Review Xiaomi 13 Pro | Top of the line with impeccable performance

The Xiaomi 13 Pro was officially announced in China at the end of last year and reached the global market in early 2023, with the robust camera set as its highlight. With three 50 MP rear sensors signed by Leica and a 1-inch dimension on the main component, it promises very advanced images.

In addition, the cell phone features a high-performance Qualcomm chip with very competent hardware to carry out virtually any day-to-day activity without difficulty.

But does it actually work as well as promised in practice? I used the Xiaomi 13 Pro as my main phone in the last few days and now I bring my opinion about it, as well as its positives and negatives to help you decide if it’s worth it or not.

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design and build

The design of the Xiaomi 13 Pro is certainly one of the main attractions and the cell phone draws attention to its premium construction. It has a glass finish on the back and the sides, as expected from a top of the line, are made of metal.

Although this guarantees a very premium look, there is a “negative” point to highlight. The glass back ends up absorbing a lot of fingerprints and gets a lot of fingerprints even with a few touches on the device. In addition, the camera’s bump is well bouncing off the phone’s body — which is normal, considering that the main sensor is 1 inch.

Still, I found the Xiaomi 13 Pro very beautiful, mainly due to the screen with curved side edges. I received the device in black and I really liked the mirrored tone it has on the rear panel.

It is important to note, however, that visual choices aside, the Xiaomi 13 Pro gives the impression of being a very heavy cell phone and this can be a little uncomfortable, even more so in the early days. On the other hand, the grip is very comfortable and the finish helps to keep the cell phone securely in the hand, without sliding too much.

Finally, it is worth noting that it has IP68 certification for protection against dust and water – which is already quite expected from a top-of-the-line cell phone, but it is worth noting, since the base model, the Xiaomi 13 Lite, does not have it.

Screen

The Xiaomi 13 Pro has an LTPO AMOLED screen with a resolution of 1440 x 3200 pixels and a refresh rate of 120 Hz. The panel is 6.73 inches and the protection is made with Gorilla Glass Victus, which guarantees a lot of resistance against scratches.

The display quality is very good and the color level of the display is very high, with very vibrant and intense images. The brightness is also considerably high and you will be able to use the cell phone normally even if you are under a very strong sun.

An extra positive point is support for playing content in Dolby Vision, which ensures good image quality when watching movies and series on compatible streaming platforms.

configuration and performance

The Xiaomi 13 Pro’s performance is pretty much what you’d expect from a top-of-the-line phone. With Qualcomm’s most advanced chipset at the moment and no less than 12GB of RAM, it performs any task without any difficulties.

Here I used the cell phone a lot, both for more everyday use — such as accessing social networks and messengers — and for games. In Asphalt 9 and CoD Mobile it had a very satisfactory performance, with a lot of fluidity in both titles, even in the maximum settings of graphics and frame rate.

As for the standard performance test, it reached 1,556,355 points in the AnTuTu Benchmark. As a comparison, this number is higher than the Lenovo ThinkPhone, which is equipped with Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, which reached 1,0640.93 points, or even the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which scored 1,218,997 and has Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy.

He’s also pretty good at temperature management. While I used it, the device didn’t show any heating, but it’s worth noting that I didn’t get to play for many hours straight, so it wasn’t demanding much from the processor in this regard.

Usability

The Xiaomi 13 Pro has the MIUI 14 interface installed under Android 13, so it already runs the latest versions of the officially available operating systems.

The interface has its ups and downs. For those who are used to it, the Control Center makes it very easy to turn features such as Bluetooth, mobile networks or Wi-Fi on or off. On the other hand, the highly customized interface can bother anyone picking up a Xiaomi phone for the first time.

Anyway, the cell phone has interesting built-in features and something that can draw attention is the infrared sensor, which allows you to use the cell phone as a TV remote control through the Mi Remote app.

cameras

The camera system of the Xiaomi 13 Pro is well-built and has a very respectable rear trio, with a main sensor of 50.3 MP, aided by an ultrawide and a telephoto, each with 50 MP. The front is 32 MP, which is also a good size.

On paper, it brings a very respectable set that promises a lot, but in practice the result may not be as expected. Not because it’s bad, quite the contrary, but I expected a little more from his photos — mainly because it’s a flagship priced close to the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Main and ultrawide camera

With good lighting conditions, all cameras can take very good pictures. The level of detail is considerably good, as well as the texture and color level of the image, which is very realistic. At this point, it is important to note that the Xiaomi 13 Pro has two modes: Leica Authentic, which takes more “ordinary” photos and Leica Vibrant, which pays more attention to color intensity. Even on the Authentic though, the quality is pretty good.

I just found that there is a lot of quality loss in places with poor lighting — not necessarily at night, but also in shaded areas, for example. In this scenario, the quality drops a bit and the dynamic range is quite low. In trees, for example, parts without sunlight appear as just a black blur, rather than darker shades of green.

As I said, it’s nothing that makes the image quality bad or disappoints on a day-to-day basis, but it falls short of expectations for a cell phone in this category.

Portrait, macro and super macro mode

The portrait mode is extremely competent and, thanks to the dedicated 50 MP sensor, it manages to take pictures with great quality, both in terms of detail — which accurately shows the marks on the skin without exaggerating in post-processing — and in cropping, which is accurate and gives a very nice blur to the background of the scenery.

For closer photos, the cell phone has two modes: macro and super macro. These were other good surprises I had with the Xiaomi 13 Pro. That’s because it doesn’t have a dedicated sensor for this — which often deliver very low quality — but uses the high-resolution ultrawide camera.

The “ordinary” macro mode is activated automatically when you bring the camera closer to its focus, as with iPhones, Galaxy and some Motorola. Super Macro must be activated in the camera’s extra options. In both cases, the Xiaomi 13 Pro delivers records with a lot of definition, without having that “strange” texture that we see on cell phones with a dedicated macro camera, which is usually only 2 MP.

Video recording

The Xiaomi 13 Pro offers a lot of versatility for recording. With the rear camera, it can reach 8K, but in this case it delivers a very low frame rate, only 24 fps. But it is possible to shoot at a lower resolution, up to 4K, with a frequency of 60 fps. As for the front camera, it reaches “only” 1080p at 30 fps.

In both cases, the level of stability and definition are very good, but the front one lacks a little more in terms of white balance and, sometimes, leaves the sky quite blown out. See below some videos made with the cell phone.

Sound system

The Xiaomi 13 Pro has a stereo sound system with two audio outputs: one at the bottom and the other at the top, which shares space with the speaker used for calls. In addition, it has Dolby Atmos for better equalization.

In practice, the sound is very loud and powerful – without deviating from the standard for smartphones, of course. You can hear everything very clearly, but the sound quality is a little low at maximum volume, especially for listening to music, something that is common on many cell phones, however.

Battery

The Xiaomi 13 Pro has a 4,820 mAh battery. In theory, it is slightly below the average, which is 5,000 mAh, but the cell manages to manage this capacity well to deliver good autonomy.

In our standard test, it only consumed 24% of the charge — a result that makes it among the best devices that passed our reviews. In this scenario, it would have a total autonomy estimated at 25 hours.

I also used my cell phone a lot on a day-to-day basis and that proved to be true. With moderate use, it easily reached one day of use and still had plenty of charge left for the next day.

As for charging, it is important to note that I was unable to use the original Xiaomi 13 Pro charger, as its format and the thickness of the accessory pins did not fit into any outlet here at home. Anyway, it supports fast charging of 100 W, a feature that promises very fast charging.

direct competitors

The main competitors of the Xiaomi 13 Pro are the Galaxy S23 Ultra and the Motorola Edge 40 Pro. Although Xiaomi and Motorola are not officially sold in the Brazilian market, it is important to emphasize the similarities between the three models.

For starters, they are all equipped with the same mobile platform: the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. However, the Samsung model has a customized version especially for it – which, in theory, promises better optimization and, consequently, better fluidity of the system.

In addition, they also bring the same amount of RAM, which is 12 GB. But the storage options are more generous in the South Korean model, reaching 1 TB, while the Edge 40 Pro and Xiaomi 13 Pro only reach 256 GB and 512 GB, respectively.

The camera array is thicker and more efficient on the Galaxy S23 Ultra. With a combination of 200 MP + 10 MP + 10 MP + 12 MP at the rear and a 12 MP lens at the front, the Samsung cell phone manages to obtain better and more well-defined images than the opponents.

Battery consumption is very similar and, in our standard test, Galaxy and Xiaomi performed very similarly: only 1% advantage for the Samsung cell phone. Unfortunately, we haven’t had the opportunity to test the Motorola Edge 40 Pro yet, but its 4,600 mAh battery is also quite promising.

As for the price range, we have a clear advantage from the Galaxy S23 Ultra. The 512 GB model is already found between 6,500 and R$ 7,000 in the domestic market – the same price range as the Xiaomi 13 Pro, which has the disadvantage of only being purchased here through import. The Motorola Edge 40 Pro is not yet found in Brazil, so it does not have a price estimate.

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Xiaomi 13 Pro: a great phone but no space between the competition

The Xiaomi 13 Pro is, without a doubt, an excellent cell phone. He is an excellent performer and can perform almost any task available to him without any difficulty.

The set of cameras may fall a little short of expectations, but it still delivers good results and the macro and portrait modes are, without a doubt, the main attraction of the sensors on the Chinese smartphone.

However, the high price can scare a little and ends up making it an unattractive option, especially if we consider that it is only found here by import and, basically, in the same price range as the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which is already officially sold on the market. our country.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro is a great device, but unfortunately it doesn’t have room for it in our country yet. Perhaps, if its price drops by around R$1,000 or R$1,500 in the coming months, it will start to make more sense, but for now, the best option is to bet on the competitor.

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