The Redmi 13C 5G is impressive for its improvements this year. The biggest of them is the first ‘C’ series phone with 5G at a budget-friendly price of around ₹10,000. The starry design gives it a cool look for fans of space themes. The glass back and the screen’s responsive 90Hz refresh rate make it attractive. The MediaTek Dimensity 6100+ also works fine with the smartphone, even for games. Yet, the MIUI 14 software has too many extra apps and ads.
Xiaomi launched the Redmi 13C 5G in India along with its 4G variant on December 6. The Redmi 13C 5G is a meaningful upgrade over its predecessor and is the first ‘C’ series smartphone to roll out with 5G connectivity. It also joins the very few 5G smartphones that come with a price tag of around ₹10,000, as Xiaomi launched the Redmi 13C 5G at a starting price of ₹10,999. On top of that, Xiaomi has also tried to be artistic with its design. The Redmi 13C 5G comes with a starry design inspired by the ‘Star Trails’ that makes it interesting. In my opinion, it is a fascinating approach as I have always been captivated by space-related stuff such as stars, meteors, night sky, and more.
This is my review of the Redmi 13C 5G. Let’s explore what upgrades this smartphone packs and how it measures against the competition.
The Redmi 13C 5G has been launched in three colour options that are Startrail Silver, Startrail Green, and Starlight Black. All three colours come with a hint of the “starry” design. However, the black variant is more subdued and features a spotted back while the other two feature flashy star trails. These star trails on the Redmi 13C 5G show up when you tilt the smartphone. Not just that, the back panel of the smartphone also turns iridescent when light reflects from it.
Furthermore, it has a dual camera setup on the back, which is encased within two big camera rings. Along with that, there is an LED flash. On the bottom left, the Redmi branding is there with ‘5G’ labeled alongside.
The Redmi 13C 5G features a glass back panel and a plastic mid-frame. The power buttons and volume rockers are placed on the right side of the panel. On the top, there is a 3.5 mm headphone jack.
Speaking of the grip, I find the smartphone a bit slippery due to its glass design. While the edges are sharp, the mid-frame feels somewhat smooth and may be the culprit here.
The Redmi 13C 5G is equipped with a sizable 6.74-inch IPS LCD with an HD+ resolution and up to 90Hz refresh rate. Speaking of the display’s performance, I must say that it’s the one thing that has impressed me the most about this smartphone. It offers accurate colours and is quite responsive, thanks to the 90Hz refresh rate – which is still rare on budget smartphones.
The Redmi 13C 5G’s display is also decently bright. I measured a peak brightness of 389 nits using a fluxmeter. For this segment, around 400 nits is believed to be a good number and thus the Redmi 13 5G doesn’t disappoint.
One thing that could be improved a little is its display resolution. Those who have had experience with Full HD screens will find that the display is not sharp enough, but perhaps first-time smartphone buyers wouldn’t mind. It’s a very minor detail to notice, and if you don’t binge-watch enough, then it’s not a big issue.
The Redmi 13C 5G is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 6100+. This chipset comes with two performance cores clocked at 2.2GHz and six efficiency cores clocked at 2.0GHz. Along with that, the Redmi 13C 5G comes with up to 6GB RAM and 256GB storage (We have the top variant with us for this review).
Performance and gaming go hand in hand, so let’s start from there. I played Call of Duty: Mobile on high graphics settings. It ran smoothly in the Redmi 13C 5G and didn’t even lag once during our testing. Surprisingly, the smartphone doesn’t heat up much while running performance-centric workloads such as gaming, benchmarks, navigation, etc.
Coming to its OS, the Redmi 13C 5G runs on Android 13-based MIUI 14 skin. And I think this needs to be fixed not because it has bugs but because of its bloatware. The smartphone comes with unnecessary applications and a lot of ads. Even on the lock screen, there are so many promotional ads for apps such as gaming, news, etc. However, it is not something that can’t be removed. To disable it from the lock screen, you can go to Settings > Display > Lock Screen > Glance for Mi > Turn Off.
Moreover, I ran some benchmarks on the Redmi 13C 5G and here’s how it compares with its predecessor.
While using basic applications such as Instagram, Facebook, Google Pay, and more, the smartphone did not stutter. To sum it up, if you need a smartphone for basic use with 5G connectivity, the Redmi 13C 5G should be on your list.
The Redmi 13C 5G is equipped with a dual camera setup on the back. This includes a 50-megapixel primary camera and a VGA sensor. On the front, there is a 5-megapixel selfie shooter.
The 5-megapixel sensor captures vibrant and detailed pictures, without overly smoothing the skin. However, it faces challenges in low-light conditions, which impacts the image quality of selfies. On a positive note, the front camera performs very well in portrait mode for a smartphone in this price range.
To the main camera now. The Redmi 13C 5G has visible noise in its pictures. In well-lit environments, it tends to capture highly saturated images. Because of this, the pictures have an orangish or pinkish cast. Furthermore, the pictures I clicked on the phone felt somewhat dull. Despite these limitations, I’d say that the camera is functional, albeit with room for improvement.
I enjoyed the portrait mode on this smartphone. Its capability to detect edges and delicately blur the background is quite impressive for its price range. Surprisingly, it achieves a good depth of blur even without a dedicated depth sensor. However, there are instances where edge detection falters, leading to blurred edges in a few portrait shots. Although this issue is infrequent, it should be noted.
In terms of low-light photography, the Redmi 13C 5G falls short, which is understandable in this price segment. It struggles in low-light conditions and smoothens pictures excessively. However, the ‘Night Mode’ does provide a decent workaround when there’s a small amount of light at night. Be cautious though as it tends to temper with colours and exposure. The same holds for the portrait mode in low light too, making it challenging to capture high-quality portraits.
In conclusion, the Redmi 13C 5G’s main camera needs some improvement. Whereas, the front camera performed well for the price.
Speaking of its battery, the Redmi 13C 5G packs a 5000mAh battery that supports up to 18-watt fast charging. It has a big enough battery to run for up to 24 to 48 hours on a single charge (for basic usage, that is). However, while running demanding applications and games, the smartphone gave pretty mixed outcomes.
While playing Call of Duty: Mobile for 15 minutes on high graphics, the battery dropped by 3 percent which is great. The battery drop while using Maps and streaming high-quality videos is also doable. I used Google Maps for one hour and the battery dropped by 7 percent. Next, I streamed some videos from popular apps on the Redmi 13C 5G in high resolution, which is only HD+. I watched a HD+ video for 30 minutes and the battery saw a 6 percent drop.
I feel the battery of the Redmi 13C 5G is pretty good. This comes as no surprise, as it is a key focus area for manufacturers when designing entry-level smartphones. One good thing is that the smartphone does not heat up while running performance-centric tasks, which also helps in extending mileage.
In summary, the Redmi 13C 5G is impressive for its improvements this year. The biggest of them is the first ‘C’ series phone with 5G at a budget-friendly price of around ₹10,000. The starry design gives it a cool look for fans of space themes. The glass back and the screen’s responsive 90Hz refresh rate make it attractive. The MediaTek Dimensity 6100+ also works fine with the smartphone, even for games. Yet, the MIUI 14 software has too many extra apps and ads. The camera is okay but could be better, and the 5000mAh battery lasts a good amount of time.
