This is the Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G, a mid-ranger from Xiaomi with an impressive 200 megapixel camera. It's not only that, there are other nice upgrades this year too.
Another year, Redmi Note has launched another mid-range model, and today we are talking about the Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G. Xiaomi has brought numerous upgrades over last year's Redmi Note 12 Pro, including an improved display, a faster chipset, and a 200-megapixel main camera.
The phone's display is a 6.67-inch OLED with a 1220p resolution, Gorilla Glass Victus protection, and a 120Hz refresh rate, making the display sharper than last year's 1080p panel. The higher resolution results in a pixel density of 446 ppi.
Another upgrade is support for 12-bit color depth, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision. Like many mobile phones in the industry, the screen brightness of the Note 13 Pro launched this year has also been greatly improved. The maximum we measured was 530 nits when using the manual slider, which can be increased to 1330 nits in automatic mode, where the refresh rate behavior is very normal. You get a solid 120Hz, which can be reduced to 60Hz to save power when you stop interacting with the screen. This is a new development; previous models were side-mounted.
For sound, the phone has a pair of stereo speakers. They get very good reviews for their volume, and the sound quality is great, with nice vocals, nice highs, and decent bass.
There are larger storage options this year. You can buy the Note 13 Pro globally in 256 GB or 512 GB. Not expandable via microSD. The Redmi Note 13 Pro’s UI is nothing new either. It's the same interface we saw last year, but the phone should receive an update to Xiaomi's new HyperOS at a later date.
At the heart of the Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G is a Qualcomm chipset, the Snapdragon 7S Gen 2. Don’t let the naming confuse you, it’s actually not as powerful as the Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2 or even the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1. It is an upgraded version of the MediaTek Dimensity 1080 released last year.
You'll get solid day-to-day performance and 5G connectivity, and in benchmarks, both the CPU and GPU perform very well for the mid-range. And even if it is not a gaming phone, the Note 13 Pro 5G performs quite well in games.
The phone comes with a 5100mAh battery, and despite its large capacity, the Note 13 Pro only managed average results in our battery tests, with a total of 10 hours and 16 minutes of use. Like the previous model, the phone supports 67W charging, and using the included adapter, we were able to charge it from 0 to 83 percent in half an hour.
Now we have a camera. The new main camera has a resolution of up to 200 megapixels. Not long ago, this sensor was exclusive to flagship phones. Along with that camera, the Note 13 Pro offers the usual mid-range features. 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera and 2-megapixel macro camera. Starting with the main camera, the main camera takes great 12.5-megapixel photos during the day thanks to PixelBiddy. The recordings are characterized by excellent clarity, many fine details, a large dynamic range and lifelike colors and contrast. On rare occasions we'll see highlights being slightly clipped, but this isn't too concerning.
This is compared to the Poco X6, which is the same phone but with a lower resolution main camera. There's one clear difference: the Redmi's photo quality is noticeably better. If digitally scaled up to 2x, the results are reliable. There is very little quality loss and no large noise in the image.
At night, the main camera performs impressively, with good contrast and color reproduction, wide dynamic range and plenty of fine detail. There is an automatic night mode, but it only activates in very dark scenes. If this is the case, you'll get extra detail, greater clarity, and better reproduction of highlights and light sources.
The main camera captures 4K video with excellent detail and clarity, accurate color and wide dynamic range. All videos also feature electronic stabilization. Low-light video is solid for a mid-range device. Detail levels, good contrast, and natural colors are adequate, but there's also noticeable noise in the shadows. Photos taken by the 8 MP ultrawide camera are not impressive at all. The shots are quite soft and lack detail. Colors appear muted and contrast needs to be improved.
And at night, the ultra-wide-angle camera doesn't perform well. While contrast, color, and dynamic range are good in most situations, we didn't like the extreme softness. Even the dedicated night mode struggles to save photos.
The 1080p video captured by the ultra-wide-angle camera is nothing special. It looks washed out and muted, with limited dynamic range. The macro camera's 2-megapixel close-up shots have limited detail due to their low resolution, and the lack of autofocus makes capturing sharp macro photos particularly difficult. Selfies from the 16-megapixel front camera have good dynamic range and natural rendering, but are a bit soft overall.
This is the Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G. There are a number of improvements over the previous model, including a better display, a better chipset, and a better main camera. There are larger storage options and an under-display fingerprint reader. Beyond that, there's competitive fast charging and great speakers. Of course it's not perfect. Except for the main camera, the other cameras perform mediocrely. About what you would expect at this price. Other than that, the Redmi Note 13 Pro is solid in every aspect. It seems to offer the best value for money on the market and is highly recommended.
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