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The Xiaomi 13T is a new mid-range smartphone from Xiaomi, which launched alongside the Xiaomi 13T Pro, a new affordable flagship. This phone is not as powerful as the Xiaomi 13T Pro, but it’s also considerably more affordable. The Xiaomi 13T Pro has all the main features and specs you’d expect in a flagship, while it cuts corners on some, less important ones. The Xiaomi 13T leans more towards mid-range, but has some interesting specs still. We managed to get the Xiaomi 13T review unit, and I’ve been testing it for a while now. I feel ready to share my opinions on it, and hopefully help you make a purchasing decision. There’s a lot to talk about here, actually, but… spoiler alert… it’s a really good phone. Nothing is perfect, though, so let’s get down to it.
Table of contents
Xiaomi 13T Review: Hardware / Design
The Xiaomi 13T is made out of metal and glass. It feels just as premium as any other flagship, to be quite honest. The build is great, and Xiaomi also paid attention to details here. The sides are flat, but they do not have sharp corners, so the phone doesn’t cut into your hand. It’s actually rather comfortable to hold. The backplate also curves into the frame on the edges, which also helps with comfort. It’s a big phone, that’s for sure, but it’s not any bigger than the competition and its siblings, to be quite honest.
There is a flat display on the front, a 6.67-inch panel, which we’ll talk more in the next section. It has rather thin bezels, and a centered display camera hole. All of the phone’s physical keys sit on the right-hand side, and they’re quite clicky. You’ll also find an IR blaster at the top of the phone, which we’re used to when it comes to Xiaomi phones. Three cameras sit on the back, and a Type-C port is available at the bottom. Do note that there are both vegan leather and glass backplate versions of the device. I tested the ‘Black’ model, which is very reflective, as you can see in the image below.
Fingerprints are also visible on that variant, so unless you really want the black variant, I’d suggest either of the other two variants (Alpine Blue or Meadow Green). Fingerprints will be a lot less visible, and the Alpine Blue offers more grip thanks to its backplate. The camera island on the back does protrude quite a bit, but it looks very nice at the same time. The Xiaomi 13T is IP68 certified for water and dust resistance, to give you some piece of mind. All in all, I don’t have any complaints when it comes to the build of this phone. Xiaomi did a great job, as expected. This phone feels like a flagship in the hand, and also looks like one, while it won’t break the bank in the same way a flagship would. So, as far as the design and build are concerned, it’s all good.
Accessories
It is worth noting that a 67W charger is included in the box, along with a silicone case. That’s more than some other OEMs offer, and it’s always nice to see. Xiaomi is also consistent in that regard. That silicone case offers plenty of protection, and if you don’t like the material or the fact it’s see-through, you can use it until you get one that suits you better. The point is, it’s there, and it’s free.
Xiaomi 13T Review: Display
The Xiaomi 13T features a 6.67-inch fullHD+ (2712 x 1220) CrystalRes AMOLED display. That display offers a refresh rate of up to 144Hz, and an aspect ratio of 20:9. It also has a 480Hz touch sampling rate, and a peak brightness of 2,600 nits. The panel is also flat, and supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+ content, not to mention that it has PWM dimming up to 2,880Hz. Needless to say, this seems to be a great panel on paper. Is it in real life, however? Well, yes, I didn’t have any issues with it. It was very responsive, while the colors were vivid, and the viewing angles were also excellent.
This panel is also very sharp, it doesn’t have your regular fullHD+ sharpness, it’s closer to QHD, basically. You’re getting 446 PPI here, which is great. Touch response is also really good on the panel, and high refresh rate is well-optimized, and the stutters are minimal while scrolling. It’s not the best implementation I’ve seen, but that’s more of a software thing than a display thing, so it doesn’t really below here. It’s worth noting that the bezels around the display are thin, but not uniform, and that a centered display camera hole is a part of the experience. Not many people will have complaints here, not only is the display very bright, vivid and responsive, but it’s also sharp, offers a high refresh rate, and proper PWM dimming. There’s not much more you can ask for.
Xiaomi 13T Review: Performance
The Xiaomi 13T is fueled by the MediaTek Dimensity 8200 Ultra SoC, a 4nm chip. That processor is paired with 8GB or 12GB of RAM, that number is 8GB in our case. That is LPDDR5 RAM, and the company also included UFS 3.1 flash storage. So in all performance aspects, the Xiaomi 13T sits below the Xiaomi 13T Pro, and yet the phone offered really good performance. Truth be said, I did not notice any slowdown or lag during my usage. The phone handled everyday usage with grace, and thanks to that extra smooth display, it was also very smooth in the scrolling department and everything else. The MediaTek Dimensity 8200 Ultra did its job perfectly.
If you’re wondering about gaming, well, it ran those fine too. I did not fire up Genshin Impact, or something like that, as this is not a gaming phone. But the phone can handle that too, perhaps not at the very highest settings, though. I tried Subway Surfers, some platformers, Clash of Clans, and some 3D pool games. Everything ran perfectly, and the phone never got too warm, even though I did play some of those games for longer periods of time. So, no worries there. Considering that this is a mid-ranger, it offers great performance. The problem is there are some competitors with similar price tags that offer a bit more powerful hardware, but this phone will not disappoint.
Xiaomi 13T Review: Battery
The Xiaomi 13T includes a 5,000mAh battery on the inside, just like its ‘Pro’ counterpart. The phone also supports 67W wired charging, and the charger is included in the box, as mentioned earlier. Wireless charging is not supported, the same goes for reverse charging. We’ll talk more about the charging speed a bit larger, let’s focus on battery life first. So, what’s the battery life like? Is it safe to assume it’s good considering the size? Well, truth be said, I expected more. I could be a bit spoiled by the battery life numbers the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 has been providing, to be quite honest, but I managed to kill this phone before the end of the day.
Ultimately, the Xiaomi 13T offers good battery life, for most people, but if you’re a power user, you may have issues. I’ve been getting anywhere between 6 and 7.5 hours of battery life, depending on the day. In several cases, I couldn’t reach the 6.5-hour mark, and that managed to frustrate me, as I wasn’t playing games or anything of the sort. A couple of days after that, the phone crossed the 7-hour mark with similar usage. So the battery life is not exactly consistent, but it’s alright overall. In all honesty, for the vast majority of people, it’ll be more than enough. If you do end up playing games or shooting plenty of video footage, well, chances are you’ll drain it noticeably faster.
What about charging? Well, that is plenty fast. With the 67W charger included in the box, the phone reached the 30-percent mark in 10 minutes of charging, approximately. It took it around 20 minutes to get to 60%, while it took the charger 55 minutes to fully charge the Xiaomi 13T. Needless to say, that’s not bad at all. The Xiaomi 13T Pro does offer faster charging with its 120W charger, of course, but this is faster than many other flagship smartphones out there. It’s faster than any of the iPhone, Samsung, or Google flagships have to offer, for example.
Xiaomi 13T Review: Camera
The Xiaomi 13T actually has a really compelling camera setup, and it’s one of the phone’s main selling points. It has the same camera setup as the ‘Pro’ model, actually, and Xiaomi is aiming towards users who want to get a really powerful mid-ranger with a great camera setup with this device. So, what are you getting here? Well, three cameras, with Leica’s lenses and camera prowess too, as the company also helped Xiaomi on the software side of things.
A 50-megapixel main camera (f/1.9 aperture, 1/2.28-inch sensor, 1.22um pixel size, 24mm focal length, OIS, PDAF) is backed by a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera (f/2.2 aperture, 1.12um pixel size, 15mm lens). The last camera on the back is a 50-megapixel telephoto unit (f/1.9 aperture, 50mm lens, 0.61um pixel size, PDAF). This setup may not be as good as the one on the Xiaomi 13 Pro or 13 Ultra, but it’s still quite powerful on paper, and in actual usage too.
I enjoyed using the Xiaomi 13T’s cameras, to say the least. Truth be said, not as much as the Xiaomi 13 Pro or 13 Ultra’s setup, but still, this is an impressive showing for a mid-range device. That main 50-megapixel camera is more than capable of shooting in basically all scenarios. Truth be said, it does a better job outdoors than indoors, as I did notice some noise in indoor shots, when there’s not plenty of light present. Still, it’s not exactly that bad at all, and the phone still does a great job. The same goes for low light shots, actually. Outdoors, there’s really not much to complain about. The situation is a bit worse indoors, but a dedicated night mode helps a lot, actually. You can get great-looking low light shots with this phone.
The ultrawide camera does a great job outdoors, even though it’s not as good as the main camera. The drop-off in low light is quite considerable, so you should probably stick to the main camera. The telephoto shooter provides you with 2x optical zoom, and it does a good job overall. Once again, if you’re shooting in low light, it would be best if you stick to the main camera. For daylight shots, this telephoto camera can be somewhat useful, I just wish it offered further optical zoom. 2x is barely something, 5x would be preferable, though I’d settle for 3x. I think Xiaomi dropped the ball there, to be quite honest.
Do note that you have Leica Vibrant and Leica Authentic modes to choose from here. Most of you will probably lean towards the ‘Vibrant’ mode, as the images do look more lively. I did shoot in that mode almost all the time, for the purposes of the review, but most of the time I do prefer the ‘Authentic’ mode. Why? Well, because the photos do look more realistic, while the colors look great. The thing is, there’s not nearly as much HDR processing, so people tend to prefer the Vibrant mode. Also, there’s some vignetting going on in the ‘Authentic’ mode, which people usually don’t prefer. I wish it wasn’t there, but there you go. Leica’s influence is definitely felt here. There are also a number of Leica filters that you can choose from, that can change your image completely.
When it comes to video, there are differences between this phone, and the Xiaomi 13T Pro. You can’t shoot 8K video on this phone, while you can do that on the Xiaomi 13T. Most of you will stick to 4K either way, and the results are very similar actually. The stabilization is not the best we’ve tested, not even close, but it’s good enough, if you are just a little bit careful while shooting. The colors are also really good, and the audio is not half bad either. All in all, the video performance is good enough, I’d say.
What about the selfie camera? Well, that’s also the same as on the Xiaomi 13T Pro. You’re getting a 20-megapixel selfie shooter here, which works really well. It manages to cope with bright background really well, and does a good job capturing skin tones too. You do have some control over “beautifying” your face when you shoot a selfie, so you can tweak that. It all depends on whether you want to look absolutely realistic, or you actually want the phone to help you hide some of those imperfections on your face. The portrait mode works well too, not outstanding, but reasonably well. The drop-off in quality is, of course, noticeable when the light goes away, but that is to be expected. You can still use this camera in such conditions just fine, just prepare yourself for worse results. That is basically the case with every selfie camera, so… no surprise there.
Overall, the Xiaomi 13T has an immensely capable camera setup, and that goes for both its rear and front-facing shooters. It offers some of the best-performing cameras at this price point, that’s for sure. That is to be expected, as this camera setup is one of the phone’s main selling points. As already mentioned, Xiaomi wants to offer its users a flagship-grade camera experience at a lower price tag. If you want the best of the best, go with the Xiaomi 13 Pro or Xiaomi 13 Ultra, but this is good enough for the vast majority of people.
Xiaomi 13T Review: Software
Android 13 comes pre-installed on the Xiaomi 13T, with Xiaomi’s MIUI on top of it. When software is concerned, it’s exactly what you’d expect, to be quite honest. Well… if you’ve used a modern iteration of Xiaomi’s Android skin, that is. You’ll get a different feel than you get with stock Android, that’s for sure. MIUI has a separate Quick Toggles section, it’s not a part of the notification shade. You can, however, swipe left-right between the two, without a problem. It looks good, but different. There’s theme support here, quite a few Xiaomi apps, and various other Xiaomi UI changes that you’ll spot. Even the overview menu looks different, though you can tweak it.
The good news is, you can include a regular app drawer if you want, and tone down the influence of MIUI through various settings. Also, you can uninstall quite a few apps that come pre-installed on the device. Why would you want to do that? Well, because there are quite a few of them installed here. Apps such as Booking, TikTok, Mi Mover, Netflix, Xiaomi Community, and so on. That’s not a big problem considering that you can basically uninstall many of them, all except the crucial system ones.
Is the performance good, though? Well, yes. Xiaomi did improve MIUI quite a bit over the years, and quite frankly, it works really well now. It’s much more lenient when it comes to killing background processes. Still, if you really want something to work all the time, you’ll need to give that specific app special battery access and lock the app in the background, just to be safe. I didn’t do that for testing purposes, and after a while, an app for my smartwatch did get killed off in the background. I have several other examples, so just make sure you do that if you need something running properly at all times.
Xiaomi also has a ton of added options, such as a window mode for apps, for example, AoD display, and more. The animations are great, and you even have the option to make them faster if you want, or completely disable them. I simply made them a bit faster and my experience immediately got better, as that’s my preference. I did not notice any major bugs or anything like that. The UI did get stuck once during my usage, and it didn’t respond for a few seconds, but that’s about it. Everything else worked as intended.
Xiaomi 13T Review: Should you buy it?
Is the Xiaomi 13T a smartphone for you? Well, that’s up to you, of course, but we do hope that this review helped with that decision. The phone starts at €649, which does not exactly make it a budget phone. It does make it a lot more affordable than the Xiaomi 13 Ultra, for example. It also has great camera performance for the price, and the overall performance is not bad at all, quite the contrary. The phone does feel like a flagship-grade phone, and it doesn’t exactly have a flagship price. So… for some of you, it’s definitely worth it. Do note that you will not get wireless charging here, though. You also won’t get a proper telephoto camera, only 2x zoom is included here. There are some other omissions, but you have to keep the price tag in mind. If it’s barely within your budget, this is a solid choice.
You should buy the Xiaomi 13T if you:
- Want a flagship-grade camera without a flagship-level price tag
- Appreciate truly fast charging
- Hate companies who don’t include chargers in the box
- Need a very nice-looking, vivid & bright display
- Hate curved displays
You shouldn’t buy the Xiaomi 13T Pro if you:
- Need wireless charging
- Love using telephoto cameras