Day 0 of the Mobile World Congress 2023 brings us Xiaomi‘s latest flagship smartphones yet — what the company calls “masterpieces.”

(Update, March 2: Here are the Xiaomi 13 series’ pricing and availability details for the Philippine market!)

The Xiaomi 13 Pro and Xiaomi 13 finally get to be in the limelight on the global stage, as Xiaomi launches them — and the Xiaomi 13 Lite — at this year’s MWC in Barcelona, Spain.

With the announcement comes another showcase of the result of Xiaomi’s partnership with Leica. The back features three pro-grade lenses co-engineered with the German camera and optics manufacturer. Xiaomi says, “Each lens has passed the optical certification from Leica, with high resolution, large aperture, and almost imperceptible distortion, providing a solid foundation for excellent image quality.”

SEE ALSO: Xiaomi 13 Pro review: Performance-pushing phone and Xiaomi 13 review: Perfecting the compact formula

The Xiaomi 13 Pro, more impressively, gets the 1-inch, 50-megapixel Sony IMX989 sensor that debuted on the Xiaomi 12S Ultra. The ultra-large sensor is intended to reduce noise considerably; preserve a huge amount of details from the extremely dark to extremely bright areas of an image; capture light better, allowing for an increase of the shutter speed by 72% compared with Xiaomi 12 Pro; and a comprehensive, 2x lossless zoom.

The telephoto lens of the Pro model is floating, such that all the elements can move freely inside the lens while focusing on different subjects. The design results in, as Xiaomi says, “a wider focusing range from 10cm to infinity allowing users to take clear macro photos with the telephoto lens.”

Both smartphones in the latest flagship series offer Leica Authentic and Vibrant modes and four portrait modes — 35mm Black & White, 50mm Swirly Bokeh, 75mm Portrait, and 90mm Soft Focus. We have already published our Xiaomi 13 Pro and Xiaomi 13 reviews, but we’d still like to home in on the Pro’s imaging capability during our time here in Barcelona. Expect us to share more images taken with the Xiaomi 13 Pro in the next few days.

Not just on the camera front

Of course, they are brimmed with other powerful specs as well, such as a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 5G chip, an advanced cooling system incorporating a massive vapor chamber and high-power graphite, and high-density batteries that support up to 120 watts of (HyperCharge) fast charging.

There’s a 120Hz AMOLED E6 screen with a centrally placed punch-hole cutout, 1,900 nits of peak brightness, support for HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, and either Corning Gorilla Glass Victus or Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection. The one on the Xiaomi 13 Pro is curved, measures 6.73 inches, has a WQHD+ or 2K resolution, gets a PPI of up to 522, offers 1,920Hz PWM dimming, and can switch refresh rate from 1Hz to 120Hz seamlessly. The regular variant’s display, on the other hand, is a 6.36-inch FHD+ flat screen that allows DC dimming; you’re looking at a compact-flagship model here.

On the software side, the company promises three generations of Android system updates, along with five years of security patch updates, for the Xiaomi 13 Pro and Xiaomi 13. Users can take advantage of up to six months of free trial for Google One cloud storage of up to 2TB and access to YouTube Premium. With Xiaomi’s newly introduced digital car key, which will be rolled out starting the second quarter of this year, users won’t even have to lend their physical car key with loved ones to unlock, lock, and start their cars.

That’s not all. Owners of the Xiaomi 13 Pro and Xiaomi 13 can avail themselves of one out-of-warranty repair without labor cost within the first 12 months after purchase. Even better for users of Pro units that meet the handset’s warranty conditions, they can now enjoy Xiaomi’s Smartphone International Warranty Service in more than 40 markets worldwide.

Pricing

So, how much are the newly launched devices? Globally, the Xiaomi 13 Pro in Ceramic Black or Ceramic White with up to 12GB RAM and a maximum of 512GB storage is priced from €1,299 (roughly P75,664 or $1,371). The Xiaomi 13 in Black, White, and Flora Green colors with up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage will be available starting at €999 (P58,169 or $1,055).

There’s no word yet on the Xiaomi 13 series‘ local availability, but we’ll update this post as soon as we hear back from Xiaomi Philippines. The pair is already scheduled to go official in the Philippines on March 1. RSVP here if you want to catch the livestream of the local launch.

Replay this video in case you missed the Xiaomi launch

Xiaomi 13 Pro specs

• 6.73-inch curved E6 OLED display, 2K+ resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, 1,900 nits peak brightness
• 4nm octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor with 5G
• Adreno GPU
• 8GB/12GB LPDDR5X RAM
• 128GB/256GB/512GB UFS 4.0 storage
• Triple 50-megapixel main with HyperOIS, 50-megapixel, 50-megapixel rear cameras
• 32-megapixel front camera
• Under-display fingerprint reader
• 4,820mAh battery with 120-watt fast wired charging, 50-watt fast wireless charging
• MIUI 14 based on Android 13
• IP68 certification
• Stereo speakers tuned by Dolby Atmos

Xiaomi 13 specs

• 6.36-inch E6 OLED display, FHD+ resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, 1,900 nits peak brightness
• 4nm octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor with 5G
• Adreno GPU
• 8GB/12GB LPDDR5X RAM
• 128GB/256GB/512GB UFS 4.0 storage
• Triple 50-megapixel main with HyperOIS, 12-megapixel, 10-megapixel rear cameras
• 32-megapixel front camera
• Under-display fingerprint reader
• 4,500mAh battery with 67-watt fast wired charging, 50-watt fast wireless charging
• MIUI 14 based on Android 13
• IP68 certification
• Stereo speakers tuned by Dolby Atmos

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