Xiaomi is the world’s third-largest smartphone maker, nevertheless it’s typically does not really feel prefer it, particularly for those who reside within the U.S. There, Samsung is the de facto Android cellphone, with an occasional Motorola or a Google Pixel thrown in.

However although Xiaomi’s model is extra highly effective in Asia and Europe, the corporate nonetheless makes nice telephones. Living proof, its new flagship, the Xiaomi 13 Professional. After quite a lot of experimenting with totally different designs and options, it seems that Xiaomi has lastly settled in and produced a real flagship killer.

Elegant, slick, and slippery

The Xiaomi 13 Professional will not promote on seems alone. Xiaomi has been directionless in terms of smartphone design, altering issues radically with every new flagship, and by no means sticking to a recognizable, constant design language. The Xiaomi 13 Professional has an enormous, sq. digital camera bump with barely seen lenses (evaluate this to the 12 Professional which had an enormous essential digital camera lens that dominated the again of the cellphone) and outstanding Leica branding. It has a slick ceramic again, rounded edges, and it seems like a quality-made object.

The digital camera bump on the again is sort of massive. You may want a case.
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The unit I received is black throughout, and if I am being beneficiant, I might evaluate the feel and appear to that of an opulent black limousine. I want it to the look of every other latest Xiaomi cellphone, however from a distance, it may well look a bit bland. I would moderately have one thing extra colourful; the worldwide model of the cellphone additionally is available in white, which (judging from the promo photographs I’ve seen) fits it higher.

The rounded show edges and the ceramic again, whereas very nice to the contact, make the cellphone extraordinarily slippery, so you may positively want a case for this one. Xiaomi included a really fundamental, see-through case with the cellphone, however you may most likely need one thing nicer.

Beautiful show, numerous energy, and nice battery life

The show is a 6.73-inch, 120Hz AMOLED with a 3,200 x 1,440 pixel decision (you may have to show it on manually within the settings; the cellphone defaults to a decrease decision to avoid wasting battery life). It is attractive, with correct colours, deep blacks and loads of brightness once you want it. I in contrast it to the iPhone 14 Professional Max utilizing my favourite take a look at for cellphone shows, The Weeknd’s “Starboy” video, and could not inform which show is healthier.

Whereas I used to be at it, I blasted the sound on most. The Xiaomi 13 Professional has stereo audio system (down from quad audio system on the 12 Professional) and boasts Dolby Atmos sound with head monitoring (just like Apple’s Spatial Audio). The sound is sweet however not practically as loud and punchy because the sound coming from the iPhone 14 Professional Max.

With a 3,200 x 1,440 pixel decision, the Xiaomi 13 Professional is on par with a Samsung Galaxy S23 Extremely.
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Xiaomi was the primary firm to announce a cellphone with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, the identical chip that powers the Samsung’s Galaxy S23 collection. Coupled with 12GB of RAM, it makes this cellphone quick sufficient that I by no means wished extra energy. All the things was fluid and responsive, irrespective of what number of apps I had open within the background. A sport of PUBG flew on the very best potential settings, and a pop-up window provided to additional optimize the cellphone’s efficiency for gaming, although I did not discover a lot of a distinction.

Having reviewed most main Xiaomi flagships that got here out previously couple of years, there was all the time a bit one thing lacking. This time, I am completely happy to say that Xiaomi has lastly reached the purpose wherein its flagship has mainly each necessary characteristic you may consider. Some highlights embrace extremely quick wired charging that’ll get the cellphone from 1 to 100% in about 20 minutes, Wi-Fi 7 functionality, Bluetooth 5.3 help, and IP68 mud and water resistance.

Battery life was wonderful; the cellphone lasted roughly two days, besides once I pushed it to the restrict with video games. However with charging being this quick, it did not even matter, I might all the time plug it in for a few minutes to get sufficient extra battery juice to final me one other day.

An affordable quantity of bloatware

Software program is historically the half wherein telephones from Xiaomi (and most different Chinese language producers) do not feel very premium, principally as a result of they arrive loaded up with crap that you just most likely do not want. Xiaomi has made enhancements right here, although some non-Google, third-party apps nonetheless do come preinstalled. Most of it’s fairly widespread stuff, like Netflix, Spotify, and Reserving.com, however I would nonetheless want to put in the apps I would like alone. Fortunately, all of it may be uninstalled.

The Xiaomi 13 Professional runs on the newest model of Xiaomi’s Android pores and skin, MIUI 14.0.11, with Android 13 beneath. It is a good and steady combo that does not shy from borrowing some options from iOS. A few of the new options in comparison with MIUI 13 embrace new menu icons which at the moment are a bit simpler to see and the flexibility to create folders which can be about 4 instances as massive as common ones. I preferred the adjustments and I felt at dwelling with the Xiaomi 13 Professional, although my essential cellphone is an iPhone. The most important points I’ve had was discovering that one pesky possibility in a sea of settings, however that is a standard ailment amongst Android telephones.

Am i able to simply do away with all these bubbles in a single swipe?
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One factor that did annoy me had been the fixed notifications bugging me to put in an app or do one thing that I do not care a lot about. Worse, a few of these notifications are not possible to flick off; as a substitute, the software program requires you to work together with them and even flip an possibility on earlier than the notification bubble is dismissed.

A a lot improved zoom

The facility is there, and the options are all there. Outdoors of value, which means this cellphone’s digital camera high quality will seemingly decide whether or not the 13 Professional is a real competitor for Samsung’s mighty Galaxy S23 Professional and Extremely telephones, in addition to Google’s Pixel 7 which do not boast a really excessive megapixel depend, however win on Google’s picture processing energy.

The primary digital camera lenses aren’t as outstanding as on Xiaomi’s latest flagships, however the digital camera is total higher.
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Regardless of the totally different look of the digital camera system in comparison with final yr’s mannequin, the Xiaomi 13 Professional has comparable digital camera specs. The rear digital camera nonetheless has three 50-megapixel sensors: one for the broad, ultra-wide, and telephoto cameras. It is a sound system, a minimum of on paper, however the digital camera efficiency of Xiaomi telephones was a bit uneven in recent times.

With the Xiaomi 13 Professional, plainly the corporate (along with its digital camera associate, Leica), has lastly discovered stability. The cellphone produces excellent photographs in all eventualities, even at evening.

I used to be most impressed with the telephoto digital camera, which I used to take some extremely sharp photographs within the nightfall. I’ve in contrast the Xiaomi on to the iPhone 14 Professional Max, and it blew it away when it got here to zooming in in low gentle.

This photograph was taken at nightfall, with a 3.2x magnification.
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In daylight, the iPhone’s telephoto digital camera took barely sharper photographs, however I most popular the much more pure look of the photographs I took with the Xiaomi. Xiaomi’s software program defaults to 1x, 2x, and three.2x zoom; for those who pinch out to get much more zoom, you may get 10x and 70x choices. I used to be stunned to see that even 10x photographs look fairly good, although something above that was principally ineffective because the photographs received very artificial-looking.

Xiaomi’s telephoto digital camera takes nice photographs in daylight as properly.
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All of that is in stark distinction to final yr’s Xiaomi 12 Professional, which had an underwhelming telephoto digital camera. Digging by way of the telephones’ specs reveals the explanation: Regardless of the equivalent 50 megapixel depend, the telephoto digital camera has been upgraded from a 48mm to a 75mm lens, and it now provides 3.2x optical zoom (in comparison with 2x optical zoom on the 12 Professional).

Xiaomi’s essential digital camera was principally nice, producing very vibrant and detailed photographs in low gentle. Generally the low gentle photographs leaned yellow, and typically the processing went too far, making the photographs unnaturally vibrant, and leaving odd artifacts round gentle sources (see picture under), however total the photographs had been by no means unhealthy.

Unsurprisingly, Xiaomi took wonderful photographs in daylight. The Leica-tuned digital camera software program provides two fundamental capturing modes, “Leica Vibrant” and “Leica Genuine.” I principally caught with the latter, however the distinction is delicate, with “Vibrant” producing barely brighter photographs with extra vibrant colours.

If the situations are good, you may change to Xiaomi’s 50-megapixel mode, however more often than not it is higher to stay with the common capturing mode.
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Xiaomi 13 Professional’s ultra-wide digital camera is a step down in high quality, and ought to be used solely when the principle digital camera simply does not go broad sufficient.

The ultra-wide digital camera ought to be used sparingly.
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In the event you transcend Xiaomi’s fundamental digital camera options and faucet on the “Extra” button within the digital camera software program, you may get a ton extra choices, together with unique ones like Supermoon. Swiping far left within the backside menu will open up Professional mode, which allows you to management practically each facet of the digital camera, together with white stability, ISO sensitivity, and shutter pace. Total, there is a ton of settings to undergo, and I reckon solely probably the most persistent customers will strive all of them out.

Lastly, the selfie digital camera is a 32-megapixel shooter that comes with a ton of choices, together with a mess of filters and beautifying choices; do not go overboard otherwise you’ll find yourself wanting like a cartoon character. On default settings, the photographs come out very detailed however delicate and barely washed out, which is fairly simple to repair within the settings.

I assume that is how I look.
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Total, it seems that Xiaomi has lastly managed to place collectively a smartphone digital camera that takes nice photographs in most eventualities. It could not win each battle towards different high telephones, nevertheless it’ll all the time be aggressive.

The very best Xiaomi cellphone shortly

The headphone jack is, sadly, absent.
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I like this cellphone greater than I preferred any Xiaomi cellphone that got here out previously couple of years. Its design will not be probably the most thrilling, nevertheless it’s fairly smooth nonetheless (make sure you take a look at each colours to see which one you fancy), with a stunning show and a flowery ceramic again. It matches Samsung’s not too long ago launched Galaxy S23 Plus on energy and options, and has a really succesful digital camera system. It fees extraordinarily quick, and its battery lasts as much as two days.

At writing time, I had no information on an important piece of the puzzle: pricing. Function-wise, the Xiaomi 13 Professional is a combination between the Galaxy S23+ and the Galaxy S23 Extremely, which begin at $999.99 and $1,199.99, respectively. If the Xiaomi 13 Professional is fairly priced (for instance, the Xiaomi 12 Professional began at $999), it will likely be a really sturdy competitor to any Android flagship on the market.