Xiaomi 13T Pro Initial Review

Oct 6, 2023

[THIS REVIEW IS OBSOLETE, REFER TO https://www.notion.so/likeusb/Xiaomi-13T-Pro-Is-it-worth-your-money-f190144334644ee0ad032d90b8782040?pvs=4 FOR PROPER REVIEW]

Battery

This is arguably the lowest point of this phone. In terms of charging, it doesn't live up to the 120W marketing in my experience. Even with boost mode, it peaks at 90W and then drops to about 50-60W (Measured using Ampere). Though, even with this, it is definitely a good charging speed.

I'll make a bold statement. One I expect people to disagree with. But, assuming you can charge at 60+W,
Overnight charging is dead.
There is NO reason to charge overnight.
Wake up, plug in to charge while you get ready, then charge when you get home, and you will never need to charge for more than an hour a day. This also has a huge benefit of long term battery life. Who knew that fast charging would literally be better than slow charging?

Now in terms of SOT, it's...
Something.

6 hours SOT on social media scrolling at its "Balanced" setting, meaning it goes up to 120hz in most apps and 144hz in some supported apps.
Though, this is likely to improve over time. This is, keep in mind, one unit that has been used for 4 days.
I expect optimisation updates and HyperOS to HEAVILY boost SOT. So battery rating:

SOT - 3/5. It's not good yet. This is likely to change, though.
Charging speed - 4.5/5. Odd slowing of the speed (Even in boost mode)

Which brings us to category 2: Performance.

Geekbench results are a little low compared to GSMArena, AnTuTu is ~70k off, and 3DMark is pretty on point. Here are results of a 30 min Wildlife Extreme Stress Test:

A Wild Life Extreme Stress Test of the Xiaomi 13T Pro. The best loop score is 3592, the lowest is 2853. The stability is 79.4%. It can be seen that the throttling is extreme and immediate.

(That throttling ew) However, benchmarks only tell us a third of the true story. In day-to-day usage, it feels GREAT. Everything feels instant and the animations are smooth as butter. In terms of gaming, well, any suggestions on what I should test? I don't play any games and I'd need some suggestions for what to test to actually test it. Tests would be done whenever I'm able to and I would send the results as soon as they are done.

So, ratings:
Benchmarks - 4/5. It's powerful, but it could be better.
Day-to-day - 5/5. It's AMAZING.

Time to move on to cameras!

Now, I'm going to say something controversial. Something I expect (and WANT) to be disproven on.
This statement is likely (and hopefully) untrue.

The Xiaomi 13T Pro takes better videos than an iPhone 14 Pro.
There. I said it.
In terms of quality, it's comparable (at 4K60). Also, my colours were better (Less dull and more accurate)
Though, I hope this was some mistake on the iPhone, as there is no way mine was better.

But comparisons aren't everything. In terms of options, it's really nice. I've got smooth, OIS stabilized 4K60 video that can go up to 8K24 for those extra cinematic shots.
It's not the best past 1x, and from what I see, there's no way to switch lenses mid recording. UW video is just garbage and unusable. Don't bother. Telephoto video is quite good, though.
In terms of photos, it's a similar story. Main camera is awesome, telephoto is really good too, and the UW is just plain bad. Splotchy, bad HDR, and is rarely useful.
And selfie camera just sucks. That's all I can say about it.
If you want good quality selfies, there is a cool workaround. Activate the voice activation mode on your main, hold the camera facing yourself, and say "Cheese", it will take a photo right after at far higher quality and better HDR.
Portraits I've yet to test, but they seem quite good from what I saw prior, and night time is just garbage. Don't bother.

Xiaomi needs to make night mode DRASTICALLY better. It's awful. Splotchy, even moreso than the UW, bad HDR, bad exposure, bad everything. It's awful.
Camera rating:
Video - 4.5/5. UW ruins it.
Rear setup - 4.5/5. UW ruins it.
Night time - 0/5. It's awful.
Front camera - -5000/5

Build quality!

An awesome element of this phone. And my god is it good.
First, the vegan leather back feels GREAT. It gives you a good grip at no cost, the curved edges of it make it feel really nice to hold, and the side rails, despite portruding a little, aren't that bad. The sides are made from plastic, which, while not great, isn’t bad either.
The screen, though.
The glass of it. I LOVE it.
It's as smooth as it gets, fingerprints easily get wiped off, and it's great. It is amazing. LOVE it. Though, it is a 5 day old phone, so a 1 month review will tell the bigger picture. [Which is why you should go read it right now]
Rating:
In-hand feel - 5/5. Amazing.
Display - 5/5. Also amazing.
Materials - 5/5. Great choices, love feeling them (Vegan leather back>matte glass>glossy glass)

Availability:

The pricing is, well, a bit expensive. In my opinion, it is a little high for what the cameras are worth and what the current issues are.
Likely to change over time and those 4+5 years of software updates are gonna be great for me.

It's for now a non-India phone, but that might change. Available globally.
No rating for these.

Overall thoughts:

It's amazing. Though, it does have problems. If you want reliable night time, good quality UW, great performance, and more, this might not be the phone for you.
But if you think you want to buy this one, it's definitely a good choice.
Overall rating: 4.5/5