We put the Xiaomi 13T Pro 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, side)
- No Jack audio output
- Dolby Atmos technology
Playback
Pros
- Good dynamic performance, even at maximum volume
- Unwanted artifacts well under control
Against
- Poor spatial performance, especially in terms of localizability and stereo balance.
- Disappointing volume performance
- Aggressive treble
Registration
Pros
- Natural background rendering
- Excellent recording volume
- Good spatial performance overall
Against
- Slightly muddy and unclear timbre
- The slightly sibilant high notes may occasionally cause harshness
- Recording artifacts
In SBMARK Audio tests, the Xiaomi 13T Pro delivered a fairly average performance and ranked behind its predecessor, the 12T Pro. Overall, the 13T Pro did better in recording than in playback, mainly due to inconsistencies in performance stereo with built-in speakers, which also sounded slightly harsh. But on the bright side, the audio was almost free of unwanted artifacts. Playback performance was better when listening to music and playing games, but slightly worse when watching movies.
Audio recordings had excellent volume and were overall best in office environments. In terms of audio recordings on video, the results were better with the selfie camera in portrait orientation than with the main camera in landscape.
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.
The 13T Pro’s playback had a medium timbre, with a tonal balance that had a noticeable emphasis on the upper-midrange and treble. The treble had a certain brightness that didn’t sound natural, but more sibilant and harsh. The midrange lacked warmth, and while the bass presence somewhat compensated for the lack of low-midrange, the upper bass was quite fuzzy and the low-end extension wasn’t deep enough. Dynamic performance was good, though, with fairly crisp attack, proper bass accuracy, and pretty good punch.
Spatial test results were mediocre, with an average stereo scene width and a weak left channel, as well as a hole in the center of the stereo image. As a result, individual sound sources couldn’t be pinpointed precisely, and distance rendering wasn’t particularly accurate either, with voices often sounding slightly distant. The distribution of volume levels could have been more consistent, and the minimum volume setting was too low, making it difficult to hear low-volume passages in highly dynamic content, such as classical music. The maximum volume was quite high. In normal use, audio artifacts were very well under control, with only some slight distortion and slight pumping at maximum volume. Our experts also noted 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 Pro performs in playback use 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 | |
| Xiaomi 13T Pro | 68.1 dBA | 60.2 dBA |
| Apple iPhone 15 | 74.6 dBA | 72 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 Xiaomi did relatively better in recording than in playback. The tone of the recording was good, with satisfying highs, good midrange and decent bass performance. Dynamic performance was also quite good, despite slightly inconsistent envelope performance between use cases. With the main camera in landscape orientation, envelope accuracy was severely affected by compression and pumping, particularly when recording concerts. The sharpness of the mount was noticeably better with the selfie camera and the memo app. The signal-to-noise ratio was decent when recording in urban environments, but even better in quiet environments, such as in your home or office.
The width of the recorded stereo scene was great with the Memo app, but less so with the main or selfie camera. Despite some occasional blurriness, localizability was very good in all use cases. Distance performance was quite realistic and overall volume was excellent despite some slight volume variations evident when leaving an indoor environment during recording. The results were poor even at high sound pressure levels, for example during concerts. Under such conditions, our testers also observed strong pumping and distortion. Additionally, there was a loud hiss on all recording apps except the Memo app. The tonal balance of the background was natural, with good intelligibility of the main signal.
Here’s how the Xiaomi 13T Pro 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 | |
| Xiaomi 13T Pro | -21.4 LUFS | -17.5 LUFS | -16.7 LUFS | -17 LUFS |
| Apple iPhone 15 | -24.6 LUFS | -22.4 LUFS | -20.3 LUFS | -19.2 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 Pro”]=> string(70) “resources/Xiaomi/Xiaomi13TProV2.2/Xiaomi13TPro_MicrophoneArtifacts.m4a”
[“Apple iPhone 15”]=> string(71) “resources/Xiaomi/Xiaomi13TProV2.2/AppleiPhone15_MicrophoneArtifacts.m4a”
[“Google Pixel 8”]=> string(70) “resources/Xiaomi/Xiaomi13TProV2.2/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.
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