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Xiaomi 13 Pro: the hardware monster - voila! technology

2023-03-17T18:43:55.463Z


With a 1-inch photo sensor, Qualcomm's latest generation processor, the Xiaomi 13 Pro doesn't round any corners. But it also has one drawback. Review


Xiaomi 13 Pro (Photo: Walla! Technology, Niv Lilian)

More than once I've opened articles about Xiaomi about how the company built a name for itself by selling high-end hardware cheaply, but it also had a few bad years where it didn't innovate that much.

This year is not such a year.

Not only is Xiaomi a leader (yes, a leading Chinese company, you read that right) this time with some of the best photography technology available (one-inch sensor and Leica lenses), the Xiaomi 13 Pro that I spent about two weeks with is an impossible hardware monster - Xiaomi did not compromise on any component Significant: from the processor, through the monitor to the camera setup, it's as if someone went to the market and picked the best vegetables.

one by one.

Design and structure

Xiaomi over the years have designed their own identity language for themselves, similar to Samsung or Apple.

In recent years, their devices have boasted a very clean and minimalist design, and the Xiaomi 13 Pro is no different: the ceramic back is completely smooth and shiny in space gray, except for the name stamped on it and the lens bezel, which this time is particularly large: it is a large square that protrudes from the body and actually makes the device sit at an angle when placed on the table, but it has a very good reason: it contains the unusual and large 1-inch sensor, so this significant protrusion from the body, although not the most elegant - is forgiven.

On the other hand, the fact that the camera stand stands out significantly from the body, it also makes it not slip, which is actually an advantage!

By the way, the back does catch smudges and fingerprints, so it is recommended to immediately put on the attached protector.

The ceramic back is completely smooth and shiny in space gray (photo: Walla! Technology, Lilian dialect)

The front is also smooth - it's all a 6.7-inch screen with sloping sides that have become fashionable again (Motorola and Samsung also do such in their flagship devices), besides the hole for the front camera that is fixed at the top of the device and in its center, here too a hidden grille is used for the earpiece speaker that is integrated into the aluminum chassis.

On the right side is the power button and the volume buttons, which are well and conveniently located.

With a long press on the activation button, we will get Google Assistant, which is nice (the software here, by the way, is Android 13, wrapped in the MIUI 14 interface).



The fingerprint sensor is located below and in the lower part of the screen, and it is worth dwelling on it for a moment - it is an extremely fast and reactive sensor, which makes the normal use of the Xiaomi 13 Pro fun on a daily basis.

At the bottom is the charging socket, the speaker grille and the SIM drawer.

There is dual SIM, but no eSIM which is a disappointment for a flagship device.



The Xiaomi 13 Pro is comfortable to hold in the hand, and the buttons as mentioned are well placed, it does feel a bit heavy (210 grams), but it is waterproof to the IP68 standard, which means resistance to a depth of one and a half meters for half an hour, and in translation to real life - it is waterproof (unless you decide to take it with you regularly for swimming...).

display and sound

Did I say someone went to the market and picked the best hardware?

So the monitor is one of them.

This is a monitor with psychic data, better in some ways (such as brightness) even displays of giants like Samsung.

Pay attention to the specs: it's a 120Hz, billion-tone LTPO AMOLED display with a resolution of 3200 x 1440 pixels (522 ppi density), with support for Dolby Vision and HDR10 Plus, and a normal brightness of 1,200 nits, which comes Even up to 1900 nits at most.



The monitor itself is very fun to use, it is readable in all lighting conditions, the colors are deep and wonderful, and I even had to lower the brightness a bit.

For watching movies or reading it is simply an excellent monitor, of course, also for viewing the photos you have taken (see also the photography section).



The speakers that are fixed on the Xiaomi 13 do not linger behind the screen, and provide a strong sound, surprising in its detail, and not jarring even at high volume, including support for Dolby Atmos and decoding high sampling rates of 192 kHz and 24 bits.

In short, if you want to watch Netflix on the go, this is the device for you (and Xiaomi even pre-installed Netflix here).

The display itself is very fun to use, it is readable in all lighting conditions (Photo: Walla! Technology, Niv Lilian)

Photo

We've come to the main course: no, not the processor.

In the Xiaomi 13 Pro, similar to the 12S Ultra, the Chinese company, which works in collaboration with Leica, has set as the main camera a huge 1-inch sensor, which takes the photography capabilities of this phone to new heights.

What's more: while other companies compromise a bit, and name sensors with fewer pixels for the ultra-wide lens or the telephoto lens - here Xiaomi outdid themselves: all three sensors of the rear camera array are 50 megapixel sensors, all of them, without exception.



Before we move on to discuss the performance of this setup, a few numbers: the main camera has an aperture key of f/1.9 and a 23 mm lens, and a pixel size of 1.6 microns, laser focus and optical image stabilization, the telephoto lens is a true zoom of 3.2 times, aperture key of 2.0 and a focal length of 75 mm, while the wide lens is a 14 mm lens, and an angle of 115 degrees.



As I recall, the lenses are all Leica lenses and add to that two options for color calibration that the German company created itself (one live and one realistic, I chose to shoot in reality), and you will get, in fact, a photography setup that does not fall in quality from an SLR in your pocket, and the results accordingly.

, a photography setup that does not fall in quality from an SLR in your pocket, and the results accordingly (photo: Walla! Technology, Niv Lilian)

Close-up shot with the Xiaomi 13 Pro (Photo: Walla! Technology, Niv Lilian)

The photography capabilities of the Xiaomi 13 are simply insane - from zoom capabilities that actually reach up to 70 times (see the photo of the peeling wood texture), due to the ability to increase from 50 megapixel information with any lens, through wonderful macro capabilities and successful day photography, but the highlight is Night shots.

Because of the size of the main sensor and the quality lenses - the night shots here are simply spectacular.



Night shots are often the Achilles heel of smartphones - not here.

The main sensor due to its size allows the reception of enough light and great sharpness, including a very clear separation between dark and bright areas.

The optical stabilization system also allows for long exposure and shooting of light lines, like the bus I photographed leaving the station (see gallery).

In addition, photography of high-rise buildings at night is also very impressive, in short, the capabilities of night photography here are almost comparable to daytime photography, and in general, the camera application is full of programmed and manual photo options - including full 50 megapixel photography and photography in RAW mode for later processing, and in general, amateurs Shooting with this camera will feel like in a toy store.

The possibilities are limitless.



Let's also talk for a moment about the video capabilities: this camera is of course capable of shooting in 8K at 24 frames, but its strong capabilities are precisely in 4K: up to 60 frames per second, including support for HDR10 Plus, Dolby Vision 10 bit and format LOG ten bit.

By going down to "only" Full HD you will also get a slow motion shot of up to 960 frames per second.



And let's take a look at the front camera, it also kills canes: a 32 megapixel camera, with support for HDR and panoramic photography, and Full HD video photography, definitely satisfies even the Tik Tok creators among you.

The optical stabilization system also allows for long exposure and shooting of light lines (Photo: Walla! Technology, Niv Lilian)

Night photography: the main sensor due to its size allows the reception of enough light and great sharpness (photo: Walla! Technology, Niv Lilian)

Photography with optical zoom - great results (photo: Walla! Technology, Niv Lilian)

Performence

Even under the hood, the Xiaomi 13 Pro is a monster: they used Qualcomm's latest processor set, the Snapdragon 8 generation 2, with 4 nm production technology.

The main processor is an octa-core processor, we won't list them all, but almost all of them run at speeds between 2.8 and 3.2 GHz, which is a lot of performance.

The "super core" that leads them is the Cortex X3 core that runs at a speed of 3.2 GHz.

This formidable processor is paired with a nice amount of memory, between 8 and 12 gigabytes depending on the model, and fast storage with UFS 4.0 support.



Apart from that, everyday and normally, the Xiaomi 13 Pro just flies, is reactive and opens every application quickly, in the synthetic tests of 3DMark, it ate the normal Wild Life test without salt, while in the extreme test it produced a result of 2,991 points - better than 77% of the tested devices.

The average result for this model is 3,646 points, which puts it against the OnePlus 11 in terms of performance, and a little below the Galaxy S23 devices that overtake it in the test (both the regular model and the ultra model), and still, this is a very powerful device, which will be enough for you for any purpose, big or small.

You won't get hiccups here.



Also on the hardware side, on the communication side, Xiaomi does not skimp on anything: there is support for Wi-Fi 6e, Bluetooth 5.3, A2DP and LE, and pretty much every GPS system you can think of is supported here.

What's more, APTx is a bit surprising that there isn't.



What else didn't I like?

puffed up

Xiaomi pre-installs lots and lots of garbage.

So it's true, there's no lack of storage space, and still - apart from reasonable pre-installed things like Netflix, or Booking.com, there's the company's home stack of tools, Tiktok, Spotify and more.

Full of things, in my opinion quite a few of them are unnecessary.

Even under the hood, the Xiaomi 13 Pro is a monster: they used Qualcomm's latest processor set, the Snapdragon 8 generation 2, with 4 nm production technology (photo: Walla! Technology, Niv Lilian)

Battery life

Even in the battery section, Xiaomi did not round off any corners, except for the rounded corners of the device... You will find here a lithium-polymer battery of almost 5,000 mAh (4,820 for grammar), which will not only keep you quiet for two days in an optimized mode (automatic adjustment of screen refresh rate, etc. '), but also comes with a formidable 120 watt charger that fully charges it in about 20 minutes, and with support for 50 watt wireless charging, and 10 watt reverse wireless charging if by chance your Qi-enabled headphones are empty and want to eat.

Here too, there are no real complaints, everything is beautiful toffee.

And now we come to the unpleasant part.

The bottom line

The unpleasant part - is the price.

All this fine hardware, great photo sensors, Leica lenses, latest generation processors, amazing screen and good speakers all, well, cost money.

The consumer price of the Xiaomi 13 Pro is completely the price of a flagship device, and a competitor, it must be rightly said this time, to the iPhone 14 Pro or the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

The consumer price of the Xiaomi 13 Pro is NIS 4,900.

That is, an excess of one hundred out of 5,000.

it's expensive.



On the other hand, you get here a stack of excellent hardware without compromises, a hysterical camera with capabilities that do not fall short of a professional camera, a last generation processor and a first class quality screen.



Great vegetables cost money.

If the penny is in your pocket, and close to NIS 5,000 is an amount you are willing to spend on a smartphone in these financially difficult days, the Xiaomi 13 Pro is definitely a phone you should consider, especially if you are a photography enthusiast who wants and is looking for exceptional photography capabilities - but also a device that will serve you Great everyday in every other way, but with one drawback: it doesn't prepare you for the eSIM era.



Xiaomi 13 Pro


Score: 9.5

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Source: walla

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