realme 13+ 5G Review – The new all rounder phone!

Having dominated the Rs 30,000 market with its 13 Pro series, realme is back with another offering. Sticking to its 6-month refresh cycle, we now have the realme 13+, the successor to the realme 12+ (Review) launched in March. While the Pro series saw subtle changes, the realme 13+ packs a serious punch.

The phone now boasts a Dimensity 7300 chip, a 50MP Sony camera, a fresh design language, a brighter display, a large stainless steel VC system, Graphene sheets, and more. The question remains, can the realme 13+ carve out a distinct position in the fiercely competitive mid-range market? Let’s find out in our review.

Design & Display

The realme 13+ boasts a premium design language which is more in line with the number series phones. While its predecessor had a vegan back design, for the 13+ the company has chosen a clear matte plastic back with etched patterns underneath. The phone comes in three color options, Dark Purple, Mint Green, and Rose Gold.

The flat plastic frame has a matte finish, similar to what we saw on the realme P1 5G. Design is subjective, but we believe realme made the right choice with the matte plastic combo for a more premium look and feel.

In terms of button placement, the power and volume buttons are conveniently placed on the right side, while the bottom features the USB Type-C port, speaker grille, and SIM slot. The top houses the secondary mic and a 3.5mm audio jack exactly like the realme 12+.

Moving to the front, we are greeted by a large 6.67-inch AMOLED display with Full HD+ resolution and a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. The display is impressively bright, boasting a peak brightness of 2,000 nits. The bezels on the phone look a bit trimmed as well compared to the outgoing model, which is a welcome touch. Since it’s an OLED panel, expect deep blacks, vibrant colors, and support for HDR10 playback. An interesting addition is the “Rain Water Smart Touch” feature, allowing the touchscreen to function even in wet conditions. Realme has also gone a step ahead and gave the phone an IP65 rating.

For security, the realme 13+ 5G features an in-display fingerprint scanner. While it unlocks quickly, its placement might be a bit low for some, requiring a short adjustment period.

Software & Performance

The realme 13+ 5G runs on the latest realme UI 5.0, a highly customized skin based on Android 14. It offers extensive personalization options, allowing you to customize icons, fonts, wallpapers, and themes. It gets the Android 14’s Material You features and can match system icon colors with your wallpaper.

Despite realme’s claims of reducing it in their premium series, this phone doesn’t get that treatment. Out of the box, you’ll find pre-installed apps like Reelshort TV, Finshell Pay, PhonePe, Spotify, a folder of games, LinkedIn, and the usual “Hot” app folders. The App Market and Theme Store can also be spammy with notifications, but thankfully, you can control these during setup.

Despite the bloatware, there are many useful system features. These include Air Gestures for hands-free navigation, Floating Window, dual carrier aggregation, Flash Capsule (realme’s version of Dynamic Island), Microsoft sync, AI loop, Bluetooth calling, Bitemoji, and more.

Performance-wise, the realme 13+ 5G is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Energy SoC, coupled with up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. This is a significant upgrade from the realme 12+ 5G. Benchmarks are impressive, with the phone scoring over 750,000 on AnTuTu v10 and 1158/2635 in Geekbench 6’s single/multi-core tests. Throughout our two-week testing, the phone handled everyday tasks smoothly. Gaming performance is also solid, with the phone handling titles like BGMI, Call of Duty, and Real Racing 3 with consistent frame rates. Overall, considering the price, the performance is more than satisfactory.

Camera & Battery

realme phones are known for good cameras, but with the realme 13+, the focus seems to be more on performance, resulting in average optics. While the large circular camera module on the back might suggest a quad-camera setup, we only get two sensors: a 50MP Sony LYT-600 main sensor that excels in low light, and a 2MP macro camera. Selfies are handled by a 16MP sensor.

The primary camera captures detailed and vibrant images in daylight. Colors are punchy, and the overall photo quality is good, with natural colors, pleasing HDR, and impressive details. The primary sensor also allows for 2x zoom, although optimal results are achieved in good lighting.

The 16MP selfie camera delivers decent image quality in well-lit environments, producing natural skin tones when face beautification filters are off.

Where the realme 13+ 5G truly shines is battery life. The 5,000mAh battery consistently lasted nearly two full days on a single charge during our testing. The phone also supports fast charging, with the included 80W charger topping up the battery in under an hour.

realme 13+ 5G Review – The Verdict

The realme 13+ 5G is a definite improvement over the realme 12+, offering a premium design, a stunning display, faster charging, and a vastly improved SoC. However, the software experience is mixed. Extensive customization options coexist with bloatware, requiring some post-setup cleanup.

Overall, the realme 13+ 5G is a compelling option for those seeking a feature-rich and stylish phone around INR 22,999 (including discounts). However, it faces tough competition from the likes of the Motorola Edge 50 Pro and the OnePlus Nord 4 CE.