Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G and Redmi Note 13 Review – Starting strong as a Midranger in 2024

The Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G and Redmi Note 13 are one of the four recently launched lineups from Redmi, which is also a follow-up to the previous year’s Redmi Note 12 series that has gained popularity on having one of the top mid-range camera shooter and processing power that is suited for day to day use with social and gaming capabilities combined.

Design

Both the Redmi Note 13 and Note 13 Pro 5G essentially follow the same design, by having similar shapes and sizes with an exact frontal and rear camera layout to further reinforce the twinning form factor of the phones. Of course, one can’t say that both are exact carbon copies as there are still some minor differences between each other.

Starting with one of the more obvious differences is the presentation of the cameras. While yes the layouts were the same, the Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G has an elevated rectangular platform where the cameras sit while the Redmi Note 13 (4G) doesn’t. on that note, the 13 Pro 5G has a rather more bulk-ish lens that stands out from its based form. Moreover, the rear design as a whole also shares a significant difference between the two devices, with the base unit having a more glassy and classic mirror design whereas the pro unit has a more simplistic, albeit glossy metallic layout. And that’s as far as obvious distinction goes. The rest of the dissimilarities stem from a more subtle approach like the shape of the infra sensor, the layout of the primary & secondary mics, and the positioning of the Redmi logo.

Display & Audio

Putting both the Note 13 and Note 13 Pro 5G together to compare with one another you probably know quite well where this is going; The Note 13 Pro 5G, while on max volume, can produce a more clean and crisp sound. Having the ability to separate each distinctive beat and snare with little to no trouble allows users to tell apart the entirety of the music signature with more ease. The Note 13 base unit on the other hand, while still having the merit of producing clear and loud composition while on max volume, is slightly muffled especially while it’s placed side-by-side with its enhanced unit. Which is expected for a base unit.

Moving on to the display, I would say both the Note 13 and Note 13 Pro 5G hold up quite well with each of their own. Both of the units boast an adequately large screen of 6.7 inches, both of which are composed entirely of OLED displays as well as supporting up to 120 Hz refresh rates. That’s as far as similarity goes as the moment you boot us both the devices on YouTube, you’ll immediately notice there’s a significant difference in terms of presentation. Now for the starter, the based unit Note 13 has a 1080p resolution coupled with a maximum brightness of 1,800 nits. Which is standard, especially for a mid-range phone.

The Note 13 Pro 5G, on the other hand, boasts slightly more impressive specs when it comes to resolution, clocking in at a maximum of 2160p and similar brightness up to 1,800 nits. You could tell that the pro unit is better than the base unit by a 20% margin. This may not sound that impressive if you’re expecting something of a flagship standard of display, but it’ll make do for whoever that are opting for a device with a noticeable improvement in terms of rendition and texture when it comes to binge-watching on their favorite programs. A solid screen display nonetheless, at least better than most of the average enhanced mid-ranger units out in the market.

A slight nitpicking is that whenever the screen is zoomed beyond 2.0x, it’ll start to get pixelated. This applies to both the Note 13 and Note 13 Pro 5G. Though I wouldn’t see it as a huge problem, just playing the devil’s advocate here.

Camera

Redmi Note 13:

The camera, on the other hand, is where both the device differs vastly and significantly. And it’s a clear indication of where Xiaomi has placed its priorities while drafting these 2 devices in mind. Kicking off with the base Note 13 unit. Shots taken during the day hold up relatively okay, to say the least. One thing I could say about the Note 13 cameras is that, the quality is perceived by the price it was given. Why so? While the vibrancy of the shots still stands out as its merit, with no noise whatsoever, you can’t help but notice a shade of grey tinging from the pics. Was it bad? no, not at all. even when it comes to zoom shots everything still holds up relatively well unless you go beyond the zooming capacity where it becomes pixelated and noisy, which in Note 13’s case, anything beyond that’s beyond the 3x zoom.

The 2MP macro lens allows you to take quite decent close-up shots. It is, unironically better than the main lens. It delivers what it should with the bokeh effect taking place evenly for the shots. It is by far one of the few aspects of the phone that could deliver a true-to-form mid-range quality performance; The front camera, while being outstanding when combined with the bokeh effect, cannot be said the same when it comes to normal selfies. It faces the issue of AI finding it difficult to adjust the background of the shots and often time pixelates the texture badly.

It’s the night shots that will put the Note 13 on the run for the money. You see, for a vanilla unit with a 108MP lens, there’s so far you could go with the night shot. While you won’t see any noises floating around the shots, it’s the texture that distracts the most as you can see the camera AI is trying its absolute best to fine-tune the sharpness of each shot. But there’s only so much it could do for a phone that ranges from RM750-900. It is what it is, it does a fine job during the day but when it comes to night, not so much. Unless you can get over the problem about night shots, this may not be the phone for you.

Video-wise, well see for yourself. The only thing I can say is that, unless you have a steady hand, you might not wanna get this just for camcording. It’s not horrible, just plain 1080p quality with nothing new to the table, barebone at its best.

Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G

Being a step-up version of the vanilla base unit, you could probably figure out improvement has been made given the fact that the phone comes with a 200MP main camera. Day shots as shown, have a vast upscale when it comes to vibrancy and texture. Gone were the grey scale covering the surface of the shots and sharper edging were much more noticeable. Even zoom shots prove no issue going passed 5x. It truly has a better camera performance than the vanilla unit. Every shot taken was able to be easily polished by the system thus making this one of the better phones that avid photographers can grab on the go.

Portrait mode is just as content as the vanilla unit. It does what it does with the bokeh effect and the focal point of each shot is as accurate if not even better than the base unit; Selfies, unlike the base unit, perform way better and it has better processing power when it comes to the background of the selfies. Not the best but passable by a significant margin.

Night shots also showcase a noticeable improvement. Thanks to the larger sensor that comes with the camera. With that being said, the phone fares quite well when it comes to low-light environments. It can maintain a surprising amount of vibrancy, making this phone one of the better choices for night scenery photography.

In terms of video quality, it’s way better than the base unit. It’s a true showcase of what mid-ranger performance should be. Now you might think that the video is still capped at 1080p, well you’ll be right if it’s the 4G version of Note 13 Pro 5G. This is, fortunately, NOT the 4G version but the 5G version. With that being said the video resolution could go up to 4k but still capped at 30 fps, and for the phone to take full effect, you must remain steady as best as you can. But comparing this to the 4G version, this is a huge leap in terms of improvement.

Performance, Software, Experience, Benchmarks

Right off the bet, I must say, that both the Note 13 and Note 13 Pro 5G are not made with heavy gaming in mind. The performance was sub-par in comparison with the majority of the mid-ranger out there. Yes, you could still boot up Mobile Legends and Genshin even, to have a good run of an hour with both of the phones, But it would not be as enjoyable. A bit of context here, the Note 13 houses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 685 whereas the Note 13 Pro 5G houses the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2. Both are well-known household chipsets but for gamers who know their games (pun not intended), the two phones unfortunately do not houses enough firepower to push the gaming performance to its absolute best.

Genshin Impact as benchmark

Let’s look at Note 13, graphic wise the best you can get is to tone everything down to the lowest if not customise it yourself but you’ll find that most of the settings cannot go beyond low. Booting up the game sometimes results in a slight stutter but to be fair, the same goes for some of the apps. With the Snapdragon 685 installed, one could already tell that the Note 13 wasn’t a great candidate when it comes to speed. So unless you need to game, it’s highly recommended not something as intensive as Genshin and even to a certain extent, Mobile Legend. On a side note, the phone also heats quite easily, just 20 minutes into the game and you’ll feel the heat kicking in.

The Note 13 Pro 5G on the other hand while housing a slightly more powerful chipset, it’s is still not a great device to game on. While there’s no stutter booting up Genshin, and even faster than the Note 13 no doubt. It’s still not advisable to pick this unit up just for gaming, especially when it comes to graphic processing. It has better heat tolerance compared to the base unit though I give it that. But gaming on the Note 13 Pro 5G isn’t exactly the most pleasant, to say the least.

Okay but still, you have to remind yourself the Note 13 and its enhanced unit are not meant for gaming to begin with. Casual games for passing time yes but serious and competitive gaming, no for sure. And that’s okay actually. There are still other merits that make both phones a good proactive device.

Both devices run on MIUI, both have Android 13. Though slightly behind most of the modern Android phones nowadays which run on Android 14. But regardless, Xiaomi still promises 2 years of OS updates for the base unit and 3 years for the Pro unit. On top of that, 4 years of security patches are guaranteed.

Battery-wise, both devices house a 5,000 mAh battery. Kinda like a standard for mid-range points at this point. But still, a merit for these two phones at the end of the day as it does keep your daily routine supported with an adequate battery life.

The Note 13 came in with a 33W charger in the package. It does a decent job of charging up to 30% within 15 minutes, and 50% within 30 minutes or so, while an hour would reach around 80%; The Note 13 Pro 5G on the other hand, came in with a 67W charger and it packs quite a punch due to the larger voltage output. So you easily get up to 50% charged within 20 mins and a full charge within 50 mins or so.

Now here’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for, benchmark scores. As usual, we’ll benchmark the devices with a few selected software and lay it all out in a table. So after some tabulating, here are the results :

Redmi Note 13 :

Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G :

Technical Specifications

Verdict & Conclusion

What comes to my mind while using these 2 devices is, that it’s decent enough for their price tags. While the Redmi Note 13 didn’t offer much to the table in terms of functionalities, it is still considered a good phone for day-to-day usage. Anything that ranges from work to a streaming device. The Note 13 can satisfy those needs without any issues. Anything that goes beyond that, however, would be a stretch. But the performance I would say still lives up relatively well to its price tag of RM750+.

The Note 13 Pro 5G on the other hand, is a huge step-up in comparison with the base unit and even the Pro 4G version. It has most you need or you might need. Good picture and video quality, good recording features, a good refresh rate, and a faster response rate when it comes to booting up the app. It’s lighter than the base unit by a fair bit and prettier than the base unit in terms of aesthetics. It is an excellent phone if you’re not too particular about the gaming performance. It’s good for vlogging and even better than what the base unit is already good at. Now do allow me to remind you, that this unit is just RM1399, and with this price, you get yourself one of the better-performing mid-tier phones out there. So do give this one a go.

Should you get both of the phones in one go? No. Unless you’re planning to keep use of the 13 Pro 5G and pass the base unit to the elderly or your kids as a communicative tool, then maybe you can consider it. Since there’s still this ongoing promotion where you could get the Note 13 at a discounted price of RM699 (terms & conditions apply).

Pricing & Availability

The Redmi Note 13 Series will start on sale from 20th January 2024 onwards. From 20th January till 2nd February, you can get the Redmi Note 13 Series along with special promotional gifts or discounted prices.

Editorial note :

Hey guys! this review is the combined effort of Aaron Lim and Jordan Kian. Hope you all like this review and can provide you with some useful insight regarding these 2 devices. Cheers!