Overview, Design, UI
The most feature-rich Xiaomi T-series phone yet
Xiaomi's phone updates aren't the easiest to follow, with their Xiaomi 13 series lineup spreading across normal, Pro, Lite, Ultra, and the latest to the family, the Xiaomi 13T series.
To complicate matters, they debuted at various times throughout the year and with differing price points. It's no surprise that we get questions in our community about the Xiaomi 13T phone and how it compares to the other options Xiaomi offer.
What is the Xiaomi 13T series about?
In a nutshell,Xiaomi’s T-series is known for bringing flagship-level features to the masses at a slightly more affordable price point, but theXiaomi 13T Pro takes this to a whole new level. Indeed, the previously launched Xiaomi 13 is priced at S$1,199 while the Pro edition is pegged at S$1,599, making them some of the most expensive Xiaomi phones launched. By contrast, the newly launched Xiaomi13T Pro starts from just S$949, which is a lower starting price than its most expensive T-series phone till date, Xiaomi 12T Pro.
Equipped and Priced to Impress
With a big jump to IP68 dust and water resistance from IP53 previously (check this article on what it means), a new CrystalRes AMOLED display that goes up to 144Hz refresh rate and 2,600 nits peak brightness, Leica lenses for the first time ever on a T-class product and more, theXiaomi 13T Pro looks like a beast of an affordable flagship phone, on paper at least.
The TLDRversion:Leica-branded camera lenses finally come to the T-series, andXiaomi isn't even charging extrafor some newly added features, making this excellent value for money.
Xiaomi is definitely leaning hard towards camera upgrades for the 13T Pro, with professional features like 10-bit RAW image supportto assist photographers in post-processing, as well as10-bit Log recording for the videographers out there.
Paired with Xiaomi’s Imaging Engine, the Leica Summicron lenses and photographic styles, it’s not far-fetched that most people would be excited aboutwhat the 13T Pro’s cameras can do.
Equipped with the MediaTek Dimensity 9200+processor under the hood, it's MediaTek's fastest ever to take on the popularSnapdragon 8 Gen 2.The Xiaomi 13T Pro comes with either 12GB or 16GB of LPDDR5X RAMwhile storage is at 512GB or 1TB of UFS4.0 storage, respectively.
With all those exciting new specs, it’s rather promising that Xiaomi has managed to keep the price to just S$949 while the 16GB with 1TB storage edition comes in at just S$1,099.Let’s take a closer look at what it has and how it feels before we look at the rest of the phone.
| Xiaomi 13T Pro | |
 |
|
| Launch SRP | From S$949 |
|---|---|
| Network: | Up to 5G SA and NSA |
| Operating system | Android 13 (MIUI 14) |
| Processor | MediaTek Dimensity 9200+ |
| Built-in Memory | 12GB or 16GB RAM (LPDDR5X) |
| Display | 6.67-inch CrystalRes AMOLED display, 144Hz dynamic refresh rate, HDR10+, 2,712 x 1,220 pixels resolution, 446 PPI, 480Hz touch sampling rate |
| Camera | Rear:Leica Vario-Summicron1:1.9-2.2/15-50mm ASPH lenses50MP main wide-angle camera, Sony IMX707 sensor, 1/1.28″ sensor, OIS, f/1.9 aperture, 1.22μm, 2.44μm 4-in-1 Super Pixel50MP telephoto camera, 1/2.88″ sensor, f/1.9 aperture, 0.61μm, 2x optical zoom, up to 20x digital zoom12MP ultrawide-angle camera, 1/3.06″ sensor, f/2.2 aperture, 1.12μmFront:20MP, f/2.2, HDR, Night mode, Portrait mode, 0.8μm |
| Video Support | 8K24FPS, 4K60FPS4K30FPS in HDR10+ recording4K30FPS in 10-bit LOG recording |
| Connectivity | LTE / 5G (NSA, SA)Wi-Fi 7, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e, tri-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot, Bluetooth 5.4L1+L5 GPS, A-GPS, G1 GLONASS, Beidou, E1+E5a GALILEO, L5 NavICNFC |
| Storage Type | 512GB1TB UFS 4.0 storageNo microSD expansion |
| Battery | 5,000mAh120W wired Xiaomi HyperCharge |
| Dimensions | Meadow Green, Black: 162.2 x 75.7 x 8.49mmAlpine Blue: 162.2 x 75.7 x 8.62mm |
| Weight | Meadow Green, Black: 206gAlpine Blue: 200g |
Premium look and feel
The Xiaomi 13T Pro takes after its predecessor, the 12T Pro, aside from the larger camera bump. There are three colour options: Meadow Green and Black (both of which come with glass backs)andAlpine Blue (pictured), which comes with Xiaomi’s BioComfort vegan leatheronthe back of the phone. The leather feelssmooth and soft in the hand, giving the 13T Pro a nice, premium feel that’s a little more unique compared to the standard glass rears.
As a by-product of this finish, the Alpine Blue edition is also a little lighter at 200g,which issixgrams less than the other two colours.
You also get a large camera housing that resembles the large camera bump of the 13 Pro, although Xiaomi's version sees tapered sides for a touch more flair.
The rails are matte aluminium, so if you opt for the Alpine Blue option, there’s no need to worry at all about the sides and back being a fingerprint magnet.
The 6.67-inch FHD+ (2,712 x 1,220 pixels) CrystalRes AMOLED display is protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5and supports up to 144Hz refresh rate as well as AdaptiveSync for a touch sampling rate of up to 480Hz.
The screen is also much brighter now, with a High Brightness Mode of 1,200 nits and a peak brightness of 2,600 nits. Dolby Vision and HDR10+profiles are also supported on this screen.
Watching content on the phone is a pleasure thanks to the vibrant colours, though the colours seem more saturated than expected.
You get stereo speakers, which get very loud while offering decent accuracy and detail. It’s good enough to watch YouTube videos or indulge in gaming bouts. However, you’ll still want to get a good pair of true wireless earbuds (better yet, ANC headphones) for better audio appreciation.
User Interface
Similar to the Xiaomi 13 Pro, which we reviewed earlier this year, the Xiaomi 13T Pro is running on Android 13 with Xiaomi’s MIUI 14 software. Unlike our experience with the Xiaomi 13 Pro, however, the MIUI 14.0.11.0 version our Xiaomi 13T Pro is running is definitely more polished than before, with the UI quirks we mentioned previously, like the occasional unbolded headlines gone.
Some bloatware apps come pre-installedin the "More Apps" folder, like Amazon Shopping, WPS Office and Booking.com, but they're not egregious and easily removable.
With the improved UI, we didn't encounter any issues during our regular use and the OS generally ran smoothly.
Both the under-display optical fingerprint sensor and face recognition responded incredibly fast (under half a second) and are accurate. It seems that the change to a MediaTek processor (from Qualcomm's Snapdragon flagship processors) proved capable; the phone handling regular usage needs effortlessly.
Let's kick things up a notch by assessing the phone's imaging credentials and the Leica lenses.
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