XIAOMI 13 Pro (Ceramic Black, 12GB RAM 256GB Storage) | Leica Professional 50MP Triple Camera | Biggest Camera Sensor 1" IMX989 | SD 8 Gen 2

After almost going through a month of research & already having used flagships from OnePlus & Samsung, I decided to go for this beast. I will try to give a genuine review, but it will be long as I prefer details. 1. 'Xiaomi? itne mein to Iphone mil jata' - I have used Android my whole life & don't have any major issues for a switch to a different OS. I believe apple devices are definitely good, but the premium is very high for the same tech. For the same price one will get iPhone 14 128 gb, which has an inferior screen, smaller size & lower camera capability (will come to that). Whenever a brand tries to enter a new segment, it has to offer better value & here Xiaomi has clearly shown that. It had previously tried 11 Ultra too in India, which again was a top flagship but had limited availability. I am not obsessed with brands & only look at the value offerings for the price. Xiaomi has nailed it here 2. Best competitors? - This phone is compared to the S23 Ultra in most reviews, which I still consider the best android money can buy currently. S23 U offers a similar screen, performance & battery & has better ecosystem support (DEX, UI, Pen, and Accessories support), but the price difference is too high for incremental gains. When it comes to the camera, the performance is brilliant, but it will always be subjective. I can certainly say it is on par with S23 U & Iphone pro models. OP11 also has been a huge upgrade from oneplus but at just 10K more, 13 pro offers a considerably better camera & design (again subjective). 3. No Gimmicks - The trust factor at this price point for a brand like Xiaomi was my biggest concern initially, but Xiaomi has ensured to cover it all. For a start, Samsung & Apple have built expertise in camera systems & catching up to them was still a big task for other brands. Unlike the gimmicky color balance partnership of Hasselblad with OP, Xiaomi not only co-engineered the primary sensor with Leica, but it also worked with sony for the main sensor. Last time when Leica partnered with Huawei, the output was the world's best smartphone camera (check DXO mark). Overall, it's refined to the best, which one surely wants for this price. Battery life & charging speed combination surpasses S23U & 14 Pro. Snapdragon has finally caught up with 8 Gen 2 with superior performance & huge efficiency gains as compared to Bionic chips making this device a performance powerhouse. A quick pro & con which maybe not be covered by others: Pros - 1. Feel & built (Ceramic makes a huge difference) 2. Design - I love the clean & subtle design. Some will argue for the huge camera bump, but the same people love the huge module of apple devices, HYPOC... Anyways, good camera hardware requires space 3. UI - I actually like the clean MIUI 14, contrary to reviewers putting it as a con. It uses less space than Samsung os, doesn't have bloatware (Netflix is not bloatware!) and is fast. Xiaomi has also offered 3-5 years of software support ensuring no compromises on latest android releases 4. Performance, display, camera, battery life - Just no need to worry, you are getting the best 5. Fkin Charger!!! - Ask the people paying 1 lakh+ for other brands & not getting a charger. For me, this Apple-incited practice of not giving chargers is just an exploitative behaviour to extract more from customers & I appreciate Xiaomi for still giving such a premium 120W hypercharger along with a case with the phone. Cons- My Dopamine levels are under control after 10 days so won't be saying "Sab badhiya hai' 1. Accessories- I am not able to find a good case/cover for this which is easily available for Samsung & Oneplus devices. Xiaomi needs to look into it or at least provide its own accessories like Samsung 2. Swipe actions are not smooth due to the curved display - It becomes difficult to use sometimes with the case 3. Ip 68 ratings? - Xiaomi has verbally confirmed it, but not mentioned in the specs (Pani mein dalun ya nai?) 4. It's heavy! Few missed points- - This device sells for almost 1.1 lakhs in Europe, a price similar to S23 U. This actually makes it a no-brainer deal for Indians. ( Indians have to pay a similar premium for Apple devices ) - Some reviewers have complained about the front camera - I felt the camera is decent & clicks good photos with a slight whitish tone & no 4k recording, which isn't a deal breaker for me. - The box mentions 'Made in India' which I feel will mostly mean fully assembled in India, but it's still better than direct imports Hope the review helps you!

I'm reviewing this after 10 days of use, so far so good! I was looking for a new phone in the 40-50k price range. I was open to both iOS and android. Xiaomi was certainly not on my list of phone manufacturers I was looking at but that changed when I learnt of this phone with the Leica collab, triple camera setup and the latest one inch sensor from Sony. This is certainly above my price range but at the same time, it is priced far lower in India than most other markets which sweetened the deal. Here are a few of my observations: 1> Display: Curved glass is a pain frankly. Finding good tempered glass and case is always a problem. On the other hand, the brightness is great, the colours too. The colour scheme defaults to vivid. I changed it to 'original' and made the colour temperature a little warmer. Dynamic refresh rate is good. The WQHD resolution drains the battery and my untrained eyes can't really tell the difference from FHD. I noticed a bit of glue sticking out of the display, that was a bit disappointing and worrying for such an expensive phone. Probably also means it is not water resistant. There is no Ingress Protection rating on the box. 2>Touch: Getting accidental touches at the edges but there is a setting to minimise this. Haptics are excellent when typing even at low setting. 3>Speakers: Loud, feels comparable to other flagships. 4>Battery: Can get through a whole day for sure and the charging is fast if you leave the phone alone for a bit. 5>MIUI 14: Spammy notifications (which can be turned off) from default apps of which there are many. Haven't come across ads although I've hardly used the default apps. Those concerned about privacy may want to read the T&Cs closely. I'm using the Niagara minimalist launcher which works really well here (although gesture navigation doesn't work with third party launchers). 6>Cameras: The bump is massive! Even with a case, I managed to put scratches on the camera glass within a week. The camera app is well laid out, you can customise what modes you want to see and in what order. There are plenty of modes including 'supermoon' (for which Samsung has been getting a lot of bad press). I'll preface my views on the photos that this phone captures by acknowledging that I am a bit of a Fujifilm and Leica fanboy, so take the rest of this review with a pinch of salt. The colour tuning in 'Leica authentic' profile is brilliant with the main camera taking the cake. When you transition between ultra wide and wide, you will notice a colour shift which is off putting. The telephoto lens is hands down my favourite of the three, I can read a sign 30-40 meters away, at the same time it takes wallpaper worthy macros. The main camera takes in a lot of light so you never really need night mode. Also the camera app comes with Leica 'master lens' portrait modes. Each mode corresponds to a fixed focal length. My favourite is the 35mm B&W which makes everything look classy. Videos in 4k come out well but there it struggles to focus quickly. The front camera is quite poor in resolution, colours, hdr, you don't want to use it for anything other than low res video calls. TLDR: Surprisingly good phone, especially the cameras. India might be the cheapest market to pick this up.

GREAT PROs: 1. Awesome camera and picture quality. Very snappy pictures. 2. Consistent security updates/patches. PROs: 1. Good call quality. 2. Good reception. 3. Good stereo speakers. 4. IP68 Waterproof, important if you have kids. GREAT CONs: 1. Pathetic Software. Work Profile DOES NOT Work properly. It keeps turning the app categories back on (recently fixed with software update). 2. Does not let Antivirus in work profile work, Microsoft Defender in my case. Does not let disable battery optimization, so office mails won't sync which is what I spend 90% of my time on mobile for. Currently running with a hack which keeps stopping. So not useful for me. My very old 13K Samsung had perfect software experience though it was slow as its very old. CONs: 1. Heavy phone, if you are watching videos you will start to feel it. Even during long calls. 2. Heating issue, not during charging but when using camera especially video or watching youtube videos. After taking 2.5 minutes video I stopped as it became a little hot even with the case. Not that I couldn't hold it but just being cautious. WEIRD: Battery drains during night when I am not doing anything. Not sure why. Same amount of idle time during day has no effect. May be some optimization runs during night. Don't really know. Drain from 100% -> 1 hour of call with bluetooth headset, 1%. -> 30 min of camera usage, not continuous video but some videos, photos etc, around 15%. -> 10:30PM in night to 8:00AM in the morning idle time, 18%. The software experience on this is very bad, not useful for a professional. So switching my phone.

My rating after 3 week use - 9/10. Now you can read about the specifications on the internet, so I will stick to what I like and dislike about the phone. I upgraded to Xiaomi 13 Pro from OnePlus 7T. Why ? For one, the 7T started to feel slow and battery life too degraded over time. I was starting to feel bored of it too - but I must say that 7T served me well. I likely would have stayed with OnePlus, but over the last few years, their smartphones have gone way too boring. Also, let me add here that I do street photography as a hobby, so for some time I was looking out for a phone that has good camera's - and since I heard about Xiaomi 13 Pro I was waiting for it to arrive. What I love about this phone? Everything except for what I don't 😀. It's fast, has great camera's, charges super quick, feels great in hands, fantastic haptics, sharp and bright display, and great speakers. It truly is a flagship that you will love to hold on yous hands. The software too has 'almost' no bloatware. And I must mention that when you click on the shutter, its just clicks - right then. There is no lag whatsoever. All the phones I have used before this, their would always be couple of milliseconds here and there between when I click the shutter and when the camera captures the moment - but this one is like amazingly fast to capture. What I do not like about this phone are very minor quirks - Firstly, i find the photos slightly over-exposed to my taste. I use the pro mode to get around that - but Xiaomi should be able to fix it with a software update. Secondly, a minor point, a couple of Mi specific apps like Mi play store, Mi theme app etc should also be removed or Xiaomi should at least give users an option to uninstall them. Overall - I this this is fantastic offering by Xiaomi. A true flagship that is actually comparable to the Iphones and Samsung Ultra models at a much lesser price.

When i was using MI4, i faced proximity sensor issue and WhatsApp lag, whats app messages gets delivered only when you open the app. Xiaomi never learnt from it, still they doing the same mistakes. I bought it for 65k, Not even a week usage, sometime even the menu buttons at the bottom never shows up (if that's doesn't , then you cannot leave the page or app) you have to wait still it shows up. IF its there, sometimes it's not working 2. Not even able to change the alarm sound, i have screen recorded that too but due to one customer can upload one video per se; i am not able to upload it 3. Back icon is also not working properly, pls watch the video i posted. 4. Paying 80k is big amount , you cannot display ads in your premium phone ... 5. Xiaomi never improved in their software even an inch... many claim miui14 is good but still it sucks... When you used samsung or OnePlus, then you will feel how mediocre is the MIUI 6. Yes, back camera is great, but when it's comes to front camera, atleast they should have gone for somthing good, it's very bad, when i speak WhatsApp video call, i felt my old samsung m21 (12000 rupees) fone is better 7. Pls don't believe the YouTube reviews; big youtubers are paid well by the brands, forsake, they send their units for review to the youtubers, if they criticize it, they will not be sending it next time, it's business for them, so don't believe blindly I was very skeptical to invest big amount in Xiaomi but due to its camera when compared to OnePlus , i felt this one is better... But the OS, Front camera and bugs kills the phone

For those who are planning to upgrade to a camera centric flagship from a mod range phone, Xiaomi 13 pro is the one to go for and save some money. Although in some aspects of image processing and features the Xiaomi can't beat the SAMSUNGs or the iphones, this is still and knock down winner in several other aspects. Firstly, the phone with all premium flagship specs is a killer and performs as well as any other brand. No competition there. The MiUi experience is great but has its own fan following. Newbees will need some time to get used to. Camera: the lieca collaboration and the first in class 1 inch sony sensor shows off its might when you click stunning photos effortlessly. The camera software and UI is simplified and clean. You don't need to be a pro to Tak pro level photos. It's fast and snappy. No lags. But if you are a pro, then you are up for a feast with this beauty! Battery charges in 19 mins for me from 5% to 100 with the 120w charging speed. But the phone does heat up. I don't think you will always need to charge the phone with that speed. Stick to the usual quick charge and the phone charges fully in about 35 to 40 mins anyway and doesn't heat up. Display is brilliant. Bright and crisp. Colors are great but somewhere not as lush and royal as the SAMSUNGs or iphones. But her, it's a phone not an OLED tv. And the comparison with apple and Samsung when done, the difference you will see will be highly negligible. Software upgrades may possibly fix that. Haptics are awesome.

If you want an amazing flagship phone at an incredible price, this is the one to go for. Lets get to pros and cons PROS 1. Brilliant Display, with LTPO 3, great brightness and real vivid colors. 2. IP68 equivalent protection, even if it is not officially mentioned. 3. Charges to full in 20-25 minutes from zero. I rarely keep charge it more than 10-15 minutes and I am mostly done for the day. 4. Snapdragon 8gen2 is fast and efficient. 5. The camera system is out of the world good. You will not find a better camera phone at this price. 6. Super value for money as the phone is extremely cheap in India, compared to EU countries. Using exchange for old redmi phones, you can also get crazy discounts. I exchanged my 5 years old redni note 5 pro for 13000k. It is more than twice the price I will get if I sell that phone on OLX. CONS 1. Curved display is a pain to get a tempered glass for that also works with a case. 2. MIUI and its occasional bugs. Encountered nothing quite that serious though.

I had Note 5 pro waiting to be replaced with something worthwhile. This particular model comes with a few uniques, which would keep it for long in the race and checks most of the features I ever wanted in a single device. Grab some popcorn, as its a long review (shouldn't it be? as I am upgrading after ~5 years :d). ••••••••••••••••••• 🎁 INSIDE BOX ••••••••••••••••••• 1x Xiaomi 13 pro smartphone wrapped inside a soft flap 1x transparent soft cover (with raised lips around camera module and screen such that it covers edges that touch resting surface protecting screen and camera) 1x sim tray ejector tool 1x power adapter (120watt) 1x USB-C cable (6A) 1x warranty leaflet/Quick start guide Weight: sealed box is around 800g :o | ~200 g smartphone, ~300 g charger Updates: 3 years of Android updates and 5 years of security patches ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ➕ OBSERVATIONS & PROS ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 1. Beautiful white color ceramic back with black camera island, which gives perfect contrast and much needed attention to behemoth camera modules. I really wish to use it w/o cover, all credits to the premium looks, but then it may not survive accidental drops. I remember dropping my N86 which cracked outer glass protection and damaged the camera module. You can never drop it carefully, and mind the weight. ;) 2. Despite of being heavy, feels and is actually perfectly balanced about center axis. So doesn’t feel heavy at all, even on the upper or lower end, to tilt it while holding 2. Leica optimized software and lenses, and plethora of Leica features inside (more details below) 3. Macro shots are awesome- but to get best results use pro mode and focus manually, if possibly by zooming into the subject 4. Main lens captures good details, both during day and night, 1" sensor at play (mind that its not exactly 1" in dimension and rather legacy concept, but so far its largest sensor in the smartphone world). Also, records video at up to 8K with support for Dolby vision. 5. Premium curved OLED screen with variable refresh rate (max 120hz) and Corning Victus glass protection. Screen has one of the best sunlight performances (can watch videos as well in direct sun) and is a charm to use since everything is super smooth with curved edges. 6. Always on display is a nice feature but yes its battery consuming 7. Thermals are intelligently managed here. There are no issues with heavy usage or during high-speed charging or during video recording. It would get warm, but nowhere near hot to touch. 8. SD 8 gen 2 beast with throttling issues from SD 8 gen 1 were also addressed, plus 3400sqmm vapor chamber to cool the beast (I would say, it just got warm during gaming sessions, but not hot). 9. UFS 4.0 storage coupled with SD 8 gen 2 and LPDDR5X RAM is fast. I installed SimCity BuildIt, and post download it took less than a second to install the game. Otherwise also, across interface you could feel the speed, like full 50mp shots take no processing time, snappy animations, etc. 10. MIUI 14 based on Android 13 in house, its clean and fast. Most of the apps can be uninstalled directly for those who prefer to. 11. Comes with Widevine L1 DRM support, and Full HD streaming 12. Considering its a flagship phone, top of the lineup- company would be fast at updates and upgrades. Even the BT framework got updated when I switched on BT for pairing. 13. System also has virtual RAM just like desktop OS. You can have up to 7gb of storage as virtual RAM 14. SIM card tray is dual sided- at one glance you wonder that if you got single sim version (which doesn’t exist in real :d), but on a close look you see SIM 1 written and when you turn it around, its sim 2 15. Old school IR blaster to control IR devices (acts as a secondary remote for TV, AC, Sound System, etc). I love mi for not dropping it ever. 16. Stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos sound, ear piece doubles as the second speaker 17. 120 watt hypercharge to get going in around 20 mins, 50 watts wireless charging via compatible wireless charger, and 10 watt reverse wireless charging to charge other devices on the go. Phone does get slightly warm during charging due to high wattage, but nowhere near hot 18. NFC for easy pairing and NFC based payments are also available now 19. IP68 rating is a blessing (though not officially mentioned on the website). Its a must have feature in the flagships, for the price we pay. With it, you need not worry while having pool side photoshoot (not inside pool as IP68 is in test conditions of fresh water, so better safe than sorry), or usage even during rains, or even accidental spillages. Better to avoid using it underwater/showers - just because you can, not necessary you should. 20. In display fast optical fingerprint scanner, unlocks in less than 0.5 s, so its snappy. Only trouble with optical ones is the smaller area of detection, so you need to get used to the position of sensor to unlock faster, else touch screen anywhere and wait for the area to display finger print icon. If you know the position, just put finger there and it unlocks. 21. Features heart rate measurement via fingerprint scanner (not that accurate but its nice to have) 22. Great speeds over 5G network, I could achieve 210 Mbps while 4G was only 30 Mbps ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ➖ OBSERVATIONS & CONS ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Nothing is perfect, so is this beast 1. To cut down costs, a few shortcuts have been taken and that main one to highlight would be USB-C port with USB 2.0 standards. Truly I never use port to copy files and use FTP functionality (details below) 2. Dated front camera with fixed focus, 1080p recording, and no HDR 3. Ultrasonic fingerprint scanner missing, would have been a good addition for instant unlock considering flagship phone, but any ways current one is fast enough for you to not notice any lag Pros outweigh cons by huge margins here. So this one's definitely a 5 star device, bearing in cost factor as well for such packed specifications in the device. •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 📱 CURVED SCREEN & ACIDDENTAL TOUCHES •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Curved screens have disadvantage of accidental touches, but Xiaomi has a setting to set the width insensitive zone towards the curved edges You get 4 setting to define inactive zone- small area, default, big area, and custom Also, I felt its a wonderful experience to swipe through edges, since its curved. Easy to switch off alarms when phone is below the pillow, just swipe at the edge :d •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 🔌CHARGING AND BACKUP •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• A) Charge time: With Boost mode on (max of 120watts, works with screen off to keep device cool) - 2% to 46% in 10 mins, 46% to 100% in next 23 mins So overall 33 mins to fully charge the device. With 10watt normal charger: For 2% to 100%, it took around 2 hours 30 mins TBH, I am not that fan of fast charging as its not good for battery and device health. It produces a lot of heat, affecting electronic components and battery life. I would probably resort to lower watt chargers and keep the provided chargers for emergencies only. B) Battery backup/Discharge time: Overnight discharge- 3% (phone in bedtime mode, WiFi+Data off, both SIM in 2g) Mix use- 24 hours 80% down, ~2 hours gaming, a few calls, YT videos 30 mins, Cast to TV 10 mins, 10-15 still captures (WiFi on, Data off, SIM 1 5G, SIM 2 2G, Auto Brightness on, phone in bedtime mode for 6 hours) Video playback in YouTube- 60 mins, 7% discharge (WiFi on, Data off, SIM 1 5G, SIM 2 2G, Auto Brightness on, Dark mode on, Dolby off, Volume 50%, AI video on, HDR on) 6 mins 8K video- 1% drain 10 mins 4K video- 5% drain ••••••••••••••••••••• 📷 CAMERA ••••••••••••••••••••• First of all, its the main highlight of this phone, next to screen itself. Many of available modes don't come preinstalled (such as vlog, short video, panorama, long exposure, cloning, et) . You just need to click on the icons once in the more menu of camera interface and it will be downloaded. You have Leica vibrant vs authentic mode, and voice shutter across (just say cheese- works well) 1. Default photo mode- auto mode with all lenses available in form of zoom x, 0.6x (uw), 1x (wide/primary), 2x (wide/primary with digital zoom), 3.2x (tele), auto night mode, beautify mode, Leica filters, google lens, AI mode, HDR, movie frame, grid lines, tilt shift (center, horizontal), timed burst (10 to unlimited photos, 1s to 60s), auto macro, super macro (which uses tele camera to zoom in closer at macro range) 2. 50 mp mode- to utilize full resolution of the sensor (no issues wrt higher processing time of too large a size of the image, it instantly captures 50mp photos and size is also around 10mb) 3. Pro mode- to have full control over exposure, white balance, focus, shutter speed (1/4000s to 30s), ISO (50 to 12800), lens (ultra wide, wide, tele-macro) | other settings in pro mode- Leica filters, metering, contrast, sharpness, saturation, RAW image, gridlines, 50mp capture, focus peaking to highlight areas in focus, exposure verification, and timed burst (10 to unlimited photos, 1s to 60s) 4. Video- 720p @ 30fps, 1080p @30/60 fps, 4k @ 24/30/60 fps, 9k @24 fps plus super macro mode, tele prompter, movie frame, beautify mode | there’s aperture control for bokeh but only works with 720p/1080p @ 30fps. System only allows 6 mins of 8k video, possibly to avoid over heating. Also, a 6 mins of 8k video is around 5gb in size here and consumed only 1% of the battery A 10 mins of 4K video also consumed similar space ~5gb, but 5% of battery 5. Portrait mode- for portrait click with some presets (35mm B/W, 50mm Swirly Bokeh, 75mm general portrait, and 90mm soft focus) 6. Short 10s video- (720p/1080p 30fps) with background music, Leica filters, beautify mode, and Kaleidoscope mode (6 effects) 7. Vlog mode- with predefined video timelines and audios (Nostalgia, Party, Cuisine, Neverland, Pets, Breeze) 8. Slow motion- to capture beautiful slo-mos (need good amount of light for perfect capture) | 720p/1080p () | 120 fps, 240 fps, 480 fps, 960 fps, 1920 fps | super macro also available here (480 fps/1920 fps unavailable in this setting) 9. Timelapse (speed 4x to 600x, duration 10 mins to 240 mins), Leica filters, Super macros, movie frame 10. Movie effects (Magic zoom, Slow shutter, Time free, Night time lapse, Parallel world) 11. Long exposure (moving crowd, neon trails, oil painting, light painting, starry sky, star trails) 12. Supermoon- to capture super moon, with good details, 5x to 60x (digital) and some moon effects (airplane, tree, bird etc overlay) 13. Dual video- capture video from both front and back cam at the same time in same frame (half each) 14. Clone- to clone subject with still background, lets say to have different poses 15. Other modes- AI watermark, Dedicated night mode, Panorama, Document mode ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 📁 FTP WIRELESS FILE TRANSFER ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 1. Default file manager has a feature, "connect to computer", which in conjunction with desktop tool such as FileZilla could be used to browse 13 pro's storage and copy files and folders) 2. File transfer speeds are good here considering new WiFi standards (25 MiB/s, 4.7 gb took approx. 3 mins for transfer, both to and fro) and acts as a great alternative to USB transfers ••••••••••••••••••••••• 🏆 FINAL VERDICT ••••••••••••••••••••••• I am absolutely in love with the device, especially for its still captures. It’s a beast and some of the cons that are there, you can live with as those don’t affect much the regular functionality of the device.