Xiaomi may be known mostly for its excellent budget phones, and while these may make up the biggest portion of the company's revenue, the brand has also been offering enticing high-end flagships for a while now. Its products never felt like they quite reached the same level of refinement and polish as its competitors, but with the Xiaomi 13 Pro, this is changing. The latest Xiaomi flagship feels the most grown up yet. The Xiaomi 13 Pro has one of the best camera sensors and setups in the industry (right up there with the Vivo X90 Pro), an excellent build quality with a high-end ceramic back, and finally offers IP68 water and dust proofing. It's also right up there with the competition when it comes to software support.

But can Xiaomi really compete with the big boys like Apple, Samsung, and Google? That's what we're setting out to find out.

Xiaomi 13 Pro laying flat with cameras showing
Xiaomi 13 Pro
8 / 10

The Xiaomi 13 Pro does a lot of things right and offers an incredible hardware experience thanks to excellent build quality and a great camera system. Unfortunately, the phone falls short in the usual areas that Xiaomi struggles with: software and stability. At more than $1,000 when converted, these issues need to be fixed.

SoC
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
Display
Adaptive 120Hz 3200 x 1440 6.73-inch OLED, 522 ppi, 20:9, 1200 nits (1900 peak)
RAM
12GB
Storage
256GB
Battery
4,820 mAh
Ports
USB-C
Operating System
Android 13 (MIUI 14)
Front camera
32MP (f/2.0, 89° FOV)
Connectivity
Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, 5G, dual SIM, NFC
Dimensions
162.9mm x 74.6mm x 8.38mm
Colors
Ceramic Black, Ceramic White
Weight
229g
IP Rating
IP68
Micro SD card support
No
Pros
  • Incredible and versatile camera setup
  • Impeccable hardware build with ceramic back
  • Good battery life and impossibly fast charging
Cons
  • Inconsistent and sometimes buggy software
  • Curved screens need to die
  • Very expensive, especially when compared to the competition

Availability, network, and pricing

The Xiaomi 13 Pro isn't launching in the US, just like most other Xiaomi products. It's available more broadly internationally, though. The Xiaomi 13 Pro is available in Europe, the UK, China, and other Asian markets. The global version costs an eye-watering €1,300, which is about $1,400. That's right up there with the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, which starts at €1,400 in Europe (or $1,200 in the US, but we're using its European pricing here for better comparability).

If you're daring enough to import the Xiaomi 13 Pro, you should be prepared for okay-ish coverage, too. The phone is lacking a few key bands on most carriers in the US. Depending on your individual coverage and the way your carrier handles imported devices, you might just be lucky. Kimovil offers a pretty solid overview of which US carriers work with the Xiaomi 13 Pro.

Design and display

xiaomi-13-pro-xiaomi-13-lite-2

The Xiaomi 13 Pro on the left next to its more affordable sibling, the Xiaomi 13 Lite

The Xiaomi 13 Pro looks and feels premium. When you first pick it up, you’ll notice its hefty weight of 229g, making it one of the heavier smartphones of this size. Combined with the curved ceramic back that is a vital part of the impeccable build quality, it all makes for a great first impression. Just like glass, ceramic likes to attract fingerprints, though, which are especially visible on the black version we have here for review. The camera array is tucked in the top left of the back, with a flat top that makes it easy to keep the area clean. That's unlike the iPhone or recent Samsung phones, for example, which have each lens protruding individually.

Unlike the regular Xiaomi 13, which moved to a boxy shape with a flat screen, the 13 Pro retains curves both front and back. For anyone who is not a fan of curved screens, that’s a bummer. The phone is slightly easier to hold than it would be with an equally big flat screen, as the screen size can remain as big as it is without making the handset harder to wield. I still would much rather not deal with slightly off-colored sides and all the reflections they catch when viewing content.

That and the glossy finish of the black model make up my only gripes with the design, though. The phone feels balanced and well-put together, like you should expect for a €1,300 phone. The haptics are also impeccable beyond just the feel of the hardware in the hand. The vibration motor Xiaomi used is likely one of the best you can currently get in an Android phone, and the company has added a few tricks to MIUI to showcase it to its full extent. Unlocking the screen, moving or deleting apps on the home screen, and a few camera features are joined by lovely and clicky-feeling haptic feedback. Naturally, the phone also provides firm and noticeable vibrations when it comes to notifications.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro smartphone on a window sill, with a part of a plant pot, part of a radiator, and a small patch of potting soil next to it

To move on to some hard numbers, the screen is a 120Hz OLED panel with a resolution of 3200 x 1400 and an aspect ratio of 6.73 inches, giving it an impressive 522 pixels per inch. The adaptive refresh rate dynamically adjusts from 1Hz to 120Hz depending on what you’re viewing on your screen, and it offers additional goodies like 1920 PWM dimming, which is supposed to help against headaches for those sensitive to digital screens. When you use the Xiaomi 13 Pro out and about, it definitely gets plenty bright. At a brightness rated for 1200 nits (1900 nits at its peak), it's good to use in direct sunlight, which makes it a good companion for trips.

Hardware

The Xiaomi 13 Pro doesn’t only look premium, it also has the hardware to match. It comes with the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, which is accompanied by 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of fast UFS 4.0 storage. Its Wi-Fi 7 modem allows for multiple simultaneous 5GHz and 6GHz connections, which should translate to less latency alongside some excellent futureproofing — after all, you'll be hard-pressed to find Wi-Fi 7 routers in most places today. Bluetooth 5.3 and dual SIM are also on board, as is an ever-trusty IR blaster at the top, allowing you to control your TV right with your phone all without relying on Wi-Fi or other smart home tricks.

It’s also great to see Xiaomi embracing water and dust resistance in the form of an IP68 rating, which means that it’s protected well enough from accidents. The company has long been dragging its feet on this. An IP rating was still missing in last year's 12 series. It’s good to see the company finally catch up with other manufacturers that have done this for ages.

xiaomi-13-pro-2

Performance and battery life

When it comes to raw performance, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is unsurprisingly a powerhouse. Compared to competitors like the Pixel 7 Pro, the phone stays significantly cooler and can sustain higher workloads for a longer time. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is pretty much the best you can get in a smartphone today, and the Xiaomi 13 Pro simply flies. Don't just take my word for it — our Geekbench 6 tests confirm as much, with the Xiaomi 13 Pro receiving a single-core score of roughly 1,400 and a multi-core score of about 5,020. These raw numbers may not mean much in isolation, but they offer a point of comparison.

You are hard-pressed to find a phone that charges faster than the Xiaomi 13 Pro. Its 4,820mAh battery can be topped up at 120W using Xiaomi’s proprietary charger, allowing it to charge from zero to 100 in under 20 minutes. In our testing, it indeed didn’t take more than 30 minutes.

To unlock the advertised 20-minute charge, you need to flip a switch in the battery settings, with Xiaomi warning that the phone can get significantly warmer than usual. If you'd like to keep your phone around for a long time, you should probably stick with the regular charging speed most of the time, as heat is one of the factors that can degrade a battery quickly. That said, Xiaomi claims that its self-developed Surge charging chip that’s used to accomplish this is also supposed to prevent the usual pitfalls in the form of faster battery degradation.

Battery life is also excellent by itself. I used the Xiaomi 13 Pro as my main companion when I visited MWC 2023, and all but one time I was able to make it through the full and busy days at the exhibition fair from morning to midnight on a single charge. All that time I wasn't easy on the battery, either. I used the Xiaomi 13 Pro to navigate Barcelona's public transit, hail taxis, take tons of photos, jot down some notes, and occasional phone calls.

On average, the Xiaomi 13 Pro lasted me a full 24 hours with about five to six hours of screen-on time each day. Even then, I would usually have about 20 to 30 percent left as a reserve when I plugged it in again. On days with light usage, it's also possible to go for up to two days on a single charge. Combine that with the incredibly fast charging, and you'll never have to worry about an empty phone again as long as you have 15 to 30 minutes to spare with a charger nearby.

Software

Xiaomi promises to give the Xiaomi 13 Pro and the Xiaomi 13 three generations of Android updates and five years of security patches. That’s right on par with Google’s Pixel promise and long overdue. Just a year ago, the company fell short by one year with the Xiaomi 12 and 12 Pro, which are only supposed to receive four years of security patches. Compared to the earlier days of Android manufacturers, we're finally in a place where you can comfortably use a phone for years to come without worrying about buying a replacement.

xiaomi-13-pro-5

MIUI 14, based on Android 13, also feels more grown up and is considerably closer to other Android skins. Anyone who has used it before should still feel right at home, though.

Xiaomi has finally added Material You theming for Android apps that choose to support it, making your phone feel just a little more like it's your own.

The software also feels considerably more stable than in previous years, but it's still not where the Pixels or Samsung phones are at. At low battery levels, the notification shade consistently forgets to blur the background, making it harder to use quick settings toggles. The media player also routinely uses dark text on dark backgrounds, which doesn't help with quickly seeing what song you're listening to on Spotify.

Worse than this is that the extreme battery saving mode seems to override some of your settings in your regular usage profile, even when you turn off this dedicated low-power mode. After switching off the mode, my lock screen wallpaper is overridden with the default one, and I have to manually toggle on the screen's dynamic refresh rate that goes up to 120Hz. This would sometimes also turn off vibration altogether, which I could only fix by toggling on and off the regular battery saver.

xiaomi-13-pro-6

One other thing I noticed right away was the lack of Android 13's per-app language settings, which simply aren't available on MIUI 14. It's also worth noting that some accessibility services are turned off at random, like Bitwarden's autofill service, which you can fix by giving the app in question an exemption from battery savings. Xiaomi's software also still heavily penalizes the usage of third-party launchers, which you can only use with button navigation. Gesture navigation is only available when you use the default home screen.

On the bright side, MIUI has generally grown more friendly to background apps, with fewer activities being killed prematurely in the name of questionnaire energy savings. This means that messages from your friends and family and navigation apps in the background are more reliable, and apps in the background have to reload less often. This improved approach also makes better use of the 12GB of RAM in this phone.

Camera

The Xiaomi 13 Pro's camera module in closeup view.

The camera is probably the most exciting part of this phone. The triple array on the back consists of the 50MP Sony IMX989 sensor, the biggest smartphone sensor to date at 1 inch. It's the same that's also available in the Vivo X90 Pro and the recently announced Oppo Find X6 Pro.

The main camera is joined by a versatile setup consisting of a 50MP 75mm telephoto lens and a 50MP wide-angle. All three cameras are co-engineered with Leica and have Leica lenses on them, with Xiaomi also working with the renowned camera company in the software department.

Xiaomi and Leica worked together to design the camera app, which is noticeably faster and easier to use than what I've seen on other Xiaomi phones. Probably the most significant advancement is the shutter button, which almost always reacts instantaneously to the touch — no chance to miss a once-in-a-lifetime shot. This doesn't go for low-light situations, of course, when the camera needs some extra time to capture more light.

Leica Vibrant vs. Leica Authentic color profile

The software also lets you choose between two color profiles. You can opt for Leica Authentic or Leica Vibrant; the former is supposedly as close to real life as it can get, while the latter resembles the classical smartphone look you might expect from companies like Samsung, with more, well, vibrant colors.

One thing I noticed is that the telephoto's "DSLR-level" focusing technology seems to fall short in one area. It can’t handle raindrops on a window, refusing to focus on what's beyond them. This isn’t an issue isolated to Xiaomi, though, but the weak spot of the autofocus technique used.

From left to right: Ultrawide, 1x primary, 2x primary, 3.2x telephoto autofocus issues

For those who don't want to solely rely on Xiaomi and Leica's post-processing, there is also the option to use a 10-bit RAW DNG mode. This makes it much easier to tweak images to your liking after the fact, a file format often relied on by professional photographers. As any good phone, the Xiaomi 13 Pro also has a Pro mode on board, which allows you to tweak settings like shutter, ISO, and pick a specific lens you'd like to use for a given shot. It enables the usual artsy kinds of pictures, like the one right below here.

Xiaomi 13 Pro camera with Pro mode activated, depicting a person in a cityscape blurred out due to motion

Most of the time, a smartphone camera should be great for set-and-forget shots where you don't want to tweak any settings or, so we focused our testing on the automatic modes provides by Xiaomi. The Xiaomi 13 Pro definitely succeeds here.

The primary 1-inch IMX989 sensor is an absolute beast, and almost all shots are a hit. As I already noted in the Vivo X90 Pro review, the sensor enables optical bokeh at close distances, making photos look much more professional and DSLR-like than many other smartphone cameras. Combined with the excellent Leica color science, this makes me love almost all the shots I get from this camera, no matter the lighting situation.

Scroll through this gallery to see a variety of Xiaomi 13 Pro image samples

The 3.2x telephoto camera is also nothing to sneeze at, and it's one of only a few in the industry that allows for close-up telephoto macro shots. It can still focus on objects up to 10cm or roughly 4 inches from the lens, giving you another unique perspective that the Pixel 7 Pro and others cannot compete with.

Telephoto close-ups

The selfie camera also has a special trick up its sleeve: Dynamic Framing. By default, it offers a slightly cropped view, but when you want to take a selfie of you and someone else, it will automatically recognize that and zoom further out, taking advantage of the full 32MP sensor (yes, pixel binning is turned on by default for the selfie camera). The camera doesn't allow you to zoom freely when you take selfies, though. You can either use the wide-angle 0.8x preset or 1x.

The selfie camera is also capable

Should you buy it?

It's clear that Xiaomi learned its lessons, and the Xiaomi 13 Pro finally feels like a proper flagship that's worth its price. Xiaomi's refusal to add standard features like IP68 and long-term software support have long made it hard for me to recommend its flagship phones, but that's different this year. If you want an excellent phone that can rival the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and the Google Pixel 7 Pro with a sensor that enables whole new options for mobile photography, this is the phone to pick. On top of that, you'll also get a long-lasting, fast-charging battery.

xiaomi-13-pro-1

You might think that €1,300 or roughly $1,400 is expensive for a Xiaomi phone, but with this handset, the company proves that it's ready to play in the big league, leaving behind its usual mid-range phones in the dust, and offering nearly no more compromises than the Galaxy S23 Ultra or the Pixel 7 Pro — save only for the quite jarring software bugs related to the battery saver that I've run into, and which Xiaomi absolutely needs to fix.

Xiaomi 13 Pro laying flat with cameras showing
Xiaomi 13 Pro

The Xiaomi 13 Pro is the company's 2023 flagship and offers the best hardware and software currently available, particularly in the processor and camera department.