3 reasons to buy and 2 reasons to skip the Realme 13 5G

Published On: September 7, 2024

Realme has introduced its Realme 13 series smartphones in India, including the Realme 13 5G and Realme 13+ 5G. The vanilla Realme 13 comes with some improvements over its predecessor, the Realme 12. It offers solid battery life, reliable cameras, and handy software features.

However, the device has a few drawbacks as well. In this post, based on our detailed Realme 13 5G review, we’ll go over three reasons why you should buy the standard Realme 13 and two reasons why you shouldn’t.

Table of Contents

3 reasons to buy the Realme 13 5G

Excellent battery backup

Powering the Realme 13 is a 5,000mAh battery capacity with support for 45W SUPERVOOC fast charging. In the PCMark battery benchmark, it achieved 11 hours and 12 minutes, a decent result for its price range. For casual usage, the battery provides about 6-7 hours of screen time.

In gaming and video streaming tests, the phone drained 20 percent of its battery after 2 hours of heavy usage, impressive for this battery size compared to its competitors. The 45W fast charging recharges the battery from 20 percent to 100 percent in just 57 minutes, a good speed for its segment.

Decent daylight cameras

The Realme 13 features a significant camera upgrade. Its primary camera is now a 50MP Samsung S5KJNS sensor with OIS, replacing the previous 108MP camera, and is paired with the same 2MP mono sensor. The front camera has also been upgraded to 16MP from 8MP.

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In daylight, the primary camera captures detailed images with slightly saturated colours and decent dynamic range. Selfies are natural-looking with good colour and detail. The camera now supports 2K 30FPS video recording, improved from 1080p on its predecessor, and offers good stabilisation due to OIS, making it suitable for video recording.

Good audio output

While it has a disappointing display, the Realme 13’s speakers make up for it, as the paired speakers can get pretty loud, which itself is a bonus for a phone in this price range. Its stereo speaker setup gets reasonably loud and enhances the multimedia experience. This loudness of the Realme 13’s speakers can come in handy during social media use, video streaming, conference calls, playing games, or grooving to the music.

2 reasons to skip the Realme 13 5G

No AMOLED panel

The Realme 13 features a 6.72-inch IPS LCD screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, FHD+ resolution, and a peak brightness of 580 nits. This is a downgrade from its predecessor, which had an AMOLED panel with 950 nits of peak brightness. While the display performs well indoors, its lower brightness makes outdoor visibility difficult.

Additionally, the use of an IPS LCD panel is surprising, as many competing phones in the same price range, including cheaper Realme models like the Realme P1, come with AMOLED screens, offering better colour vibrancy and multimedia experience.

Underwhelming performance

The Realme 13 draws power from the MediaTek Dimensity 6300 SoC, coupled with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. This mid-range chipset handles everyday tasks like social media, video streaming, and calling, but occasional lag occurs, particularly when scrolling through apps like Instagram and YouTube. Its benchmark scores are average compared to competitors.

Even the cheaper Realme P1 outperforms it with a Dimensity 7050 chipset. In terms of gaming, the phone can handle moderately demanding titles like COD Mobile and BGMI on medium settings, delivering playable FPS. However, we would say the Realme 13 is best suited for casual gaming.