Skilled’s Score
Execs
- Small and beautiful design
- Highly effective Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor
- Glorious essential digicam
Cons
- Middling battery life
- Cluttered OS
- Rivals supply extra for the cash
Our Verdict
The Xiaomi 13 has a compact, premium construct and spectacular day-to-day efficiency, however the value means it faces fierce competitors from Samsung, Apple and Google.
Value When Reviewed
€999
Xiaomi’s subsequent era of telephones are right here, kicking off a wave of recent gadgets at MWC 2023.
The common Xiaomi 13 reviewed right here is the center choice, priced between the Xiaomi 13 Professional and the Xiaomi 13 Lite. Nevertheless, make no mistake – that is nonetheless a premium cellphone, with a high-end construct and a few spectacular cameras.
Just like the era earlier than, the Xiaomi 13 is available in a barely smaller dimension than the Professional variant, so it’s best for anybody not in search of a ginormous cellphone. Nevertheless, is it a flagship knockout? I’ve spent a while with the Xiaomi 13 – right here is my expertise.
Design & construct
- Solely black model accessible in UK
- Gorgeous glass construct
- IP68 score
Make no errors, the Xiaomi 13 has a beautiful construct. It is available in three color choices: black, white, and inexperienced, which I examined.
I’ve a love of pastel inexperienced and blue telephones, however regardless, the Xiaomi 13 bought a lot of compliments throughout my time testing it. It has a 2.5D glass again with a stunning sheen – although it does decide up fingerprints fairly simply. That is complimented by a turquoise aluminium alloy chassis.
Sadly, solely the black model is accessible within the UK, which is a disgrace contemplating this distinctive colourway.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
The cellphone is 7.9mm thick and weighs 189g. This isn’t the slimmest flagship cellphone I’ve seen, however I’ll take it for the premium physique. The curved edges additionally make it a cushty system to carry.
It’s one of many extra compact flagships available on the market proper now at simply 152mm lengthy. As somebody with smaller fingers, this can be a welcome reduction – and it’s good to not have to fret in regards to the cellphone half-hanging out of my jean pocket.
The Xiaomi 13 comes with an IP68 score, which implies it could face up to being submerged in water and is protected against getting mud inside. It is a welcome step-up from the Xiaomi 12, which has no IP score in any respect.
The cellphone has a USB-C slot for charging, however no 3.5mm headphone jack – a typical theme in flagship telephones. It solely has one SIM port, and no micro-SD card slot.
Make no errors, the Xiaomi 13 has a beautiful construct
Display screen & audio system
- 6.36in AMOLED show
- FHD+ decision
- Twin audio system with Dolby Atmos
The Xiaomi 13 has a 6.36in AMOLED show, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. It has a 2400 x 1080 decision, together with assist for Dolby Imaginative and prescient and HDR10+.
It has wonderful readability and is nice for watching YouTube movies and streaming reveals on the likes of Netflix. If you need a better decision than the FHD+ right here, then it’s price contemplating the 13 Professional, which comes with a WQHD+ panel.
Colors are vivid and placing, and Xiaomi claims that the cellphone reaches a peak brightness of 1900 nits. In actual phrases, I used to be in a position to make use of it underneath shiny daylight with minimal glare, and nonetheless see all the things fairly clearly.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
The cellphone defaults to a dynamic refresh charge out of the field, however you’ll be able to select to have it completely on both 60Hz or 120Hz. You can too toggle which apps use the upper refresh charge.
For players, the Xiaomi 13 has as much as 240Hz contact sampling charge, and a devoted Recreation Area mode which lets you select between numerous settings relying in your preferences, together with a power-saving mode, a steadiness mode, a high-quality mode or a customized one.
Haptics on the cellphone are brief and clipped with first rate suggestions, and don’t make an excessive amount of noise. There’s an under-display fingerprint sensor for biometrics, and I discovered no points with this in any respect. You can too use face recognition, or a standard password or PIN must you choose.
The cellphone options twin audio system with Dolby Atmos assist. Sound is loud and punchy, making it nice for podcasts and movies. For music, there may be a lot of depth and a few bass, however it isn’t fairly as spectacular as another costly gadgets just like the Samsung Galaxy S23 Extremely.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
Specs & efficiency
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
- 8GB/12GB RAM
- 128GB/256GB storage
A flagship cellphone deserves a flagship chip, and so the Xiaomi 12 runs on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. That is paired with both 8GB/12GB RAM, and 128GB/256GB of storage. UK patrons can solely get the 8GB/128GB variant.
As you would possibly count on, efficiency is strong on the cellphone. I multitasked between streaming, social media and calls with no stuttering in any respect. It’s quick, clean and needs to be fairly future proof for many duties, even heavy-duty ones.
That is additionally mirrored in our benchmarking checks, with the cellphone outperforming all different Android fashions examined thus far on Geekbench 5 (together with the Xiaomi 13 Professional), and solely being bested by the monster scores set by the A16 processor on Apple’s iPhone 14 Professional. Clearly, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is optimised effectively for this cellphone.
Gaming-wise, I used to be capable of run the high-demand Genshin Affect on medium settings with out it overclocking or stuttering. For reference, that was the identical setting that I ran on the devoted gaming cellphone, the Vivo iQoo 9 Professional Legend.
The Xiaomi 13 solely bought barely heat through the gaming session – that is seemingly because of the vapour cooling warmth dissipation sink which covers virtually half of the physique of the cellphone.
Connection sensible, the Xiaomi 13 provides Wi-Fi 7 assist, in addition to Bluetooth 5.3.
Clearly, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is optimised effectively for this cellphone

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
Digital camera & video
- Robust 50Mp essential lens
- As much as 3.2x optical zoom
- No so spectacular wide-angle digicam
As soon as once more, Xiaomi has opted for a 50Mp essential snapper, however this time round it has partnered with Leica. It makes use of a Sony IMX800 sensor, the identical seen on the Honor 70, in addition to a f/1.8 aperture and optical picture stabilisation (OIS).
What this ends in is obvious, crisp and detailed pictures. It’s simple to get an amazing wanting picture, each indoors and outside. Textures akin to garments and animal fur look real looking, while tones are shiny with out feeling washed out or oversaturated.
The addition of Leica picture processing means that you could select between Vibrant and Genuine finishes. The previous has a wider dynamic vary and boosted tones, while the latter is barely much less vivid. That is particularly obvious in evening photographs – see the comparability between the 2 filters beneath:


I most popular utilizing the Vibrant choice, as particulars pop a lot better on the display, however this comes right down to style.
The automated bokeh impact on the portrait mode is slightly on the robust aspect for my liking however this may be adjusted earlier than taking a shot. Regardless of the quantity of blur, it did an affordable job of not fogging up errant strands of hair, like I discover on some cheaper cellphone cameras.
There’s additionally a 10Mp telephoto digicam with a f/2.2 aperture, which has as much as 3.2x optical zoom vary. This offers extraordinarily clear photographs, with out compromising on colors or high quality. You may digitally zoom as much as 30x, however the pictures turn out to be far more blurred.
The 12Mp wide-angle digicam doesn’t have the identical wow issue because the others, which comes with a f/2.0 aperture and 120-degree discipline of view. Colors turn out to be extra insipid, while shadows lose their depth. On sure angles, this digicam could make some topics look slightly distorted.
Evening mode lifts topics very effectively, with particulars seen even in very darkish circumstances. Nevertheless, the sky does tackle a barely unnatural blue tinge that I don’t get on different telephones just like the Vivo X70 Professional.
On the entrance, there’s a 32Mp front-facing digicam with a f/2.0 aperture. The blur impact on this digicam is extra inaccurate than it’s on the principle digicam, with some clumps and strands of hair smudging into the background. Nonetheless, I used to be capable of get some first rate selfies with this cellphone, together with a relatively spectacular shot taken at evening.
The selfie digicam gala’s finest outside, and that features at evening. A number of the poorest photographs have been taken inside with low lighting, which resulted in softer particulars and boring colors.
The Xiaomi 13 can file in 8K at 24fps, 4K as much as 60fps, 1080p as much as 60fps and 720p at 30fps. You may allow both regular video or ultra-steady video, although the latter has a barely robust and unnatural impact.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
Battery & charging
- One-day battery life on common
- 37W fast-charging
- Wi-fi and reverse wi-fi charging accessible
The Xiaomi 13 comes with a 4500mAh battery, the identical dimension seen on the earlier era Xiaomi 12.
The battery was one of many so-so factors of the Xiaomi 12, and sadly this is similar case right here. On common I’d get a few day’s use out of the cellphone – watching movies, listening to podcasts, scrolling by Twitter and taking calls.
If I whacked up the refresh charge to 120Hz and used the cellphone closely (akin to having a stream working for hours on finish), then the cellphone would drain even faster than this. That stated, it did last more in our official PCMark 10 battery take a look at than the Xiaomi 12, taking 11 hours and 40 minutes to empty utterly.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
Fortuitously, charging is sort of speedy with the included 67W brick. This juices the cellphone from flat to 87% in half-hour, however the cellphone did get noticeably scorching. Remember the fact that the pricier Xiaomi 13 Professional comes with even sooner speeds with a 120W charger included within the field.
The Xiaomi 13 has assist for 50W wi-fi turbo charging, although a charger will not be included within the field. You additionally get 10W reverse wi-fi charging.
Software program & updates
- MIUI 14
- Software program bloat
- Some apps not optimised for the OS
The Xiaomi 13 runs on MIUI 14 based mostly on Android 13, the most recent model of this software program. Should you’ve by no means used a Xiaomi system earlier than, then the OS is without doubt one of the most jarring parts.
The app bloat isn’t fairly as dangerous as what I’ve discovered on different telephones such because the funds Poco X5. Nonetheless, you’ll discover a number of browser functions, Xiaomi-specific variations of calendars, calculators and different apps, and simply typically more room taken up than is critical straight out of the field.
Navigation isn’t fairly the identical as what you’ll discover on inventory Android, and looking for issues within the settings could be complicated. Apple customers will discover some familiarity with shortcuts, as the fast settings is accessed from swiping down from the highest proper, while notifications present up by dragging down on the left.
I additionally observed that the Instagram app isn’t correctly optimised for MIUI. On a number of events I discovered that the tales bar can be blacked out, which meant that the names of customers didn’t present up (although the icons did). On-line boards signifies that this can be a frequent drawback with Xiaomi telephones.
Should you’ve by no means used a Xiaomi system earlier than, then the OS is without doubt one of the most jarring parts
Typically, MIUI isn’t probably the most user-friendly Android pores and skin on the market, and points with standard apps could show an annoyance to some.
Xiaomi usually commits to 3 years of OS updates and 4 years of safety patches. While that is higher than some producers, it isn’t fairly as beneficiant as Samsung, which guarantees 4 years of software program updates.
Value & availability
The Xiaomi 13 prices £849, and goes on sale within the UK on 14 March 2023 by way of Xiaomi’s official store, in addition to on Currys and Argos.
It is a £100 value bounce from the earlier era, While we will take inflation under consideration, this places it as the identical value because the iPhone 14, the Samsung Galaxy S23 and the Google Pixel 7 Professional.
Not solely are these extra in-demand manufacturers, however additionally they supply extra user-friendly software program. Plus, each the iPhone and the Pixel supply a lot better battery lives as effectively throughout our checks.
Should you’re making an attempt to determine between the Xiaomi 13 and the Xiaomi 13 Professional, then the latter provides one thing extra distinctive with the 1in Sony IMX989 sensor – the most important round on the time of writing.
As well as, it provides higher day-to-day battery life and sooner charging speeds. General, it’s the extra interesting alternative for each Xiaomi buffs and smartphone images fans, however it is going to set you again £250 extra.
For additional choices, take a look at our rankings of the very best telephones, in addition to the very best Android telephones and finest Xiaomi telephones.
Verdict
On the {hardware} entrance, the Xiaomi 13 is fairly strong. It’s extraordinarily effectively constructed, and extra sturdy than the earlier era. The principle digicam produces clear, crisp photographs, even in darker circumstances, and we will’t ignore its spectacular efficiency.
Nevertheless, the worth bounce from the earlier era places it head-to-head with among the main smartphones of this previous yr, and sadly it doesn’t fairly measure as much as the iPhone 14 or the Google Pixel 7 Professional, particularly with the bloated and complicated MIUI software program.
Should you’re useless set on shopping for a Xiaomi, then the 13 Professional provides a extra spectacular digicam and higher specs. In any other case, there are higher options available on the market for this value.
Specs
- Android 13 w/ MIUI 14
- 6.36in FHD+ AMOLED 120Hz show, 20:9, 240Hz contact sampling, HDR10+, Dolby Imaginative and prescient
- In-display fingerprint sensor
- Corning Gorilla Glass 5 entrance
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
- 8/12GB RAM LPDDR5X
- 128GB/256GB non-expandable storage
- 50Mp, f/1.88, essential digicam with OIS
- 12Mp, f/2.2 wide-angle digicam
- 10Mp, f/2.2 telephoto digicam
- 32Mp, f/2.0 front-facing digicam
- Twin audio system with Dolby Atmos
- 5G
- WiFi 7 (market dependent)
- Bluetooth 5.3
- USB-C port
- 4500mAh battery
- 67W quick charging
- 50W wi-fi charging
- 10W reverse wi-fi charging
- 152.8 x 71.5 x 7.98mm
- 180g
- Launch colors: Black, White, Inexperienced