Xiaomi has announced the upcoming availability of the Xiaomi 13 and 13 Lite in France. During MWC 2023, we were able to take them in hand.
The Xiaomi 13 Pro is a bit disappointing with its price of 1299 euros, clearly far from the initial philosophy of the brand (good value for money). So already, our eyes are turning to its little brothers, the Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Lite. That’s good, they were both at the Chinese manufacturer’s conference organized on the sidelines of MWC 2023. Here are our first impressions. Spoiler: not bad.
Xiaomi 13: one mantra, lightness
With a cost of 999 euros, the Xiaomi 13 already seems a little more accessible. Especially since he keeps the telephoto lens by getting rid of the somewhat cumbersome size of his elder. He prefers a format reminiscent of the iPhone, but also the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S23.
Objective: flat edges, featherweight between 185 and 189 g depending on the colors and we play the card of the cute little object. Frankly, in hand, it works very well. The lightness strikes immediately. Be careful though, if the resemblance to the iPhone is found even in the side buttons, it stops there: the phone has chosen a much more plastic, much more shiny coating which does not really give the same impression.
Source: Frandroid
Source: Frandroid
Source: Frandroid
Source: Frandroid
Source: Frandroid
If you’re looking for the premium side of the iPhone with its noble materials, you won’t find them here. That said, we can also prefer his interpretation giving more weight to… lightness precisely. For the rest, we will have to wait for our test, but the phone seems reasonable in what it offers, it seems fluid and the screen seemed to us very similar to the Pro model at a glance.
Xiaomi 13 Lite: did you say Dynamic Island?
Even further down the price list is the Xiaomi 13 Lite. With an entry price of 499 euros, we switch there in the mid-range, an area where the brand is more comfortable, but where it has yet to prove itself. With a price of half a thousand euros, we expect a little more than a nice spec sheet.
And let’s face it, the Xiaomi 13 Lite also looked pretty promising to us on paper. It will not have escaped you in the photo below, it actually borrows the shape of the Dynamic Island of the iPhone as a central punch. Calm down though, we haven’t seen any animation directly or indirectly related to this punch.
On the rest, the Xiaomi 13 Lite is also rather interesting in terms of its design. Curved screen, satin back, fairly neat photo block, it tries to give itself the trappings of a slightly more expensive smartphone if you ask us. But why not ? Why should slick designs be confined to expensive smartphones?
Source: Xiaomi
Source: Xiaomi
Source: Xiaomi
Source: Xiaomi
Source: Xiaomi
Source: Xiaomi
Also very light, it falls perfectly in the hand and seems quite responsive to use with its Snapdragon 7 Gen 1. If we have to talk concessions, it does fit a small chin and of course we expect a less mastered photo score than on the Xiaomi 13 and 13 Pro, but again, the phone, at least in this first impression, seemed quite presentable to us.
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