Right now, we at Gameactor haven’t taken MrMobile’s view that traditional flagships in the smartphone market are now so unimaginative that it’s hard to find exciting reporting angles. After all, phones are commodities, and they’re expensive commodities, so giving consumers a bang for their buck is, in a way, never boring.
But there’s a reason we say “partially” here, because development has stalled to such an extent that it’s hard to find anything really exciting. Take the Mi 13 for example – almost everything here fits the bill perfectly. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is blazing fast, as is the UFS 4.0 slot and 8GB of RAM. The gorgeous 6.36″ AMOLED 120Hz Dolby Vision display peaking at over 1900 NITS is absolutely outstanding, we have IP68 certification, wireless charging, 67W wired charging and more. Even the camera is developed through a collaboration with Leica and can compete directly with Samsung and Apple in terms of post-processing and real optics. It’s all here.
It has to start at £849, which then puts it on the same rung of the price ladder as the Galaxy S23, iPhone 14 and OnePlus 11. Xiaomi may have deliberately chosen to brush shoulders with the rest of their flagships, because they know they can, and there’s no real missing feature here. There is no doubt that Mi 13 has rightfully earned its place.
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Perhaps it should be said here that the Mi 13, like many other smartphones, is positioned in the middle, with little money, a rather wild Lite version, and a significantly more expensive Pro version. This can lead to a lack of real identity or presence, which is why we’re the first to admit that the smartphone market isn’t as exciting as it used to be.
But that doesn’t mean the Mi 13 isn’t gorgeous, because it is. It’s all glass wrapped in Corning Gorilla Glass 5, and while the Chinese manufacturer really isn’t taking any chances with the design, it’s also hard to put your finger on real misses.In fact, justgripIt’s so nice to have in hand.
As I said, the base case is under control. The AMOLED display is 2400×1080 with Dolby Vision and HDR10+, and since it can easily hit 1900 NITS of brightness, everything is crystal clear in all lighting conditions. Dolby Atmos speakers and a touch sampling rate of 240Hz make it responsive when you want to play… yes, Merge Mansion.
Here is an ad:
Xiaomi’s cameras have improved significantly over the past few years. The central wide-angle lens is 50 megapixels and uses the Sony IMX800 sensor in cooperation with Leica. Of course, there’s also optical stabilization, but probably with post processing, you’ll see the biggest results. It has soft bokeh, solid performance even in low light, good color chemistry in a variety of different scenarios, and it’s generally a very easy camera to fall in love with.
Perhaps it’s a shame that the telephoto lens is “only” 10MP and only has 3.2x optical zoom – 5x would have been better to make it more competitive, but it all works, the ultra-wide lens hits a FOV of 120 degrees, This is absolutely necessary.
If there’s one area worth highlighting as a key point of contention, it’s software, as it’s one of the few areas where there’s still a lot of variation between Android makers. The phone runs MIUI 13 based on Android 14, and while there’s not much extra here, some system shortcuts are taken directly from iOS instead of stock Android, and there are Xiaomi versions of dedicated apps like Calculator, Calendar — and whatnot.
Niagra, Nova or Hyperion can be installed and the hardware itself is excellent so that’s enough…well, enough to give the Mi 13 a rock solid recommendation on an informed basis, but at the same time, nothing really unique New innovative features make it…exciting.