Just like 2022, Xiaomi has unveiled a ‘T’ series of its flagship phone range, aiming to deliver near-enough flagship performance in a device that doesn’t cost quite as much as the Xiaomi 13 Pro.

Design and build

• 162.2 x 75.7 x 8.49/8.62 mm – 200g or 209g
• Gorilla Glass 5 front – Glass or vegan leather back
• IP68 water and dust resistance
• Meadow Green, Black and Alpine Blue colours

Where the Xiaomi 13 Pro is a glorious, curved, premium device made with a luxurious, seamless ceramic back, the Xiaomi 13T is a bit simpler in its build. It’s undoubtedly an effort to reduce costs, but features a rather flat, plastic edge all around the phone.

What material you get on the back depends on which colour you want. Two of them – the Meadow Green and Black variants – feature a glass back and, because of that, are thinner but heavier than the Alpine Blue model which I’ve had my hands on. This version comes with a vegan leather rear finish, making it a little bit lighter and a bit thicker than the others.

In real life, the blue isn’t as vibrant as some of the official renders make it appear. It’s a very soft, light, pastel blue with a hint of lavender about it. And – despite the edge being made from plastic – it’s got a solid, unbendable feel to the device.

It’s certainly a large phone, but the leather-like texture gives it warmth and grip that you wouldn’t get from a glass phone and makes it far less likely to slip on to the floor or out of your hand, and less likely to break.

The camera housing has been redesigned too, again likely an attempt to keep costs down. Rather than be a seamless square that ramps up from the rear of the phone, this is a relatively simple rectangle stamped to the outside with two big camera rings protruding from the surface and a third lens hidden beneath the surface near the LED flash.

Otherwise, it’s a pretty standard design. It’s got the usual collection of buttons and ports around the outside and features an in-display fingerprint sensor beneath the phone’s front glass.

Rather than a curved screen, Xiaomi added a flat display on the 13T model, making it a little more practical for every day typing. The surrounding bezels are skinny enough too, although not quite uniform, and certainly not to the levels achieved by Samsung in its flagship Galaxy S23 devices.

It is IP68 rated for water and dust resistance though, and that should mean it’ll survive rainy weather or being dunked in water.

Display and software

• 6.67-inch AMOLED display – 2712 x 1220 resolution – 446ppi
• 1200 nits typical – 2600 nits peak brightness
• 144Hz adaptive refresh rates – 68 billion colours – HDR10+/Dolby Vision

Despite the fact it doesn’t have a QuadHD resolution screen like its ‘Pro’ sibling, the Xiaomi 13T Pro’s display does have a lot of impressive specs. And – at 2712 x 1220 – the resolution is plenty sharp enough and comfortably over 400 pixels-per-inch. I’ve only used it a short while, but it seems crisp, vibrant, and colour-rich.

Its sharpness isn’t its only strength either. With a typical brightness of 1200 nits and a peak that can reach as high as 2600 nits, it can cut through glare from daylight and is suitable for popular HDR standards like Dolby Vision and HDR10+. And because it’s got really sensitive and responsive dimming, you shouldn’t notice when it’s smoothly ramping the brightness up or down to match the ambient lighting.

To complete the picture, there are smooth frame rates on offer as well. Xiaomi’s latest phone can reach peaks of up to 144Hz when required. That means super smooth, crisp animation pretty much all the time, especially in the user interface of the phone when scrolling through the settings, browsing the apps, and dropping down notifications.

Software is Android 13-based MIUI 14, which is pretty much exactly what you’ll get on any Xiaomi, Redmi or Poco phone launched over the past few months.

Hardware, battery and charging speeds

• MediaTek Dimensity 9200+ processor
• 12GB/256GB, 12GB/512GB and 16GB/1TB options
• 5000mAh battery with 120W fast charging

Of course, further testing is necessary to see how powerful the Xiaomi 13T Pro is, but there are encouraging specs here. Rather than feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, this one has MediaTek’s top-tier Dimensity 9200+ which features very similar performance to Qualcomm’s popular alternative. It’s fast and battery efficient, plus is joined by a tonne of RAM.

You’ll get a minimum of 12GB with the 13T Pro, but can get 16GB in the top model which also features 1TB of storage. That’s a lot of space for storing photos, media, apps, and other data. Whether or not anyone needs all that RAM is another question, but it should mean smooth running of tasks, even when they’re really demanding.

Battery capacity is encouraging too: you get 5000mAh here, which is a little more than what the 13 Pro has. Just like the 13 Pro you get 120W fast charging via a proprietary power adapter that comes in the box and can give you a full battery from empty in 19 minutes (according to Xiaomi). Sadly there’s no wireless charging in this model. That feature is reserved for the Xiaomi 13 Pro.

Cameras

• 50MP f/1.9 main camera
• 50MP f/1.9 2x telephoto zoom camera
• 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera
• Up to 8K video recording – 10-bit LOG and LUT import

Xiaomi went all out on the camera front with the 13 Pro, but dialled it back slightly with the 13T Pro. It’s still got a 50-megapixel main sensor, but it’s not as large. Despite that, it’s joined by a strong 50-megapixel telephoto 2x zoom camera (handy for those portrait shots you want to take), plus a lower resolution 12-megapixel ultrawide.

As for video recording options, there’s a lot of flexibility here. You can shoot at 4K resolution up to 60 frames per second, or shoot 8K at 30 frames per second. If you want the highest frame rates you’ll need to launch into the dedicated slow-motion mode, which then lets you crank it all the way up to 960fps at 720p or 1080p.

There are a couple of stabilised video options called ‘Steady Video’ and ‘Steady Video Pro’ which smooth out any handshakes or jolted movements, but there’s a limitation here. You can only use these features when shooting in 1080p, you can’t have stabilised 4K recording.

First impressions

As with most phones from Xiaomi, the 13T Pro seems like a solid overall device. It’s not one that particularly stands out in a crowded market, but there are a couple of things that buyers could find really appealing.

It’s got a top-level processor from MediaTek inside to deliver fast, efficient performance and has a battery that can go from empty to completely full in under twenty minutes. Add to that a big, flat display and you have a promising phone that shouldn’t cost as much as the competition’s top-tier phones.