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Until a few years ago, Xiaomi was your go-to company for a cost-effective phone, but things have changed, with the latest Xiaomi 13 Pro flagship costing almost as much as the iPhone 14 series.

So what does the Xiaomi Mi 13 Pro bring to the table and is it really a worthy alternative to the iPhone 14 Pro Max?

Design and display quality: Xiaomi is more comfortable and lighter

While the design of the iPhone 14 Pro Max is very familiar these days, featuring a flat screen, flat shiny sides and a frosted glass back, the Xiaomi Mi 13 Pro certainly gives a different feel. It has a tapered front and back and comes in a choice of three different materials - black glass, white ceramic color, or even a blue leather-like finish that feels warmer in the hand and has a nice tactile texture.

The Xiaomi is also much lighter and not as wide, which makes it easier to use with one hand. It's nice to see that both phones are IP68 rated for water and dust resistance and both have nice and clickable buttons.

There isn't much difference in screen quality either. Both screens are OLED with a 6.7-inch diagonal and are colorful. the iPhone's screen is wider with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio while the Xiaomi's is narrower at 20:9, and I prefer a slightly wider screen.

monitor

But as far as colors go, they are near perfect with excellent color balance. The Xiaomi's maximum brightness is even higher than the iPhone's, which surprised us, so it's a little easier to use outdoors, but both get very, very bright.

Both are LTPO panels with an adaptive refresh rate that automatically adjusts from 1Hz for static content to a butter-smooth scrolling 120Hz.

When it comes to biometrics, the iPhone relies on Face ID while Xiaomi uses an optical fingerprint scanner embedded in the screen. We prefer Face ID on the iPhone, it's a little faster and a little more convenient in most cases, but that's just the way we are, and I know a lot of people don't mind fingerprint scanners, but the one on the Xiaomi is fast and reliable.

Performance

The main reason for the Xiaomi Mi 13 Pro's speed and fluidity is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip built into it, the same chip found on most flagship Android phones in 2023, while the iPhone relies on its own Apple-made A16 bionic chip.

Apple chips have been the gold standard for the past few years, but Qualcomm is finally catching up with the 8 Gen 2. However, Xiaomi does have 12GB of RAM, far more than the iPhone's 6GB.

Camera: Can a bigger lens on Xiaomi beat the iPhone camera?

The huge promise of a disruptor like the Xiaomi Mi 13 Pro is usually associated with a big updatable new camera system, so can Xiaomi really deliver with its camera?

Both phones have a triple rear camera system with a wide-angle, a super wide-angle and a telephoto camera - all common stuff. However, Xiaomi is betting on a new larger sensor for the wide-angle camera and has added an impressive new trick for the zoom camera.

While the cliché is that all cameras nowadays perform well in good light, we can see that this is not the case here as there are some significant differences.

The iPhone takes brighter images with more realistic colors, while the Xiaomi takes darker photos with softer colors. I definitely prefer the iPhone pictures, they look better.

However, in low light conditions, Xiaomi's large 1-inch sensor shows its power and captures some truly stunning photos.

While the iPhone does a good job at night as well, it seems to have an over-sharpened or crisp effect, call it what you will, but when you're looking at a photo on a laptop or large screen, it's really very noticeable and annoying, whereas the Xiaomi has clean details and no such issues.

Xiaomi has a 3.2x zoom camera while the iPhone has a 3x zoom lens and both are very capable. One area where Xiaomi brings a small update is close-up photos. While other phones take macro shots with an ultra-wide angle, Xiaomi actually has a close-up camera with a 3.2x lens for a better angle of view.

While both come with decent ultra-wide angle lenses, there are some differences in quality. During the day, you'll see the same issues on the Xiaomi, with slightly darker exposures and dull colors, while the iPhone takes more vivid photos.

But in low light, the difference is even greater, as these very dark photos taken by the Xiaomi don't look as good as the iPhone's brighter ones.

video quality

The Xiaomi Mi 13 Pro records videos very well with the main camera. 4K footage has a lot of detail, the stabilization is good, we didn't notice any focusing issues, and the overall quality is good.

Is it as good as the iPhone 14 Pro Max? Not quite. the iPhone looks a little cleaner and has more detail, but most importantly, its colors are more realistic, while the Xiaomi's saturation tends to be a little extreme.

In low light, the Xiaomi surprises us once again, but the iPhone prevails once again with a cleaner image and remains the best phone for video recording.

audio quality

There is a world of difference in speaker quality between the Xiaomi and the iPhone. Honestly, I was expecting more performance from the Xiaomi. The speakers are just too quiet and severely lacking in bass, whereas the iPhone is rounder, louder and has quite a bit of bass from the smartphone speakers.

At least the Xiaomi has a really nice touch, a very nice touch, while on the other hand, the iPhone has long had the best touch in the industry, so here's parity.

Battery life and charging: Xiaomi surprised us

The iPhone 14 Pro Max is the current king of flagship phone battery life. While the physical battery size is smaller than most of its Android competitors, iOS optimizations and the energy-efficient Apple chip make it an absolute battery beast, comfortably lasting a day and a half between charges, or even two days with less frequent use.

The Xiaomi Mi 13 Pro with its 4,820 mAh battery also lags slightly behind its Android rivals in terms of battery capacity, but it also has quite a few tricks up its sleeve on the software side, and it surprised us with its very, very consistent battery life.

In my video test, where both phones were playing the same set of videos and the screens were set to the same brightness level, the Xiaomi lagged behind the iPhone by only a few minutes, and the two were very close.

But while these are on par with the battery life, Xiaomi is way ahead when it comes to charging. 120W charging speed allows you to fill the battery from 0% to 100% in less than 30 minutes, whereas an iPhone with a maximum charging speed of 27W would take around 2 hours to do the same.

Both phones also support wireless charging, but once again Xiaomi is way ahead of the 15W MagSafe wireless charging with its 50W wireless charging speed.

Summary

So can Xiaomi phones beat the iPhone's dominance in 2023? The Xiaomi Mi 13 Pro has a lot going for it, but the most surprising thing about it is that its battery life is truly on par with that of the iPhone, something we didn't expect.

Thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, Xiaomi charges faster, runs 3D games faster, throttles less frequently and costs less. We're also impressed with the photos that really take it to the next level.

But the price difference is minimal, and the iPhone still has a lot going for it. For starters, the iPhone's software support is far superior to Xiaomi's 3 years of Android updates, but the iPhone also has a better-optimized iOS and a wider ecosystem, plus we found its camera to be mostly better than Xiaomi's.

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