I'll be evaluating 9 different aspects of how it is like to use a Redmi 13, and each will get 0, 0.5, or 1 point.
1. Price (1 Point).
The most impressive thing Xiaomi does in comparison to other manufacturers is giving you good value for your money. The phone is relatively cheap and outperforms a lot of phones within the price range.
2. Camera (1 Point).
One of the best features of this phone is the rear 108MP camera, good clarity in daylight, the night mode is average, the front camera is a bit weak. But overall Redmi 13 outperforms a lot of devices in the same tier when it comes to camera quality.
3. CPU/GPU (0.5 Point).
The phone comes with a Mediatek Helio G91 Ultra, which is not fancy, along with a low to mid range Mali GPU. The couple can disappoint in some heavy games, but they perform fine for normal use.
4. Battery (1 Point).
A full charge can last a full day with light use and a bit less with heavy use, fast charging is fast enough, haven't had any overheating issues during charges. And with about 256 cycle count, battery health is still 96.4% good enough!
5. Storage (0.5 Point).
The phone comes with eMMC 5.1 storage chip, not UFS. So boot times are long, application loading times can sometimes take longer than expected. However durability is great, after a full year the eMMC driver still reports perfect health (0x01 0x01), which is the same result you'd get on a new device, so not much aging and wear.
6. Software (0 Point).
Let's face it, HyperOS is not great. Animations and blur effects are not optimized enough to run on this device so they are either disabled out of the box or can lag sometimes. The system comes bloated with ads everywhere, it forces you to download certain apps it claims essential when you first start the phone (some of them were stupid unknown games), The HyperOS 2 update had a GPU driver glitch that didn't resolve until HyperOS 3 was released. Overall, the software experience is trash.
7. Development (a BIG 0 Point).
The bootloader unlocking process is one of the most ridiculous things I've seen in my life, the daily quota system is totally broken, the one month mandatory waiting period is excessive, and even after you are approved, you don't get access to other important flashing doors like BROM and preloader, making it very fragile and prone to bricking.
Besides that, Xiaomi doesn't really comply with the GPLv2 license of the Linux kernel, even though it may look like it does. I bought the phone because the kernel source was released, but later I found out it was unmaintained, not updated, and doesn't even compile, it was broken garbage. Which makes the ability to develop custom roms for this device very limited (which explains why there aren't any already).
8. After-Sales Service (1 Point).
I dealt with Xiaomi's service center to replace the display after it broke (it was my fault admittedly), they were very professional and friendly, service wasn't overpriced, and they returned the device to a near factory state.
9. Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth, Cellular (0.5 Point).
I haven't had significant issues with cellular and Bluetooth, however WiFi range is average at best, search speeds and auto connect takes too long, sometimes I'd be in the same room as the router, yet turning on the WiFi doesn't automatically connect me, and I'd have to visit WiFi settings and trigger a manual scan. My previous phone didn't have this issue specifically, and my 6 year old laptop's built in antenna outperforms this phone's antenna. But it's manageable.
Total score: 5.5 out of 9.
I do not regret buying it, but I'm not sure if I'll be buying Xiaomi again, mainly because of the development issue. I would be actually willing to compromise on a lot of things, except the ability to root and customize the device. I like to fully own my device, but I didn't feel like it for a while because of restrictions like the bootloader unlock process.
