Redmi Note 13 Series vs Redmi Note 12 Series: What has changed in the new Xiaomi phones

It’s been almost 10 years since Xiaomi launched their first smartphone in India. Doesn’t seem that long, does it? During the course of the journey, their Note series has garnered immense popularity. From highly competent budget phones that offered great value for money, the Note series has moved on to a more premium category over the past few years. Of course, the feature list and performance has been par for the course to justify the higher price tags.

The Redmi Note 13 series is ready for launch, or rather ready for purchase starting 10th of January this year. The series has three phones at the moment - the Note 13, Note 13 Pro and Note 13 Pro+. While their reviews are in progress, we thought why not tell you how they compare to their predecessors in terms of features and specifications, and what new stuff they bring to the table this time. Here are some noteworthy points.

Redmi Note 13 vs Redmi Note 12
Before we talk about these phones specifically, the Note 13 series has undergone a design change. The curved edges on the Note 12 series have been replaced with relatively sharper ones and a flat back panel. They somewhat remind one of the OnePlus Nord 3 series phones with a certain degree of inspiration from Apple. Some may like it, some may not. What’s certainly likeable on the Redmi Note 13 are the noticeably narrower bezels as compared to the Note 12. As a result, the phone feels more compact with a better screen to body ratio.

Speaking of screen, both phones have similar 6.67-inch AMOLED displays with 120 Hz refresh rate. The scratch resistance has been upgraded from Corning Gorilla Glass 3 to 5 on the Note 13. Xiaomi has changed the SoC from Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 to Mediatek Dimensity 6080; something we wouldn’t term as a significant upgrade. The newer phone doesn’t have a 4 GB RAM variant (which is good) and you get to choose between 6/8/12 GB RAM and 128 GB or 256 GB storage.

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The battery capacity (5000 mAh) and power draw (33W) have been left unchanged. The same goes for the support cast in the rear camera department. The main camera however sees a major upgrade from 48MP to 108MP. The selfie camera also gets a few extra megapixels from 13 to 16MP on the Note 13. The price of the Redmi Note 13 in India starts at Rs 17,999 for the 6 GB RAM/ 128 GB storage variant, going up to Rs 21,999 for double the RAM and storage.

Redmi Note 13 Pro vs Redmi Note 12 Pro
There are two major changes here; the first being the display. Though the screen size remains the same at 6.67-inch, Xiaomi has jumped from a 10-bit display on the Redmi Note 12 Pro to a 12-bit display on the Redmi Note 13 Pro. That means the new phone is capable of displaying close to 68 billion colour shades as compared to 1 billion previously. The screen resolution has also gone up from 2400 x 1080 pixels to 2712 x 1220 pixels. Both screens are Dolby Vision compliant but the one on the 13 Pro has a higher theoretical brightness of 1800 nits.

The scratch resistance has been upgraded from Corning Gorilla Glass 5 to Gorilla Glass Victus on the Note 13 Pro. The fingerprint scanner has moved from the side of the phone to under the display. The second major upgrade is again in the rear camera department, where the primary camera now gets 4 times the pixels from 50MP to a whopping 200MP. Optical image stabilisation (OIS) is available on the main cameras of both phones. The support cast as well as the selfie camera are more or less similar for both.

On the processing front, while the Note 13 moved from Qualcomm to Mediatek, the 13 Pro does the reverse with the Mediatek Dimensity 1080 on the 12 Pro now being replaced with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 SoC. Again, we don’t foresee a significant bump in performance, but the hardware is competent. The base variant of the 13 Pro gets 8 GB RAM as opposed to 6 GB on its predecessor, with the top variant sporting 12 GB RAM.

Battery capacity sees a marginal 100 mAh increment from 5000 mAh but both phones support 67W fast charging. The price of the Redmi Note 13 Pro in India starts at Rs 25,999 for the 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage variant, going up to Rs 29,999 for 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage option.

Redmi Note 13 Pro+ vs Redmi Note 12 Pro+
The flagship phone from the Redmi Note 13 series gets some interesting elements. For starters, an IP68 rated dust and water resistance, which is not very common in the segment. It also has a variant with a vegan leather back that does look cool. The Redmi 13 Pro+ gets a curved display protected by Gorilla Glass Victus; a departure from the standard flat screen on the 12 Pro+. Rest of the display specifications are the same as on the 13 Pro and the differences with its predecessor are also similar.

Unlike the other phones in the Redmi Note 13 series, the 13 Pro+ actually gets a significantly more powerful SoC as compared to its predecessor. The Mediatek Dimensity 7200 Ultra is a definite upgrade over the Dimensity 1080 that powers the 12 Pro+. In addition to that, the internal storage has also been upgraded to UFS 3.1 from UFS 2.2. If that wasn’t enough, Xiaomi will also offer a 512 GB storage variant of this phone in India if you are willing to dig deeper in your pockets.

The photography department is identical to its predecessor on paper, but the newer phone has the Imagiq 765 image processing chip that is expected to improve the eventual output from the 200MP camera with OIS. The 5000 mAh battery and 120W superfast charging is common to both the Plus models. While the Redmi Note 13 Pro+ does have some neat extras, it is significantly more expensive than the Note 12 Pro+, and probably the most expensive phone ever under the Redmi brand.

The Redmi Note 13 Pro+ is priced at Rs 31,999 for the 8 GB RAM / 256 GB storage variant, going up to Rs 35,999 for the 512 GB variant with 12 GB RAM. All the Redmi Note 13 series phones run Android 13 with MIUI 14 at the moment, and they are expected to be graced by Xiaomi’s new HyperOS by next quarter. They will be available for purchase in India from 10th January 2024 with multiple launch and exchange offers available.