In the past few years, Xiaomi has been heavily investing in research and development to bring a true flagship to the market. The Xiaomi 13 Pro is the company’s most expensive phone to date and it is priced quite competitively at 80,000 rupees in India. In this review, we will compare the Xiaomi 13 Pro with the Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus, one of our current daily drivers.
Design
The Xiaomi 13 Pro looks quite clean, nice, and premium, especially in the shiny white color variant. It has Gorilla Glass Victus protection up front and scratch-resistant ceramic glass on the back, and the high-quality aluminum frames add to the phone’s robust build quality. However, it feels very heavy because of the uneven weight distribution, so it is difficult to hold in one hand. On the contrary, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus is much lighter, has a nice grip, and feels really good to hold.
Display
Xiaomi is offering a high-quality Samsung-made E6 AMOLED screen on the 13 Pro. It has everything from WQHD resolution to LTPO Adaptive refresh rate and 10-bit color depth. The display also gets quite bright and is comfortable to read through even outdoors on a sunny day or during nighttime. The colors coming out of this display are vibrant, and it also has Dolby Vision support, making it ideal for watching movies on streaming services like Netflix. The only downside is the curved sides that still have some accidental touches here and there.
Operating System
The Xiaomi 13 Pro comes with MIUI operating system, and although they have addressed a lot of issues with the latest MIUI 14 update, it still has room for improvement. You get tons of customization options to play with, and the memory management is great. The always-on display implementation is also excellent, but one-handed usage can be better. On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus comes with One UI, which is much more optimized and user-friendly.
Performance
The Snapdragon 8 gen 2 chip on the Xiaomi 13 Pro is not as optimized as the one on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus. Despite its Vapor cooling solution, the phone gets warm when charging, recording videos, or using mobile data. It does not overheat or throttle, but it just gets warm. However, the Xiaomi 13 Pro still performs well in day-to-day usage and gaming.
Camera
The Xiaomi 13 Pro has a 50.3 MP main camera, a 50 MP ultra wide camera, and a 50 MP telephoto camera. The camera quality is excellent, and the pictures come out with vivid colors and good detail. The ultrawide camera is also great for capturing wide-angle shots, and the macro camera is useful for taking close-up shots. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus has a 50 MP main camera, a 12 MP ultrawide camera, and a 10 MP telephoto camera. The camera quality is also excellent, and it performs well in low-light conditions.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Xiaomi 13 Pro is a proper flagship killer, offering all the flagship goodies that you can think of and at a lower price than the Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus. However, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus has a better design, user-friendly operating system, and better camera optimization. Ultimately, it depends on your preference and what you are looking for in a phone.