Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus
Aug 19, 2024
I don't have a funny joke to break the ice and actually start it so here's a link to the samples I've taken with this phone. No cherry picking, no unfair treatement, this is every photo I've taken on the phone. Click Here
Also, the categories:
- Hardware
- Performance
- Cameras
- Front camera
- 1x
- Ultrawide
- Macro
- Telephoto
- Video
- Portrait
- Extras
- Display
- Battery
- Software
- Design
Hardware
Performance
Unfortunately, I've yet the chance to test the performance on this phone, as it isn't mine and that would take time. Time I don't have. So this category I am, unfortunately, forced to omit. I've only included it in the list so I can explain this. However, when I used it, it felt good! I didn't find many problems and it didn't stutter.
Cameras
This category is what I will be focusing on the most. Which is why there are subcategories in this category.
Front camera
This is a Xiaomi. That tells you enough. But I'll just demonstrate with this image.
I believe the image says enough. You can see how the face is relatively low quality, and while the HDR may be good, the rest of the photo is kinda meh. At least it's better than it used to be, I guess?
1x
It's great.
These three photos go to illustrate that. Keep in mind these are downscaled to 1080p. The colours are really good, focus is pretty much on point (Unlike a certain Xiaomi model cough Xiaomi 14 Ultra cough). The only issue is with that third photo, and even then, my DSLR gives the exact same issue because the petals themselves are rather smooth and it's hard to focus on them.
There are also very little to no HDR issues, as you can see by this image. Granted, the area is still a bit too bright, but it didn't blow it out, and that's already great.
Ultrawide
Can you guess what I will call the ultrawide? Winner gets an exclusive prize of absolutely nothing.
If you guessed terrible, then you're absolutely right. Just like every other ultrawide lens ever, it sucks. It's low quality, feels almost unfocused. And the lens was clean for that photo! This just illustrates my point that the Ultrawide lens is merely there to pad the spec list and make the camera look better, unless it's a really high end phone. At least the colours are nice, I guess.
Macro
Oh boy, yet another camera only made to pad the spec list. The 2MP macro at a fixed focal point. How beautiful. It's the trinity of budget phones: 200MP main, 8MP ultrawide, and 2MP macro. Name one budget phone that doesn't do this. Okay, maybe there are plenty. You get my point.
This perfectly sums up why the macro camera is terrible. It's so low quality, not to mention the fact that it actually took me a good few seconds to move the phone in order to manually focus. Keep in mind that the macro can be amazing. The Redmi Note 10 Pro has one of the best macro cameras I've seen on a budget phone. And that's a three generation old phone that cost half of what this phone cost me! How far we have fallen.
Telephoto
There's not much to say about the telephoto. It kinda just exists. It's bad, but I guess the 200MP main compensates for something and does help it be a little better than it would be without the 200MP, but it's not the "optical digital" or "hybrid" zoom that companies brand it as. That shot is at 10x, but the 2x is more or less the same.
And here is a 2x example. It's not close to an optical shot, but it's something, I guess.
Video
The video quality is there, I guess. It's 4K30/1080p60 on the main and 1080p30 on the UW. That's basically been the same since forever and will probably continue to be the same. The stabilization is good, at least!
Portrait
Portraits are surprisingly not bad! Edge detection is great and the quality isn't half bad. The bokeh also feels decently natural. That's about all.
Extras
As per usual, Xiaomi ships a few extra features like portrait mode, dual video, long exposure, and so on. And as per usual, they're average.
However, as requested, I'm not done. I will compare it to my Xiaomi 13T Pro.
On the left you can see the Redmi Note 13 Pro+ and on the right the Xiaomi 13T Pro
1x
1x
1x
0.6x
Portrait
10x
2x
Also, if any of you want to see the full res, non-downscaled images, here is the link to them: Click here
Display
The display also feels pretty good! It may not be 144hz 400000 nits 8K 32 bit colour depth or whatever fancy advertising we have nowadays, but for a phone of this price, it's pretty good! Plenty bright for outside use without problems and indoor use is just fine. Feels smooth on 120hz, albeit 60hz leaves a lot to be desired. It's very unoptimized and feels slow. However, if you use the adaptive option, 60hz will only be used when there isn't any interaction with the screen or updates of any form, so it's fine.
The colour accuracy, by default, is fine. It's not as much of a warm tint as much as my phone, but it still looks alright to my untrained eye.
Battery
This part will very much surprise you. If you're at all into tech, you are probably aware of how terrible battery life is on Mediatek-based Xiaomi phones. Awful drain that can't be justified. However, when I saw these numbers, I genuinely felt like something was wrong.
Well, well, well. That is DEEPLY surprising. It's either I have somehow screwed up and the drain stats are 2x higher, or Xiaomi actually stepped up and optimized the Mediatek battery life. I'm conflicted and will have to run more tests over the next week, but this is genuinely impressive. To put this into perspective, my Xiaomi 13T Pro gets ~15%/h screen on and 4-6%/h screen off. That's well over 6x less screen off, albeit the screen on is TERRIBLE.
But battery isn't just drain, it's charging, too! And I can definitely say that 120W is fast. Plenty fast for anyone. Come home and have to run to an event in 30 minutes and your phone's almost dead? Well get ready to leave with almost 100%! It's awesome. And despite popular belief, the fast charging is actually not detrimental to battery life. The heat is. And while this phone does get hot, (41°C at peak, and at the end after disconnecting it reached 34.1°C), it only got this hot for a very brief amount of time, it would be hot for longer if this were a 5W or 18W charger.
Software
This is the part I am most disappointed in. It is STILL running MIUI 14. We are 4.5 months into the HyperOS global rollout and the latest generation, highest end Redmi has STILL not gotten it. It's terrible. Funnily enough, EEA, which is usually known for being the first to get updates, is the only region of this phone that doesn't have HyperOS, so that's pretty funny, I guess. Payback, in a way! Still, it's not the best.
MIUI 14 is, well, MIUI. It's about what you would expect and about what you've heard a million times. Though one of the first things I did was I ADB uninstalled MSA, so there may be ads in your apps, but my mom hasn't encountered any.
There's not much to talk about in this, but one thing I have noticed is that the MIUI of this phone seems toned down from a flagship, as per usual for Xiaomi. A few nice-to-have features are missing.
However, surprisingly, apart from Advanced Materials, it has more features than my HyperOS Xiaomi 13T Pro. Which is NOT how it should be. It should be equal. Also, my phone is more expensive and a flagship.
Design
Almost at the end! The design of this phone is beautiful. This is subjective, but I love the Xiaomi Fan Festival edition. The silver colour looks so good, and while the XFF logo doesn't stand out that much, it's still a really nice touch. The camera bump design is also quite nice! It may look weird for some, but I'm a fan of it. However, one thing I don't particularly like is the curved edges. They have a certain dead zone that refuses input, and while you can change it, it's still quite difficult to work with. For instance, I wanted to drag an app to another page, but it was so hard to not release the app as I tried to desperately cross the threshold for going to the other page but not enough to enter the deadzone and have it block my input. I'm sure with enough time someone could get used to it, but it's a steep learning curve.
Closing thoughts
My hands are so tired.
In short, this phone is surprisingly a pretty good choice! It may be rather expensive, unfortunately, seems like Xiaomi is trying so hard to become a premium brand, but if you can afford it, it's good! The camera could definitely be a lot better and leaves a lot to be desired, but it's not something I would call terrible.