Xiaomi 13T review

Introduction and specs

This year's Xiaomi numeric T-series is getting a massive upgrade, putting it closer to the company's true flagship lineup. The new Xiaomi 13T and 13T Pro are still considered upper midrangers, or premium midrangers, whatever you like to call them. But feature-wise, the duo is now much closer to actual flagships. And that's a good thing.

The Xiaomi 13T and 13T Pro are now launching with a price tag about €50 higher than their predecessors, but those extra bucks are well worth it. Since this is a Xiaomi 13T review, we will focus on the vanilla, which is slightly different from the Pro version. Even the company said the 13T can be considered as the budget version of the 13T Pro. That's probably why the vanilla is selling with only 256GB of internal storage. A 512GB version would cost about as much as a 13T Pro.

The 13T settles for a lesser chipset, but still quite promising - MediaTek's new Dimensity 8200 Ultra. It shapes up to be a significant upgrade over the Dimensity 8100 Ultra from last year, at least on paper. The 13T also settles with a slower 67W charging. The rest is absolutely identical.

Xiaomi 13T specs at a glance:

• Body: 162.2x75.7x8.5mm, 193g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass 5), glass back or silicone polymer back, plastic frame; IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 min).
• Display: 6.67" AMOLED, 68B colors, 144Hz, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, 1200 nits (HBM), 2600 nits (peak), 1220x2712px resolution, 20.01:9 aspect ratio, 446ppi.
• Chipset: Mediatek Dimensity 8200 Ultra (4 nm): Octa-core (1x3.1 GHz Cortex-A78 & 3x3.0 GHz Cortex-A78 & 4x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G610 MC6.
• Memory: 256GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM; UFS 3.1.
• OS/Software: Android 13, MIUI 14.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.9, 24mm, 1/1.28", 1.22µm, PDAF, OIS; Telephoto: 50 MP, f/1.9, 50mm, 1/2.88", 0.61µm, PDAF, 2x optical zoom; Ultra wide angle: 12 MP, f/2.2, 15mm, 1/3.06", 1.12µm.
• Front camera: 20 MP, f/2.2, (wide), 0.8µm.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30fps (HDR10+), 1080p@30/60/120fps, gyro-EIS; Front camera: 1080p@30fps, HDR10+.
• Battery: 5000mAh; 67W wired, PD3.0, QC4, 100% in 42 min (advertised).
• Connectivity: 5G; eSIM; Dual SIM; Wi-Fi 6; BT 5.4; NFC; Infrared port.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); stereo speakers.

Compared to the last two generations, however, the 13T offers a significant upgrade in the display department (it's supposed to be considerably brighter now and supports 144Hz instead of 120Hz refresh rate), a more capable and versatile camera setup (finally, the outdated 8MP ultrawide camera is gone), IP68 certification against water and dust, more premium build with Gorilla Glass 5 and optional vegan leather back cover and a more powerful chip. Interestingly enough, the 12T had 120W fast charging. What's up with that? Maybe Xiaomi wanted more than one notable difference between the 13T and 13T Pro.

Arguably, the most notable change in the 13T series is the camera setup. Just like the flagship 13 family, the 13T gets Leica-branded lenses along with Leica's usual optimizations for color and processing.

Although with a smaller resolution, the main 50MP camera now uses a bigger sensor and is aided by another 50MP unit tasked with 2x zoom stills. One could argue that 2x zoom is achievable using simple crop from today's big sensors, but it's nice to have at least some sort of dedicated zoom camera than none at all. It's been a long time coming. Additionally, the 8MP ultrawide camera has been swapped for a more adequate 12MP ultrawide snapper. It's an upgrade we've been waiting for a couple of years now.

Last but not least, Xiaomi now promises not three but four major OS updates and five years of security patches - just like its flagship lineups. Xiaomi has put together a duo of very competitive mid-range devices, so the rather minimal price hike of €50 over the last generation can be easily overlooked. But as always, the devil is in the details. Let's dive in.

Unboxing the Xiaomi 13T

The Xiaomi 13T comes in a standard package containing all the usual user manuals, the appropriate 67W charger, and a compatible USB-A to USB-C cable.

Xiaomi has also included a transparent silicone case as a freebie.