Xiaomi 13 Professional evaluation: Lastly, a Xiaomi flagship with an important digital camera

Xiaomi is the world’s third-largest smartphone maker, but it surely’s generally doesn’t really feel prefer it, particularly should you reside within the U.S. There, Samsung is the de facto Android telephone, with an occasional Motorola or a Google Pixel thrown in.

However though Xiaomi’s model is extra highly effective in Asia and Europe, the corporate nonetheless makes nice telephones. Working example, its new flagship, the Xiaomi 13 Professional. After numerous experimenting with completely different designs and options, it seems that Xiaomi has lastly settled in and produced a real flagship killer.

Elegant, slick, and slippery

The Xiaomi 13 Professional received’t promote on seems alone. Xiaomi has been directionless relating to smartphone design, altering issues radically with every new flagship, and by no means sticking to a recognizable, constant design language. The Xiaomi 13 Professional has a large, sq. digital camera bump with barely seen lenses (examine this to the 12 Professional which had an enormous predominant digital camera lens that dominated the again of the telephone) and outstanding Leica branding. It has a slick ceramic again, rounded edges, and it looks like a quality-made object.

The unit I received is black throughout, and if I’m being beneficiant, I might examine the feel and appear to that of an opulent black limousine. I want it to the look of some other latest Xiaomi telephone, however from a distance, it may well look a bit bland. I’d somewhat have one thing extra colourful; the worldwide model of the telephone additionally is available in white, which (judging from the promo images I’ve seen) fits it higher.

The rounded show edges and the ceramic again, whereas very nice to the contact, make the telephone extraordinarily slippery, so that you’ll positively want a case for this one. Xiaomi included a really primary, see-through case with the telephone, however you’ll most likely need one thing nicer.

Gorgeous show, plenty of energy, and nice battery life

The show is a 6.73-inch, 120Hz AMOLED with a 3,200 x 1,440 pixel decision (you’ll have to show it on manually within the settings; the telephone defaults to a decrease decision to avoid wasting battery life). It’s attractive, with correct colours, deep blacks and loads of brightness whenever you want it. I in contrast it to the iPhone 14 Professional Max utilizing my favourite check for telephone shows, The Weeknd’s “Starboy” video, and couldn’t inform which show is healthier.

Whereas I used to be at it, I blasted the sound on most. The Xiaomi 13 Professional has stereo audio system (down from quad audio system on the 12 Professional) and boasts Dolby Atmos sound with head monitoring (just like Apple’s Spatial Audio). The sound is nice however not almost as loud and punchy because the sound coming from the iPhone 14 Professional Max.

With a 3,200 x 1,440 pixel decision, the Xiaomi 13 Professional is on par with a Samsung Galaxy S23 Extremely.
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Xiaomi was the primary firm to announce a telephone with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, the identical chip that powers the Samsung’s Galaxy S23 collection. Coupled with 12GB of RAM, it makes this telephone quick sufficient that I by no means had wished extra energy. All the things was fluid and responsive, regardless of what number of apps I had open within the background. A sport of PUBG flew on the best attainable settings, and a pop-up window supplied to additional optimize the telephone’s efficiency for gaming, although I didn’t discover a lot of a distinction.

Having reviewed most main Xiaomi flagships that got here out previously couple of years, there was all the time slightly one thing lacking. This time, I’m blissful to say that Xiaomi has lastly reached the purpose through which its flagship has principally each necessary characteristic you may consider. Some highlights embody extremely quick wired charging that’ll get the telephone from 1 to 100% in about 20 minutes, Wi-Fi 7 functionality, Bluetooth 5.3 help, and IP68 mud and water resistance.

Battery life was glorious; the telephone lasted roughly two days, besides once I pushed it to the restrict with video games. However with charging being this quick, it didn’t even matter, I might all the time plug it in for a few minutes to get sufficient extra battery juice to final me one other day.

An inexpensive quantity of bloatware

Software program is historically the half through which telephones from Xiaomi (and most different Chinese language producers) don’t really feel very premium, principally as a result of they arrive loaded up with crap that you just most likely don’t want. Xiaomi has made enhancements right here, although some non-Google, third-party apps nonetheless do come preinstalled. Most of it’s fairly widespread stuff, like Netflix, Spotify, and Reserving.com, however I’d nonetheless want to put in the apps I would like by myself. Fortunately, all of it may be uninstalled.

The Xiaomi 13 Professional runs on the most recent model of Xiaomi’s Android pores and skin, MIUI 14.0.11, with Android 13 beneath. It’s an excellent and secure combo that doesn’t shy from borrowing some options from iOS. Among the new options in comparison with MIUI 13 embody new menu icons which at the moment are slightly simpler to see and the flexibility to create folders which might be about 4 occasions as giant as common ones. I preferred the modifications and I felt at residence with the Xiaomi 13 Professional, though my predominant telephone is an iPhone. The largest points I’ve had was discovering that one pesky choice in a sea of settings, however that’s a standard ailment amongst Android telephones.

Am i able to simply eliminate all these bubbles in a single swipe?
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One factor that did annoy me had been the fixed notifications bugging me to put in an app or do one thing that I don’t care a lot about. Worse, a few of these notifications are not possible to flick off; as an alternative, the software program requires you to work together with them and even flip an choice on earlier than the notification bubble is dismissed.

A a lot improved zoom

The facility is there, and the options are all there. Exterior of value, which means this telephone’s digital camera high quality will seemingly decide whether or not the 13 Professional is a real competitor for Samsung’s mighty Galaxy S23 Professional and Extremely telephones, in addition to Google’s Pixel 7 which don’t boast a really excessive megapixel rely, however win on Google’s picture processing energy.

The primary digital camera lenses aren’t as outstanding as on Xiaomi’s latest flagships, however the digital camera is general higher.
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Regardless of the completely different look of the digital camera system in comparison with final yr’s mannequin, the Xiaomi 13 Professional has comparable digital camera specs. The rear digital camera nonetheless has three 50-megapixel sensors: one for the vast, ultra-wide, and telephoto cameras. It’s a sound system, at the least on paper, however the digital camera efficiency of Xiaomi telephones was a bit uneven lately.

With the Xiaomi 13 Professional, plainly the corporate (along with its digital camera accomplice, Leica), has lastly discovered an excellent stability. The telephone produces superb images in all situations, even at night time.

I used to be most impressed with the telephoto digital camera, which I used to take some extremely sharp photographs within the nightfall. I’ve in contrast the Xiaomi on to the iPhone 14 Professional Max, and it blew it away when it got here to zooming in in low mild.

This photograph was taken at nightfall, with a 3.2x magnification.
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In daylight, the iPhone’s telephoto digital camera took barely sharper images, however I most well-liked the much more pure look of the images I took with the Xiaomi. Xiaomi’s software program defaults to 1x, 2x, and three.2x zoom; should you pinch out to get much more zoom, you’ll get 10x and 70x choices. I used to be stunned to see that even 10x images look fairly good, although something above that was principally ineffective because the images received very artificial-looking.

Xiaomi’s telephoto digital camera takes nice images in daylight as effectively.
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All of that is in stark distinction to final yr’s Xiaomi 12 Professional, which had an underwhelming telephoto digital camera. Digging by means of the telephones’ specs reveals the rationale: Regardless of the similar 50 megapixel rely, the telephoto digital camera has been upgraded from a 48mm to a 75mm lens, and it now gives 3.2x optical zoom (in comparison with 2x optical zoom on the 12 Professional).

Xiaomi’s predominant digital camera was principally nice, producing very vibrant and detailed images in low mild. Generally the low mild images leaned yellow, and generally the processing went too far, making the images unnaturally vibrant, and leaving odd artifacts round mild sources (see picture under), however general the images had been by no means unhealthy.

Unsurprisingly, Xiaomi took glorious images in daylight. The Leica-tuned digital camera software program gives two primary taking pictures modes, “Leica Vibrant” and “Leica Genuine.” I principally caught with the latter, however the distinction is refined, with “Vibrant” producing barely brighter images with extra vibrant colours.

If the circumstances are good, you may change to Xiaomi’s 50-megapixel mode, however more often than not it’s higher to stay with the common taking pictures mode.
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Xiaomi 13 Professional’s ultra-wide digital camera is a step down in high quality, and must be used solely when the principle digital camera simply doesn’t go vast sufficient.

The ultra-wide digital camera must be used sparingly.
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In the event you transcend Xiaomi’s primary digital camera options and faucet on the “Extra” button within the digital camera software program, you’ll get a ton extra choices, together with unique ones like Supermoon. Swiping far left within the backside menu will open up Professional mode, which allows you to management almost each side of the digital camera, together with white stability, ISO sensitivity, and shutter velocity. Total, there’s a ton of settings to undergo, and I reckon solely essentially the most persistent customers will strive all of them out.

Lastly, the selfie digital camera is a 32-megapixel shooter that comes with a ton of choices, together with a large number of filters and beautifying choices; don’t go overboard otherwise you’ll find yourself wanting like a cartoon character. On default settings, the images come out very detailed however mushy and barely washed out, which is fairly simple to repair within the settings.

I assume that’s how I look.
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Total, it seems that Xiaomi has lastly managed to place collectively a smartphone digital camera that takes nice images in most situations. It might not win each battle towards different high telephones, but it surely’ll all the time be aggressive.

The best Xiaomi telephone shortly

The headphone jack is, sadly, absent.
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I like this telephone greater than I preferred any Xiaomi telephone that got here out previously couple of years. Its design will not be essentially the most thrilling, but it surely’s fairly smooth however (you should definitely take a look at each colours to see which one you fancy), with a stunning show and a elaborate ceramic again. It matches Samsung’s just lately launched Galaxy S23 Plus on energy and options, and has a really succesful digital camera system. It fees extraordinarily quick, and its battery lasts as much as two days.

At writing time, I had no data on an important piece of the puzzle: pricing. Function-wise, the Xiaomi 13 Professional is a mixture between the Galaxy S23+ and the Galaxy S23 Extremely, which begin at $999.99 and $1,199.99, respectively. If the Xiaomi 13 Professional is fairly priced (for instance, the Xiaomi 12 Professional began at $999), it will likely be a really robust competitor to any Android flagship on the market.