Over the years, realme has produced some of the country’s most popular and bang-for-the-buck mid-range smartphones, which have been a mainstay of the segment since its market entry in 2018. The realme 13 Pro 5G is the brand’s latest mid-range fighter, and, boy, does it deliver!
Design: 4.5/5
realme has always produced eye-catching devices. The realme 13 Pro 5G continues this trend with a unique twist. The realme 13 Pro 5G’s design is a collaboration between realme and MFA Boston, drawing inspiration from the works of renowned French artist Oscar-Claude Monet. The realme 13 Pro comes in two colors: the signature Monet Purple and Emerald Green.
The Monet Purple features a frosted glass finish at the back, while the Emerald Green variant has a vegan leather finish. Both phones have the Sunrise Halo camera, adding elegance to the look. It resembles a luxury watch’s face with its metal CNC’ed design.
You’ll immediately notice how thin it is when you get the realme 13 Pro out of the box. The curved glass design and the metal frame elevate the look and feel of the device. It looks and feels like a flagship device.
The realme 13 Pro has a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with up to 120Hz refresh rate and 2000nits peak brightness. At the front is the 32-megapixel selfie camera, and underneath the display is a fast under-display optical fingerprint reader. At the back is the Sunrise Halo camera bump that houses the 50-megapixel main shooter and an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera. On the right is the volume and power buttons. On top is one of the two speakers and a mic hole, and below are the dual SIM card tray, the USB-C charging port, and the main speaker.
Hardware: 4/5
The realme 13 Pro 5G is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 processor. Our demo unit has 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage.
The combination of the processor and memory is just right. Not the fastest in the market, it is still fast enough for simple multitasking. Here are some of the benchmark numbers I got: 666825 for Antutu (V10.3.4); 951 Single-Core Score for Geekbench 6, 2702 multi-core score for Geekbench 6, and 1766 GPU OpenCL score for Geekbench 6; 12847 for PCMark Work 3.0, and 3085 for 3Dmark’s Wild Life.
Lighter games like Mobile Legends and Team Fight Tactics breeze through the phone. I was able to enjoy my time playing games on the phone since it didn’t heat up.
For heavier titles like Genshin Impact, the phone did get hot. You can get a smooth experience on the medium settings. The game can still run on high settings but expect dropping frames during high action sequences.
The highlight of the realme 13 Pro 5G is definitely the camera. It’s main camera is Sony’s LYT600 OIS 50-megapixel camera that captures amazing images. It has a secondary 8-megapixel ultrawide and at the front is a 32-megapixel Sony shooter as the selfie camera. Unlike its older sibling, the realme 13 Pro+ 5G, this phone did not have the Sony periscope camera.
Battery-wise, the realme 13 Pro 5G is powered by a 5200 mAh battery with realme’s 45W SUPERVOOC charging. The battery was more than enough to last me a day despite long testing and gaming time. The phone recorded 16hrs and 26mins in PCMark’s Work 3.0 battery test that started with 85% of battery. Charging time is just around an hour for a full 100%.
User Experience: 4/5
The realme 13 Pro 5G runs on realme UI 5.0 over Android 14. There have been some improvements within the Realme UI since I last reviewed a realme device. It’s fairly quick and responsive, and animations are snappy.
The realme 13 Pro 5G is great for media consumption. Its Hi-Res Stereo speakers are loud and remain crystal clear even in high volume. The AMOLED display is perfect for binge-watching Netflix. Speaking of which, the phone comes with some eye comfort tech such as the 2160Hz PWM dimming and an AI eye-comfort that automatically adjusts screen color at night when it detects any fatigue from the user.
For me, the most standout feature of the realme 13 Pro 5G is the camera. The Sony shooter is amazing, especially in good conditions. The images come out sharp and details are well preserved. Portraits are amazing with great bokeh. Shooting in low light is decent and remains social media-ready. Like I said earlier, the base realme 13 Pro does not have the 50-megapixel periscope telephoto camera found in the Pro+ model, but it still has a built-in 2x optical zoom and 20x digital zoom. Images from the 2x are still great, while the 5x zoom remains usable for social media.
For video, the realme 13 Pro 5G can shoot up to 4K 30fps. There’s an ultra-steady mode, but it’s limited to 1080p and 60fps, with some slight cropping.
Paired with the camera is a great AI-powered post-editing solution. There’s AI Smart Remover that removes unwanted photo bombs and AI Ultra-clarity that sharpens details a bit more. The AI remover does work, but not perfectly. AI Ultra-clarity is pretty much the same, though I found that the results sometimes felt a lot more artificial than simply using a slight filter.
If there is one major issue I have with the realme 13 Pro 5G, it is the bloatware you get after starting up. Fortunately, you can easily uninstall some of them, but not all. In any case, you won’t notice them when you get used to the device.
Value: 4/5
Coming in at PHP24,999, the realme 13 Pro 5G offers great performance at a reasonable price. It has a great camera, an amazingly slim body, AI features, and a unique design. It has some tough competition within its segment but I still think this phone is worth considering.
What’s Hot:
- Amazing camera
- Good Performance
- Great looks
- AI features at the price
What’s Not:
- Bloatware
Bottomline:
True to its brand reputation, realme has once again produced an outstanding mid-ranger.
Specifications:
- Display: 6.7 inches AMOLED
- Processor: Snapdragon® 7s Gen 2
- Graphics: Adreno 710
- Memory: 12GB (up to 12GB + 12GB Dynamic RAM)
- Storage: 256GB
- OS: realme UI 5.0, based on Android 14
- Camera: Rear: 50-megapixel Sony LYT-600 OIS Main Camera, 8-megapixel Ultra-Wide Camera, Front: 32MP Sony Selfie Camera
- Battery: 5200mAh with 45W SUPERVOOC Charge
- Audio: Super Linear Dual Speakers, supports OReality Audio, Hi-Res Audio Certification, Dual-mic Noise Cancellation
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC
- Dimension: 161.34 mm x 73.91 mm x 8.23mm
- Weight: 188g
- Colors: Monet Purple, Emerald Green
Reviewed by Gabriel John Pe
Also published in GADGETS MAGAZINE October 2024 Issue.