Xiaomi 13 Professional evaluation: Leica-powered digicam champ

Xiaomi could also be identified for launching a plethora of various telephones as a part of the identical collection, to the purpose the place it will get fairly complicated. However for many who solely care about having the perfect all-round flagship expertise, there’s one mannequin annually value listening to: the numbered ‘Professional’.

For 2023, the Xiaomi 13 Professional is taking on the mantle of ‘flagship’, promising the perfect of every little thing. From show via cameras and outright efficiency and velocity, it is obtained all of it. On paper not less than. Whereas imperfect, there’s quite a bit to like right here that makes it fairly a particular system.

Xiaomi

Xiaomi 13 Professional

Advisable

Xiaomi’s newest flagship ‘Professional’ system presents an enormous quantity of efficiency for the cash, delivering a best-in-class show, nice construct high quality and stupidly quick charging speeds.

Professionals

• Massive, sharp show with 120Hz adaptive refresh
• Stupidly quick 120W wired charging (full cost in below 20 minutes)
• Bio-ceramic again and IP68 water/mud resistance
• Nice cameras, notably the first sensor

Cons

• MIUI is commonly irritating
• It is huge and slippery

Design

• 162.9 x 74.6 x 8.38mm – 229g
• Ceramic again – Gorilla Glass Victus entrance
• IP68 water/mud resistant – Ceramic Black or Ceramic White colors

Few supplies are as time-consuming to work with on smartphones as ceramics (or bio-ceramic on this case). In addition they occur to be inherently extra sturdy than the glass that coats the rear of most units. Understandably then, it is seen very a lot as the last word high-end materials to make use of in a smartphone. Which is strictly what Xiaomi has carried out with the 13 Professional.

The bio-ceramic again on the Xiaomi 13 Professional appears to be like and feels nearly indistinguishable from glass, however offers off a smoky chromed look. A minimum of on our black evaluation unit. The look on the Ceramic White model is kind of completely different and may be the one to go for in case you’re notably averse to fingerprint and palm grease smudges in your cellphone. It is nearly as in case you solely have to consider touching it for a greasy smear to indicate up.

Regardless of that, it is obtained an opulent end, and one we have grown to like. The digicam island ramps up seamlessly from the rear panel and – like earlier fashions – it has minimal traces separating the three lenses. It is also obtained the delicate Leica branding on it as an indicator to verify that Xiaomi labored with the long-lasting digicam firm on its optics. It is elegant as heck.

It isn’t a small system by any means and has that heft we have change into accustomed to seeing on premium flagship fashions. On first impressions, it is also fairly a heavy system and is comfortably over the 200-gram mark. This reality alone could make the usual Xiaomi 13 a little bit extra interesting for some.

In any other case, every little thing is fairly commonplace from a flagship perspective. The back and front each curve in the direction of the perimeters, to assist in giving it a extra snug really feel within the hand than if it was a flat, right-angled system just like the iPhone 14 collection.

Including to its sturdiness credentials, Xiaomi has additionally seen match to get it licensed for water and mud resistance. It is IP68 rated, which is about nearly as good because it will get for a smartphone and means it will not let mud in and might survive being submerged in shallow water for as much as half-hour. So you need to use it within the bathe, or within the rain, and it will be simply wonderful.

• 6.73-inch AMOLED show – 3200 x 1440 WQHD+ – 551ppi
• 120Hz adaptive refresh – 240Hz contact response
• Dolby Imaginative and prescient, HDR10+, HDR10 and HLG help – 10-bit color – 1200nits typical – 1900 nits peak brightness
• Dolby Atmos twin audio system

In recent times Xiaomi’s ‘Professional’ fashions have featured a few of the greatest shows available on the market, and the Xiaomi 13 Professional isn’t any completely different. Its 6.73-inch AMOLED show boasts excessive decision, excessive dynamic vary, excessive refresh charges, excessive peak brightness and excessive contact response. It is obtained every little thing.

The WQHD+ decision ensures that particulars are pin-sharp, with a pixel density of 551 pixels per inch. It is value noting – as appears to be the development – that this is not enabled by default. So if you would like the crispiest particulars and textual content, you will want to enter settings and allow it.

Pocket-lint

Being a contemporary flagship cellphone additionally means you get quick refresh charges, however greater than that, adaptive refresh charges. The show can attain a peak of 120Hz refresh price and drop as little as simply 1Hz when required, serving to the cellphone save on battery use when it would not have to refresh rapidly. With 240Hz contact response onboard as effectively, the content material on-screen reacts rapidly to interplay.

Add to that the actual fact it is obtained 1200 nits typical brightness, peaks of as much as 1900 nits, help for over a billion colors and help for all the favored HDR codecs (Dolby Imaginative and prescient, HDR10+ and HLG), and also you get probably the most dynamic, colour-rich and vibrant shows round. It is a very robust show, in each measurable means. It is a good show.

Simply so as to add to the media expertise, the cellphone additionally has stereo audio system. A kind of is inbuilt simply above the highest of the show on the entrance, and the opposite is positioned on the underside fringe of the cellphone close to the USB-C port. These are boosted by Dolby Atmos help, to supply dynamic audio.

As for software program, that is MIUI 14, Xiaomi’s newest pores and skin constructed on high of Android 13. It is about as far faraway from the Pixel software program as you may think about, that includes many design and performance choices we discover irritating at instances. It takes a little bit wrestling to get it behaving in a means we might like, however even then, it is not perfect.

It isn’t the primary time we have talked about our frustrations with MIUI, in truth, it crops up nearly each Xiaomi, Redmi or Poco cellphone evaluation. Latest modifications have moved it additional into the realms of counter-intuitive and cumbersome perform. Easy issues like selecting a wallpaper or a hoop/alert tone drive you into Xiaomi’s Theme Retailer app, so you may’t simply merely select from a listing or pre-selected group of choices.

It isn’t our solely bug bear both. The software program continually pesters you to strive the Wallpaper Carousel characteristic till you both disable the notifications or allow the characteristic and even in case you do, the lock display screen – by default – has a shortcut to the characteristic within the backside left nook. We frequently discovered we might unintentionally faucet it when selecting up the cellphone as a result of it is so near the sting on the curves of the show.

Different annoying components embrace the truth that the ‘Management Centre’ and notifications are break up between the correct and left sides of the display screen when the cellphone is first arrange. Meaning a little bit of an uncomfortable stretch to get to your notifications in case you’re right-handed. A minimum of, till you manually go into settings and swap it again to the ‘Outdated Mode’ which drops the short settings toggles and notifications collectively.

Add that to the truth that when it is first arrange, it plasters the house screens with all your apps, as an alternative of hiding them away within the app drawer. It is quite a bit to attempt to wrestle with simply to get it appearing intuitively. It is nearly like Xiaomi’s design group purposefully ignored all of the issues that make Android 13 nice – just like the lacking wallpaper color theming – and added a bunch of its personal options, which add nothing to the usability of the cellphone, then attempt to drive you to make use of these options.

{Hardware}, battery and efficiency

• Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 – 12GB/256GB or 12GB/512GB – Wi-Fi 7
• 4820mAh battery – 120W HyperCharge (1-100 per cent in 19mins) – 50W wi-fi charging

Like the remainder of the 13 Professional, the internals promise top-of-the-line efficiency – and ship. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip has provided a superb efficiency in each system we have examined it in up to now, whether or not that is the OnePlus 11 or Samsung Galaxy S23 Extremely, and that is the identical with the Xiaomi 13 Professional – particularly paired with the most recent LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage for actually fast learn/write speeds. It is even future-proofed as one of many first telephones to launch with help for Wi-Fi 7.

Whatever the process, Xiaomi’s flagship was greater than as much as it. It launches apps rapidly, and all the highest {hardware} inside means the sensation is considered one of responsiveness. We had been by no means left in lag-land and by no means skilled any noticeable stutter within the person interface, or whereas enjoying video games that require fast reactions. It is clean, fast, and powers via every little thing like a champion.

This deal with velocity is seen within the battery charging know-how too, with Xiaomi bundling a 120W HyperCharge adapter in with the Xiaomi 13 Professional. What which means – extremely – is that you simply solely want 19 minutes of charging to go from an empty battery to 100 per cent. It is fairly staggering, and has some actual advantages in on a regular basis utilization, particularly in case you typically overlook to plug your cellphone in at evening. Even wi-fi charging is quick. At 50W speeds, the wi-fi charger is about as quick as they arrive, however you will want to purchase Xiaomi’s bespoke charging stand to reap the benefits of these speeds.

It is fairly a releasing expertise by no means having to recollect to plug the cellphone in at evening time, and it was by no means wanted in our testing. We would merely wait till the cellphone hit below 20 p.c, then plug it in for 10-Quarter-hour, take it off cost, and repeat the cycle. It was often sufficient time to deliver us again to a full battery once more.

Due to that, battery life is rarely a priority. Not that it struggles to make it via a day. Even with our heavy testing the digicam, gaming, and video watching we did not handle to empty the battery in any 24-hour interval. It is obtained wonderful standby efficiency and copes even while you use the cellphone for sometimes battery-intensive duties.

Digital camera specs

• 50MP f/1.9 Leica predominant digicam – IMX989 1-inch sensor – HyperOIS
• 50MP f/2.0 floating telephoto digicam – OIS
• 50MP f/2.2 115-degree ultrawide digicam
• Dolby Imaginative and prescient 4K/60 video recording – Portrait Evening Mode – 8K video

There is not any doubt that the digicam system is the primary occasion on the 13 Professional, for a number of causes. First, it incorporates a triple digicam system made up fully of 50-megapixel sensors. Second, the first digicam options a big 1-inch sort sensor, first featured on the 12S Extremely launched in China in 2022. It is a bigger sensor than what you will discover in most smartphones which – in flip – implies that every pixel is bigger than the everyday, and that is nice information for images lovers as a result of it means higher low-light efficiency and fewer noise typically.

Evaluating all three lenses, it is clear this predominant digicam is the perfect of the lot from trying on the total picture high quality. Photos have a very genuine high quality to them; particulars and textures look clear, with none extreme over-sharpening that we have seen on lots of smartphones lately. Pairing with Leica lenses and dealing with the long-lasting digicam firm has clearly helped Xiaomi right here. In low gentle, the primary digicam does a fantastic job of lifting gentle and delivering a picture with out extreme, distracting noise within the shadows.

It isn’t lacking something on the options entrance both, if you would like close-up macro pictures it makes use of the ultrawide lens to good impact, providing you with the power to get proper up near topics and get a pointy picture with a number of depth, element and background blur.

As for colors and distinction, that is dependent upon which default color profile you employ. Xiaomi presents each ‘Leica Genuine’ and ‘Leica Vibrant’ possibility and – as you’d suspect – the previous produces pictures with barely muted, practical colors and fewer distinction, the place the Vibrant possibility cranks it up barely, making colors extra saturated and distinction greater for extra visible affect. No matter which one you select you will by no means get colors pushing too far into the realm of oversaturation. The element and texture stay clear and clear.

For probably the most half, the colors and distinction are comparatively constant throughout all three lenses as effectively, which actually helps and ensures you recognize what you are going to get whatever the focal size you select.

Our solely actual grievance with the Xiaomi images is that – typically – the darker shadowed components of pictures in some scenes is usually a little too darkish. It would not use HDR as successfully as you would possibly like to brighten up the colors and light-weight within the darker areas typically. Nonetheless, if that is the compromise for having extra practical, clearer pictures with no noise, we’re proud of that.

The first digicam is joined by what Xiaomi calls a ‘floating telephoto digicam’, which lets you zoom in simply over 3x with ‘optical zoom’ and a spotlight vary from as shut as 10cm to infinity. Briefly, you may zoom in shut, with out shedding element, and be capable of deal with objects even after they’re pretty near the digicam. You’ll be able to zoom as much as 70x digitally, however clearly, the element falls off significantly by the point you attain the higher limits, however even as much as about 10x or (at a push) 20x zoom, the photographs are nonetheless greater than usable.

Xiaomi’s zoom and a few good computational processing have additionally enabled a few options we have been delighted with too: Portrait Results and Supermoon mode. The previous of these allows you to swap between 4 completely different portrait settings, every with a unique focal size, color impact, distinction and bokeh fashion. We liked utilizing the black-and-white mode, which delivers a contrast-rich, sharp picture with a pure background blur. The second ‘Swirly Bokey’ mode provides a heavier blur and a comfortable (however not too comfortable) picture, which is nice for pet images. The truth is, we took a few of our favorite footage of our cat with this digicam.

As for Supermoon, that is on one other planet to so many different smartphones. Not actually, the moon’s not a planet in any case. Nonetheless, with the mode chosen from the listing of digicam choices, you may take a photograph of the moon from 5x zoom to 60x zoom, and it’ll ship a picture that lowers the publicity, and – even on the excessive zoom ranges – evens out the inevitable handshake and motion. The result’s a picture with craters, shadows and element on full show. The additional you zoom, the larger the moon will get (clearly), and there’s something of a element fall-off the extra zoom you employ – however it’s spectacular nonetheless. To have the ability to shoot it fully handheld, with no tripod and no professional settings tweaking, is other-worldly.

We talked about that the first digicam is clearly the strongest digicam of the three, however that is actually solely clearly seen while you transfer into excessive low-light conditions. Evening mode, for instance, is an actual wrestle when you do not have quantity of avenue/constructing lighting to work with. Within the lowest gentle conditions, the first works rather well, pulling in lots of gentle from all components of the picture, whereas the first and zoom lenses do not appear anyplace close to as succesful, typically leaving you with a shot that does not appear to be it is a evening mode shot in any respect. On the plus aspect, you do not get a number of blur. The small print you may see are usually sharp and in focus, with no movement blur.

As for video efficiency, you get a number of energy right here. The cellphone can movie Dolby Imaginative and prescient content material at 4K/60, providing you with sharp, clean content material with deep distinction, broad color help and vibrant peaks. If you happen to’re simply after the best decision video, you may shoot at 8K, however you do not get Dolby Imaginative and prescient recording at that stage.

Even the selfie digicam performs effectively, though – as common – not as robust because the rear cameras. It is all the time extra handy and straightforward to make use of your selfie cam to shoot your self, however if in case you have a little bit time, it is effectively value utilizing the portrait lens results to take images of your self or different individuals. There is a richness, element and depth of subject you simply cannot actually get from the entrance digicam, even in its portrait mode with the background blur. On that notice, it is good sufficient that it hardly ever misses on edge detection, so while you do use it, you are not left with unnatural-looking separation between the foreground topic and the background.

Verdict

Xiaomi’s newest Professional mannequin is a wonderful system, combining incredible efficiency with an distinctive digicam, nice battery life and a surprising show. The truth is, we preferred all of it a lot we had been joyful to place up with our frustrations with the software program as a way to reap the benefits of its capabilities.

The value level is not precisely low-cost, and that is actually one thing to think about with the Xiaomi 13 Professional. Our preliminary knee-jerk response was that it is too costly, however while you have a look at the characteristic set, the {hardware} and the efficiency it presents, and realise it is going up in opposition to the Galaxy S23 Ultras and iPhone 14 Professional Max’s of the world, you get a little bit of a unique perspective. In comparison with Samsung and Apple’s high greenback telephones, it is not terribly priced in any respect.

For some, the MIUI hurdle might be too nice, however in case you’re joyful to sit down and tame the cellphone, you are left with one thing of a diamond from Xiaomi which exceeded our expectations from the model, and that units the tone going ahead. It is a really great system and one which delivers in buckets.