realme 13 Pro 5G Review – DSLR photography in a smartphone.

realme returns with a brand new smartphone series that’s touted to be a DSLR in your pocket. Here’s my realme 13 Pro 5G review which is out now in stores as well as on Shopee and Lazada!

realme 13 Pro – Design

realme has teamed up with The MFA, a renowned fashion museum in Boston, for the design from the curves to everything else.

The realme 13 Pro 5G comes in two versions namely the “Monet Purple” and the weirdly named “Emerald Green”. The review unit I got was Emerald Green and I liked the color and more importantly its light (183.5g) and thin (8.41mm). The whole back is also leather, following the trend that the realme 12 Pro + 5G started which will make you double think on whether you need to bring along a case or just lug it around as is. Props though to the free case, it matches the design of the back very well. realme also kept the camera island look that was hyped up from the realme 12 series. Very luxurious, very extravagant without breaking the bank.

It also features a dual SIM but not slot for a microSD card.

The leather design is what I really loved here. Not only does it look nice it also feels nice to touch. None of that plastic, soulless vibe. This has individuality to it.

realme 13 Pro 5G – Display

The realme 13 Pro 5G comes with a 6.7 FHD OLED display with a 93% screen to body ratio. This means that whether you’re streaming a movie online or playing a game you’ll see everything. You’ll also be happy with the Full HD 2412 x 1080 resolution pumping up great visuals even for a simple thing like scrolling on Facebook.

Other details that really makes the realme 13 Pro 5G a “certified G” for this quarter includes a 120Hz refresh rate, 600 nits typical brightness and 20000 levels of brightness. But believe me as long as we have a good display and a nice refresh rate, you are definitely set on this phone especially for gaming.

Another thing I liked about the realme 13 Pro 5G’s display is that curved feel.

You’ll know that it’s a lot more comfortable to hold and take pictures with because of its sides as opposed to other smartphones that came out this and last quarter that’s sticking to the standard rectangular design with sharper edges that’s a bummer to use.

realme 13 Pro – Camera

There’s a lot to unpack when it comes to the 13 Pro 5G’s camera. First it does a triple camera system with the main camera being a 50MP Sony LYT-600 OIS Camera with a 6144×8192 resolution and 5p lens and Equivalent Focal Length of 26mm. This is what really sets the realme 13 Pro 5G from the other contemporaries if you also consider it’s price range. Then there’s the 8MP Ultra-Wide lens which lets you take wider shots indoors or outdoors with a 16mm equivalent focal length.,

I need to mention how aesthetically pleasing the camera was designed into the realme 13 Pro 5G. It looks so snug and the fact that realme managed to lessen the protrusion around the circular area at the back.

Going back to the photos and camera review, the portrait and photo filters are also up-to-date with the selection that Android’s latest build offers and those filters are very on-point with what’s trending and popular on social media networks like Instagram and TikTok.

Other rear camera functions include:

• Panoramic
• Pro
• Hi-Res
• Movie
• Time-Lapse
• Slow-Mo
• Long Exposure
• Dual View Video
• Doc Scanner
• Starry Mode
• Tilt-Shift
• Google Lens

In terms of video quality, it’s also a big bruiser as it lets you shoot 4K Videos @ 30FPS, 1080P @ 60FPS / 30FPS and 720P at either 30FPS or 60FPS. Here’s a video I took at the recently concluded Super Manila Comic Con I shot entirely using the realme 13 Pro 5G

When using the EIS + OIS settings you can either shoot at 1080P or 720P and toggle between 30FPS and 60FPS. The results are amazing although I would suggest if you’ll be shooting regular videos and not vlog quality ones to switch to 1080P + 30FPS also as a way to save storage space.

This phone also has an action setting which makes taking photos in motion look more stable for photos.

The colors are lush and beautiful and definitely worthy of being branded as a DSLR level camera in a smartphone.

The front camera is also pretty awesome letting you take excellent selfies at higher quality compared to other smartphone contemporaries that came out this year. We have a 32MP Sony Selfie Camera with FOV 90° and f/2.45 aperture. This gives your selfies a little more depth and color than your past smartphones.

Unlike in the previous version, the new realme 13 Pro 5G also has new and improved filters available both on portrait mode and on photo mode. Above is the grey filter and below is the film filter. It’s a great addition and something that Instagram lovers and social media nuts would be smitten with.

The realme 13 Pro also has a movie mode that allows you to instantly take movie quality videos while being able to toggle between apperture and exposure and ISO settings. Other features include Pano, Night, Time Lapse, Dual View, Face Beauty and Fill Light. Videos you can take using the front camera can go between 720P, 1080P and 4K and the default for the camera is 1080P @ 30FPS.

 

Then there’s also the AI-powered features on the phone such as the AI Eraser which is the trend for 2024. Its definitely good but you still need to have Internet connection to be able to pull this off.

realme 13 Pro – Battery

This smartphone comes with a 5200mAh battery and 45W SuperVOOC fast charging. The battery can take a beating but its not up there with the other phones in terms of how much it can take although it can certainly last a day or two on standby mode. Luckily for us it charges really fast.

realme 13 Pro 5G – Benchmarking

I ran a couple of benchmarks on realme’s latest product and it did surprisingly well.

Benchmarking App	Score
Geekbench 6 CPU	Single Core 886
	Multi-Core 2594
3D Mark	Slingshot Graphics – 6311
	Wild Life FPS – 3059 (Average FPS 18.32)

 

In case you’re wondering whether the realme 13 Pro and Pro + variant can take the punishment of the more popular games, the answer’s yes and that’s because its got a dragon hiding inside it, a Snapdragon that is. We have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset. to work on all the tasks that runs on the phones and since it’s a snapdragon you know that it don’t break easily. In terms of graphics, the 13 Pro 5G has an Adreno 710 GPU which really helps with processing and churning out good quality games. But I do suggest that you keep the graphics and game outputs at a safe measure because it tends to overheat when you push the phone to the limits especially for games like Genshin Impact and Zenless Zone Zero and other MOBA and RPG games.

Final Thoughts

For around P24,999 the realme 13 Pro 5G is a solid contender for the phone with the most. If you want solid photos when going out of town, nearly DSLR quality then this is your best bet amongst the products out in the market today. It can also hold it’s own when it comes to the current tech trends (AI eraser) so you won’t be found wanting for other things. The build and the look for the smartphone is also outstanding and really continues the trend of being classy without breaking the bank. I love the eye-catching design for the back and that little “nod” to Monet. Gamers will also enjoy using the phone because of the great display and the sound quality is good. The graphics and processing power is worth every piso that you spend so it’s a good investment with your hard-earned moolah.

The realme 13 Pro 5G is now available on TikTok Shop,

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