Xiaomi 13 review

Design

As we already mentioned, the flat glossy sides of the Xiaomi 13 have a real iPhone vibe, which is definitely not bad. We personally think it's a great look. You won't be mistaking the Xiaomi 13 for an Apple product any time soon, though, since it has a distinctive rear camera island. It's on the bigger side of things in every dimension and sticks out quite a bit from the back. We kind of like the subtle lines separating the individual camera "quadrants," for lack of a better term. Also, while a bit big, the LEICA branding doesn't bother us that much.

The back panel on the Xiaomi 13 is slightly curved on the sides and into the middle frame. This makes for a nice and comfortable in-hand feel. Though, you'll still notice the sharper edges on the middle frame while holding the phone. The glass back is a real fingerprint magnet.

You can get the international model of the phone in Black, White, and Flora Green. All of these are quite subdued. Not exactly the full range of colors available on the Chinese model, but still plenty of selection.

The front side of the Xiaomi 13 is very minimalistic. The flat display is coupled with pretty minimal bezels (as slim as 1.61mm), which makes for a clean aesthetic. The camera punch hole is not too big either. In fact, the entire device is pretty compact, measuring just 152.8 x 71.5 x 7.98 mm and tipping the scale at 189 grams.

Build quality

The Xiaomi 13 is very well made. There is practically no flex or hollowness to the chassis whatsoever. The phone employs a standard "sandwich" construction. That includes a lightweight aluminum alloy middle frame with a grippy glossy finish sandwiched between a rear glass panel and a Gorilla Glass 5 sheet of glass on the front.

The international version of the Xiaomi 13 lacks the Light Blue colorway of the Chinese version, which comes with faux leather back instead of glass.

It is important to note that the Xiaomi 13 has IP68 ingress protection, meaning it should be dust and water-resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 min of immersion in fresh water).

Controls

The Xiaomi 13 has a pretty standard control layout. On the right-hand side, we find a volume rocker and power button. Both are well-positioned and offer plenty of tactile feedback.

The opposite side of the frame is empty and uninterrupted.

The top of the device is pretty busy, with two microphone holes and an IR blaster. The latter is kind of hard to come by on phones nowadays and is a welcome addition to many users.

The bottom side of the Xiaomi 13 has the primary bottom-firing speaker. It is one of two on the unit. The other one is positioned above the display and doubles as an earpiece. Also, the dual Nano-SIM slot and the USB Type-C port are on the bottom of the phone.

The Xiaomi 13 uses and under-display fingerprint reader. It is a standard optical sensor - pretty quick and reliable. We have no complaints about it.

There is no notification LED on the Xiaomi 13.

Connectivity

There is a full array of sensors on board, including an accelerometer and gyroscope combo (BOSCH bmi26x), a light sensor (Xiaomi TCS3720ALSPRX), a proximity sensor (Xiaomi) and a compass and magnetometer combo (AKM ak0991x). No barometer.

The Xiaomi 13 is equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. The onboard network modem is an X70 5G. It has support for both SA and NSA networks.

For local connectivity, the phone has Wi-Fi 7, though it should be noted that it is still in its infancy and might not be available straight away in every region and be delivered later as an OTA where applicable. The Qualcomm FastConnect 7800 is the on-board Wi-FI chip, which, among other things, offers Dual Band Simultaneous (DBS) Multi-Link technology for theoretical network speeds of up to 3.6Gbps. NFC is subject to market availability, so you need to check with your preferred seller. Bluetooth is version 5.3.

The USB Type-C port naturally has Host mode. We also tested USB alt mode; unfortunately, the Xiaomi 13 cannot output video through its USB port.