Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus review- A slam dunk from Xiaomi-

Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus review: A slam dunk from Xiaomi?

Xiaomi is ringing into the new year with the Redmi Note 13 series, the first big smartphone launch of 2024. Per usual, there are three phones. The classic Redmi Note 13 will get you all the basics. But if you can loosen your purse strings a bit, and buy the Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus instead, you’ll get a phone that will pull off the occasional slam and dunk with ease thanks to its Corning Gorilla Victus screen protection and IP68 water and dust resistance rating (the Redmi Note 13 Pro is the same phone mostly at lower prices without the IP68).

You’re advised against torturing your phone in any way, obviously, but it’s a nice thing to have written assurance that it can handle it, the off chance an event like that unfolds unceremoniously. Frankly, Xiaomi went a little overboard with the marketing but hey, these features are still hard to come by “at these prices” even if staged stunts of people throwing walnuts at phones are a dime and dozen. And so, a little whimsy to show off your phone’s brand new “superpowers” is okay.

The Redmi Note 13 Pro plus in white has a glass back. (Photo credit: Saurabh/Singh/Financial Express)

The design is a big stand-out feature, a step up from the “recycled” Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus in every way. The back is available in a choice of glass and a very luxurious “vegan leather” option. Either way, it looks bold and futuristic. Sleek. With curves that melt into the sides on both ends. The panel —underneath the Corning shield— is new and improved, too, with a higher 1.5K resolution and up to 1,800 nits of peak brightness while adding 1920Hz high-frequency PWM dimming, keeping size (6.78-inch) and refresh rate (120Hz) consistent with last year. The in-display fingerprint reader is fast and doubles as a “secret” heart rate sensor. Dolby Vision support rounds up the fantastic package.

The customary chip upgrade sees Xiaomi going for MediaTek’s 4-nanometre Dimensity 7200 Ultra while base storage now starts at a cool 256GB (though you can’t expand it any further than that). It is faster UFS3.1 (versus UFS2.2 on the previous model). RAM can go up to 12GB. Performance-wise, there is little to complain here, though you must know that the Poco X6 Pro is soon set to steal its thunder with an even more powerful Dimensity 8300 Ultra. But we digress. Powering the Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus is a slightly bigger 5,000mAh battery, though longevity scores aren’t necessarily any better (or worse), as you can probably tell from the benchmarks below, when in fact we were expecting more efficiency from the newer manufacturing process. Maybe some more optimisation is needed. Anyhow, 120W charging returns promising speedy top-ups in just under 25 minutes.

Benchmark Score AnTutu 7,59,219 Geekbench 6 CPU 1,102/2,566 Geekbench 6 GPU 3,083 PCMark 11,853/13 hr 20 min

Xiaomi has gone ahead and upgraded the main camera as well, swapping the Redmi 12 Pro Plus’s HPX with the ISOCELL HP3. The high-resolution 200-megapixel sensor takes high-quality photos when you give it lots of light, but it also manages to hold its ground, under tricky and low light. Dynamic range is wide and exposure mostly on point. Colours are nice and crisp. Details abundant.

The combination of a large sensor and optically stabilised lens, brings up to 4x “lossless” zoom shenanigans, a bit of a strech if you ask us, but 2x works well in most conditions. The combination can also give you some crisp portraits with good subject isolation and creamy background, though they are not as remarkable as portraits from Vivo’s V29 series phones. The 8-megapixel ultrawide and 2-megapixel macro on the Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus are do-overs from last year. The front 16MP camera as well. They are satisfactory at best.

The Redmi Note 13 Pro plus has a curved display. (Photo credit: Saurabh/Singh/Financial Express)

Aside from a few minor discrepancies here and there, Xiaomi has managed to apply a fresh coat of paint on every hardware spec that we can think of. All while giving basic parametres like sound, haptics, and connectivity, ample polish. And so, the end product is— if we can put it subtly— a complete reimagining of the “Note” as we know it. So much so that it doesn’t even look or feel like a Note to be completely honest with you.

And yet, there’s one thing that brings us back to the real world. The Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus launched with Android 12 at a time when rivals were increasingly moving to offer Android 13. And the Redmi Note 13 Pro is launching with Android 13 when Android 14 should be a given. Déjà vu. Xiaomi is committing to longer support (up to three years of major OS and four years of security over the 12 Pro Plus’s 2/3 update) but remember, one of those will be the much awaited “HyperOS” and when you have a Poco X6 Pro incoming with it from the get-go, the new Redmi starts to look dated even before sales have officially begun. Pair it with an increase in pricing — Rs 31,999 for 8GB/256GB, Rs 33,999 for 12GB/256GB, and Rs 35,999 for 12GB/512GB— and whispers of the Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus being “overpriced” start to gather a lot of steam. And it is hard to argue with them.

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