Xiaomi 13 Pro Long Term Review - Camera powerhouse in your pocket!
After using the Xiaomi 13 Pro as our daily driver for two months, we share our thoughts and experiences with the new Leica camera powerhouse.
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro in Ceramic Black |
To recap, the Xiaomi 13 Pro carries a 120Hz 6.7-inch LTPO E6 AMOLED QHD+ screen. Inside is the 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 octa-core processor, New Adreno GPU, 8GB/12GB RAM, UFS 4.0 storage and a 5,000mAh battery with 120W fast wired charging.
It comes with a Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protected 120Hz Dynamic AMOLED 2x QHD+ screen. Inside is the 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 octa-core processor, 12GB RAM, UFS 4.0 storage, and a 5,000mAh battery with 45W fast charging.
At the back are the 50MP primary camera, 50MP ultra-wide and 50MP telephoto with an LED flash while in front is a 32MP selfie shooter.
In the Philippines, the Xiaomi 13 Pro starts at PHP 59,999 for the 8GB/128GB model.
Let's dive into the review!
For our review part 1: Xiaomi 13 and 13 Pro Unboxing and First Impressions
Multimedia Experience
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro's front display |
In front are the 6.7-inch LTPO E6 AMOLED curved screen with a 3200 x 1400 resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate and a 1900 nits peak brightness. The panel is super bright that we find it readable under direct sunlight as long as the brightness level is 80 percent or above. Around the panel are super slim side bezels with a decently thick top and bottom bezel.
The panel supports 10 points of multitouch simultaneously which makes it perfect for complicated taps and gestures simultaneously like in mobile games.
On the upper part of the panel is the punch hole that houses the front-facing camera. Above it and hidden within the top bezel is the super slim earpiece.
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| Top and bottom sides |
For audio, the phone is equipped with a stereo set-up that is made up of the bottom-firing speaker and the top-firing speaker grills.
The sound produced by the stereo speakers is loud with a max volume being able to fill a medium-sized bedroom. We are confident that it will still be heard even when in a noisy environment. The stereo gives the sound a large stage and it gives the sound directionality.
The microphones do a great job of picking up sounds from a meter away while the noise-cancellation for calls is great too.
Cameras
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| Rear cameras |
As mentioned earlier, the rear camera set-up is composed of 50MP f/1.9 primary camera with Sony IMX989 and HyperOIS, a 50MP f/2.2 115-degree ultra-wide camera, a 50MP f/2.0 3x tele-macro zoom with an LED flash.
The camera app lets users pick between the Leica Authentic and Leica Vibrant photography styles. There are also exclusive filters that include Leica Vivid, Leica Natura, Leica Black & White Natural and Leica Black & White Contrast.)
One other unique feature is the Leica Master-lens system in the Portrait mode. Users can pick between 35mm Black & White, 50mm Swirly Bokeh, 75mm Portrait and 90mm Soft Focus.)
The stock camera app comes with the following modes: Photo, Video, Night, Portrait, Pro, Super Moon, Panorama, Slow Motion, Long Exposure, Short Video, Document, Movie Effect, Clone, 50MP mode, VLOG, Timelapse and Dual Video.
The Pro mode comes with controls for ISO (50-12800), Shutter Speed (1/4,000-30 seconds), EV (+-4), Focus, White Balance, and Zoom (Ultra-wide, 1x, 3x). The 3x and 10x zoom are optical and can reach 70x zoom digitally.
Rear Camera Samples
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro Rear camera daylight 1x |
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro Rear camera daylight 3.2x |
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro Rear camera daylight 10x |
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro Rear camera daylight 70x |
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro Rear camera daylight ultra-wide |
The three cameras at the back do not disappoint when taking daylight shots. Images are crisp with plenty of detail while delivering vibrant color, deep contrast and decent sharpness.
Our one concern is the 70x digital zoom is mush. We recommend using digital zoom up to 10x only.
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro rear indoor 1x |
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro rear indoor 3x |
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro rear indoor 10x |
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro rear indoor ultra-wide |
Indoors, the images retain the quality of daylight that are sharp, detailed, and contrasty. The colors are accurate too. Our only concern is the visible slight loss of sharpness and the noticeable distortion on the ultra-wide.
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro rear lowlight 1x |
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro rear lowlight 3x |
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro rear lowlight ultra-wide |
For low light, the primary camera and ultra-wide camera produced sharp and detailed images with good color but the sensor is prone to overexposure which affects areas around light sources. The 3x telephoto has a significant amount of grain that has affected the color and sharpness of the image.
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro rear night mode 1x |
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro rear night mode 3x |
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro rear night mode ultra-wide |
The Night mode significantly improves the sharpness, detail, and contrast across all three cameras. We highly recommend using the night mode in low light when the subject is not moving to get the best image. Digital zoom beyond the 3.2x is not available in Night mode.
Overall, the rear cameras produced mostly great results. Our only concerns were the image quality with the 3.2x telephoto in low light. The other 1x and ultra-wide cameras also lost some quality in low light but are still good.
Selfie cameraOn the punch hole is the aforementioned 32MP f/2.0 front-facing camera.
Most of the camera modes that work with the rear camera work with the selfie camera which is an underrated feature. You get what you pay for.
Selfie Camera Samples
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro Daylight selfie |
The daylight selfie is sharp enough with plenty of detail, vibrant color, and strong contrast. Our only concern is that the images are not as sharp when compared to phones in the same category.
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro Portrait mode selfie |
The edge detection of the portrait mode is very good but struggles with individual hair or fiber strands. Otherwise, the artificial bokeh is somewhat pleasing despite not being the most natural implementation we've seen.
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro Indoor selfie |
Indoors, the image has great color and deep contrast but may fall behind in sharpness and detail when compared to its peers.
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro lowlight selfie |
In low light, the selfie camera's images have minimal noise however are noticeably softer and with less detail. The skin tone also took a hit.
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro Night mode selfie |
The Night mode noticeably improves the sharpness, detail and exposure of the low-light selfie we recommend using it as long as you can stand still.
Overall, the front cameras produce sharp, detailed images with vibrant color and contrast but the 3.2x and ultra-wide camera lose their sharpness, detail and color accuracy in low light.
The Xiaomi 13 Pro's primary rear camera can capture up to 8K at 24 fps while all the other rear cameras can record up to 4K at 60 fps. The front-facing selfie camera can only capture up to 1080 at 30fps.
8K footage from the phone uses the full width of the sensor while offering 24 fps. The resulting 8K footage is sharper and more detailed than the 4K 60fps footage. What impressed us is the HyperOIS which stabilized the footage well.
4K Footage from the other cameras except for the rear ultra-wide praiseworthy. They are sharp, detailed and vibrant. The ultra-wide angle camera's footage isn't as sharp or detailed as we expect from a phone in this price range.
What we can praise about all four rear cameras is the significantly improved image stabilization which yielded smooth footage from all cameras with a minor noticeable shake.
Overall, the video performance of the Xiaomi 13 Pro is mostly good. The main camera's HyperOIS significantly improves the stabilization while the ultra-wide could be tweaked to have sharper and more color-accurate footage.
Performance
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| AnTuTu and GeekBench |
To recap, the Xiaomi 13 Pro features a custom 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 octa-core processor clocked at 3.18GHz. Alongside it are the New Adreno GPU, 12GB LPDDR5 RAM and 512GB UFS 4.0 of internal storage.
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| 3DMark and CPDT |
Xiaomi 13 Pro benchmarks:
- AnTuTu - 1,285,079
- Geekbench 5 - 1,992 (single-core), 5,297 (multi-core)
- 3D Mark WildLife - 2,986 at 17.9 average fps
- CPDT - 1.0 GB/s sequential read speeds and 439.38 MB/s sequential write speeds
The Xiaomi 13 Pro's scores in AnTuTu, Geek Bench, and 3DMark are what we expect with the flagship specs. Expect one of the best performances with this smartphone.
Our review unit is the 12GB LPDDR5 and 512GB UFS 4.0 model. The results from CPDT are one of the fastest and near symmetrical read and write speeds we've tested yet.
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| Genshin Impact Graphics |
Like most Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-equipped smartphones last year, the Xiaomi 13 Pro managed to unlock the Medium graphics settings of Genshin Impact as the default. The gameplay is smooth even when the screen fills up with objects and animations. The phone stayed cool for the first 30 minutes of gameplay but slowly warmed up. It maintained a warm temperature and never got alarmingly hot.
For security, the Xiaomi 13 Pro has an optical under-display fingerprint sensor and face unlock. Initial set-up and subsequent uses are almost instantaneous. The face unlocks only struggles when the camera is dirty or when we are wearing a mask and sunglasses. The screen brightens up when used in the dark.
Regarding connectivity, we have the following: NanoSIM, WiFi 6E, 5G, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.2, OTG, NFC, GPS, and GLONASS.
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| PCMark Battery benchmark results |
Inside the phone is a large 5,000mAh battery. In our usual PCMark Battery test, the Xiaomi 13 Pro managed to endure 14 hours and 42 minutes.
In our daily use, it managed to last for more than 6 hours and 38 minutes with a 9 percent battery left. This was our daily driver that was constantly connected to either WiFi or 5G. Its battery performance is impressive. There were days when we would get 7.5 hours of on-screen time too. It still varies depending on the user's usage.
The massive battery charges via USB-C with the 120W charger. It takes under 40 minutes to charge from 0 to 100 percent.
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| MIUI 14 |
It is running on MIUI 14 based on Android 13. Visually, it is a slightly more polished version of the previous generation. It adds features that were added with Android 13 with the typical Xiaomi spin. If you didn't like MIUI before, odds are you still won't like this one. But if you're a fan of MIUI, you will more likely enjoy the smoother experience.
There is a number of pre-installed apps and services that can be uninstalled. It adds to the initial setup.
Pros - Solid build, premium ceramic design, Leica hardware and software integration, Smooth performance, good stereo speakers, IR blaster
Cons - Ceramic is beautiful but heavy, preinstalled bloatware, low light camera performance could be tweaked further
Xiaomi 13 Pro Specs
Display: 6.7-inch LTPO E6 AMOLED curved screen w/ 120Hz refresh rate, QHD+ 3200 x 1440 resolution at 523 ppi and 1900 nits peak brightnessCPU: 3.18GHz 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 octa-core processorGPU: New-AdrenoRAM: 8GB/12GBROM: 128GB/256GB/512GB UFS 4.0Back Camera: 50MP f/1.9 Sony IMX989 Hyper OIS + 50MP f/2.2 115-degree ultra-wide sensor + 50MP f/2.0 3x tele-macro zoom + LED flashSelfie Camera: 32MP f/2.0Battery: 5,000mAh w/ 100W fast charging, 50W wireless, 10W reverse wirelessOS: Android 13 w/ MIUI 14Connectivity: WiFi 6E, 5G, 4G, Bluetooth 5.2, OTG, GPS, NFC, dual SIM (nano)Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magneticOthers: In-Display fingerprint sensor, USB-C, Colors: Ceramic White, Black, Flora Green, Faux leather BlueDimensions: 162.9x 74.6 x 8.38 mm (ceramic) 8.7mm (leather)Weight: 229 g (ceramic), 210 g (leather)Price: PHP 59,999
Verdict
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| Xiaomi 13 Pro web surfing on Chrome |
Xiaomi continues to bring solid build materials, eye-catching design, and top-quality specs in one package but has been steadily increasing prices.
In the Philippines, the Xiaomi 13 Pro is priced at PHP 59,999.
The new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 offers powerful performance in normal tasks and gaming while offering nearly 1.5-day battery life even when constantly connected to WiFi and 5G.
The LTPO E4 display remains one of the better ones in the market with its fast 120Hz refresh rate, and 1,900 nits peak brightness. Let's not forget the decent stereo experience from both speakers.
Other noteworthy features include the IR blaster, IP water & dust resistance and MIUI-specific features.
Where the phone excels are the extensive camera modes and features as well as camera performance in daylight and indoors. There are situations where the low light shots from the 3x and ultra-wide camera are not on par with what we expect from a phone at this price point.
So we highly recommend the Xiaomi 13 Pro for people who have the budget and who want and need powerful performance, and fast charging while being able to learn and will use the extensive cameras and camera software and hardware features.
What do you think guys?
Build/Design - 4.25
Multimedia Experience - 4.25
Cameras - 4.25
Performance - 4.5
Average - 4.32/5
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