The Xiaomi Redmi Note series has long been known for delivering great specs and features at an affordable price point. The latest addition – the Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G – looks to continue that trend with some seriously impressive hardware given its sub-$400 asking price.
In this in-depth review, we’ll take a close look at what the Redmi Note 13 Pro brings to the table to help you decide if it deserves a place in your pocket or bag.
Design and Display of the Redmi Note 13 Pro
Kicking things off with the design, the Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G sports a rather sleek yet durable plastic body measuring 7.9mm thin and weighing a very manageable 205g.
You have a few color options to choose from including black, blue, and purple. Xiaomi has gone with a unique multicolor square camera bump on the rear which helps it stand out from the competition. Despite the plastic build, the device doesn’t feel cheap and the matte texture means it does an excellent job resisting fingerprints.
Flipping over to the front reveals a generous 6.67-inch FHD+ Samsung AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate for smooth scrolling and animations. The panel also supports HDR10+ and offers 600 nits peak brightness along with 1200 nits boost when viewing HDR content.
It’s worth noting that the screen is protected by a pre-installed screen protector in addition to Gorilla Glass 5.
Overall if media consumption and gaming are your priorities, the excellent Redmi Note 13 Pro display has you well covered.
Performance and Battery Life
Snapdragons 7 Gen 2 sits at the helm on the Note 13 Pro paired with up to 12GB LPDDR4X RAM which easily handles
daily tasks and intensive games like Genshin Impact with moderate settings. Multitasking is smooth thanks largely to Xiaomis software optimization on MIUI 14 based on Android 13.
With up to 256GB built-in storage that can be expanded via a MicroSD card if needed, you’ll have plenty of room for apps, games, media files without needing cloud backup.
Keeping the lights on is a large 5,000 mAh battery pack which delivers impressive 1.5 day battery life from our testing based on moderate usage. When you do need to top up, the included 67W rapid charger gets you from 0 to 50% in just 15 minutes.
While 30 minutes of charging time just to gain 50% isn’t the fastest by today’s standards, it’s certainly respectable given the price point. Lacking wireless charging is disappointing but not unexpected given most competitors in this segment omit this feature too.
Cameras: 200MP Main + 8MP Ultrawide + 2MP Macro
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G brings a considerable photography hardware upgrade over its predecessor and many competing devices at this price point.
It’s headlined by a staggering 200MP Samsung HP3 sensor paired with an f/1.65 aperture lens and optical image stabilization (OIS). 16-in-1 pixel binning reduces images down to 12.5MP with higher quality when lighting conditions are less than ideal.
In real world use, the 200MP main camera captures highly detailed images with excellent dynamic range along with brilliant night photography even in near darkness. The dedicated night mode brightens things up nicely and keeps noise levels low where similarly priced phones struggle.
Portrait shots showcase good edge detection with natural background blur for pleasing people pics. Quality understandably drops when using the lower resolution 8MP ultrawide or 2MP macro lenses but they provide a level of versatility not all competitors offer.
For selfies and video calls, the Redmi Note 13 Pro brings a 16MP front facing camera which takes pleasing social media-ready shots with enough detail and accurate skin tones when lighting is sufficient. Edge detection could use some improvement but overall the selfie shooter gets the job done.
On the video front, you can capture at up to 4K 30fps quality on both front and rear cameras. Electronic image stabilization keeps footage smooth when moving about or panning. Slow motion capture at 1080p 120fps is also available for those creative shots.
Software Experience
Out of the box, the Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G runs MIUI 14 based on Android 13. Xiaomi has tweaked the interface over stock Android, most notably seen in the quick settings menu and lack of an app drawer.
As usual, there is a considerable amount of pre-installed apps dubbed bloatware. The good news is most of them can be uninstalled if not to your liking.
Xiaomi has promised 2 major OS updates and 4 years of security updates which is better than past efforts but still trails Samsung, Nokia, even Motorola in this important aspect.
Faster and less bloated Xiaomi HyperOS is expected to land in the coming months as an update which should elevate the software experience.
How Does the Redmi Note 13 Pro Compare to Competitors?
The Redmi Note 13 Pro goes toe-to-toe with several compelling mid-range handsets. Here’s a brief overview of how it stacks up against two key rivals released around the same timeframe.
Realme 10 Pro+
- Slightly faster charging at 67W (Note 13 Pro = 33W)
- Less powerful MediaTek 1080 chipset
- Dimensity 1080 vs Snapdragon 778G
- No telephoto camera (Note 13 Pro has 2MP depth sensor)
Poco X5 Pro
- Slower 67W charging vs 120W
- Thicker at 7.9mm vs 7.7mm
- 16MP selfie camera versus 20MP
The Redmi comes out favorably overall with faster wired charging than the Poco X5 Pro, more futureproof Snapdragon silicon over the Dimensity 1080-powered Realme 10 Pro+, along with a higher resolution selfie camera than the Poco.
Who is the Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G For?
If you:
- Want long battery life and fast charging under $400
- Play mobile games casually or moderately
- Like capturing lots of photos/video
- Prefer high 90-120Hz display refresh rates
- Need a phone that works well on US 4G LTE networks
Then the Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G deserves strong consideration as your next smartphone purchase.
Final Verdict
The latest addition to Xiaomi’s hit Redmi Note lineup brings best-in-class performance, charging speeds, display quality and cameras to the competitive mid-range category. Sure, its plastic build leaves a bit to be desired next to metal/glass rivals and faster wireless charging would have been nice. But factoring in a sub-$400 asking price for most configurations, the complete package is mightily impressive here.
If you want the most smartphone your money can buy at this price point without compromises in areas like battery runtime or photo/video prowess, look no further than the new Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G.