Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus review: Flagship looks, mid-range price

At six words long, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus’s name is certainly a mouthful. Behind all those suffixes, however, is another solid value offering from Xiaomi, showcasing plenty of high-end features at a mid-range price that won’t break the bank.

It’s not without issues – software especially continues to be more hindrance than help, and the secondary cameras aren’t particularly impressive – but taken as a whole package, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus offers just enough to earn its place in the mid-range market.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus review: What you need to know

Like last year’s Redmi Note 12 Pro Plus, this is the top model of this year’s Note 13 range. And while it’s had the annual spec bump, it’s thankfully avoided the £80 price increase that last year’s model suffered.

The most significant improvement is with the processor; it’s still a MediaTek Dimensity chip, but the 6nm Dimensity 1080 is replaced here by a 4nm Dimensity 7200 Ultra chipset. The move to a smaller manufacturing process should theoretically lead to markedly better performance and battery life, but the proof will be in the pudding (or, more specifically, the ‘performance’ section of this review.)

The screen is also a little better this year, bumping up the resolution from 2,400 x 1,080 to 2,712 x 1,220. That makes it marginally more pixel-dense than the 12 Pro Plus (446ppi vs 395ppi).

While there are technically multiple RAM and storage combinations on offer, only one of them has made it to the UK market, pairing 12GB of RAM with 512GB of onboard storage.

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Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus review: Price and competition

For this, Xiaomi is charging £449. That feels reasonable, considering it’s the same price that its predecessor was at launch. Of course, the latter’s price has dropped considerably since then, and can now be bought at around the £300 mark.

Looming over this price range are three high-profile mid-range handsets. Firstly, there’s the Google Pixel 7a, which is down to £383 at the time of writing. It’s a great all-rounder, and one of the best Android phones you can buy. Competing at the same RRP, but now available even cheaper, is the Samsung Galaxy A54.

If you prefer iOS, the iPhone SE 3 (2022) is also around the £400 mark. Yes, it’s older than the others in this list, but thanks to the power of Apple’s own processors, it’s actually the speediest by far, as you’ll see when we get to the benchmarks.

Finally, there’s the non ‘Plus’ version of the Redmi Note 13 Pro. This is actually quite a different proposition, and comes in £110 cheaper. You can read our full review to get a detailed overview of the Note 13 Pro, but here’s a quick comparison chart that covers the basics:

Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus vs Note 13 Pro vs Note 13: What’s the difference?

Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus review: Design and key features

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus is certainly a looker, with its large 6.67in screen dominating proceedings and barely any bezels to speak of. The curves continue round to the back, where the three cameras sit: two large protruding circles, and one smaller one.

The cameras are separated from the rest of the back with a stylish two-tone design. Our review model came in black, but you can also get white or purple varieties if that’s your preference.

Despite the pleasant aesthetic, it’s fair to say such curved designs are an acquired taste when actually in use. The edges feel somewhat pointier and less comfortable in the hand than the cheaper Note 13 handsets, even if it looks a class apart. No doubt it’s something that you’ll get used to, but it does feel like style over substance.

It’s also, unfortunately, taken some anti-consumer cues from the expensive handsets it seeks to emulate: there’s no 3.5mm headphone jack or expandable storage. Both of these features can be found on the regular Note 13, so this isn’t even a Xiaomi-wide decision. That said, paying for the 13 Pro Plus does give IP68 water resistance, something missing from the cheaper model.

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Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus review: Display

While the design raises some questions, there’s no arguing that the screen is absolutely top drawer. I don’t even need to add the caveat “for the price” to that sentence, either: it’s just a great panel.

It’s 6.67in and uses AMOLED technology, offering 120Hz refresh rates for a silky smooth user experience (and frame rates that could theoretically hit 120fps in demanding games).

But above all, it’s just a good example of an OLED screen. In our tests with a colourimeter, we recorded an sRGB gamut coverage of 97.9% and a gamut volume of 98.4%. The proximity of those numbers spells a screen with excellent colour accuracy.

It’s bright, too, reaching a peak of 475cd/m2. And because it’s AMOLED, contrast is essentially infinite. Put simply, this might be the best screen you can get in this price bracket. Bravo, Xiaomi.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus review: Performance and battery life

Of course, that’s all for nothing if the performance isn’t up to snuff, but the Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus fared reasonably well in our tests. Once upon a time, the presence of the word “MediaTek” would not have inspired confidence, but those days are long behind us as the Geekbench results below prove:

While the A13 Bionic in the iPhone SE 3 leaves everything in this price bracket for dead, the other handsets have very little between them. The Note 13 Pro Plus is last on multi-core scores (including, awkwardly, against the cheaper Note 13 Pro), but there’s not enough in it for you to notice in day-to-day use.

With all the handsets performing relatively similarly in the CPU scores, it was something of a surprise to see the disparities in the GPU benchmarks.

Here, the Note 13 Pro Plus leaps into third place overall, and second only to the Pixel 7a in the Android stakes. The orange bars here are the ones to pay attention to, as it levels scores out by discounting screen resolution and refresh rate: this is what the phones are capable of when display tech is no object.

In the battery tests, our 5,000mAh subject is technically second to last – but I wouldn’t lose that much sleep about that if I were you.

Closing in on 16 hours is comfortably enough to see out the day for all but the heaviest of users. And if not, it comes with a 120W charger in the box, which will easily top up the phone from empty to full in less than half an hour. That said, if you are the aforementioned heavy user, you may want to look up the Pixel 7a or the Samsung Galaxy A54.

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Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus review: Software

All of this is pleasant reading for Xiaomi, but there is a drawback to the handset and that’s the software. The phone runs Android 13, but with Xiaomi’s MIUI 14 skin over the top. To put it generously, it’s an acquired taste. To put it less generously, it’s packed full of bloatware and somewhat confusing to navigate.

What kind of bloatware? Some of it is just a duplication problem. There are no fewer than three web browsers installed (Chrome, Opera and the company’s own Mi Browser), along with both Xiaomi Music and YouTube Music. There’s also a by-the-numbers match-three game called Royal Match, which I certainly didn’t ask for. In short, you’re going to spend a lot of time clearing up stuff you never requested.

Xiaomi promises three years of OS updates and four years of security patches – though there’s no guarantee they will be speedy. At the time of writing, there’s no sign of Android 14 which has, of course, been out for nearly six months.

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Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus review: Cameras

The camera array on the phone is also a bit of a mixed bag. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been writing that I would rather phone makers deliver a single good lens instead of three passable ones. Here, Xiaomi has supplied one excellent one, and two also-rans – which is probably better.

The good news is that the 200MP lead camera is excellent. As you can see from the pictures below, with its default pixel-binned mode, it takes excellent shots in both well and poorly-lit conditions, with very little detail lost in the latter or when zoomed in on the former.

You can take 200MP full shots if you like, but the minor quality bump isn’t worth the ten-fold file size increase for most snaps.

Unfortunately, the other two lenses are merely passable. The 8MP ultrawide camera trades a lot of detail for the extra space.

And while the gimmicky 2MP macro camera works well for extreme close-ups of small objects, it’s not the kind of thing you’ll use very much.

Despite how well the 200MP copes with zooming, it’s no substitute for a dedicated telephoto lens – and I would happily trade both ancillary lenses for an optical zoom.

Elsewhere, selfies with the 16MP front-facing camera are perfectly adequate, and thankfully Xiaomi has gone easy on the automatic beautification filters. Adjust this at your peril, however – just see what it does to me in the final image.

Video can be shot in 4K at 30fps or 1080p at up to 60fps and it’s perfectly serviceable if you’re not a serious content creator. That said, image stabilisation is only available at 30fps and even with it enabled, there’s some noticeable judder when moving.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus review: Verdict

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus is undoubtedly a mixed bag then. Its serious pros – design, performance, display, battery and 200MP camera – are weighed down by cluttered software, egregious bloatware and weak supporting cameras. There’s just about enough here to be value for money at £449, and I doubt you’d be disappointed if you paid that.

All the same, if I didn’t have a penny over £450 to spend on a handset, I’d still opt for the Google Pixel 7a (£383) – the clean version of Android and being the first to get timely updates means it remains the top choice at this budget, despite another solid showing from Xiaomi.