Xiaomi 13 Complete Analysis : Review

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analisis xiaomi 13 pro teknofilo 21.jpg
analisis xiaomi 13 pro teknofilo 21.jpg

Don’t have time to read the full review? Go directly to the Conclusions section to find out what I liked the most and what I liked the least about the Xiaomi 13 Pro.

At the end of February, Xiaomi announced the arrival in Spain of the Xiaomi 13 family of smartphones, made up of the Xiaomi 13 Lite, Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro models.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro has a 6.7″ AMOLED screen up to 120 Hz, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, 12 GB of LPDDR5x RAM, 256 GB of UFS 4.0 storage, wide-angle (50MP f/1.9) + ultra-wide-angle ( 50MP f/2.4) + 3.3x telephoto lens (50MP f/2.0), front camera (32MP f/2.0) and 4,820 mAh battery with 120W fast charging and 50W wireless charging.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro is for sale in Spain with 12GB / 256GB at a price of €1,399 (see offers on Amazon | Mediamarkt).

I have had the opportunity to test the Xiaomi 13 Pro for a few weeks, which has allowed me to get to know the device in depth. Next, I tell you my impressions.

Sections of the analysis

  • Design
  • Screen
  • Hardware
  • connectivity
  • Biometrics
  • Battery
  • Software
  • Multimedia
  • Camera
  • calls
  • Price
  • conclusions
  • The best and the worst

Design

The Xiaomi 13 Pro has an elegant design, with a ceramic finish that only the most sophisticated smartphones can boast.

Its front is dominated by a large 6.7″ screen surrounded by symmetrical and fairly narrow frames, although a bit thicker than, for example, those of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Utra.

Xiaomi has opted for a front with curved glass on the sides, so the side frames are more concealed than in other phones with flat screens.

For some users, curved screens are not an advantage, quite the opposite, since the lateral curvature often produces reflections and color changes at the edges.

Fortunately, Xiaomi has reduced the intensity of the curve and, although the sides are perceived as slightly darker, it is quite subtle.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro makes great use of the front, around 90% according to GSMArena data. This is a similar value to the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, which also boasts narrow bezels.

Xiaomi has opted for a front camera perforated in a central hole in the upper area, with an adequate size, although not as small as other competitors. Other smartphones place the perforated camera in the upper left corner and, in my opinion, that is where it goes most unnoticed, both in daily use and when watching videos or playing horizontally.

The phone uses Gorilla Glass Victus reinforced glass on the front. This guarantees great resistance against bumps and scratches, although, if we want to be demanding, Samsung already uses the second generation of Gorilla Glass Victus 2 in its flagships this year.

The back is ceramic and curved at the sides. Ceramic is a rare material in smartphones. Its color limitations make it a hard sell for some manufacturers. As an advantage, it is very difficult to scratch, since only minerals such as topaz or diamond can leave marks.

The front and back are joined by an aluminum chassis, which is a material commonly used in high-end smartphones. However, Apple opts for stainless steel for its Pro models, which is even more resistant.

The phone is available in only two color variants — black and white — with the black color being the one that I have tested. Despite having a glossy finish, fingerprints don’t leave too much mark on its surface, which is a plus for those of us who hate carrying dirty phones.

The smooth finish of the Xiaomi 13 Pro is quite slippery in the hand, so you have to be careful that it does not slip by accident.

Xiaomi has included a rectangular module to house the rear cameras in the corner. The module protrudes from the surface of the phone like the crater of a volcano, causing the phone to dance when the screen is touched while resting on a table. 

With a thickness of 8.4 mm (not including the camera island) and a weight of 229 grams, the Xiaomi 13 Pro is not exactly a small or light phone. In fact, in the hand it feels like a blunt phone, the kind that feels in the hand.

Measurements (mm.)
Weight (gr.)
Screen
Ratio screen to body (*)

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra 163 × 78 × 8.9 2. 3. 4 6.8″ 90%
HONOR 70 161×73×7.9 178 6.7″ 91%
xiaomi 13 Pro 163×75×8.4 229 6.7″ 90%
Huawei Mate 50 Pro 162×76×8.5 205 6.7″ 91%
Pixel 7 Pro 163 × 77 × 8.9 212 6.7″ 89%
iPhone 14 Pro Max 161 × 78 × 7.9 240 6.7″ 88%
iPhone 14Plus 161 × 78 × 7.8 203 6.7″ 87%
OPPO Find X5 Pro 164×74×8.5 218 6.7″ 90%
OnePlus 11 163×74×8.5 205 6.7″ 90%
Huawei P50 Pro+ 159 × 73 × 9.0 226 6.6″ 92%
OPPO Find X5 160×73×8.7 196 6.6″ 89%
Nothing Phone (1) 159 × 76 × 8.3 194 6.6″ 86%
Sony Xperia 1IV 165×71×8.2 185 6.5″ 84%
Xiaomi 13 153×72×8.0 189 6.4″ 89%
pixel 7 156×73×8.7 197 6.3 85%
iPhone 14 Pro 148×72×7.9 206 6.1″ 87%
iPhone 14 147 × 72 × 7.8 172 6.1″ 86%

(*) Screen-to-body ratio data obtained from GSMArena

Next, we are going to review the four sides of the smartphone to review the buttons and connectors it incorporates.

On the right side, we find the power button and next to it, an elongated volume button. Both buttons are well distinguished by touch, so we have no problem clicking on one or the other without looking at it.

The left side is free of any element.

The top of the phone features two microphones, an IR emitter, and a hole to complement the top speaker located in the ear cup.

The bottom of the phone has the USB Type-C connector, a speaker, a microphone, and a SIM card tray.

Xiaomi has given the phone IP68 certification for resistance to water and dust, so you can rest easy even if it takes a dip. Although it is not the first Xiaomi smartphone to have this certification — the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra holds that honor — it is not common to find this type of protection on Xiaomi phones.

However, we must not forget that water damage is not covered by the guarantee, so you should not use your mobile phone to take underwater photos.

Screen

The Xiaomi 13 Pro has a 6.73″ AMOLED LTPO screen with WQHD+ resolution (3,200 × 1,440 pixels) and an elongated aspect ratio (20:9), which translates into a high pixel density of 522 ppi.

The sub-pixel matrix is ​​of the PenTile type, as is usual in OLED panels. This means that the sub-pixels are placed in a diamond shape with more green sub-pixels than red or blue. Therefore, the effective resolution of the panel is lower than the nominal when the screen displays blue or red colors.

The LCD screens that other phones have have RGB matrices, where the sub-pixels are placed one after the other, in red-green-blue (RGB) rows, so the advertised resolution applies equally to the sub-pixels. of each colour. In any case, with such a high pixel density, this is not a problem.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro allows you to choose whether the phone should use its native 1440p resolution or a lower 1080p resolution to save battery life. If you choose 1440p mode, there’s a switch that allows the phone to automatically switch to 1080p when it decides it’s appropriate to save battery life.

Xiaomi has incorporated a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. This higher rate translates into greater smoothness when scrolling through the interface, scrolling vertically in the application drawer, the web browser, the forum gallery or in your network feeds social networks such as Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

Just as important as a high refresh rate is the possibility of reducing it when it is not necessary to reduce battery consumption. In this regard, the Xiaomi 13 Pro offers an adaptive refresh rate that can go down to 1 Hz.

In my tests, by activating the Show refresh rate option in the Developer menu, I was able to see the refresh rate (Hz) in real time. In the default refresh rate mode, the phone displays the interface at 120 Hz, but reduces to 1 Hz if we stay for a few seconds with the screen fixed. It also intelligently switches to 24, 30 or 60 Hz when performing certain tasks, such as watching videos at 24, 30 or 60 FPS.

A curious aspect is that, if the brightness is low, the refresh rate is always at maximum (60 or 120 Hz) and only decreases when watching videos.

On the other hand, the Xiaomi 13 Pro panel performs touch sampling up to 240 Hz, so the response to your keystrokes is instantaneous. This is especially interesting in action games, where it is important that the screen responds quickly.

In addition to having a high refresh rate, the Xiaomi 13 Pro screen offers a wide range of colors, being capable of covering 100% of the DCI-P3 gamut.

Color spaces. Source: AVS Forum

If you’re not familiar with color spaces, all high-end smartphones more than cover the standard Android color space: Rec. 709 / sRGB.

The most advanced try to comply with the DCI-P3 space used in the film industry, and a few point towards the even wider Rec. 2020 color space, which covers 76 percent of the visible spectrum.

No current panel is capable of displaying the full Rec. 2020 color space, but many panels do cover the DCI-P3 space.

On the other hand, HDR technology increases the dynamic range of color tones displayed on the screen. The Xiaomi 13 Pro panel is compatible with HDR10+ and also with Dolby Vision (few smartphones offer compatibility with this format), so we can enjoy compatible content from Netflix and other sources.

To analyze the quality of the screen, we have carried out various tests with the professional software CalMAN Ultimate and an X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro offers a screen setting called Color Scheme that allows you to control the color gamut that the screen points to and the color temperature of the screen. Xiaomi offers three modes: Vivid (on by default, targets DCI-P3), Saturated (targets DCI-P3 but increases saturation), and Original (targets sRGB).

Xiaomi also offers an Advanced Settings mode within Color Scheme that allows you to choose between three color gamuts: original (identifies the color gamut automatically through color calibration), P3 (displays all screen content in the color gamut). DCI-P3 color gamut) and sRGB (displays all screen content in the sRGB color gamut).

By default, the Xiaomi 13 Pro comes set to Vivid color mode, which targets the DCI P3 color space, offering somewhat more realistic colors than Saturated mode.

In Vivid mode, the display offers good but room for improvement in color fidelity, with an average error against the DCI P3 color space of 2.8 dE and a maximum error of 7.4 dE. In this mode, the phone covers 100% of the sRGB color mode and 96% of the DCI-P3 color space used in the film industry.

The color white has a color temperature of 7,448ºK, above the reference level of 6,500ºK, so the screen has a marked bluish tint. 

Color fidelity vs. DCI P3

DCI P3 Gamut Coverage

color temperature

gamma

Results in Vivid color mode

In the Saturated color mode, which is the one that offers the most vivid colors, the Xiaomi 13 Pro offers reasonably good color fidelity, since the average error against the DCI P3 space turns out to be 3.1 dE with a maximum error of 7.4 dE.

The display’s color gamut covers 100% of the sRGB color space and 100% of the wider DCI-P3 color space. As for the color temperature, we find ourselves with 7,405ºK, which is above the reference value, which means that the screen has a bluish tint here too. 

Color fidelity vs. DCI P3

sRGB color gamut coverage

color temperature

gamma

Results in Saturated color mode

In Original color mode, color fidelity is excellent as the average error is 1.1 dE (a value below 4 dE is considered excellent and above 9 dE is considered unacceptable) and the maximum error is 2.6 dE.

In this mode, the display covers 100% of the sRGB color mode and falls within 72% of the DCI-P3 color space. The color white has a color temperature of 6,418ºK, quite close to the reference value of neutral white. 

Color fidelity vs. sRGB

DCI P3 color gamut coverage

color temperature

gamma

Results in Original color mode

According to my own measurements, the maximum screen brightness is around 482 nits in manual brightness mode.

The brightness temporarily increases up to 1,170 nits when we activate the automatic brightness adjustment and we are under bright light such as sunlight, since the HBM (High Brightness Mode) mode comes into operation. This value is close to the 1,200 nits that Xiaomi indicates on its website in relation to HBM mode.

The maximum brightness is very high, above the best flagships of the moment, so you will not have any problem using the phone in bright sunlight.

The black color is very deep, to the point that my colorimeter has been unable to measure any level of gloss. This means that it is really black and that the contrast is theoretically infinite (5,000,000:1 according to Xiaomi).

OLED screens have a peculiar behavior when viewed from an angle. On the one hand, the light emitters are closer to the surface, and this causes the contrast and brightness to vary less when moving relative to the center, but on the other hand, the Pentile matrix causes the colors to be distorted.

In the case of the Xiaomi 13 Pro, the viewing angles are wide and the colors are hardly altered when looking at the screen from an angle. However, on the sides of the screen, the curve of the screen does slightly alter the colors when looking at the screen.

With the phone locked with the screen off, we can turn it on by double tapping on the screen or by lifting it from the table. The screen also turns on automatically when we receive a notification or, if we prefer, we can make only edges light up or an animation of stars appear.

Xiaomi offers the Always On Display functionality that allows you to permanently display the clock, date, time, battery, app icons with notifications, and other items. Xiaomi allows you to customize the design by showing watches of different styles, kaleidoscope-like figures, drawings or signatures in monochrome or multicolor options.

Since this functionality increases power consumption, it is possible to choose if it should be displayed permanently, only for 5 seconds after touching, or at certain times. It is also possible to disable it when the Battery Saver mode is active.

Always Active Screen of the Xiaomi 13 Pro

The Xiaomi 13 Pro has a functionality called reading mode, which is a blue light filter that reduces eye fatigue by limiting the amount of blue light emitted by the screen.

It is possible to choose a classic setting (warmer colors) or paper (warmer colors with a paper texture), in both cases it is possible to adjust the color temperature. You can also program the automatic ignition at certain times or coinciding with the sunset.

Xiaomi has included a feature called Adaptive Colors, which adjusts the colors on the screen to the ambient lighting. It’s similar to the True Tone functionality on the iPhone, which adjusts the white balance to the lighting in your environment to simulate the color of a sheet of paper.

We also find high-frequency PWM dimming at 1920 Hz, which prevents screen flickering at low brightness levels while maintaining color fidelity. Even though it is imperceptible to the eye, this flicker causes headaches in some people.

Other smartphones resort to DC Dimming which, by acting on the screen circuit power, reduces flicker at the cost of deteriorating image quality.

Other features are also present called Super Resolution, which rescales the resolution of videos to increase it, AI Image Enhancement, which identifies objects (plants, animals, buildings) in Gallery images and dynamically adjusts contrast and color, and AI HDR Enhancement, which processes SDR videos with HDR effects to bring out more detail in bright or dark areas.

These effects increase battery consumption and, in general, their effect goes almost unnoticed, so my recommendation is that you leave them disabled — that’s how they are by default.

One of the biggest problems that users attribute to Xiaomi is the usual use of a virtual proximity sensor. Experience tells us that these types of sensors have not always worked correctly, which is not acceptable in a smartphone of a certain price.

Luckily, the Xiaomi 13 Pro has a hardware proximity sensor, which is located in a small area of ​​the upper frame of the screen, to the right of the front camera.

Another interesting aspect is that it has two ambient light sensors, one on the front and one on the back, for a more accurate adjustment of the brightness of the screen depending on the environment.

hardware and performance

The Xiaomi 13 Pro incorporates the powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, a high-end chip introduced at the end of 2022 and manufactured in the 4nm process at TSMC (N4P).

Unlike Samsung, Xiaomi does not have a slightly modified Qualcomm chip, but apparently the standard chip.

ℹ️Info: This is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chip

It integrates four different CPU cores: a fast and large ARM Cortex-X3 main core up to 3.36 GHz (versus 3.2 GHz on the standard chip), two high-performance ARM Cortex-A715 cores up to 2.8 GHz, another two Cortex-A710 performance cores up to 2.8 GHz and three ARM Cortex-A510 efficiency cores up to 2 GHz. All cores can use the 8 MB shared L3 cache.

A big improvement on the Snapdragon 8 G2 is the integrated Adreno 740 GPU, which supports Hardware Raytracing. The integrated Adreno 730 offers a graphical improvement of 30% compared to the previous Adreno 660.

The chip also integrates a Hexagon accelerator for AI workloads (tensor, scalar, and vector). The built-in AI engine can deliver up to 4x faster AI performance thanks to the increased tensor engine.

The ISP 18-Bit-Spectra is capable of processing photos up to 200 MP and working with videos up to 8k30 (including 10-bit, HDR10+, HLG and Dolby Vision). The 18-Bit-Spectra-ISP has also undergone great improvements and is now called Snapdragon Sight.

The integrated Snapdragon X70 5G modem is also new, as is the FastConnect 7800 modem with support for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3.

One of the common problems with high-end chips is that they tend to get hot easily. Fortunately, Xiaomi has incorporated a huge 3,400 mm² vapor chamber, which, together with intelligent temperature control, manages to effectively reduce the temperature of the processor in conditions of intensive use.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro comes with 12 GB of LPDDR5x RAM, the fastest we can find in a smartphone.

LPDDR5x memory is manufactured using the 14nm process and offers a data transfer rate of 8.5 Gbps, which is 1.3 times faster than LPDDR5’s 6.4 Gbps speed. In addition, it offers 20% lower power consumption than LPDDR5 DRAM.

Xiaomi adds a functionality called memory extension that allows you to add an additional 3, 5 or 7 GB using the storage space. I just don’t see much use for this functionality that has become so fashionable lately, but it doesn’t hurt to have it either.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro is marketed with a capacity of 256 GB. This storage is very fast, since it is UFS 4.0 type.

UFS 4.0 increases read speeds up to 4,200 MB/s, which is basically double the currently available UFS 3.1 standard. Write speeds also increase to 2,800 MB/s, up from 1,200 MB/s.

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Read and write performance numbers refer to sequential transfers, so random reads and writes will likely be slower. Furthermore, UFS 4.0 is 46% more efficient in terms of power consumption than UFS 3.1, as it is capable of delivering a sequential read speed of up to 6.0 MB/s per milliampere (mA).

The port is OTG compatible, so you can plug in a USB-C dongle and access it like external storage. You can also connect other peripherals. However, it does not support DisplayPort over USB-C to view the screen on a TV or monitor.

I’ve put the Xiaomi 13 Pro through some benchmark tests to see how it fares against other high-end phones, and below are the results of each test.

In the AnTuTu v9 benchmark, it has achieved a result of 1,240,215 points, a very high score that surpasses the best flagships.

In the Geekbench 6 benchmark focused on processor performance, it has achieved 1,389/5,201 points in single/multi-core tests. It is a very high result in multi-core, but somewhat low in mono-core compared to other smartphones with the same chip.

In the PCMark 3.0 general performance test, which measures performance when performing everyday tasks, it has obtained a score of 15,182 points, again a very high value.

In terms of storage, the phone scores extremely high in AndroBench reading speed tests since, as we have said, it has the fastest UFS 4.0 storage.

In the CPU Throttling test that measures the drop in CPU performance after 15 minutes of sustained load, the phone has performed quite well, with performance dropping by 16% over that period.

Next, we are going to see the results in various graphics benchmarks to check the expected performance in games.

In GFXBench tests based on modern low-level and high-efficiency APIs (Metal on iOS and Vulkan on Android), the phone manages to unleash its full potential and achieves very high results compared to other phones.

In the 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited test, the phone has also achieved a very high score of 11,092 points.

To check the graphics performance on a day-to-day basis, I have tried several demanding 3D games — Real Racing 3, Asphalt 9 and Call of Duty Mobile.

Using the GameBench software, I have been able to measure various performance parameters in these games in real world play.

Do you know GameBench Pro? GameBench Pro is the industry’s leading tool for measuring gaming performance on Android and iOS smartphones. If you want to know more, you can visit their website.

Games get a stable rate around 60 FPS in Asphalt 9, Call of Duty and Real Racing 3. These are high values, as expected for a smartphone with these characteristics, but for some reason Xiaomi seems to have limited the games at 60 FPS, when other phones, for example, manage to hit 100+ FPS in Real Racing 3.

Game FPS (Median) FPS Stability Min-Max %CPU / %GPU

asphalt 9 60 100% 48-61 7% / 39%
Royal Racing 3 61 100% 60-61 4% / 27%
call of duty 61 100% 57-62 9% / 29%

(*) Game quality settings:

Asphalt 9: Graphics quality set to “high”
Real Racing 3: Default graphics quality
Call of Duty Mobile: “Very high” graphics quality and frames per second at “Full” speed

In addition to specific graphics performance, it is important to know if the phone is able to sustain this performance over time or if it is reduced by the increase in processor temperature. The 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test precisely measures the variation in graphics performance after 20 minutes of running the test.

The phone has achieved an excellent result of 99.7%, which means that the graphics performance does not deteriorate after a long period of use.

In general, the Xiaomi 13 Pro has achieved spectacular results in the benchmarks, as expected since it incorporates the best hardware one can dream of in an Android phone today.

On a day-to-day basis, I haven’t experienced any signs of lag when moving around the interface, opening apps, or switching between tasks.

connectivity

The Xiaomi 13 Pro supports Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, infrared emitter and WiFi 7. In case you are not familiar, WiFi 7 does not represent a radical change compared to previous generations. The new standard continues to work in the 2.4, 5, and 6 GHz frequency bands. However, it improves the reliability and stability of the connection.

Of course, it is compatible with 5G NSA + SA networks and supports the band below 6 GHz (Sub-6) but not the mmWave band which, on the other hand, is not yet widely used in our country.

It is possible to adjust the priority of data traffic intelligently, setting the foreground application to have priority over the use of network resources. This can be useful for games and other apps that require good connectivity, but can cause background apps not to update.

It is also possible to configure network acceleration, which allows you to use mobile data to increase connection speed, and dual-band WiFi speed boost, which connects simultaneously to 5 and 2.4 GHz networks to improve speed.

The SIM compartment offers space to insert two nano SIM cards and also supports eSIM, so you can use the Dual SIM functionality using nano SIM + nano SIM or nano SIM + eSIM

Xiaomi offers the possibility of making calls using WiFi, being possible to configure the preference: mobile networks or Wi-Fi. Logically it is necessary that the operator offers this functionality.

In the tests that I have carried out, the network speed for both Wi-Fi and cellular connection has been good.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro has reached 300 Mbps download and upload on Wi-Fi 5 with a 300 Mbps fiber optic connection. In the cellular connectivity test, 63 Mbps download and 48 Mbps upload were reached with a Orange 5G connection.

Xiaomi has included compatibility with a good number of positioning systems: GPS, Glonass, Galileo, Beidou and NavIC. In addition, it supports dual-frequency GPS (L1 + L5), which means that it achieves more precision when locating the phone.

In my tests, the Xiaomi 13 Pro quickly connects to satellites outdoors, and while it takes a bit longer indoors, the accuracy is just as good.

Xiaomi has incorporated an infrared emitter in case you want to use the phone to control one of your household appliances. It does not include support for Ultra Wide Band (UWB), the system that allows you to locate tracking labels with precision.

Biometrics

Xiaomi has incorporated an optical fingerprint reader under the screen, which allows you to unlock the phone comfortably by resting your finger on an area of ​​the screen.

While flagships, such as the Galaxy S23 family, have their ultrasonic sensor that creates a 3D image of the finger using sound waves, the Xiaomi 13 Pro includes an optical sensor that generates 2D images, so it is not as reliable or secure. .

For example, if you have wet fingers, the Xiaomi 13 Pro scanner may have trouble identifying your fingerprint.

In my tests, the fingerprint reader of the Xiaomi 13 Pro has worked quite well and only on a few occasions is it necessary to place the finger twice for recognition to take place.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro has the Always On Screen functionality and, although the fingerprint area does not appear permanently marked, just place your finger on the reading area to unlock the phone without having to turn on the screen first.

The fingerprint reader of the Xiaomi 13 Pro is integrated under the screen

Xiaomi has also added a 2D facial unlocking system that works quite well, although it is less secure than fingerprints since, as the company itself warns, it can be fooled by a photograph.

As a curiosity, the phone includes a functionality for reading the heart rate in the fingerprint sensor, which can be useful on occasion.

 

heart rate reading

Battery

The Xiaomi 13 Pro battery is made up of a single cell that offers a capacity of 4,820 mAh, a respectable amount for this screen size, although I would have liked to see at least 5,000 mAh, like the Xiaomi 12T Pro.

To check the autonomy, I have carried out the battery test of the well-known PCMark test: Work 3.0.

ℹ️Info: A reflection on autonomy tests

Given the importance of the screen in the consumption of the battery, it is important to calibrate with a colorimeter (or a similar instrument) the screens at the same absolute level of brightness (it is not valid to set it to 50%) if you want to obtain comparable autonomy results. between devices.

Otherwise, the results may be greatly affected by the brightness level of each smartphone’s screen and are therefore not comparable. I mention this here because not all analyzes take this into account and in this test you sometimes see absurd values.

In the case of PCMark: Work 3.0, the test itself indicates that the test must be carried out with the screen calibrated at 200 nits so that the results are comparable. This is how we perform autonomy tests on smartphones.

PCMark Work tests the autonomy of the terminal when carrying out a mixture of daily and demanding tasks, since the test simulates browsing web pages, writing texts and inserting images, applying filters to photos, editing videos and data manipulation.

Given the impact refresh rate has on smartphone battery life, I have run this test three times: fixed 60Hz refresh rate, fixed 120Hz refresh rate, and dynamic rate.

In the test with the fixed refresh rate at 60 Hz, hA obtained a result of 12 hours and 27 minutes, which is quite a high value.

If we adjust the refresh rate to a fixed frequency of 120 Hz, the autonomy is reduced to 9 hours and 56 minutes, which is a quite significant drop of around 27%. It’s a good value, but it doesn’t stand out from other smartphones.

If you activate the dynamic refresh rate (default option), you get an autonomy halfway, 11 hours and 3 minutes.

In practice, the autonomy of the Xiaomi 13 Pro is good and you will have no problem reaching the end of the day, unless you make very intense use.

MIUI limits battery consumption for those applications that you don’t use regularly. You can select for each app whether or not you want it to run in the background without restrictions, or whether you want the phone to apply battery saver based on the type of app — for example, if it identifies a messaging or media player app , it will not stop it from running in the background.

Another interesting option if we are running low on battery life is Battery Saver, which restricts the activity of system apps, freezes apps in the background, clears the cache when the device is locked, and disables flat services (synchronization, 5G connectivity, raise to wake or show the fingerprint icon when the screen is off) to save battery. Optionally, you can block the screen from waking with notifications and the always-on screen functionality.

We can schedule this functionality to turn on and off, as well as make it automatically deactivate when the battery charge is above 60 percent again.

In addition, there is an Extreme Battery Saver functionality, which restricts the most power-hungry functions and keeps only basic functions (for example, calls, SMS and certain applications). This mode activates a dark mode, restricts background activity, and restricts power-hungry activities (syncing, GPS, vibration, always-on screen, etc.).

We can allow some selected applications to work normally, as well as have this mode automatically deactivate when the battery charge is above 50 percent again.

We also have a Battery Optimization feature that proposes to close apps with excessive battery usage and suggests certain settings such as turning on Dark mode, turning off Always-on display, lowering the screen refresh rate to 60Hz, clearing memory 10 minutes after locking the device, turning off location services, turning off haptic feedback, etc. 

Battery

The Xiaomi 13 Pro has a 120W HyperCharge fast charge and, luckily, the company includes a charger of this power (5V/3A, 9V/3A, 11V/6A and 20V/6A outputs), as well as a certified cable to transport such a high current (6 amps).

It is a huge power. If you are concerned that fast charging could deteriorate the battery, in the past Xiaomi has explained that HyperCharge technology maintains 80 percent capacity after 800 charging cycles, that is, a little over two years. However, some manufacturers such as OPPO double the time until a similar degradation.

Xiaomi offers an option to increase the charging speed or, in other words, under normal conditions it charges more slowly (about 60-80 watts) and only if we activate this option are the 120 watts used.

Xiaomi’s HyperCharge technology does not follow the USB PD (Power Delivery) standard, but instead uses its own proprietary protocol for communication between the phone and the charger, which is done via a USB Type-A to Type-C charging cable. also included in the box. Please note that you will only achieve maximum speed if you use this cable, which includes additional pins.

In my tests, with the included charger, the entire charging process took just 23 minutes. In just 7 minutes, you get more than 50 percent battery charge. It is worth noting that the maximum charging speed at 120 watts is only achieved if the phone is with the screen off.

Xiaomi 13 Pro battery charging process

Xiaomi has also equipped the phone with wireless charging, which reaches 50W (although you will have to get Huawei’s charger to achieve this speed), as well as reverse wireless charging at 10W.

Software

The Xiaomi 13 Pro arrives with the MIUI 14 Global customization layer, which in this case is based on Android 13. At the time of carrying out this analysis, it runs MIUI 14.0.15 with the January patch from Google.

At this point it is worth noting the company’s policy regarding updates, since the Xiaomi 13 Pro will receive 3 main updates to the operating system and 4 years of security patches.

Xiaomi has improved performance through MIUI 14’s “Project Razor” initiative. Its goal is to make the operating system as light as possible through measures such as firmware refinement, fewer non-uninstallable apps (only 8 ), compression of “low frequency” usage applications where possible, and other memory saving measures such as keeping only one copy of a duplicate file.

Xiaomi claims that the fluidity of the system has improved up to 60%. Not only system apps but also third-party apps offer improved performance and efficiency.

Part of Xiaomi’s improvements in MIUI 14, related to privacy and security, revolve around keeping processing on the device instead of in the cloud for some “30 system scenarios”, including optical image recognition functions. characters (OCR).

Unfortunately, many of the new features announced with MIUI 14 have not yet reached the global version (and we don’t know if they will). I mean the new widgets for pets and plants, the new interface for paired devices or the management of family accounts.

Xiaomi’s customization layer gives the possibility to use an application drawer or, if you prefer, skip it and have all installed apps placed on the desktop.

It is not possible to hide an icon, so we must be a bit orderly when placing the apps on the desktop.

The icons of the apps that Xiaomi incorporates are simple and colorful, with flat designs. Some system icons present animations when the app is closed and returned to the desktop. For example, the gallery icon shows the sun rising.

Xiaomi has added the possibility of having large folders, like the one seen in the attached image, which allow access to some apps by simply clicking on the icon without having to open it.

If we pinch inward with our fingers, we access three options at the bottom: Wallpaper, Widgets, and Settings.

Within Settings we can choose the transition effects, set a screen as default, not show text, modify the grid of the home screen (4 × 6 or 5 × 6) and activate a couple of options to fill gaps in uninstalled applications and lock home screen layout.

By clicking on a More button we access additional options, among which is the possibility of activating Google Discover. 

Xiaomi also offers a section of wallpapers that gives us access to a large number of images organized by category that we can easily download and apply to our device.

Xiaomi offers two behaviors for the control center: the old way, which displays a single sheet with the control center and another with notifications, and a new way, active by default, which offers the control center sheet separately and the notification sheet.

Dragging down the screen from the right side reveals the control center sheet that contains, first of all, four large buttons to activate mobile data, activate the WiFi network, adjust the brightness or adjust the volume. Along below we see eight shortcuts and then smart device control.

If we drag the screen down from the left side, we can see the notification sheet. 

notification sheet

Quick access settings

In the open task manager, apps are displayed vertically, and from there, you can open an app in a floating window. 

open task manager

If you want faster access to apps in a floating window, you can activate the sidebar.

The sidebar adapts to each scenario. In games, it offers game-related features, as we’ll see later, while in video apps, the sidebar turns into a video toolbox.

Allows you to open video apps in pop-up windows, take screenshots, record screen, broadcast and play video with the screen off (even on YouTube without a Premium subscription).

Sidebar in a video app

The lock screen shows the time and offers quick access to the camera by dragging the screen from the bottom right corner up.

It is also possible to show news and, if we drag to the right on the lock screen, we access a carousel of wallpapers.

With the screen turned off or in Always On Display mode, you can set the screen to turn on or show an animation when you receive a notification.

With the screen off, we have the option to enable power on with a double tap on the screen. This functionality is very useful when the phone is resting on a table.

In the same way, we can activate the screen to turn on when you pick up the phone, which is also interesting.

Xiaomi offers many customization options for the Always On Display screen, and we can choose between many designs or even opt for an inspiring phrase that we can write ourselves.

An interesting novelty that MIUI 12 introduced is Dark mode 2.0, which not only changes the color scheme but also dims the color of the wallpaper gradually as daylight changes to night.

Xiaomi also adjusts the way text is displayed when users switch between Normal and Dark modes. In Dark mode, it automatically adjusts the font thickness and intensity, as well as the font contrast depending on the user’s environment.

MIUI offers quite a few privacy features. For example, you can choose to grant permissions to apps just once or only while you’re using them. Permissions will be revoked once you’re done using an app.

Sharing photos is also more secure than on other devices. Private information, such as device details or the location where the photo was taken, can be optionally removed from image files before you share them with anyone.

MIUI offers support for gestures. For example, you can swipe down on an incoming notification to make it expand into a small window, which you can then freely drag around the screen for a floating window effect.

Xiaomi offers its own content synchronization service in the cloud. Every Mi Cloud account gets 5GB of free storage to back up system settings (home screen layout, wallpapers, time/alarms/clock/notification settings and more), photo gallery, recorder, notes , WiFi, calendar, browser, etc.

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Also, by logging in to i.mi.com you can locate, lock, or wipe your device if you lose it. If the amount of cloud storage is insufficient, you can purchase additional packages of 50, 200 and 1024 GB for 3, 6 and 12 months.

Premium users also have some additional features such as a trash can in My Cloud that keeps deleted items for up to 60 days, including contacts, faster facial recognition in photos and daily phone backup.

An interesting MIUI option is Second space, which allows you to create a separate space on the phone, protected by password, where we can store contacts, images, files and applications that are not accessible from the main space.

In addition, depending on what password we enter on the lock screen or what finger we use to unlock by fingerprint, we access one space or another automatically.

A functionality related to the previous one is Application lock, which allows you to restrict access to certain apps by means of a fingerprint or pattern. Access to apps is blocked when the phone is locked and optionally also when exiting the locked app (immediately after or after 1 minute).

 

Second Space and App Lock

Another privacy feature is Hidden Apps, which allows you to hide certain desktop icons and even your notifications. To access the hidden apps, you need to spread two fingers on the screen, and after entering your app lock password, you will see the folder with the hidden apps.

Also useful is Dual Apps which allows you to clone an app like WhatsApp, Facebook or Facebook Messenger to set up multiple accounts.

Xiaomi allows you to associate gestures and button presses with certain actions such as opening the camera, taking a screenshot, starting Google Assistant, turning off the screen, turning on the flashlight, closing the current app, opening the split screen or showing the menu.

MIUI incorporates Game Turbo, which improves the smartphone’s performance in games. For example, it prioritizes the game’s network connection to reduce Wi-Fi network lag, increases touch feedback and screen sensitivity, and improves audio and reduces background noise in conversations.

We can also enable hands-free call answering, disable full-screen buttons and gestures during games, and restrict some features during games: disable automatic brightness, disable reading mode, restrict screenshot gestures, and don’t open the bar. of notifications.

For each individual game we can set the level of swipe response, the sensitivity to continuous touches, the precision when aiming and the stability of touch. It’s also possible to reduce touch sensitivity near the edges to avoid activating touch controls and increase contrast and improve detail for gaming.

In addition, MIUI allows you to display in-game shortcuts by swiping from the top left edge of the screen. Among the options we find are deactivating floating notifications, changing the voice (so that it sounds like a child, woman, man, robot or cartoon), changing the screen display between bright and/or saturated, activating wireless transmission to a screen, or turn off the screen while keeping the game in the background.

We can open certain apps like WhatsApp, Facebook or the browser in a floating window above the game, free up RAM, take a screenshot or record the game. A section called Increase performance frees up memory, frees up storage space and monitors performance.

Game Turbo adds gaming features

MIUI offers a functionality called ShareMe for file sharing that supports fast sending and receiving of files to and from OPPO, Realme, Xiaomi, Vivo, OnePlus, Meizu and Black Shark devices. This functionality is less useful since Google rolled out Nearby Sharing to all Android smartphones.

Xiaomi has made the sharing panel scroll horizontally instead of vertically, which can make sharing content annoying if you have a lot of apps installed.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro arrives with the MIUI browser pre-installed, which incorporates some improvements compared to Chrome, such as a night mode, which inverts the wallpaper and the colors of the letters, a reading mode that eliminates unnecessary elements from the web page and enlarges the letters to make it easier to read, an incognito mode to browse without leaving a trace, a data consumption reduction mode to save mobile data, a desktop mode to access web pages in its computer version.

Recently, Xiaomi has added to its browser a function to download videos and photos from social networks, a WhatsApp status grabber to save images and videos, and the ability to manage downloaded files and make them private.

Xiaomi has integrated the File Manager application, which allows you to manage the files stored on the phone. The manager has an option called Deep Cleaning that allows you to remove cached files, obsolete files, rarely used applications, etc.

MIUI incorporates a file viewer that allows you to open documents with .doc, .docx, .ppt, .pptx, .xls, .xlsx, .psd, .wps and .txt extensions.

Another of the apps that it incorporates is Security, which offers a multitude of functions such as:

  • Cleaner, which allows you to delete cached, obsolete files, etc.
  • Security scan, which looks for viruses and risks on your phone
  • Battery, which allows to reduce battery consumption
  • Data usage, which allows you to restrict data usage to certain apps and obtain usage statistics.
  • Block list, which allows you to block phone numbers for SMS and calls
  • Manage apps, which lets you control which apps start automatically when you turn on your phone and what permissions apps have
  • Game Turbo, which allows you to configure various parameters when playing, such as setting priority in the data connection for the game, restricting background synchronization, clearing cache, automatically answering calls with hands-free, etc.
  • Deep cleaning, which performs a scan to free up space
  • Application lock, which allows you to protect access to an app
  • Dual apps, which clones apps that don’t support multi-account
  • Hidden apps, which hides apps from prying eyes
  • Second space, which generates a private space on the phone
  • Troubleshoot, which looks for problems on your smartphone and proposes solutions
  • Privacy protection, which allows you to see how apps are using certain sensitive permissions
  • Restrict the use of data, which allows you to control the use of WiFi and Mobile networks for each application 

Security app

Security app

Security app

MIUI 13 Security Tool

Among the apps installed, My Remote is an app that allows you to use the smartphone’s infrared emitter to control household appliances; Services and comments allows Xiaomi to send incidents that we have with the phone; y Notes is an app that allows you to create voice and text/image notes, as well as record pending tasks.

Xiaomi has included its own application store called GetApps from which we can download applications. Now, I can’t think of any reason to use this store versus the Play Store.

Xiaomi has included quite a few bloatware-like apps as the phone comes with several pre-installed apps like Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Booking. It has also included the Solitaire game.

The MIUI layer is very complete, but it can be somewhat complex since it is not easy to move through the options. For example, some of the functions found in the Security application are also accessible in the phone’s Settings, and locating where the option you are looking for is not always easy.

Fortunately, I have not come across advertising in the system apps — something that has happened to me on other Xiaomi smartphones.

Multimedia

The Xiaomi 13 Pro has dual speakers, so it offers stereo sound.

Xiaomi has placed a speaker at the top, in the ear cup, which is complemented by a hole on the top edge of the phone.

Also, there is another speaker at the bottom, next to the USB connector. The combination of the two speakers offers Dolby Atmos sound.

In practice, the Xiaomi 13 Pro offers a sound with good nuances and high power, although obviously I would not recommend enjoying music using these speakers. However, it is a good companion when watching videos or playing games on mobile.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro does not incorporate a 3.5 mm connector, so if you are used to listening to music with headphones you will have to resort to a USB-C to 3.5 mm adapter, headphones with a USB-C connector or with a Bluetooth connection.

In this regard, the Xiaomi 13 Pro is compatible with the SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, AptX TWS+, LDAC and LDHC codecs.

Focusing on the software, the music player app has several tabs: Recent, Favorites and Playlists. We can also display music by songs, artists, albums, and folders, as well as sort songs by date, name, or number of plays.

It is possible to hide short or small audio files (which are usually notification tones or app sounds) and filter folders. It is also possible to apply sound effects thanks to an equalizer and it has presets for certain types of headphones.

In addition, it includes four sound modes: dynamic, music, video and voice. 

Music

Music

Music

Music

Music app

The Xiaomi 13 Pro arrives with a Gallery application that shows two tabs: Photos and Albums. Within the Photos tab are all the photos and videos followed, while in the Albums tab we find all the photo albums,

Within the Albums section, if we drag the screen down we can access a private album protected by password or fingerprint so that we can store our most private images.

By clicking on a photo we can share it through other apps, project it on a screen, set it as a background or contact photo, add it to an album, etc. As we have previously mentioned, MIUI allows secure sharing, that is, without location and/or device information. If a photograph has text, we can extract said text if we keep our finger pressed on it.

The integrated editor offers different image effects, cropping tools, and light adjustments to touch up our photos.

An interesting functionality is that the app identifies similar photos and marks the one that it considers to be the best shot. This is quite useful if you are an easy shooter and are used to taking several practically the same photos. 

Gallery

Gallery

Gallery

Gallery

Gallery app

The Gallery application incorporates a video editing functionality that allows you to modify the video resolution, so that, for example, if you have recorded an 8K video, you can generate a 4K or 1080p video that is easier to share with other people.

The playback of videos stored on the phone is good thanks to its screen that, as we have mentioned, offers high brightness and good color fidelity.

Of course, we can enjoy video from streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon or others and, in addition, the Xiaomi 13 Pro has the Widevine L1 library, so it is possible to view content from these streaming services in HD.

In addition, since the screen is compatible with HDR, including Dolby Vision, we can play Netflix content encoded with this format.

cameras

Xiaomi has once again partnered with Leica for the development of the Xiaomi 13 Pro cameras.

We find three rear cameras with the following characteristics:

  • Wide-angle camera (23mm) with 50MP (1″, 1.6μm) Sony IMX989 sensor, 4-in-1 SuperPixel, 8P lens with f/1.9 aperture, laser-assisted Dual Pixel focus, optical stabilization (OIS).
  • Ultra wide-angle camera (14mm, 115º) with Samsung (S5K)JN1 50MP (1/2.76″, 0.64μm) sensor and f/2.2 aperture lens.
  • Telephoto camera (75mm, 3.3x) with Samsung (S5K)JN1 50MP (1/2.76″, 0.64μm) sensor and 3P+3P lens with f/2.0 aperture.

And on the front, the selfie camera:

  • Wide-angle (90º) camera with 32MP OmniVision OV32C (1/3.14″, 0.7µm) sensor with f/2.0 aperture lens with fixed focus.

Xiaomi has included its ProFocus functionality, which offers motion and eye tracking focus to ensure that the elements we want to capture always look sharp. If you’re a certain distance away, the phone displays a frame over your face, but if you get closer, the frame shrinks and is centered over your eye.

An interesting feature of the Camera app is that it is possible to save photos in HEIF format, which take up 40% less space, although some applications do not support this format. Similarly, it is possible to save videos in HEVC (H.265) format, which is more efficient. In fact, videos recorded in 8K are always saved in this format.

The collaboration with Leica has meant that we can shoot in two modes: Leica Authentic, which tries to reflect the authentic Leica style, and Leica Vibrant, which is on by default and slightly boosts color vibrancy.

Below, we can see some examples where you can see the difference between shooting with Leica Authentic and Leica Vibrant mode.

The Leica Vibrant mode produces images with more colour, while the Leica Authentic mode produces images with more contrast and offers a noticeable vignetting effect (darkening of the corners). In practice, my recommendation is to use the Leica Vibrant mode, as the Leica Authentic mode offers too aggressive processing. 

Leica Vibrant

Leica Authentic

Leica Vibrant

Leica Authentic

Leica Vibrant

Leica Authentic

Leica Vibrant

Leica Authentic

Difference between Leica Vibrant and Leica Authentic modes

Xiaomi has incorporated an AI scene recognition system that, if you don’t like it, you can deactivate it on the fly by clicking on the icon that marks the scene it has detected. In general, increase saturation and contrast to make images more eye-catching.

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no AI

With AI (vegetation)

no AI

With AI (blue sky)

no AI

With AI (food)

Effect of using AI mode

If you are an advanced user, you will be happy to know that Xiaomi includes a Pro mode for photography and video that is available with all three cameras and allows you to manually adjust parameters such as ISO sensitivity, focus point (separate from exposure point), white balance, exposure time and more.

In this mode, we can also save images in JPEG and RAW format for later editing, and show visual guides to know the focus point and under/over-exposed areas.

Next, we are going to review the camera performance individually.

Wide-angle camera (main)

Starting with the wide-angle camera, its huge 1″ Sony IMX989 sensor is the same one that the company used in the Xiaomi 12S Ultra that never arrived in Spain. This sensor is accompanied by an 8-element lens with HyperOIS stabilization and has Dual Pixel autofocus.

Although the sensor has a 50MP resolution, photos are taken, by default, at 12.5 MP, making use of pixel binning technology that combines 4 pixels in 1 to reduce noise.

However, it is possible to activate a super high resolution mode in which the captures are made at 50 MP.

Next, we can see some cuts of the same scene taken with resolutions of 12.5 and 50 MP. The 50 MP image retains a little more detail when enlarged, but we must take into account that the resulting file is much larger: 4 MB (12.5MP) vs. 14MB (50MP). In general, 12.5 MP should be enough. 

12.5MP

50 MP

12.5 MP (crop)

50MP (crop)

Crops of images taken in normal mode (12.5MP) and super resolution (50MP)

First of all, I have analyzed the quality of the image in abundant light conditions. In the following images we can see that the main camera offers a good level of detail, adequate colors (perhaps a little more saturated than desired if you are looking for realistic colors) and a wide dynamic range.

Photos taken in bright light with the main camera

As for photography in low light, although it does not have a very wide aperture (f/1.9), it has optical stabilization, so good performance in night photography can be expected.

The phone incorporates a Night mode that allows you to take pictures with long exposure handheld, without the need for a tripod. In fact, it is possible to activate an option so that photos are taken in Night mode automatically when we are in low light conditions, and practically identical results are obtained if you activate it manually.

At this point it is worth noting that the Night mode of the Xiaomi 13 Pro is one of the fastest I have seen. You don’t have to wait 3-4 seconds like other smartphones, but it’s almost instantaneous. Another interesting aspect is that it is quite true to life, unlike other phones that try to make night seem like day.

As we can see in the following images, the quality of the image captured by the main camera is very good in low light conditions, with very contained noise, realistic colors and a good dynamic range.

Photos taken in low light with the main camera

ultra wide angle camera

The ultra-wide-angle camera features a Samsung (S5K)JN1 sensor with a 50MP (1/2.76″, 0.64µm) resolution and an f/2.2 aperture lens.

It lacks optical stabilization (although this is common for this type of camera), but it does have autofocus, which opens up some creative possibilities when it comes to taking close-up photos.

An ultra-wide-angle camera provides great versatility when it comes to capturing landscape or architectural photos. I personally find the ultra wide angle camera very useful as it allows you to take interesting pictures.

Below we can see some examples of photos taken with the ultra wide angle lens. In good light the images are very good, as can be seen in these examples.

Photos taken with the ultra-wide camera in good light conditions

In low-light conditions, the ultra-wide-angle camera also holds up quite well thanks to Night mode, although noise does make an appearance and sharpness suffers. It also has some issues with strong lights appearing as halos.

Photos taken with the Ultra Wide Camera in low light conditions

telephoto camera

The telephoto camera features a Samsung (S5K)JN1 sensor with 50MP (1/2.76″, 0.64µm) resolution and a lens with f/2.0 aperture and 3.3x magnification factor, which is quite an unusual value (normally 3x). ). It has optical stabilization.

Here are some photos taken with the telephoto camera in bright light conditions. In general, the images offer good image quality, with sharp details, good colouring, and a wide dynamic range.

Photographs taken with the telephoto camera in bright light

When light is poor, telephoto cameras tend to falter, as the limited aperture of the lens causes a lot of noise to appear in the image.

Below, we can see some photos with the telephoto camera taken at night. Image quality is still quite acceptable. In general, the shots look surprisingly good at 3.3x magnification, although I’ve gotten slightly blurry photos on a few occasions.

Photographs taken with the telephoto camera in low light

An interesting aspect of this camera is that it has a close focus distance of only 10cm and because of this, the telephoto lens also doubles as a Super Macro camera.

Below, we can see some examples of captures taken by the camera in Super Macro mode, which offers quite good image quality, clearly superior to what we see on dedicated Macro cameras on other smartphones.

Pictures taken with the telephoto camera in Super Macro mode

Portrait mode

The Xiaomi 13 Pro is capable of taking photos in Portrait mode by detecting the outline of the person we want to photograph and blurring the background of the image to produce the well-known bokeh effect.

The ideal lens for taking a portrait is one with a focal length of about 50-70mm, which is equivalent to a 2-3x zoom, so phones that have a telephoto lens usually use it to take portraits. The same goes for the Xiaomi 13 Pro which, by default, uses the telephoto camera, although it has a full-length portrait mode that uses the wide-angle camera.

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One aspect that I like about Xiaomi’s Portrait mode is that it allows you to adjust the depth of field both during capture and afterward in the Gallery, which gives you the possibility to adjust the blur to your liking or even discard the blur if it is detected. of the contour has not been carried out correctly.

Below we can see some images taken with Portrait mode. The image quality and separation of the body from the background is good, although on some occasions the blur effect is too subtle, as if the camera had not detected the person and had not blurred the background.

Photos taken in Portrait mode

Frontal camera

The front camera has an OmniVision OV32C sensor (1/3.14″, 0.7µm) with 32MP resolution and is accompanied by a lens with f/2.0 aperture. It does not have automatic focus, so you must adjust the distance between the camera and your face to approximately one arm, so that it is seen correctly focused.

The front camera allows you to smooth the skin, slim the face, make the eyes larger, resize the nose, chin and lips, and lower the hair to reduce the forehead. It is also possible to apply makeup effects (eyebrows, eyeliner, lip gloss, eye glitter, blush) and image filters.

The problem with this sensor is that it is of the Quad-Bayer type, so images captured at 32 MP have a resolution similar to an 8 MP sensor.

Here we can see some selfies captured with the front camera. Selfies, in good light conditions, have a good quality, although, when enlarged, the image is not as sharp as one would expect from a 32 MP sensor.

Selfies taken with the front camera

The front camera can also take Portrait mode selfies, as we can see in these examples, and the result is quite good, although HDR mode doesn’t work and outdoors, the sky looks totally white.

Selfies taken in Portrait mode with the front camera

Video recording

The wide-angle camera of the Xiaomi 13 Pro is capable of recording video up to 8K resolution (7680×4320) with HDR10 at 24 fps, a video mode that many users will not take advantage of at the moment since 8K televisions are not widespread. A maximum of 6 minutes can be recorded at this resolution.

The ultra wide-angle camera and the telephoto camera can record video up to [email protected], while the front camera can only record video up to [email protected] Cannot switch between the three cameras while recording a video, nor switch between the three cameras rear cameras and front camera.

In addition, the Xiaomi 13 Pro allows you to record Dolby Vision video at [email protected] for greater contrast and colour, although you’ll need a screen like the 13 Pro’s or a modern television to appreciate the difference.

Xiaomi offers a motion tracking focus functionality, which allows moving people to be automatically kept in focus.

To focus on a specific object, simply double-tap the object with your finger and the phone will lock onto the subject and maintain focus on that point, even if it’s temporarily obscured or out of frame. The Xiaomi 13 Pro will recognize and track the subject you previously touched when it returns to the frame.

Below, we can see some examples of videos recorded with the Xiaomi 13 Pro to [email protected] and [email protected] During the day, the image quality is good and the electronic video stabilization (EIS) works well.

Videos recorded with the Xiaomi 13 Pro during the day

I have also shot some videos at night, in low light conditions, at [email protected] and [email protected] resolutions. As usual, videos shot at night at 60fps look quite dark.

Videos recorded with the Xiaomi 13 Pro at night

When recording video, the Xiaomi 13 Pro offers a Steady Video mode that reduces the field of view to achieve a more stable image, but it is only possible to record at 1080p resolution with 30 FPS.

It is also possible to apply filters during video recording, both to change the color and to apply a beauty effect or even bokeh (background blur). If you wish, it is possible to record video in 2.35:1 format as if it were a movie.

Xiaomi offers a video recording mode to [email protected] called VLOG that consists of recording small fragments of videos and later joining them into a single video with music and quite striking effects.

It is possible to choose between 6 different types, each with its own characteristics.

Xiaomi has added some movie effect video recording modes: back in time, magic zoom, slow shutter, motion freeze, night time lapse, and parallel world.

When recording video in Pro mode, it is possible to see a histogram in real time, as well as the sound levels picked up by the microphones.

There is also a Dual video recording mode that allows you to record with the front and rear cameras at the same time, dividing the screen in two.

Xiaomi has added a new Teleprompter mode that allows you to write (or paste) the script of a video that you are going to record and read it easily while recording the video.

 

Teleprompter mode

voice calls

In the tests I have carried out, the voice quality is correct and I have been able to hold conversations perfectly in moderately noisy environments without difficulties.

The calls application and the contacts application are the same, although they have two different tabs.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro offers the possibility to configure quick responses, progressively increase the volume of the ringtone, silence the first ring for calls from unknown numbers, silence the ringer if you turn the phone over or pick it up, and turn on the flash when it is ringing. , among other.

Another interesting option is that you can set the phone to alert you that you have missed calls every five minutes for a number of times.

Price

The Xiaomi 13 Pro is for sale in Spain at a price of  €1,399 (see offers on Amazon | Mediamarkt). with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Although this price is in line with what we find in other high-end smartphones, the price has surprised many, since Xiaomi has accustomed us to more affordable prices.

The natural alternative if you are looking for something more affordable is the Xiaomi 13 ( €999, see offers on Amazon | Mediamarkt), which has a 6.4″ AMOLED screen up to 120 Hz, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, 8/12 GB of RAM, 128 /256/512 GB of storage, rear cameras wide angle (50MP f/1.8) + ultra wide angle (12MP f/2.2) + telephoto 3.2x (10MP f/2.0), front camera (32MP f/2.0) and battery of 4,500 mAh with fast charge at 67 W.

On the market, there are several interesting alternatives, such as the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, Pixel 7 Pro, OPPO Find X5 Pro or Huawei Mate 50 Pro.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra ( €1,409, see offers on Amazon | Mediamarkt) has a 6.8″ LTPO AMOLED screen up to 120 Hz, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy processor, 8/12 GB of LPDDR5x RAM, 256GB/512GB/1TB of UFS 4 storage, rear camera wide angle (200MP, f/1.7) + ultra wide angle (12MP, f/2.2) + 3x telephoto (10MP, f/2.4) + 10x telephoto (10MP, f/4.9), front camera ( 10MP, f/2.2), 5G connectivity and 5,000 mAh battery with 45W fast charging.

The Pixel 7 Pro ( €899, see offers on Amazon | Mediamarkt) is a smartphone with a 6.7″ AMOLED screen at 120Hz, Google Tensor 2 processor, 8/12GB of RAM, 128/256/512 GB of UFS 3.1 storage, camera rear wide angle (50MP, f/1.9) + ultra wide angle (12MP, f/2.2) + 5x telephoto lens (48MP, f/3.5), front camera (11MP, f/2.2), and 5,000 mAh battery with fast charging at 30W.

The OPPO Find X5 Pro ( €1,299, see offers on Amazon | Mediamarkt) has a 6.7″ Super AMOLED WQHD+ screen at 120 Hz, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM, 256 GB of UFS 3.1 storage, large rear cameras Wide angle (50MP, f/1.7) + ultra wide angle (50MP, f/2.2) + telephoto lens (13MP, f72.4), front camera (32MP, f/2.4) and 5,000 mAh battery with 80W fast charging.

The Huawei Mate 50 Pro ( €1,189, see offers on Amazon | Mediamarkt) has a 6.7″ OLED screen, Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 processor, 8GB of RAM, 256/512 GB of storage, wide-angle rear camera (50MP , f/1.4-f/4.0) + ultra wide angle (13MP, f/2.2) + telephoto lens (64MP, f/3.5), front camera (13MP, f/2.4) and 4,700 mAh battery with 66W fast charging.

conclusions

The Xiaomi 13 Pro has an elegant design, with a glass, aluminum and ceramic construction. Now, it is a forceful phone in the hand, since it has a thickness of 8.6 mm (not counting the camera bump) and a weight of 205 grams.

The phone is available in two inconspicuous colors — black and white — and, at least on the black model I’ve tested, fingerprints aren’t as marked as on other smartphones with a glossy finish as well.

Xiaomi has included a large 6.7″ screen surrounded by narrow and symmetrical frames. The front camera is located in a hole right in the center, so it can be slightly disturbing when watching movies or playing games horizontally. The screen is slightly curved on the sides, so the side frames are quite hidden. In return, there is a small darkening of the screen at the edges.

The screen is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus, which is the penultimate version of Corning’s coating, so resistance to bumps and scratches should be very good. The back, being ceramic, is scratch resistant, and it has a camera module that emerges like a volcano crater.

Xiaomi has given the device official water resistance certification, so you can rest easy if you spill a liquid on it or it gets wet. Xiaomi has rarely included this type of protection, so it is worth mentioning.

The phone has a 6.7″ AMOLED LTPO panel with WQHD+ resolution (3,200 × 1,440 pixels), which translates into a high pixel density of 522 ppi.

According to my measurements, the screen reaches a maximum brightness of around 1,170 nits when under bright light such as the sun (Xiaomi talks about 1,200 nits in its spec sheet). This is a very high value, surpassing many high-end smartphones, so you will not have problems using the phone outdoors.

The color gamut is wide as it covers 100% of the wide DCI-P3 space, normally only achieved by high-end smartphones. It is compatible with HDR10 + and, surprisingly, also with Dolby Vision, so you can play high-quality content on services like Netflix.

Of the three color modes it offers, the original mode offers excellent color fidelity, but most people will prefer the default vivid mode as it displays more vivid (albeit less realistic) colors.

The screen offers a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, which translates into greater fluidity when scrolling or moving through the interface.

The frequency rate is dynamic and, thanks to the fact that it has an LTPO panel, it can drop down to as low as 1 Hz when watching static content to save battery life.

Of course, the Always On Display is present, so we can see the time/date, battery level and notifications at all times.

Xiaomi has integrated an optical fingerprint reader under the screen that unlocks the phone quickly, although for my taste it is located too low, so it is not so easy to reach. It also offers 2D facial recognition, which is not as secure as the iPhone’s 3D recognition but is very comfortable.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor that, today, is the most powerful you can find in an Android smartphone. Accompanying this chip we find 12 GB of LPDDR5x RAM and 256 GB of UFS 4.0 storage with no option to expand via micro-SD.

In the benchmark tests that I have carried out, the performance of the smartphone has been excellent, as expected given the hardware it incorporates. The phone’s heat dissipation is also remarkable, with performance only slightly affected after long periods of use.

On a day-to-day basis, the Xiaomi 13 Pro moves very fluently and at no time have I suffered significant stoppages. 3D games run smoothly and I have measured stable rates of 60 FPS in titles like Call Of Duty or Asphalt 9 or Real Racing 3 — although Xiaomi seems to limit the refresh rate, as other games exceed 100 FPS in games like Real Racing 3.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro arrives with a 4,820 mAh battery which, on paper, seems sufficient for such a large screen. On a day-to-day basis, it achieves a solid autonomy, although without standing out especially compared to other smartphones — the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra far exceeds it.

The phone features 120W fast wired charging (using a proprietary Xiaomi protocol, not the USB PD standard), and in my tests, it fully charged in just over 20 minutes, which is extremely short. In addition, it offers 50W wireless charging, as well as 10W reverse wireless charging.

In terms of connectivity, it could not be better served, since it offers WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, infrared and NFC, but it does not have FM radio or UWB (Ultra Wide Band). It is compatible with 5G networks (in the Sub-6GHz band) and includes a space for a second SIM card (Dual SIM), as well as support for eSIM.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro comes with three rear cameras that allow you to take wide-angle, ultra-wide angle and telephoto photos. Xiaomi has collaborated with Leica and offers two shooting modes: Leica Authentic and Leica Vibrant. Interestingly, Vibrant mode is the most realistic, as Authentic mode adds “authentic” Leica processing with an unnatural vignetting (darkening of the corners) effect.

The main camera features a huge 50MP Sony IMX989 sensor with a size of 1″ and an f/1.9 aperture lens with optical stabilization. This camera combines, by default, 4 pixels in 1 to generate 12.5 MP images with less noise.

In good light conditions the main camera’s image quality is excellent and when the light is dim it automatically engages Night mode which produces photos with limited noise and excellent image quality without having to wait long.

The ultra-wide camera has a 50MP sensor and an f/2.2 aperture lens. It provides a different perspective when photographing large objects such as buildings or monuments.

It is a useful camera during the day and, although its aperture is more limited and it does not have optical stabilization, it maintains its type at night, although noise is noticeable and sharpness suffers.

Finally, the 3.3x telephoto camera with 50MP resolution allows you to get closer to distant details. The image quality is also quite good, although at night it suffers a lot.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro allows you to capture photos in Portrait mode, which by default are taken with the telephoto camera, which is the most suitable for capturing portraits. Image quality is pretty good, although I’ve run into occasions where it hasn’t applied the blur effect.

The main camera is capable of recording video up to 8K resolution at 24fps, as well as 4K video at 60fps with Dolby Vision. The ultra-wide and telephoto cameras stay at 4K at 60fps, while the front-facing camera can record video only up to 1080p at 30fps.

In the videos that I have recorded, the image quality has been good. Xiaomi also offers a Stabilization mode, although at the cost of reducing the field of vision.

An interesting functionality that Xiaomi includes is the motion tracking focus, which allows you to focus on a person (or pet) even if they move. This functionality not only detects the face, but at close distances, it can also track the eye to ensure more precise focus.

In addition to several special video recording modes with eye-catching effects, Xiaomi has added a new Teleprompter mode that allows you to enter a script that appears on the screen while recording a video.

As for the front camera, despite having a 32MP resolution, it does not produce images as sharp as I would like. It is possible to take selfies in Portrait mode, with a fairly successful result, although using this mode suffers from HDR functionality and the sky tends to look almost white.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro offers good sound through stereo speakers that sound powerful and clear. A loudspeaker is located at the base and another at the earpiece, accompanied by a hole at the top edge.

Xiaomi incorporates the MIUI 14 customization layer based on Android 13. Most of the improvements that MIUI 14 brings are internal, since performance has improved. Xiaomi claims that this phone will receive 3 major OS updates and 4 years of security patches.

MIUI incorporates interesting features to control battery consumption, clone applications that do not support multi-account, create a second private space, protect access to apps with passwords, protect access to private photos, hide apps from the desktop, etc.

In addition, it incorporates some features that we do not usually find in other smartphones, such as an improved Dark mode that dims the wallpaper and adapts the font, Quick Responses to notifications without leaving the app, the Game Turbo tool to improve the gaming experience, Safe Sharing to remove device and location data on photos before sharing, Large folders on desktop, etc.

MIUI is quite a heavy layer and offers a somewhat complex interface. Sometimes it calls the same thing different things depending on where you are, and sometimes it uses confusing names for certain functionality.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro is for sale at a price of €1,399 (12 GB of RAM / 256 GB of storage). It is a high price, in line with other high-end smartphones, but significantly higher than what we are used to at Xiaomi.

Is the Xiaomi 13 Pro worth it? If you are looking for a smartphone with an excellent screen, great performance, high autonomy with very fast charging and very competent cameras, the Xiaomi 13 Pro is a good choice.

The best and the worst

The best:

  • Front design with narrow frames surrounding the screen and Gorilla Glass Victus protection. Ceramic back cover in white or black.
  • Screen with high pixel density, excellent maximum brightness, wide color range, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision support, high color fidelity and refresh rate from 1 to 120 Hz.
  • Always-On Screen functionality, double-tap screen wake-up, and momentary-on when a notification arrives.
  • Fingerprint reader integrated into the screen and 2D facial recognition.
  • High performance thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, 12 GB of LPDDR5x RAM and 256 GB of UFS 4.0 storage.
  • WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, infrared and 5G connectivity with Sub-6 support. Dual SIM support through second SIM and eSIM.
  • MIUI 14 customization layer with many added features: control of battery consumption and mobile data by app, app cloning, app access protection, second space, gesture management, Game Turbo, deletion of private data on photos before sending them , improved Dark mode, etc.
  • Guarantee of 3 major operating system updates and 4 years of security patches.
  • Stereo speakers that offer good sound quality.
  • Wide-angle rear camera with good overall performance even at night thanks to automatic Night mode. Ultra wide angle and 3.3x telephoto cameras with very competent results.
  • Front camera with good sharpness and Portrait mode (although with worse HDR in this mode).
  • High resolution video recording (up to [email protected]) with the main camera and HDR10+ support for video recording.
  • Good autonomy thanks to its 4,820 mAh battery. Very fast charging by cable (120W) with a 120W fast charger included. Wireless charging at 50W and wireless reverse at 10W.
  • Official certification (IP68) against water and dust.

Worst:

  • Quite forceful body, with a thickness of 8.4 mm (without counting the camera island) and a weight of 229 grams.
  • USB port without video output.
  • Front camera sharpness below expectations and with recording only [email protected]
  • High price for what Xiaomi had us used to.