Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Review

Xiaomi Philippines has launched the Redmi Note 13 series in the country and it comes in different variants but the most affordable of them all is the Redmi Note 13 4G. This might not come with 5G but it’s definitely affordable and made for the consumers who are on the budget. 

Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Review: Design and hardware

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 comes with a similar design language to the other Redmi Note 13 brothers but the Redmi Note 13 comes with protruding camera lenses only and not the camera module which makes it more minimalistic and simpler looking.

When it comes to ergonomics, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 comes with a slim and light body. It comes with a blocky build with slight curves to make the grip a little bit better on the smartphone. The off-center Redmi logo on the smartphone also adds an odd but unique design.

At the top, there’s the IR blaster and also the headphone jack which gives you the flexibility to use a wired earphones on the smartphone. There’s a decent speaker on the smartphone as well and as for the USB-C port, it does support 33W charging as well.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Review: Display

For the display of the Redmi Note 13, there’s the 6.67-inch Full HD+ AMOLED Display with a 120Hz refresh rate. While it might sound good on paper, it’s definitely not the best in terms of colors but make no mistake because the colors are still fine especially for its price range.

 It’s bright enough to be used outside the AMOLED panel does really help in that. Navigating on apps and also on games is pretty smooth as well thanks to the 120Hz refresh rate on the smartphone.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Review: Battery

For the battery, the Redmi Note 13 comes with a 5000mAh battery inside and that’s a decent amount of juice already inside. The smartphone comes with support for 33W wired charging as well. In our review of the smartphone, we got a score of 16 hours and 39 minutes at PC Mark Work 3.0 Battery test which is pretty excellent.

In my day to day usage, I was even able to use the smartphone for up to two days in Thailand and that’s considering I was using the smartphone for social media and taking photos whole day.

XIaomi Redmi Note 13 Review: Software

MIUI 14, based on Android 13, runs the show. While it offers plenty of customization options, it’s also laden with pre-installed apps and ads that can be intrusive. You’ll need to spend some time cleaning up the interface to truly personalize your experience. I believe that Xiaomi can even improve  their UI even more especially now that HyperOS is already out in the market. We hope to see an update on the Redmi Note 13 in the future. 

XIaomi Redmi Note 13 Review: Performance

As for the performance of the smartphone, it packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 685 processor inside along with 8GB of RAM with additional 4GB extended RAM from its main storage and then there’s the 256GB internal storage for our review unit.

The Snapdragon 685 processor delivers a predictable performance. It’s your entry to the Redmi Note 13 Series and which is why we’re not expecting too much from this smartphone. We’re able to run most of the apps that we need on the smartphone without problems such as social media apps and some casual apps on the Play Store.

On benchmarks, it’s pretty much what we can expect from the smartphone as we got here a slight improvement from the Snapdragon 680. But of course, when it comes to gaming, games like Mobile Legends would be just fine on the smartphone and it didn’t heat up that much when I was playing it for a few minutes. As for games like Honkai Star Rail, expect it to not run at the mid-highest settings at a consistent FPS. So make adjustments and do set your expectations on the smartphone.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Review: Camera

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 packs a 108MP main camera inside and also an 8MP ultrawide camera and 2MP macro camera. While for the selfie camera, there’s the 16MP selfie camera. The main camera of the smartphone would do fine for its price range. We noticed that in our shots using the Redmi Note 13, we’re getting pretty sharp photos for its price range and the colors are accurate on the smartphone. 

Selfie:

Ultra-wide:

Main rear camera:

Surprisingly, the night mode of the Redmi Note 13 was fine as well. It might not be perfect but it’s definitely acceptable for me as the colors were retained just fine and the shots weren’t soft that much.

Selfie on the smartphone is pretty good too for its price range. It’s not that soft but definitely not excellent. Even at lowlight, I’ve noticed it’s a little bit softer and it lost some of the details but it did fare pretty well.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Review: Verdict

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 presents an affordable price tag but still got the features that we need. It’s not a perfect smartphone, it still has flaws, but the Redmi Note 13 offers a bang-for-the-buck features just like its predecessors. 

The formula for the Redmi Note series has been very predictable but it’s not really a bad thing as we’re getting here a pretty good AMOLED display for its price range, a performance that would do fine for most basic tasks and games, a long battery life, and a decent camera as well. However, the MIUI is getting outdated and it does have a lot of ads popping out. However, we’re hoping that HyperOS would arrive on the Redmi Note 13 4G as well in the future for better and more optimized experience.