Alongside the Xiaomi 13T series, Xiaomi has also announced the Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro (Image).
Xiaomi has released several smartwatches in the past, but their previous smartwatches either ran a non-AOSP-based OS (like the Watch S1) or Wear OS without Google Apps (like the Mi Watch). The Watch 2 Pro is Xiaomi's first smartwatch to run MIUI on top of Wear OS and have access to the Google Play Store. Plus, unlike the Mi Watch, the Watch 2 Pro will be available outside of China.
The Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro features a round 1.43-inch AMOLED display at 466x466 resolution, comes in a 46mm size, Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 chipset, up to 65h battery life, dual-band GNSS, and a rotating crown. It'll go on sale for 269 Euros for the Bluetooth model and 329 Euros for the LTE variant. Here are the full specifications:
Xiaomi just launched its latest T series devices, the Xiaomi 13T and Xiaomi 13T Pro. I know Xiaomi releases a lot of smartphones, so it's challenging (even for those of us who cover mobile tech) to keep track of it all, but there aren't many phones in Xiaomi's T series, fortunately.
This graphic from Xiaomi should help with understanding their smartphone product lines. Note that it's from mid-2020 so it's a bit outdated, as Xiaomi has since retired their Mi Note series, dropped "Mi" from their branding, and made the T series more camera-focused.
(Disclaimer: Xiaomi invited me to attend their launch event in Berlin and to try out their new phones. I'm not including any of my opinions in this post (I'll post a hands-on/AMA separately), but I wanted to be transparent regardless.)
The headlining feature of last year's Xiaomi 12T Pro was its 200MP Samsung ISOCELL HP1 main camera. Xiaomi is also emphasizing the camera in the Xiaomi 13T series, but they're focusing less on megapixel count in favor of their partnership with Leica. Both phones in the 13T series feature the same camera setup "co-engineered with Leica". Both have the same front and rear camera setups with "Leica Vario-Summicron lenses", thus the only potential difference in image quality will stem from their different ISPs. Xiaomi says this year they're focusing more on natural style aesthetic photos and zoom optics.
On the rear, both the Xiaomi 13T and 13T Pro have a 50MP wide-angle camera (f/1.9, 7P aspherical lens, OIS) joined by a 50MP 2X telephoto camera (f/1.9, 5P aspherical lens) and a 12MP ultra wide-angle camera (f/2.2, 5P aspherical lens). On the front, both have the same 20MP camera (f/2.2, 5P aspherical lens) in a centered hole-punch cutout. Lastly, both phones have access to two "Leica photographic styles" - "Leica Authentic Look" and "Leica Vibrant Look" - as well as custom photographic styles.
The "Leica Authentic Look" is designed to bring more "lifelike contrast and shadows" and more accurately reproduce skin and hair tones, while the "Leica Vibrant Look" adds "punchiness and vibrant hues" to make photos more appealing on social media. Meanwhile, the Leica custom photographic styles allow you to adjust tone, tonality, and texture at the preprocessing stage, so what you see (in the viewfinder) is what you get (in the final photo).
Other camera improvements include faster shutter speeds (Xiaomi claims 63% faster than the S23 Ultra); "Pro video studio" features including 10-bit log, built-in LUT preview, Ultra Night video, HDR10+, up to 8k24 video; 10-bit RAW format support (supported by Photoshop and Lightroom); a new camera UI inspired by Leica; and a "Master-lens system".
Another major change in the 13T series is the shift from a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip to a MediaTek Dimensity chip in the Pro model. The last few T Pro devices had Qualcomm's flagship chipset, but this year's Xiaomi 13T Pro has MediaTek's 4nm Dimensity 9200+ instead of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.
On the software front, Xiaomi is now promising to provide 4 generations of Android OS upgrades as well as 5 years of security patches. The Xiaomi 13T series launches with MIUI 14 on top of Android 13, so this means they should receive OS updates all the way to Android 17 and security updates until September 2028.
Design-wise, the Xiaomi 13T and 13T Pro are identical in appearance, from button and port placements to the display. Both phones have the same 6.67" AMOLED flat display at 2712x1220 resolution, up to 2600 nits peak brightness, and up to 144Hz refresh rate (no LTPO so no VRR). They even come in the same 3 color/materials: Meadow Green (glass back), Black (glass back), and Alpine Blue ("BioComfort" vegan leather). And as mentioned in the title, both phones have an IP68 rating (first time in the T series).
(You can see what the Xiaomi 13T in Meadow Green and the Xiaomi 13T Pro in Alpine Blue look like in real-life here).
The Xiaomi 13T starts at 649 Euros for the 8+256GB model, while the Xiaomi 13T Pro starts at 799 Euros for the 12+256GB model. It'll be available through these retailers and these carriers. Xiaomi is offering 1 free screen repair within the first 6 months after purchase, as well as 1 out-of-warranty repair without labor cost within the first 12 months after purchase. Xiaomi says that new users of the devices "are entitled to experience 100GB Google One cloud storage for 6 months trial, and 3 months of YouTube Premium with ad-free access to YouTube and YouTube Music app."
I've posted the full specifications of both the Xiaomi 13T and the Xiaomi 13T Pro below, but here's a quick summary of what's different in the 13T Pro:
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@MishaalRahman
@lemdro.id