With the Xiaomi 13 Pro, the Chinese brand has delivered what is possibly its most advanced smartphone to date. Is that enough to unseat the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra?

The ambitious Xiaomi, which has grown with attractively priced devices, has been trying to get involved in the top segment for several years. With mixed success, because Xiaomi’s flagship models always lack something that leads us to give preference to the competition. With the Xiaomi 12 Pro, for example, we were bothered by the mediocre battery life and the unclean software. We therefore wanted to find out if the 13 Pro, which set foot in Europe at the end of February, could remedy these shortcomings.

The price tag that Xiaomi has given its latest flagship immediately gives away the ambitions the manufacturer has with the device. Priced at €1299 (VAT included), it’s the first smartphone to venture into the waters of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, which we’ve proclaimed Editor’s Choice. Xiaomi challenges Samsung to a direct duel: will the 13 Pro emerge victorious?

mirror on the wall

No two Xiaomi smartphones look the same, so design is always worth discussing. Where the brand used to dare to experiment with flagships, the design of the Xiaomi 13 Pro can be described as pretty good. As with the Xiaomi 12 Pro, the grid-shaped camera island is the most striking feature.

In our opinion, Xiaomi made some unfortunate decisions when designing the smartphone. We don’t need much from the shiny rear. This makes fingerprints much more noticeable, at least certainly on the black color of our test device. The curved side edges are also up for discussion. They offer little grip and this makes it difficult to use the smartphone with one hand, as the device slips out of your hand again and again. For a smartphone in this price range, these are negligence that you should not allow yourself.

If we were to judge purely by the looks, we would rather take home the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, which exudes the word “flagship” in all facets. The addition of an IP68 label is positive.

cinema experience

The Xiaomi 13 Pro knows how to convince with a beautiful display. The LPO AMOLED panel measures 6.7 inches: large but not unwieldy. The picture specifications are the first battleground between Xiaomi and Samsung. The peak resolution for the Xiaomi 13 Pro is 1440 x 3200 pixels, just a bit more pixels than what the S23 Ultra can handle (1400 x 3088). It is recommended to downscale the resolution to 2400 x 1080 pixels to save battery.

Xiaomi also wants to show that it can be better in terms of screen brightness. The manufacturer states that the maximum brightness can go up to 1,900 nits, which again is more than Samsung’s 1,750 nits. Those are differences on paper, and besides, using the screen at maximum brightness would do your eyes more than good. By default, we measure a brightness of around 400 nits on both devices.

The brightness can be adjusted dynamically, as can the refresh rate (up to 120 Hz). These settings are also useful for limiting the battery consumption of the display.

powerhouse

Now that the muscles are broken through, let’s take a look under the hood. There we see that the Xiaomi 13 Pro also has a lot to roll. As expected, the processor is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which is clocked at 3.36 GHz like Qualcomm’s Samsung flagships. In terms of CPU performance, the Xiaomi 12 Pro and the S23 (Ultra) are on par. The difference to a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 clocked at 3.2 GHz is also not as big as the scores achieved by the OnePlus 11 show.

Qualcomm Xiaomi has also done a good job graphically with the Adreno 740. We can see that Xiaomi still has to give up here against Samsung (and OnePlus). But that doesn’t mean that the smartphone gamer has to worry that this smartphone is unsuitable for processing games. With an additional 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of mass storage, you have a strong overall package. Our test device therefore showed no signs of jerking.

Battery: fast sprinter

So far there is little that can distinguish the Xiaomi 13 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra from each other. Will the battery be the top of the range for Xiaomi again? With a capacity of 4,820 mAh, the battery seems to be better equipped. With light use, the battery level slowly drops and at the end of the day we sometimes had up to eighty percent left.

But if we put the endurance to the test more thoroughly, we see that the Xiaomi 13 Pro throws in the towel faster. There is a clear difference to the previous model, but the competition still performs better. Also the Samsung Galaxy S23, which still has a smaller battery. In everyday life, with more intensive use, we noticed that we had to refuel afterwards in the evening or in the morning.

Fortunately, charging is fast on Xiaomi smartphones. Every year, the brand’s flagships set the fast-charging record a little sharper. The 13 Pro is ready for a new day in just seven minutes and you’re 100% back in 13 minutes. Wireless charging is also possible with an impressive 50 watts. To illustrate: The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has a charging power of 45 watts with cable.

We thought we had reached the limit of how fast a device can charge, but Xiaomi proves otherwise. If there’s one aspect where Samsung doesn’t compete, it’s load times, and the rest of them have to do their best to beat them too.

Main camera convinces

The camera island has three sets of lenses and sensors: a 50 MP main camera (f/1.9), a 50 MP wide-angle lens (f/2.0) and a 50 MP telephoto lens (f/2.2). On paper, Xiaomi wants to make it appear that the three cameras are on an equal footing, but that’s not the case. The main camera takes up more space on the back and is the only one with a 1-inch sensor from Samsung.

The results you get with this lens are amazing. By default, the camera shoots thanks to the Pixel binningTechnical images at 12.5 MP. You can switch on the full 50 MP resolution to display more details, but this offers less added value than you might think. In addition, Xiaomi also lets you choose between Leica alive And Leica authenticthe first mode emphasizing the colors a bit more, although these differences are barely noticeable.

Sunny weather brings life and joy to your photos, and the Leica Vibrant mode ups the ante without being too bombastic. But since the weather is not always good, you can fortunately take happy pictures even when the sky is grayer. The sensors can also easily detect a lack of light in a room. When night falls, street lights can be a nuisance as they overexpose the photo. Dark interiors provide realistic results.

The wide-angle camera and the telephoto camera may have the same resolution, but in practice you can see that the sharpness is less. Xiaomi expands the zoom capabilities of the telephoto lens. This gives better results when you want to bring a distant object into view, and the zoom lens is also suitable for close-ups. At night, the cameras shine much less and you have to rely on the main sensor for the best pictures. Xiaomi has installed a 32 MP sensor on the front, with which you can take good self-portraits.

Below is a collection of photos taken with the different cameras of the Xiaomi 13 Pro:

Software: Bloatware kills Xiaomi again

The software is Android 13 with a MIUI 14 sauce poured over it. MIUI is the odd duck in the Android landscape and that gives both pros and cons to the software. With all the bells and whistles, the software can look a bit messy at times, and mastering the right gestures also takes a bit of getting used to. If you spend enough time with the Xiaomi 13 Pro, this will follow.

What we don’t want to pity is the abundance of bloatware that Xiaomi constantly installs on your smartphone. A new device looks fresh out of the box as if it has been in use for years. In addition to the regular range of Google apps, Xiaomi also pushes its own applications, including a browser, video player, weather app, etc. As if that wasn’t enough for starters, the manufacturer assumes that everyone will bet on Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok and to use Booking.com.

This will likely benefit the manufacturer, but please let us decide which applications we want to offload our memory to. We’ve mentioned this several times in Xiaomi device reviews and will continue to do so until the company decides to learn its lessons. The abundance of bloatware only detracts from the professional look Xiaomi wants to give the flagship. Excess is indeed harmful.

Conclusion: worthy challenger, but not (yet) a champion

We dare to say without a doubt that the Xiaomi 13 Pro is the most powerful smartphone to appear under the brand name to date. The latest flagship is an evolution of the 12 Pro thanks to targeted improvements to the processor, battery and cameras. Xiaomi is a formidable competitor in the premium segment.

Unfortunately, we keep encountering the same little annoyances. The battery might last a bit longer, but other brands still do better than Xiaomi in this area. The manufacturer continues to make the same mistakes with the software and the design will again provide a topic for discussion. That’s actually too many negative points if you want to charge just under 1,300 euros for a smartphone.

In this test report, we often made comparisons with the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. Where the Xiaomi 13 Pro can call itself a worthy contender, the device as a whole falls just short of claiming the crown. Xiaomi is getting closer and who knows, maybe it will be a prize in the years to come.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro is available in two colors: white or black. In the Benelux countries, the device with 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage costs 1,299 euros including VAT.

Android update policy: Xiaomi guarantees at least five years of security updates and three years of operating system updates. This period begins with the launch on March 8, 2023 with Android 13.