First impressions of the Xiaomi 13 Pro: new heavyweight flagship

The Indian smartphone market has already seen the launch of many high-end devices in 2023, such as the iQoo 11 5G (Review), OnePlus 11 5G (Review) and the Samsung Galaxy S23 series. Joining the league is Xiaomi’s most premium smartphone offering to date, the Xiaomi 13 Pro. The new flagship features high-end hardware and was announced here at MWC 2023. The headline feature is its new 1-inch camera sensor, which was first seen in the Xiaomi 12S Ultra . There’s more to the Xiaomi 13 Pro than just the main camera sensor, and here’s our first look at the phone.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro is available in two premium colors: Ceramic Black and Ceramic White. We have the black color option which has a glossy back panel. Although it’s a fingerprint magnet, I like the overall look of the phone. Xiaomi has bundled a case inside the box for people like me who like to keep the back of their phone clean and neat.

Using the case adds weight to the already heavy device (229g), and you’ll miss the grip feel of the ceramic back panel. In short, I would recommend the white color instead, which looks just as good and also helps hide fingerprints better.

The retail box also contains a charging adapter, USB Type-A to Type-C cable, screen protector, SIM eject tool, and documentation booklets.

Another highlight of the Xiaomi 13 Pro is its large screen. The phone has a 6.73-inch WQHD+ AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate. It also gets all the high-end display features like Dolby Vision and HDR10 playback support +, WideVine L1 certification, etc. The curved-edge display offers 1,900 nits of peak brightness and comes with a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. For added security, there’s an in-screen fingerprint scanner as well as handy AI face unlock.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro has an AMOLED display with curved edges

The metal frame of the Xiaomi 13 Pro is curved on the sides, while the top and bottom are flat. On the right side you get the power and volume keys, while the bottom edge houses the USB Type-C port, main speaker, SIM card tray and microphone. The top edge houses the IR emitter and another microphone.

On the back, there’s a square-shaped camera module for the triple-camera setup. The Xiaomi 13 Pro houses a 1-inch 50-megapixel Sony IMX989 main camera with support for optical image stabilization (OIS). There’s also a 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera with a 115-degree field of view and a 50-megapixel telephoto camera with 3.2X optical zoom. Digitally, the camera can zoom up to 70X. There’s a punch-hole cutout at the top of the display for the 32-megapixel front camera.

Xiaomi’s partnership with camera maker Leica for its flagship smartphones will also debut in India with the Xiaomi 13 Pro. It goes without saying that our review will cover the performance of all four camera sensors, so stay tuned for our final verdict.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro has the same 1-inch camera sensor as the Xiaomi 12S Ultra

What we’ll also be testing is how the phone performs during routine tasks and while gaming. The Xiaomi 13 Pro features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, which is currently the most powerful SoC for Android smartphones. The phone also packs a 4,820mAh battery that supports 120W fast wired charging, 50W wireless charging, and 10W reverse wireless charging. Our unit had 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage.

In terms of software, Xiaomi launched the 13 Pro with the latest MIUI 14 which is based on Android 13. The new MIUI skin is said to have received a lot of improvements under the hood which should help deliver a smoother user experience. Xiaomi also promised to provide three years of software updates and five years of security support.

Stay tuned for the full Xiaomi 13 Pro review, which will be available on Gadgets 360 very soon. Let us know what you think of the new Xiaomi 13 Pro in the comments below.