Three 50MP Leica branded cameras, 120W fast charging, and a ceramic back panel.
This is the Xiaomi 13 Pro, the company’s most expensive smartphone in India at ₹80,000.
In a segment that’s defined by Apple and Samsung, can this phone carve out a niche for itself?
Design
Hold the Xiaomi 13 Pro in your hand and its weight becomes quite prominent because of its ceramic back panel. It feels really high quality in hand, but the weight might bother you during extended usage.
Anyway, the frame is constructed out of aluminium, while the front has a curved glass. I am, however, a bit disappointed that the top and bottom bezels are not symmetrical.
Utility
The Xiaomi 13 Pro is a 5G dual SIM smartphone which does not come with expandable storage. But, surprisingly, it does have an IR blaster so you can use it as a remote for your TV or AC.\
For biometrics, it comes with an optical in-display fingerprint scanner which works really well.
Adding to this phone’s durability is Gorilla Glass Victus protection on its display and an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance.
The 13 Pro also features a stereo speaker setup which is about average in terms of loudness and quality.
Cameras
This phone has 3 cameras at the back, all of 50MP resolution. The colour science of this camera system has been tuned by Leica.
Also, the 50MP main camera has the 1-inch type Sony IMX 989 sensor.
You get two Leica colour profiles on all sensors - Vibrant and Authentic.
In the Authentic setting, this camera system produces impressively accurate colours. Even in vibrant mode, the saturation is kept in check and is nowhere close to what the S23 produces. However, the S23 does have slightly better dynamic range.
Night time photos are impressively well-detailed as well.
This main camera will be appreciated by those who prefer less processed, more true to life photos.
Videos, however, do get a saturation boost for some reason. The stability is very impressive though.
Even low light videos are pretty good with low noise levels and an ample amount of detail.
The telephoto camera with a 3.2x optical zoom, and it's impressively in sync with the main camera. In fact, despite not being the 1-inch type sensor, the telephoto camera still produces results which are as good as the main sensor.
You also have up to 70x hybrid zoom on this phone, which is always great to have.
The Xiaomi wins hands down in outdoor portrait shots with its most accurate skin tone representation.
This telephoto camera can also take 10 cm macro shots which are frankly, the best in the business.
The 50MP ultrawide camera is pretty good with dynamic range, but is the least impressive of the trio because its colour science is a bit dull and not in sync with the other two sensors.
The ultrawide videos, however, come out to be quite stable as well.
You also have the option of Leica’s monochrome filters with all sensors, and you are in quite a treat if you have a thing for dramatic black & white photos.
The Xiaomi 13 Pro also has a 32MP selfie camera, and let’s just say that the company did not focus much on it. The photos from this sensor come out to be average at best.
Also, the selfie camera cannot shoot 4K videos, which is quite strange.
Display
The 6.78-inch AMOLED display on this phone is curved around the edges. However, the palm rejection on this display is quite unimpressive, so accidental triggers can be annoying.
Otherwise, the display is pretty high quality. With a peak brightness of 1900 nits, it is undefeatable outdoors. It also has all the good stuff you’d expect from a flagship display - a 120Hz refresh rate, LTPO tech, 1440p resolution, and HDR10+ certification.
The colours are also great which makes content watching a pleasant experience. However, I’d still say that the Galaxy S23’s screen is more vivid.
Performance and Software
Like most other 2023 Android flagships, this phone is powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. However, this is where the 13 Pro surprises. A camera phone it may be, but it does not throttle its performance either.
It achieved a stability score of 84 percent on the CPU throttle test, and a whopping 97.3 percent on 3D mark’s wildlife extreme stress test. This is much better than what the Galaxy S23 and OnePlus 11 could manage.
Since it does not throttle its performance, it definitely eats more battery during peak loads, but on the flipside, it will give you sustained gaming performance.
On the software front, you get MIUI 14 built on top of Android 13. This has to be the fastest iteration of MIUI that I’ve ever used since everything was fast and responsive in my experience. The overall performance is also aided by 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of fast UFS 4.0 storage.
However, MIUI is still MIUI. Its stock apps have the tendency to send you a lot of notifications which you’ll have to disable one by one. Also, the overall look and feel of this software may not be to all tastes.
Xiaomi is promising three major Android updates with this phone, which is good but not class leading.
Battery Life
The Xiaomi 13 Pro has a 4,820mAh battery which provides great battery life. You can easily touch 8 hours of screen on time with mixed usage.
The phone also comes with a bundled charger, and that charger is of 120W. Reminds me of the good old times when spending more money actually meant getting more stuff.
However, to get the best charging speeds, you’d have to manually enable the boost mode. Once this is enabled, the phone will go bonkers. In my testing it went from 50-100 percent in around 10 minutes.
You also get 50W wireless charging, but, Xioami’s proprietary wireless charger is required to achieve that speed.
Verdict
The Xiaomi 13 Pro isn't just a great camera phone, it also excels in terms of performance and charging speeds.
I understand that for a lot of people, Xiaomi does not command the same brand value as some other brands, but with the 13 Pro, the company has more or less cemented the fact that it can make fantastic premium phones.