Xiaomi 13 review

GSMArena Team, 27 February 2023.

A bright, flat, 6.36-inch, 120Hz OLED

The Xiaomi 13 has a gorgeous 6.36-inch AMOLED display at its helm. It is a bit bigger than the 6.29-inch panel on the Xiaomi 12, but not quite as bit as the 6.67-inch displays on the Xiaomi 12T and 12T Pro. It has a FullHD+ resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels, which at this diagonal works out to a very crisp and sharp 414 ppi or so.

Xiaomi 13 review

The panel looks great in person and is made from an E6 generation of material, which allows for superb brightness, among other things. Xiaomi advertises a high brightness mode of 1,200 nits and a peak brightness of 1,900 nits. We measured 507 nits of brightness by maxing out the slider and then a whopping 1254 nits in max auto mode in our standardized test. Needless to say, there is no shortage of brightness, and the Xiaomi 13 is a pleasure to use outdoors. Naturally, it has excellent contrast as well.

Display test 100% brightness
Black,cd/m2 White,cd/m2 Contrast ratio
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (Max Auto) 0 1274
Xiaomi 13 (Max Auto) 0 1254
Samsung Galaxy S23 (Max Auto) 0 1198
Xiaomi 12S Ultra (Max Auto) 0 1065
Google Pixel 7 (Max Auto) 0 974
Xiaomi 12T (Max Auto) 0 954
Xiaomi 12T Pro (Max Auto) 0 913
Poco X5 Pro (Max Auto) 0 912
Xiaomi 12 (Max Auto) 0 896
Google Pixel 6a (Max Auto) 0 876
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (Extra Brightness) 0 831
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G (Max Auto) 0 830
Oppo Reno8 Pro (Max Auto) 0 818
Realme 10 Pro+ (Max Auto) 0 809
Samsung Galaxy S23 (Extra Brightness) 0 786
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G (Max Auto) 0 760
Poco X5 (Max Auto) 0 728
Nothing phone (1) (Max Auto) 0 663
OnePlus Nord 2T (Max Auto) 0 636
Oppo Reno8 (Max Auto) 0 633
Realme 10 Pro (Max Auto) 0.53 619 1168:1
Poco X4 GT (Max Auto) 0.496 600 1210:1
Realme 10 Pro 0.47 590 1255:1
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra 0 517
Xiaomi 12T 0 513
Xiaomi 12S Ultra 0 512
Oppo Reno8 Pro 0 510
Xiaomi 12T Pro 0 509
Xiaomi 13 0 507
Google Pixel 6a 0 505
Xiaomi 12 0 494
Poco X5 Pro 0 491
Realme 10 Pro+ 0 484
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G 0 479
Samsung Galaxy S23 0 476
Nothing phone (1) 0 466
Google Pixel 7 0 460
Poco X5 0 456
OnePlus Nord 2T 0 449
Oppo Reno8 0 439
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G 0 427

The Xiaomi 13 is also quite good at color reproduction. It has quite a few color modes to choose from.

Color modes - Xiaomi 13 review Color modes - Xiaomi 13 review Color modes - Xiaomi 13 review Color modes - Xiaomi 13 review
Color modes

Vivid is the default. It targets the DCI-P3 color space and does so decently well. This default color profile has a slight blue tint but nothing too outrageous. Vivid color mode retains said tint while also boosting the other primary color channels (red and green) for a more balanced but also more saturated look. Use this one if you are after that signature OLED "pop". As the name suggests, the original color mode is meant to provide great color accuracy. It targets the sRGB color space and nails it perfectly with extremely low deltaE values. This mode can definitely be considered color accurate.

Interestingly enough, the dedicated sRGB and DCI-P3 advanced color modes don't provide as accurate color reproduction. Avoid these unless you have a particular reason to use them.

The Xiaomi 13 also has excellent HDR support. The display offers support for all the major HDR standards - HDR10, HDR10+, HLG and Dolby Vision. The display definitely has enough brightness to deliver on those lofty HDR promises as well. The phone also reports support for decoding all four formats in software, which is great to see.

Pro HDR is an additional system working on the Xiaomi 13 to enhance the relationship between light and dark areas based on the content that is being played. It aims to deliver a visual experience as close to human vision as possible.

HDR support - Xiaomi 13 review Widevine - Xiaomi 13 review Netflix playback capabilities - Xiaomi 13 review
HDR support • Widevine • Netflix playback capabilities

We are also happy to report that the Xiaomi 13 has the highest possible Widevine L1 certification, allowing streaming apps like Netflix to saturate its FullHD resolution.

High refresh rate handling

The Xiaomi 13 has a 120Hz refresh rate display and a very smart and well-optimized system to manage its refresh rate dynamically. When we say dynamically, we still mean in fairly coarse steps.

Xiaomi 13 review

It lacks LTPO tech and the really dynamic refresh rate switching that comes with it. Instead, the Xiaomi 13 can run its display at 120Hz, 90Hz and 60Hz.

Refresh rate options - Xiaomi 13 review Refresh rate options - Xiaomi 13 review
Refresh rate options

In terms of settings, you can set the Xiaomi 13 to refresh at a fixed 120Hz, fixed 60Hz or leave its default automatic switching behavior. The latter is excellent in practice. For the phone UI and most apps, the system uses 120Hz while the user is interacting with the display or there is motion on screen, and then once it sees a static image for a couple of seconds, it drops the refresh rate down to 60Hz to save power.

Automatic refresh rate switching in the UI and most apps - Xiaomi 13 review Automatic refresh rate switching in the UI and most apps - Xiaomi 13 review Automatic refresh rate switching in the UI and most apps - Xiaomi 13 review Automatic refresh rate switching in the UI and most apps - Xiaomi 13 review Automatic refresh rate switching in the UI and most apps - Xiaomi 13 review
Automatic refresh rate switching in the UI and most apps

The auto refresh rate mode is also smart enough to detect when there is a video playing on screen or a video playback app like YouTube has been launched and drop its refresh rate down appropriately to 60Hz to save power.

60Hz during video playback - Xiaomi 13 review
60Hz during video playback

As for games, we tried a few titles we know can render at above 60fps. Unfortunately, none of these managed to automatically trigger 120Hz mode. Once we manually set the phone to 120Hz, they made proper use of the available refresh rate headroom. So, not exactly the flawless automatic behavior we've seen with past Xiaomi devices like the 12T Pro, but still usable.

Gaming at 120Hz in 120Hz mode - Xiaomi 13 review Gaming at 120Hz in 120Hz mode - Xiaomi 13 review Gaming at 120Hz in 120Hz mode - Xiaomi 13 review Gaming at 120Hz in 120Hz mode - Xiaomi 13 review
Gaming at 120Hz in 120Hz mode

Overall, the automatic refresh rate system works well but seems to have gotten worse on the Xiaomi 13 compared to some of the company's previous models. Perhaps it has something to do with the move to Android 13. We can't say for sure, but we hope an update restores the system back to its former glory. As things currently stand, you just need to remember to flip the phone over to 120Hz mode manually to make use of high refresh rate gaming. The rest of the time, there is no reason not to just leave the Xiaomi 13 in auto-refresh rate mode.

Battery life

The Xiaomi 13 has a decently-sized 4,500 mAh battery at its disposal. Battery endurance is one area in which the efficient Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset has managed to prove its worth. While not chart-topping, the Xiaomi 13 still managed a very good battery endurance of 108 hours. That's a nice uptick from the Xiaomi 12, and its 82 hours from a 4,500 mAh battery and even has the Xiaomi 12T Pro beat with its 91 hours on a 5,000 mAh battery. Color us pleasantly surprised.

Xiaomi 13 review

The on-screen battery numbers are a bit on the lower end, but again nothing compared to previous generations of Xiaomi devices. Plus, the Xiaomi 13 makes up for that with excellent 3G talk time and network standby numbers. Overall, we can't complaint at all.

Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating denotes how long the battery charge will last you if you use the device for an hour of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. More details can be found here.

Video test carried out in 60Hz refresh rate mode. Web browsing test done at the display's highest refresh rate whenever possible. Refer to the respective reviews for specifics. To adjust the endurance rating formula to match your own usage patterns check out our all-time battery test results chart where you can also find all phones we've tested.

Charging

The Xiaomi 13 can charge at a rate of up to 67W using proprietary Xiaomi charging tech. It also features support for Power Delivery 3.0 and Quick Charge 4. Though, if you want to make use of its maximum charging speed, you need to hold on to both the provided charger and cable from the retail box.

Xiaomi 13 review

We aren't quite sure why Xiaomi decided to stick to 67W charging for the vanilla Xiaomi 13, given that devices like the Xiaomi 12T Pro are already out with 120W wired charging. Perhaps it was a market segmentation decision since the Xiaomi 13 Pro does get 120W charging.

Xiaomi claims that a full charge on the Xiaomi 13 should take 38 minutes. We didn't quite manage said figure in our testing, but we definitely got close enough at 42 minutes. Despite rocking the older Xiaomi charging standard, the Xiaomi 13 is still quite a speedy charging device.

30min charging test (from 0%)

Higher is better

Sort by
Name
30 min time
Xiaomi 12T Pro
100%
Xiaomi 12T
100%
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
100%
Poco F4 GT
100%
OnePlus Nord 2T
99%
Xiaomi 12T (Boost OFF)
96%
Poco F4
92%
Oppo Reno8
90%
Oppo Reno8 Pro
90%
Xiaomi 12
87%
Realme 10 Pro+
86%
Xiaomi 13
83%
Xiaomi 13 Lite
83%
Poco X5 Pro
82%
Poco X4 GT
75%
Xiaomi 12S Ultra
73%
Nokia X30
69%
Poco X5
63%
Samsung Galaxy S23
57%
Realme 10 Pro
54%
Google Pixel 7
48%
Nothing phone (1)
48%
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
45%
Google Pixel 6a
42%

* Tap/hover over the device names for more info

Time to full charge (from 0%)

Lower is better

Sort by
Name
Time
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
0:16h
Poco F4 GT
0:17h
Xiaomi 12T Pro
0:23h
Xiaomi 12T
0:23h
Xiaomi 12T (Boost OFF)
0:31h
OnePlus Nord 2T
0:32h
Poco F4
0:38h
Realme 10 Pro+
0:41h
Xiaomi 13
0:42h
Xiaomi 13 Lite
0:42h
Oppo Reno8
0:42h
Oppo Reno8 Pro
0:42h
Xiaomi 12
0:46h
Xiaomi 12S Ultra
0:50h
Poco X5 Pro
0:50h
Poco X4 GT
0:57h
Nokia X30
1:03h
Poco X5
1:06h
Realme 10 Pro
1:12h
Samsung Galaxy S23
1:16h
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
1:24h
Nothing phone (1)
1:31h
Google Pixel 7
1:40h
Google Pixel 6a
1:51h

* Tap/hover over the device names for more info

Plus, while it lacks 120W charging, the Xiaomi 13 still gets 50W wireless charging support and 10W reverse wireless charging to back up its status as a proper flagship.

Speakers

The Xiaomi 13 has a stereo speaker setup with a Dolby Atmos equalizer on top. One of the stereo channels is handled by a proper down-firing speaker, while the other is front-firing and doubles as the earpiece. A fairly-common hybrid setup. It is worth noting that other Xiaomi devices, like the Xiaomi 12 and the 12T Pro, have a second speaker grill on the top frame, which Xiaomi decided to omit on the 13 for some reason.

Interestingly enough, the top speaker/earpiece on the Xiaomi 13 doesn't just handle one of the channels but actually assists in both of them and is always outputting audio. An interesting system that works surprisingly well in practice, though at the expense of stereo separation.

Xiaomi worked together with Dolby on the audio of the 13. There are settings for Dolby Atmos available, as well as a full-featured equalizer.

Dolby Atmos settings and equalizer - Xiaomi 13 review Dolby Atmos settings and equalizer - Xiaomi 13 review Dolby Atmos settings and equalizer - Xiaomi 13 review
Dolby Atmos settings and equalizer

The Xiaomi 13 gets quite loud and managed a VERY GOOD loudness score in our proprietary test. Its frequency response is also nice and tight, with a surprising amount of base and nice clean highs. Despite their location, the speakers aren't particularly easy to cover while holding the phone in landscape mode either.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.

Reader comments

Nope, this is a flagship, the 13t and 13t pro are not flagships, although they are near.

13T and 13T Pro cameras output better image quality than this.

Well i used many Xiaomi devices, RN 9 Pro, 12 Lite and even a higher 12T. Changing the wallpapers was always buggy, changing to dark mode horrible, swiping from an app sometimes can be laggy and many more. For me it's reversed, i used Samsung mo...