We put the Xiaomi 13T through our rigorous SBMARK Audio test suite to measure its performance in both recording sound using the built-in microphones, and playing audio through its speakers.
In this review, we’ll break down how it performed 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
- Dolby Atmos technology
Playback
Pros
- Good dynamic performance, even at maximum volume
- Very few artifacts
Against
- Disappointing space performance
- Lack of heat in the low-mid range
- Lack of both high-end and low-end extension
Registration
Pros
- Great intelligibility, thanks to the brightness of the tonal balance
- Good and precise envelope yield
- Good spatial performance overall
Against
- Aggressive performance, due to the strong hiss in the upper treble
- Slightly thin sound, due to lack of bass below 200 Hz and prominence of upper treble
- Poor artifact performance
The Xiaomi 13T delivered average performance for its class in the SBMARK Audio tests, and was overall on par with its predecessor Xiaomi 12T. The audio playback experience was mostly decent but unremarkable. The built-in speakers provided good dynamic performance, even at high volume levels, and unwanted audio artifacts were well under control. Overall, playback results were better when watching movies and slightly worse when listening to music and gaming.
When recording, the microphones pick up a lot of upper treble harshness, which may tire your ears. Recordings often sounded harsh and overly compressed, especially at high volumes. As a recording device, the 13T worked best with the memo app and in the office. The scores with selfie and main camera were slightly lower.
Test summary
About SBMARK audio tests: For scoring and analysis in our smartphone audio reviews, SBMARK engineers perform a series of objective tests and undertake more than 20 hours of perceptual evaluation under controlled laboratory conditions.
(For more details on our playback protocol, click here; for more details on our recording protocol, click here.)
The following section compiles key elements of our comprehensive testing and analysis performed in SBMARK laboratories. Detailed performance evaluations in the form of reports are available upon request. Do not hesitate to contact us.
How the audio playback score is composed
SBMARK engineers test playback through smartphone speakers, whose performance is evaluated in our labs and in real-life conditions, using apps and default settings.
Playback performance was average overall, with decent tonal balance. Treble presence was correct, but the treble sounded slightly thin and resonant. The midrange lacked warmth, and while the bass presence generally made up for the insufficient low-midrange, the upper bass was slightly fuzzy and the low-end extension wasn’t deep enough. Dynamic performance was good, with fairly crisp attack, proper bass accuracy, and decent power. The built-in speakers produce a medium-amplitude soundstage, and the image may appear slightly off-center in some use cases, such as gaming. As a result, the localizability of individual sound sources was not as good as it could have been, with limited accuracy. Distance rendering wasn’t particularly accurate either, with voices often sounding slightly distant. This also had a negative impact on depth rendering, as the distant foreground limited the separation of distinct planes in the virtual soundstage.
The distribution of volume steps was consistent, although the first volume step seemed slightly noisy. On the plus side, this ensures good intelligibility at minimum volume, even with highly dynamic content, such as classical music. The maximum volume was quite high. In normal use, very few unwanted artifacts were noticed, such as slight distortion and slight pumping at maximum volume. Our testers found that the bottom speaker could easily be blocked during gaming, but other than muting the right channel, this wasn’t detrimental to the audio experience.
Listen to the playback performance of the tested smartphone in this comparison with some of its competitors:
Recordings of smartphones playing some of our music tracks at 60 LAeq in an anechoic environment using 2 microphones in AB configuration, at 30 cm
Here’s how the Xiaomi 13T performs in playback usage cases compared to its competitors:
Playing use case scores
The Timbre score represents the quality with which a phone reproduces sound across the entire audible tonal range and takes into account bass, midrange, treble, tonal balance and volume dependence. It is the most important attribute for reproduction.
Frequency response of music playback
A 1/12 octave frequency response graph, measuring the loudness of each frequency output by the smartphone when playing a pure sine wave in an anechoic environment.
The Dynamics score measures the accuracy of changes in the energy level of sound sources, such as how accurately a bass note or the sound of a drum impact is reproduced.
Secondary attributes of spatial tests include identifying the location of a specific sound, its positional balance, distance, and amplitude.
The volume score represents the overall volume of a smartphone and how smoothly the volume increases and decreases based on user input.
Here are some sound pressure levels (SPLs) measured when playing our sample recordings of hip-hop and classical music at maximum volume:
| Hip Hop | Classic | |
| Xiaomi13T | 74.2 dBA | 70.4 dBA |
| Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro | 77 dBA | 76.6 dBA |
| GooglePixel8 | 74.8 dBA | 70.1 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 increases match user expectations:
Music volume consistency
This line graph shows the relative volume of playback versus the user-selected volume increment, measured at different volume increments with correlated pink noise in an anechoic box recorded on-axis at 0.20 meters.
The Artifacts score measures the extent to which the sound is affected by various types of distortion. The higher the score, the less noticeable the sound disturbances will be. Distortions may occur due to the sound processing in the device and the quality of the speakers.
Total harmonic distortion during playback (maximum volume)
This graph shows total harmonic distortion and noise in the audible 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.
How the score of the audio recording is composed
SBMARK engineers test recording by evaluating recorded files on reference audio equipment. These recordings are made in our laboratories and in real-life conditions, using apps and default settings.
The tonal performance during recording was good overall. Treble performance was satisfactory, despite a slight lack of treble extension. The midrange sounded pleasant but was slightly lacking in low-midrange compared to the sweeping highs. This resulted in a tonal balance that was a little too treble-focused. Dynamic performance was good, with accurate envelope rendering in most use cases, except at high sound pressure levels, such as at concerts, where compression had a negative impact. With background noise hiss in urban use cases, the signal-to-noise ratio was very inconsistent. In quieter environments there was still some hissing, but the signal-to-noise ratio was much better. Intelligibility remained consistent across all use cases.
The microphones captured a wide soundstage when using the memo app, but the width was slightly reduced with the selfie and main camera apps. Despite some occasional blurring, localizability was very good in all use cases and distance rendering was realistic. Although the recording volume was slightly higher than average, objective measurements showed problems when recording at high sound pressure levels, such as during noisy events. Artifact performance could have been better, with noticeable treble hiss in all apps except the Memo app. Our testers also noticed some pumping on louder content, as well as strong distortion. The underlying tonal balance was aggressive, mainly due to the sibilant upper treble. This produced a rather intrusive background sound, especially when recording in urban environments.
Here’s how the Xiaomi 13T performs in recording use cases compared to its competitors:
Recording use case scores
The Timbre score represents how well a phone captures sounds across the audible tonal range and takes into account bass, mids, treble and tonal balance. It is the most important attribute for registration.
Video frequency response of life
A 1/12 octave frequency response graph, measuring the loudness of each frequency captured by the smartphone while recording a pure sine wave in an anechoic environment.
The Dynamics score measures the accuracy of changes in the energy level of sound sources, such as how accurately a voice’s plosives (p, tek, for example) are reproduced. The score also considers the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), such as how loud the main voice is compared to the background noise.
Secondary attributes for spatial testing include identifying the location of a specific sound, its positional balance, distance, and amplitude on recorded audio files.
Directivity of registration
Graph of smartphone directivity while recording test signals using the camera app, with the main camera. It represents the acoustic energy (in dB) compared to the angle of incidence of the sound source. (Normalized to the 0° angle, in front of the device.)
The loudness score represents how well the audio on recorded files is normalized and how well the device handles noisy environments, such as electronic concerts, during recording.
Here are the sound levels recorded in the audio and video files, measured in LUFS (Loudness Unit Full Scale); For reference, we expect volume levels to be above -24 LUFS for recorded content:
| Encounter | Videos about life | Selfie videos | Memorandum | |
| Xiaomi13T | -28.7 LUFS | -20.9 LUFS | -19.3 LUFS | -22.8 LUFS |
| Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro | -33.5 LUFS | -24.4 LUFS | -19.2 LUFS | -28.4 LUFS |
| GooglePixel8 | -26.1 LUFS | -20.8 LUFS | -18.9 LUFS | -19.9 LUFS |
The Artifacts score measures the extent to which recorded sounds are affected by various types of distortions. The higher the score, the less noticeable the sound disturbances will be. Distortions may occur due to the 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 hear how this smartphone handles wind noise compared to its competitors:
matrix(3) {
[“Xiaomi 13T”]=> string(64) “resources/Xiaomi/Xiaomi13TV2.2/Xiaomi13T_MicrophoneArtifacts.m4a”
[“Nubia Redmagic 8 Pro”]=> string(72) “resources/Xiaomi/Xiaomi13TV2.2/NubiaRedmagic8Pro_MicrophoneArtifacts.m4a”
[“Google Pixel 8”]=> string(67) “resources/Xiaomi/Xiaomi13TV2.2/GooglePixel8_MicrophoneArtifacts.m4a” }
Recordings of a speech sample with light background noise, exposed to a turbulent wind of 5 m/s
Background evaluates how naturally the various sounds around a voice blend together in the video recording file. For example, when recording a speech at an event, the background should not interfere with the main voice, but should provide context to the surrounding environment.
Start a new Thread