine finishes. The previous has a wider dynamic vary and boosted tones, while the latter is barely much less vivid. That is particularly obvious in night time photographs – see the comparability between the 2 filters under: 

I most popular utilizing the Vibrant choice, as particulars pop significantly better on the display screen, however this comes right down to style.

The automated bokeh impact on the portrait mode is slightly on the sturdy aspect for my liking however this may be adjusted earlier than taking a shot. Regardless of the quantity of blur, it did an affordable job of not fogging up errant strands of hair, like I discover on some cheaper cellphone cameras.  

There’s additionally a 10Mp telephoto digital camera with a f/2.2 aperture, which has as much as 3.2x optical zoom vary. This offers extraordinarily clear photographs, with out compromising on colors or high quality. You may digitally zoom as much as 30x, however the pictures turn out to be way more blurred.

The 12Mp wide-angle digital camera doesn’t have the identical wow issue because the others, which comes with a f/2.0 aperture and 120-degree area of view. Colors turn out to be extra insipid, while shadows lose their depth. On sure angles, this digital camera could make some topics look slightly distorted.  

Evening mode lifts topics very effectively, with particulars seen even in very darkish situations. Nonetheless, the sky does tackle a barely unnatural blue tinge that I don’t get on different telephones just like the Vivo X70 Professional.  

On the entrance, there’s a 32Mp front-facing digital camera with a f/2.0 aperture. The blur impact on this digital camera is extra inaccurate than it’s on the primary digital camera, with some clumps and strands of hair smudging into the background. Nonetheless, I used to be capable of get some first rate selfies with this cellphone, together with a fairly spectacular shot taken at night time.  

The selfie digital camera festivals greatest outdoor, and that features at night time. A number of the poorest photographs had been taken inside with low lighting, which resulted in softer particulars and uninteresting colors.  

The Xiaomi 13 can document in 8K at 24fps, 4K as much as 60fps, 1080p as much as 60fps and 720p at 30fps. You may allow both regular video or ultra-steady video, although the latter has a barely sturdy and unnatural impact.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Battery & charging 

• One-day battery life on common
• 37W fast-charging
• Wi-fi and reverse wi-fi charging out there

The Xiaomi 13 comes with a 4500mAh battery, the identical measurement seen on the earlier era Xiaomi 12.  

The battery was one of many so-so factors of the Xiaomi 12, and sadly this is similar case right here. On common I’d get a few day’s use out of the cellphone – watching movies, listening to podcasts, scrolling by Twitter and taking calls.  

If I whacked up the refresh charge to 120Hz and used the cellphone closely (resembling having a stream operating for hours on finish), then the cellphone would drain even faster than this. That mentioned, it did last more in our official PCMark 10 battery check than the Xiaomi 12, taking 11 hours and 40 minutes to empty utterly.  

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Fortuitously, charging is kind of speedy with the included 67W brick. This juices the cellphone from flat to 87% in half-hour, however the cellphone did get noticeably sizzling. Understand that the pricier Xiaomi 13 Professional comes with even quicker speeds with a 120W charger included within the field.

The Xiaomi 13 has help for 50W wi-fi turbo charging, although a charger will not be included within the field. You additionally get 10W reverse wi-fi charging.  

Software program & updates 

• MIUI 14
• Software program bloat
• Some apps not optimised for the OS

The Xiaomi 13 runs on MIUI 14 primarily based on Android 13, the newest model of this software program. When you’ve by no means used a Xiaomi system earlier than, then the OS is likely one of the most jarring components.  

The app bloat isn’t fairly as unhealthy as what I’ve discovered on different telephones such because the finances Poco X5. Nonetheless, you’ll discover a number of browser functions, Xiaomi-specific variations of calendars, calculators and different apps, and simply typically extra space taken up than is critical straight out of the field.  

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Navigation isn’t fairly the identical as what you’ll discover on inventory Android, and looking for issues within the settings could be complicated. Apple customers will discover some familiarity with shortcuts, as the fast settings is accessed from swiping down from the highest proper, while notifications present up by dragging down on the left.  

I additionally observed that the Instagram app isn’t correctly optimised for MIUI. On a number of events I discovered that the tales bar can be blacked out, which meant that the names of customers didn’t present up (although the icons did). On-line boards signifies that this can be a widespread drawback with Xiaomi telephones.

On the whole, MIUI isn’t essentially the most user-friendly Android pores and skin on the market, and points with in style apps might show an annoyance to some.

Xiaomi usually commits to a few years of OS updates and 4 years of safety patches. While that is higher than some producers, it isn’t fairly as beneficiant as Samsung, which guarantees 4 years of software program updates.

Value & availability  

The Xiaomi 13 prices £849, and is out there now through Xiaomi’s official retailer. The cellphone may also be out there through Currys and Argos, although the product pages aren’t stay on the time of writing.

If you buy one straight from Xiaomi earlier than 20 March, then you will get an £80 ‘eco voucher’ which might spent on merchandise within the Xiaomi eco system. Xiaomi doesn’t usually promote its telephones within the US, however it’s best to have the ability to get one imported through Aliexpress.

It is a £100 value leap from the earlier era, While we are able to take inflation under consideration, this places it as the identical value because the iPhone 14, the Samsung Galaxy S23 and the Google Pixel 7 Professional.

Not solely are these extra in-demand manufacturers, however in addition they provide extra user-friendly software program. Plus, each the iPhone and the Pixel provide significantly better battery lives as effectively throughout our assessments.

When you’re making an attempt to resolve between the Xiaomi 13 and the Xiaomi 13 Professional, then the latter affords one thing extra distinctive with the 1in Sony IMX989 sensor – the most important round on the time of writing.

As well as, it affords higher day-to-day battery life and quicker charging speeds. General, it’s the extra interesting selection for each Xiaomi buffs and smartphone pictures fanatics, however it is going to set you again £250 extra.

For additional choices, try our rankings of one of the best telephones, in addition to one of the best Android telephones and greatest Xiaomi telephones.

Verdict  

On the {hardware} entrance, the Xiaomi 13 is fairly strong. It’s extraordinarily effectively constructed, and extra sturdy than the earlier era. The primary digital camera produces clear, crisp photographs, even in darker situations, and we are able to’t ignore its spectacular efficiency.

Nonetheless, the worth leap from the earlier era places it head-to-head with a number of the main smartphones of this previous yr, and sadly it doesn’t fairly measure as much as the iPhone 14 or the Google Pixel 7 Professional, particularly with the bloated and complicated MIUI software program.

When you’re useless set on shopping for a Xiaomi, then the 13 Professional affords a extra spectacular digital camera and higher specs. In any other case, there are higher alternate options in the marketplace for this value.

Specs

• Android 13 w/ MIUI 14
• 6.36in FHD+ AMOLED 120Hz show, 20:9, 240Hz contact sampling, HDR10+, Dolby Imaginative and prescient
• In-display fingerprint sensor
• Corning Gorilla Glass 5 entrance
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
• 8/12GB RAM LPDDR5X
• 128GB/256GB non-expandable storage
• 50Mp, f/1.88, essential digital camera with OIS
• 12Mp, f/2.2 wide-angle digital camera
• 10Mp, f/2.2 telephoto digital camera
• 32Mp, f/2.0 front-facing digital camera
• Twin audio system with Dolby Atmos
• 5G
• WiFi 7 (market dependent)
• Bluetooth 5.3
• USB-C port
• 4500mAh battery
• 67W quick charging
• 50W wi-fi charging
• 10W reverse wi-fi charging
• 152.8 x 71.5 x 7.98mm
• 180g
• Launch colors: Black, White, Inexperienced