Smartphones  >  Xiaomi 13 Pro  >  Audio Test Results
Xiaomi 13 Pro
Ultra-Premium ?

Xiaomi 13 Pro Audio test

OTHER AVAILABLE TESTS FOR THIS DEVICE

We put the Xiaomi 13 Pro through our rigorous DXOMARK Audio test suite to measure its performance both at recording sound using its built-in microphones, and at playing audio back through its speakers.

In this review, we will break down how it fared in a variety of tests and several common use cases.

Overview


Key audio specifications include:

  • Two speakers (Top front, bottom side)
  • No Jack audio output

Scoring

Sub-scores and attributes included in the calculations of the global score.

Xiaomi 13 Pro
Xiaomi 13 Pro
140
audio
143
Playback
142

158

135

149

141

162

125

162

113

157

135
Recording
108

147

138

146

133

159

112

170

125

145

132

166

Playback

Pros

Cons

  • Sound scene could be wider
  • Lack of low-end extension

Recording

Pros

  • Good timbre and intelligibility overall
  • Good spatial performance overall
  • Good and realistic dynamics performance

Cons

  • Quite prone to wind noise, audio quality suffers noticeably in moderate and strong wind
  • Pumping and distortion when capturing loud sound

In our DXOMARK Audio tests, the Xiaomi 13 Pro did well, performing reliably across all playback and recording use cases. It offered a pleasant listening experience via the built-in speakers, making it an excellent option for music consumption and gaming, as well as movie watching. This said, limited wideness of the projected sound scene meant the stereo experience was not as immersive as with some of its rivals.

Good to great performances across pretty much all test attributes make the Xiaomi a great pick for sound recording, but potential users should keep in mind that, due to compression and distortion, it’s not very suitable for recording at high sound pressure levels, for example, concerts and other loud events. Wind noise could also be an issue, but other than that, the Xiaomi 13 Pro audio recordings offered great quality.

Test summary

About DXOMARK Audio tests: For scoring and analysis in our smartphone audio reviews, DXOMARK engineers perform a variety of objective tests and undertake more than 20 hours of perceptual evaluation under controlled lab conditions.
(For more details about our Playback protocol, click here; for more details about our Recording protocol, click here.)

The following section gathers key elements of our exhaustive tests and analyses performed in DXOMARK laboratories. Detailed performance evaluations under the form of reports are available upon request. Do not hesitate to contact us.

Playback

143

Xiaomi 13 Pro

163

Black Shark 5 Pro
How Audio Playback score is composed

DXOMARK engineers test playback through the smartphone speakers, whose performance is evaluated in our labs and in real-life conditions, using default apps and settings.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro performed overall well as an audio playback device. Tonal balance was good, despite slightly limited high-end extension and a resulting lack of brightness. Overall treble was still good, though. Midrange was clean and natural, and bass sounded overall pleasant, despite a fairly lackluster low-end. Dynamic performance was good overall, with a sharp attack, good bass precision and a powerful punch. In terms of spatial performance, the Xiaomi 13 Pro did well for localizability, balance, and depth rendering, but given the excellent results in these categories, our testers would have expected the device to render a wider soundscape.

A well-tuned minimum volume setting meant that even high dynamic range content could be easily consumed, and max volume was loud enough for all use cases. In addition, the device was mostly free of unwanted audio artifacts, with only some light distortion and compression at maximum volume.

Listen to the tested smartphone’s playback performance in this comparison with some of its competitors:

Xiaomi 13 Pro
Apple iPhone 14 Pro
Xiaomi 12T Pro
Recordings of the smartphones playing some of our music tracks at 60 LAeq in an anechoic environment by 2 microphones in A-B configuration, at 30 cm
Here is how the Xiaomi 13 Pro performs in playback use cases compared to its competitors:
Playback use-cases scores

Timbre

142

Xiaomi 13 Pro

158

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Timbre score represents how well a phone reproduces sound across the audible tonal range and takes into account bass, midrange, treble, tonal balance, and volume dependency. It is the most important attribute for playback.

Music playback frequency response
A 1/12 octave frequency response graph, which measures the volume of each frequency emitted by the smartphone when playing a pure-sine wave in an anechoic environment.

Dynamics

135

Xiaomi 13 Pro

149

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Dynamics score measures the accuracy of changes in the energy level of sound sources, for example how precisely a bass note is reproduced or the impact sound from drums.


Spatial

141

Xiaomi 13 Pro

162

Black Shark 5 Pro

The sub-attributes for spatial tests include pinpointing a specific sound's location, its positional balance, distance, and wideness.


Volume

125

Xiaomi 13 Pro

162

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Volume score represents the overall loudness of a smartphone and how smoothly volume increases and decreases based on user input.

Here are a few sound pressure levels (SPL) measured when playing our sample recordings of hip-hop and classical music at maximum volume:
Hip-Hop Classical
Xiaomi 13 Pro 72.5 dBA 68.9 dBA
Apple iPhone 14 Pro 74 dBA 71.1 dBA
Xiaomi 12T Pro 74.1 dBA 69.8 dBA
The following graph shows the gradual changes in volume going from minimum to maximum. We expect these changes to be consistent across the range, so that all volume steps correspond to users’ expectations:
Music volume consistency
This line graph shows the relative loudness of playback relative to the user selected volume step, measured at different volume steps with a correlated pink noise in an anechoic box recorded in axis at 0.20 meter.

Artifacts

113

Xiaomi 13 Pro

157

Asus ROG Phone 5

The Artifacts score measures the extent to which the sound is affected by various types of distortion. The higher the score, the less the disturbances in the sound are noticeable. Distortion can occur because of sound processing in the device and because of the quality of the speakers.

Playback Total Harmonic Distortion (Maximum Volume)
This graph shows the Total Harmonic Distortion and Noise over the hearable frequency range.
It represents the distortion and noise of the device playing our test signal (0 dB Fs, Sweep Sine in an anechoic box at 40 cm) at the device's maximum volume.

Recording

135

Xiaomi 13 Pro

160

Honor Magic6 Pro
How Audio Recording score is composed

DXOMARK engineers test recording by evaluating the recorded files on reference audio equipment. Those recordings are done in our labs and in real-life conditions, using default apps and settings.

The 13 Pro is also a great option for audio recording. It delivered a good timbre performance, with nice treble when recording with the main camera, natural midrange and pleasant bass. It also did very well for dynamics, thanks to good signal-to-noise ratio and envelope rendition across all use cases.

The localizability of individual sound sources in the scene was great, and recordings offered a realistic distance rendition. While not impressive, the wideness of the captured sound scene was still good. This Xiaomi model also offered good recording loudness, especially with the memo app. Loudness was also good when recording with the main camera app, regardless of device orientation. Unwanted recording artifacts were overall well under control, but at high sound pressure levels, our testers noticed heavy compression that could result in pumping and distortion. Our testers also noticed a slight lack of high-end extension in the background tonal balance, but on the plus side, the background remained largely free of artifacts.

Here is how the Xiaomi 13 Pro performs in recording use cases compared to its competitors:

Recording use-cases scores

Timbre

108

Xiaomi 13 Pro

147

Honor Magic3 Pro+

The Timbre score represents how well a phone captures sounds across the audible tonal range and takes into account bass, midrange, treble, and tonal balance. It is the most important attribute for recording.

Life video frequency response
A 1/12 octave frequency response graph, which measures the volume of each frequency captured by the smartphone when recording a pure-sine wave in an anechoic environment.

Dynamics

138

Xiaomi 13 Pro

146

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Dynamics score measures the accuracy of changes in the energy level of sound sources, for example how precisely a voice's plosives (the p's, t's and k's, for example) are reproduced. The score also considers the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), for example how loud the main voice is compared to the background noise.


Spatial

133

Xiaomi 13 Pro

159

Vivo X Fold

The sub-attributes for spatial tests include pinpointing a specific sound's location, its positional balance, distance, and wideness on the recorded audio files.

Recording directivity
Directivity graph of the smartphone when recording test signals using the camera app, with the main camera. It represents the acoustic energy (in dB) over the angle of incidence of the sound source. (Normalized to the angle 0°, in front of the device.)

Volume

112

Xiaomi 13 Pro

170

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Volume score represents how loud audio is normalized on the recorded files and the how the device handles loud environments, such as electronic concerts, when recording.

Here are the sound levels recorded in the audio and video files, measured in LUFS (Loudness Unit Full Scale); as a reference, we expect loudness levels to be above -24 LUFS for recorded content:
Meeting Life Video Selfie Video Memo
Xiaomi 13 Pro -23.6 LUFS -25 LUFS -23.9 LUFS -18.8 LUFS
Apple iPhone 14 Pro -26 LUFS -22.9 LUFS -19.2 LUFS -19.6 LUFS
Xiaomi 12T Pro -30.3 LUFS -21.8 LUFS -20.2 LUFS -25.3 LUFS

Artifacts

125

Xiaomi 13 Pro

145

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Artifacts score measures the extent to which the recorded sounds are affected by various types of distortions. The higher the score, the less the disturbances in the sound are noticeable. Distortions can occur because of sound processing in the device and the quality of the microphones, as well as user handling, such as how the phone is held.

In this audio comparison, you can listen to the way this smartphone handles wind noise relative to its competitors:

Recordings of a voice sample with light background noise, facing a turbulent wind of 5 m/s

Background

132

Xiaomi 13 Pro

166

Black Shark 5 Pro

Background evaluates how natural the various sounds around a voice blend into the video recording file. For example, when recording a speech at an event, the background should not interfere with the main voice, yet it should provide some context of the surroundings.

DXOMARK encourages its readers to share comments on the articles. To read or post comments, Disqus cookies are required. Change your Cookies Preferences and read more about our Comment Policy.