We’ve been testing the Xiaomi Redmi 13 and just completed a battery life test. The $180, 4G mid-ranger has mixed results. The phone has a 5,030mAh battery, which is good, but the Helio G91 Ultra chipset (which is built on the ancient 12nm node) is proving to be a problem.
The Redmi 13 did surprisingly well in the video test – 15:00h – considering it has a large 6.79″ IPS LCD (90Hz). It’s not that bright at 550 nits max, but we test all phones at the same brightness setting of 200 nits, so they’re on a level playing field.
The voice call test also showed a decent score of 36:22 hours, which is a solid result considering the age of its modem – you’re unlikely to run out of battery while chatting on the phone. But once you put pressure on the CPU and GPU, things start to deteriorate.
The respective Redmi Note 13 Pro and Poco X6 (both 5G phones with 5,100mAh batteries) are way down with 10:11 hours and 10:16 hours respectively. This is due to the shorter call and video test times, but even their modest game times of 6 hours or so are better than the 5:29 hours managed by the Redmi 13. Their web browsing results are also similarly longer by 30 minutes.
The similarly priced Samsung Galaxy A25 (5G, 5,000mAh) has poorer overall results at 10:19h, but better web (8:11h) and game (7:08h) scores. The Honor 90 (5G, 5,000mAh) has a similar active use score as the Redmi 13, at 10:28h. However, its call and video results are poorer, but it posts better web and game scores. The Honor is an expensive phone, though.
The Redmi Note 13 4G isn’t much different from the Redmi 13. Despite being a “Note”, it has a smaller 6.67” OLED display. The battery is almost identical at 5,000mAh (33W charging) and the Snapdragon 685 4G chipset is quite old, although that too is built on a 6nm node. Like the others, call and video tests are inferior to the Redmi 13, while web and game endurance is better.
Finally, we’ll take a look at the Redmi 13C aka Poco C65. This phone has the Helio G85 (the G91 is a variant of the G85), a 6.74″ IPS LCD (90Hz only with HD+ resolution) and a 5,000mAh battery. Call times are great – 45:15 hours! – and video results are slightly better than the Redmi 13. The lower screen resolution helped with the web test, but not so much with the game test, which is only a few minutes behind.
The Redmi 13 has its strong points when it comes to battery life, but it disappoints in two main categories. Don’t forget that you can use the slider to adjust the Active Use Score calculation according to your usage pattern. Expect a detailed review soon.