 "Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus")
Xiaomi India kicked off 2024 with the introduction of three smartphones in its esteemed Redmi Note series. Leading this lineup is the Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus, a premium midrange smartphone boasting a vegan leather cover on the back panel, a curved AMOLED display, a high-megapixel main camera sensor with in-sensor zoom capability, a substantial battery capacity, and expedited wired charging. The included charger, supporting super-fast charging, is a standard accessory within the package. The Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus, by virtue of its specifications, sets substantial expectations. Does it indeed meet these expectations? Let us find out:
Design
The Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus has a novel design, characterised notably by its slim and lightweight construction. The smartphone is available in three colours, with the fusion purple variant featuring a vegan leather back cover, the focus of this review. All colour options present a colour-block design on the rear panel, most pronounced on the fusion purple variant. A distinctive horizontal bar-shaped LED flashlight, flanked by a metallic rim, enhances the rear profile. However, the conspicuous large camera casings, while bold, contribute to bulk on the top left side, causing instability on flat surfaces.
The frame, crafted from durable plastic with a metal-like textured finish, is slender on the sides, imparting a deceptive sense of thinness. The frame accommodates power and volume rocker keys on the right side; a secondary speaker opening, a pair of microphones, and an IR blaster on the top side; and a SIM slot, primary microphone, primary speaker, and USB-C port on the bottom side.
The front profile is dominated by a display with curvature on the left and right sides and subtle curves on the top and bottom. The display bezels are minimal and symmetric. Noteworthy, the Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus is comfortable to hold and operate, thanks to the soft-touch vegan leather back, providing a rubber-like texture. Furthermore, it offers a secure grip without succumbing to fingerprint marks. The overall build quality is commendable, complemented by an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance.
Display and Audio
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus boasts a 6.67-inch 1.5K AMOLED display of 120Hz refresh rate. The 3D curved display enhances the screen-to-body ratio besides facilitating natural usage with gesture navigation. The display is luminous, ensuring legibility even in bright outdoor conditions. Notably, it exhibits good contrast, presenting deep blacks and refined whites. This is particularly evident when viewing high dynamic range content. The display supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+, broadening compatibility with HDR content from platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Videos, and Disney+ Hotstar.
In terms of responsiveness, the display delivers a seamless experience across various activities, from navigating the interface to interacting with apps, scrolling through social media, browsing the web, and playing supported games. While the default dynamic refresh rate adjustment works adequately, the best of smoothness is achieved when manually setting the display to a fixed 120Hz refresh rate. It is essential to note that this manual adjustment influences on-battery time.
Complementing the impressive display are stereo speakers offering balanced and clear audio, albeit lacking in loudness. Notably, the inclusion of Dolby Atmos enhances the soundstage, contributing to an elevated multimedia and gaming experience.
Camera
The Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus features a 200-megapixel main camera sensor with optical image stabilization (OIS), accompanied by an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera sensor and a 2MP macro lens. The front boasts a 16MP camera sensor.
Beyond the technical details, the imaging performance is commendable for its price. The main sensor consistently produces results across various lighting conditions, albeit with a tendency to take time to lock focus in low-light conditions. The high megapixel count contributes to a natural shallow depth-of-field, imparting vibrancy to otherwise standard shots. The sensor is calibrated to enhance colours, resulting in vivid images, though veering away from natural tones. Fortunately, there is minimal over-processing, allowing the images to retain detail and dynamic range.
The main sensor takes precedence in the imaging experience, overshadowing the modest contributions of the ultra-wide-angle and macro sensors. The ultra-wide-angle sensor encounters challenges in low-light conditions, leading to a loss of details, washed-out colours, and weak contrast. However, under daylight conditions, it performs admirably with softness on the edges being the only noticeable drawback. There exists a lack of colour symmetry between the main and ultra-wide-angle sensors, with the former favouring vivid colours and the latter producing colours closer to natural tones. The macro sensor is serviceable, though Xiaomi has previously introduced phones with superior macro sensors.
On the front, the camera performs well in daylight conditions but exhibits softening in low light. It remains suitable for selfies, video calls, and self-portraits.
Video recording capabilities include up to 4K resolution at 30 frames-per-second from the primary sensor, 1080p at 30fps for the ultra-wide-angle sensor, 720p resolution at 30fps for the macro lens, and 1080p videos at 60fps for the front camera.
Performance
Powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Ultra system-on-chip, the Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus delivers a balanced blend of performance and power efficiency. Basic operations are handled with ease, and the device exhibits competence in managing processor-intensive tasks such as multimedia editing, albeit with occasional performance inconsistencies. In terms of graphics, the phone performs well for playing graphic-intensive games with settings at medium levels.
The device operates on the Android 13 operating system-based MIUI 14 user interface. The interface includes both Xiaomi's and third-party bloatware, along with several Google apps. While bloatware is a relatively minor concern, as most can be deleted, incessant notifications from Xiaomi and third-party apps detract from the overall user experience. Hopefully, this would be taken care of with the arrival of Xiaomi’s new HyperOS. We will know soon since the Redmi Note 13 5G series will be among the first Xiaomi devices to receive the HyperOS update.
Powering the device is a 5,000 mAh battery. The Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus achieves a day of on-battery time on a 5G network with the display manually set to a 120Hz refresh rate. Excessive usage of power and graphics naturally diminishes on-battery time, but the inclusion of 120W fast wired charging mitigates this concern, requiring under 30 minutes to charge the battery from zero to full.
Verdict
While the Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus lacks a distinctive novelty factor, given that many headline features are already offered by competitors in the same segment, it still emerges as a commendable smartphone. Xiaomi leverages a contemporary processor, a fresh design, and leading ingress protection, capitalising on its late market entry. Consequently, while the Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus may not establish new benchmarks, it effectively challenges those claiming to have done so.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus: Variants
- 8GB RAM + 256GB storage: Rs 32,999
- 12GB RAM + 256GB storage: Rs 33,999 (review unit)
- 12GB RAM + 512GB storage: Rs 35,999
