realme 13 review – Budget Gaming Phone for the Masses Tested

Launched alongside the better equipped realme 13+, the budget realme 13 is the base variant out of the realme 13 series of smartphones and the higher end realme 13 Pro that was released earlier.

We managed to get a sample earlier for review ahead of launch and put it through its paces – here’s our realme 13 review where we share if this budget gaming phone is worth your money.

Realme 13 review – Build and Design

Bearing a resemblance to its pricier siblings the realme 13+ and realme 13 Pro  in terms of its rear camera housing and overall design, the realme 13 is intended as a budget gaming phone that offers a modicum of performance to tackle popular games, in particular MOBAs and battle royale games like Free Fire, Honor of Kings, Mobile Legends Bang Bang and Player Unknown Battleground.

The backplate of our realme 13 review sample comes in an interesting light green faux marble texture that repels fingerprints nicely. Taking up centre stage on the rear backplate is a camera housing that appears to have a quad camera housing.

Closer inspection of our realme 13 review sample reveals that the phone itself actually features a basic dual camera setup that consists of a primary 50MP camera with OIS and a 2MP depth sensor with the whole affair capable of up to 2K@30fps video. The right side of the phone features a power button and volume rocker while the top side notably has a dual nano SIM card tray.

The base of the phone comes with a 3.5mm audio jack, making it one of the few phones in the market to feature support for wired headphones, a USB-C port for charging and a grille for a downward firing speaker with an additional speaker concealed in a tiny slit just above the display.

Up front, our realme 13 review unit sports a 6.72-inch IPS LCD display that has a 120Hz refresh rate with FHD+ resolution along with a rather prominent bottom bezel. The top has a punch hole for a single 16MP selfie camera capable of capturing up to 1080p@30fps video. As a nice touch, they’ve also slapped on a pre-applied screen protector.

In terms of overall build quality, our realme 13 review sample is sturdy with an even heft with the textured faux marble finish lending a touch of class to it. The chassis even has a modest IP64 dust and splash resistance rating too.

Further adding to its value, realme has bundled in a free soft TPU casing along with a wired charger and a USB-C cable so that you get everything you need to use it, charge it and protect it straight out of the box.

Realme 13 review – Specifications and Benchmarks

As the most affordable model out of the entire realme 13 series of budget gaming phones, the base realme 13 model has a number of concessions to cost while still aiming to fulfil its objective of tackling mobile gaming.

Under the hood, our realme 13 review unit packs a midrange MediaTek Dimensity 6300 2.4GHz processor of recent vintage that was launched earlier this year with the phone running the latest Android 14 and their realOS 5.0 along with a quoted 2 years of OS updates all the way to Android 16 and 3 years of security updates. 

The Dimensity 6300 CPU is paired with 8GB of onboard RAM augmented by up to 8GB of virtual RAM assigned off the onboard 256GB of storage. In theory, you can get up to 16GB of RAM with 8GB physical and 8GB virtual on the realme 13 which helps with multitasking and ensuring more demanding apps run smoother. Here’s how our realme 13 review unit stacks up on paper:

Price	RM1,199
Display	6.72-inch IPS LCD, 1080 x 2,400 pixels resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, 580 nits peak brightness
Processor	Mediatek Dimensity 6300
OS	Android 14 w/ Realme UI 5.0
Memory	8GB RAM + 256GB storage
Cameras	50MP F/1.8 w/ OIS + 2MP depth sensor [rear] / 16MP F/2.5 [front]
Battery	5,000mAh w/45W wired charging
Size/Weight	165.6 x 76.1 x 7.8mm /190g

Beyond the stock specs that predispose the phone as a midrange workhorse, the realme 13 has a large stainless steel vapour chamber that has a quoted 2249mm² cooling area for sustained gaming. Additional features include a special GT Mode that is intended to optimise performance for intensive gaming sessions.

On stock settings, our realme 13 review unit with 4GB of virtual RAM scored the following benchmarks:

3D Mark Wild Life Extreme	374
3D Mark Wild Life Extreme Unlimited	362
3D Mark Wild Life	1,366
3D Mark Wild Life Unlimited	1,338
Steel Nomad Light	143
Steel Nomad Light Unlimited	145
Geekbench 6 Single Core	781
Geekbench 6 Multi Core	1,963
Geekbench 6 OpenCL	1,425
Geekbench 6 Vulkan	1,440
PC Mark Work Performance	10,334
PC Mark Work 3.0 Battery	14 hours 41 min

In terms of overall performance, the Dimensity 6300 processor is a capable midrange chipset that is adequate for the realme 13’s modest price range though it is outpaced by the realme 13 Plus’s slightly more powerful Dimensity 7300 Energy chipset.

On its own merits, our realme 13 review unit is able to handle most day to day tasks like web browsing and social media without issue though you’ll get best results by maximising the amount of virtual RAM on hand to make app switching smoother.

When it comes to gaming, the realme 13 is able to tackle most games at default settings and at a 60Hz refresh rate cap including Call of Duty Mobile, Mobile Legends Bang Bang, Diablo Immortal and even Genshin Impact. Gameplay was smooth though load times were a bit longer than usual. 

Of note is that even with extended gameplay averaging hour plus sessions, the phone managed to keep temperatures manageable on account of its heat sink at about 38°C. It would have been nice to have a side mounted USB-C port like what the ROG Phones have for easier charging when gaming but it isn’t a dealbreaker.

The provided IPS LCD display is serviceable with its large size allowing for a pleasant gaming and movie watching experience. An AMOLED display, like that used in the higher end realme 13+ would have been preferred and it is likely an LCD was used as a concession to cost. Colour rendition on the realme 13’s LCD display is relatively good though the screen isn’t colour calibrated and looks somewhat dim in direct sunlight though it is adequate for its intended price point. 

On paper, it’s rated for up to a 120hz refresh rate though this is primarily experienced when navigating the menus. Most of the time in apps or when gaming, the phone trundles along at 60Hz. As a pleasant bonus, the phone does have a set of stereo speakers that offer a decent level of volume though detail and sound staging are somewhat underwhelming for detailed music tracks.

In terms of overall endurance, our realme 13 with its relatively efficient chipset and 5,000mAh battery were able to get a fairly decent 14 hours of battery life. In normal usage, it offers sufficient battery life for a comfortable day and a half or so of usage.

Realme 13 review – Cameras

For photos and videos, the realme 13 has a basic setup that covers the bases. The rear comes with a primary 50MP F/1.8 camera that has optical image stabilisation and autofocus with a secondary 2MP depth sensor. There’s 2x lossless zoom and up to 10x digital zoom for stills as well as the option to capture up to 2K@30fps video. Up front you get a single 16MP selfie camera that can take up to 1080p@30fps video.

In terms of overall imaging performance, our realme 13 review sample manages to deliver a surprisingly decent job especially in daylight conditions.

The main camera itself doesn’t have optical zoom and crops the sensor to achieve 2x lossless zoom and up to 10x digital zoom. At up to 2x zoom, shots are relatively detailed with good colour rendition though beyond that images are legible but somewhat soft.

After sundown, the rear camera still manages to capture decent shots at up to 2x zoom though stills beyond that are admittedly soft and grainy. Videos work best in daylight conditions with the OIS helping deliver relatively judder-free footage though content creators will likely gravitate towards more powerful camera phones.

Shots from the front selfie camera are sufficient for a selfie in brightly daylit conditions and for the odd video call or two though it isn’t the best on test. 

Should you buy the realme 13?

The realme 13 achieves its goal as a budget gaming phone that combines a large display and battery with sufficient performance to tackle most mobile games. It even manages to cram in a camera with OIS and even manages to shoehorn in 5G connectivity too.

As it stands, this is an otherwise decent all-rounder though if you have the budget to spare, get the higher end realme 13+ variant.

realme 13 review unit courtesy of realme Malaysia. To purchase please visit https://www.realme.com/my/