Xiaomi 13 Pro (Ceramic Black, 12GB RAM 256GB Storage) | Leica Professional 50MP Triple Camera | Biggest Camera Sensor 1″ IMX989 | SD 8 Gen 2

I had Note 5 pro waiting to be replaced with something worthwhile. This particular model comes with a few uniques, which would keep it for long in the race and checks most of the features I ever wanted in a single device. Grab some popcorn, as its a long review (shouldn’t it be? as I am upgrading after ~5 years :d).

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🎁 INSIDE BOX
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1x Xiaomi 13 pro smartphone wrapped inside a soft flap
1x transparent soft cover (with raised lips around camera module and screen such that it covers edges that touch resting surface protecting screen and camera)
1x sim tray ejector tool
1x power adapter (120watt)
1x USB-C cable (6A)
1x warranty leaflet/Quick start guide

Weight: sealed box is around 800g 😮 | ~200 g smartphone, ~300 g charger
Updates: 3 years of Android updates and 5 years of security patches

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➕ OBSERVATIONS & PROS
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1. Beautiful white color ceramic back with black camera island, which gives perfect contrast and much needed attention to behemoth camera modules. I really wish to use it w/o cover, all credits to the premium looks, but then it may not survive accidental drops. I remember dropping my N86 which cracked outer glass protection and damaged the camera module. You can never drop it carefully, and mind the weight. 😉
2. Despite of being heavy, feels and is actually perfectly balanced about center axis. So doesn’t feel heavy at all, even on the upper or lower end, to tilt it while holding

2. Leica optimized software and lenses, and plethora of Leica features inside (more details below)
3. Macro shots are awesome- but to get best results use pro mode and focus manually, if possibly by zooming into the subject
4. Main lens captures good details, both during day and night, 1″ sensor at play (mind that its not exactly 1″ in dimension and rather legacy concept, but so far its largest sensor in the smartphone world). Also, records video at up to 8K with support for Dolby vision.

5. Premium curved OLED screen with variable refresh rate (max 120hz) and Corning Victus glass protection. Screen has one of the best sunlight performances (can watch videos as well in direct sun) and is a charm to use since everything is super smooth with curved edges.
6. Always on display is a nice feature but yes its battery consuming

7. Thermals are intelligently managed here. There are no issues with heavy usage or during high-speed charging or during video recording. It would get warm, but nowhere near hot to touch.
8. SD 8 gen 2 beast with throttling issues from SD 8 gen 1 were also addressed, plus 3400sqmm vapor chamber to cool the beast (I would say, it just got warm during gaming sessions, but not hot).
9. UFS 4.0 storage coupled with SD 8 gen 2 and LPDDR5X RAM is fast. I installed SimCity BuildIt, and post download it took less than a second to install the game. Otherwise also, across interface you could feel the speed, like full 50mp shots take no processing time, snappy animations, etc.

10. MIUI 14 based on Android 13 in house, its clean and fast. Most of the apps can be uninstalled directly for those who prefer to.
11. Comes with Widevine L1 DRM support, and Full HD streaming
12. Considering its a flagship phone, top of the lineup- company would be fast at updates and upgrades. Even the BT framework got updated when I switched on BT for pairing.
13. System also has virtual RAM just like desktop OS. You can have up to 7gb of storage as virtual RAM

14. SIM card tray is dual sided- at one glance you wonder that if you got single sim version (which doesn’t exist in real :d), but on a close look you see SIM 1 written and when you turn it around, its sim 2
15. Old school IR blaster to control IR devices (acts as a secondary remote for TV, AC, Sound System, etc). I love mi for not dropping it ever.
16. Stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos sound, ear piece doubles as the second speaker
17. 120 watt hypercharge to get going in around 20 mins, 50 watts wireless charging via compatible wireless charger, and 10 watt reverse wireless charging to charge other devices on the go. Phone does get slightly warm during charging due to high wattage, but nowhere near hot

18. NFC for easy pairing and NFC based payments are also available now
19. IP68 rating is a blessing (though not officially mentioned on the website). Its a must have feature in the flagships, for the price we pay. With it, you need not worry while having pool side photoshoot (not inside pool as IP68 is in test conditions of fresh water, so better safe than sorry), or usage even during rains, or even accidental spillages. Better to avoid using it underwater/showers – just because you can, not necessary you should.

20. In display fast optical fingerprint scanner, unlocks in less than 0.5 s, so its snappy. Only trouble with optical ones is the smaller area of detection, so you need to get used to the position of sensor to unlock faster, else touch screen anywhere and wait for the area to display finger print icon. If you know the position, just put finger there and it unlocks.
21. Features heart rate measurement via fingerprint scanner (not that accurate but its nice to have)
22. Great speeds over 5G network, I could achieve 210 Mbps while 4G was only 30 Mbps

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➖ OBSERVATIONS & CONS
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Nothing is perfect, so is this beast

1. To cut down costs, a few shortcuts have been taken and that main one to highlight would be USB-C port with USB 2.0 standards. Truly I never use port to copy files and use FTP functionality (details below)
2. Dated front camera with fixed focus, 1080p recording, and no HDR
3. Ultrasonic fingerprint scanner missing, would have been a good addition for instant unlock considering flagship phone, but any ways current one is fast enough for you to not notice any lag

Pros outweigh cons by huge margins here. So this one’s definitely a 5 star device, bearing in cost factor as well for such packed specifications in the device.

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📱 CURVED SCREEN & ACIDDENTAL TOUCHES
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Curved screens have disadvantage of accidental touches, but Xiaomi has a setting to set the width insensitive zone towards the curved edges
You get 4 setting to define inactive zone- small area, default, big area, and custom

Also, I felt its a wonderful experience to swipe through edges, since its curved. Easy to switch off alarms when phone is below the pillow, just swipe at the edge :d

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🔌CHARGING AND BACKUP
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A) Charge time:

With Boost mode on (max of 120watts, works with screen off to keep device cool) – 2% to 46% in 10 mins, 46% to 100% in next 23 mins
So overall 33 mins to fully charge the device.

With 10watt normal charger: For 2% to 100%, it took around 2 hours 30 mins

TBH, I am not that fan of fast charging as its not good for battery and device health. It produces a lot of heat, affecting electronic components and battery life. I would probably resort to lower watt chargers and keep the provided chargers for emergencies only.

B) Battery backup/Discharge time:

Overnight discharge- 3% (phone in bedtime mode, WiFi+Data off, both SIM in 2g)

Mix use- 24 hours 80% down, ~2 hours gaming, a few calls, YT videos 30 mins, Cast to TV 10 mins, 10-15 still captures (WiFi on, Data off, SIM 1 5G, SIM 2 2G, Auto Brightness on, phone in bedtime mode for 6 hours)

Video playback in YouTube- 60 mins, 7% discharge (WiFi on, Data off, SIM 1 5G, SIM 2 2G, Auto Brightness on, Dark mode on, Dolby off, Volume 50%, AI video on, HDR on)

6 mins 8K video- 1% drain
10 mins 4K video- 5% drain

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📷 CAMERA
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First of all, its the main highlight of this phone, next to screen itself.

Many of available modes don’t come preinstalled (such as vlog, short video, panorama, long exposure, cloning, et) . You just need to click on the icons once in the more menu of camera interface and it will be downloaded.

You have Leica vibrant vs authentic mode, and voice shutter across (just say cheese- works well)

1. Default photo mode- auto mode with all lenses available in form of zoom x, 0.6x (uw), 1x (wide/primary), 2x (wide/primary with digital zoom), 3.2x (tele), auto night mode, beautify mode, Leica filters, google lens, AI mode, HDR, movie frame, grid lines, tilt shift (center, horizontal), timed burst (10 to unlimited photos, 1s to 60s), auto macro, super macro (which uses tele camera to zoom in closer at macro range)

2. 50 mp mode- to utilize full resolution of the sensor (no issues wrt higher processing time of too large a size of the image, it instantly captures 50mp photos and size is also around 10mb)

3. Pro mode- to have full control over exposure, white balance, focus, shutter speed (1/4000s to 30s), ISO (50 to 12800), lens (ultra wide, wide, tele-macro) | other settings in pro mode- Leica filters, metering, contrast, sharpness, saturation, RAW image, gridlines, 50mp capture, focus peaking to highlight areas in focus, exposure verification, and timed burst (10 to unlimited photos, 1s to 60s)

4. Video- 720p @ 30fps, 1080p @30/60 fps, 4k @ 24/30/60 fps, 9k @24 fps plus super macro mode, tele prompter, movie frame, beautify mode | there’s aperture control for bokeh but only works with 720p/1080p @ 30fps.
System only allows 6 mins of 8k video, possibly to avoid over heating. Also, a 6 mins of 8k video is around 5gb in size here and consumed only 1% of the battery
A 10 mins of 4K video also consumed similar space ~5gb, but 5% of battery

5. Portrait mode- for portrait click with some presets (35mm B/W, 50mm Swirly Bokeh, 75mm general portrait, and 90mm soft focus)

6. Short 10s video- (720p/1080p 30fps) with background music, Leica filters, beautify mode, and Kaleidoscope mode (6 effects)

7. Vlog mode- with predefined video timelines and audios (Nostalgia, Party, Cuisine, Neverland, Pets, Breeze)

8. Slow motion- to capture beautiful slo-mos (need good amount of light for perfect capture) | 720p/1080p () | 120 fps, 240 fps, 480 fps, 960 fps, 1920 fps | super macro also available here (480 fps/1920 fps unavailable in this setting)

9. Timelapse (speed 4x to 600x, duration 10 mins to 240 mins), Leica filters, Super macros, movie frame
10. Movie effects (Magic zoom, Slow shutter, Time free, Night time lapse, Parallel world)
11. Long exposure (moving crowd, neon trails, oil painting, light painting, starry sky, star trails)
12. Supermoon- to capture super moon, with good details, 5x to 60x (digital) and some moon effects (airplane, tree, bird etc overlay)
13. Dual video- capture video from both front and back cam at the same time in same frame (half each)
14. Clone- to clone subject with still background, lets say to have different poses
15. Other modes- AI watermark, Dedicated night mode, Panorama, Document mode

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📁 FTP WIRELESS FILE TRANSFER
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1. Default file manager has a feature, “connect to computer”, which in conjunction with desktop tool such as FileZilla could be used to browse 13 pro’s storage and copy files and folders)
2. File transfer speeds are good here considering new WiFi standards (25 MiB/s, 4.7 gb took approx. 3 mins for transfer, both to and fro) and acts as a great alternative to USB transfers

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🏆 FINAL VERDICT
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I am absolutely in love with the device, especially for its still captures. It’s a beast and some of the cons that are there, you can live with as those don’t affect much the regular functionality of the device.