realme 13 Pro 5G Full Review: A Strong Contender for a Versatile Camera Phone

realme is gearing up for another big launch, aiming to set a new milestone in their flagship series with the introduction of their latest head-turner—the realme 13 Pro 5G. With key upgrades in performance, photography, and AI capabilities, realme is about to showcase the realme 13 Pro 5G as a significant step forward. The brand aims to deliver on its promise of an enhanced user experience, focusing on superior DSLR camera quality and smoother performance.

The realme 13 Pro 5G, with its AI-powered camera and sleek design, certainly grabs attention. But in the crowded and competitive market of smartphones within its price range, does it truly stand out? Let’s dive into this full review to find out if it lives up to the hype.

What’s in the Box?

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The realme 13 Pro 5G arrives in a striking yellow box that instantly catches your attention. A small “AI” label is printed in the upper left corner, while the brand and model are boldly displayed on the front, making for a strong and stylish first impression.Inside, the sleek Realme 13 Pro 5G is ready to impress. Along with the phone, the package includes all the essentials: easy-to-follow documentation, a SIM ejector pin for quick setup, and a 45W SuperVOOC charger that powers your device in no time. The USB Type-A to Type-C cable ensures reliable connectivity, while the gray silicone case adds a touch of style and protection. Its unique leather-like texture not only feels premium but also enhances the phone’s look, making it both practical and elegant. From unboxing to daily use, the realme 13 Pro 5G package is designed to deliver a seamless and enjoyable experience.

Its Appearance

The design evolution in realme smartphones has been gradual yet thoughtful, and we appreciate the brand’s consistent effort to bring something fresh to the market. With the realme 13 Pro 5G, the company has taken a creative leap by introducing a Monet-inspired design, developed in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts. We received the elegant Emerald Green variant, but it’s also available in a striking Monet Purple. 

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The realme 13 Pro 5G is truly a visual delight. Even with its plastic back, the subtle shimmer paired with a golden chassis and the camera module’s rim gives the realme 13 Pro 5G an elegant, luxury watch-like appearance that aligns well with the brand’s vision. 

We personally find this design quite appealing. The curved edges add to the phone’s sleek and elegant appearance while also providing a more secure and comfortable grip. On the right side, you’ll find the volume buttons and power button, while the top features a speaker grill. The bottom of the phone includes another speaker grill, the charging port, a microphone hole, and a dual SIM card slot.

Its Display and Features

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The realme 13 Pro 5G sports an impressive 6.7-inch OLED display with a near-fully immersive screen-to-body ratio of 93%. It offers FHD+ resolution at 2412×1080, delivering sharp and vibrant visuals. It supports a smooth 120Hz refresh rate and a responsive 240Hz touch sampling rate, with up to 2000 Hz touch sampling for quick and precise input. 

For durability, it features ArmorShell protection, including Armor Shield Glass and Corning Gorilla Glass 7i. The display offers a typical brightness of 600 nits, can reach up to 1,200 nits at maximum, and even peak at 2,000 nits, with 2,000 levels of brightness adjustment to maintain clarity and visibility in any lighting.

Imagine taking a photo with your realme 13 Pro 5G. As soon as you capture the moment, the Pro-XDR feature goes to work, fine-tuning the brightness and adjusting the lights and shadows to make your photo look more true-to-life, capturing details with striking realism..

When it comes to using your phone, the display adapts to whatever environment you’re in. In bright settings, it uses DC Dimming to manage brightness. But in lower light, it switches to 2160 Hz PWM Dimming, which helps reduce flicker and eye strain while keeping colors accurate.

AI Eye Protection takes care of your eyes by using artificial intelligence to detect when you’re tired, like if you yawn or blink frequently. It then tweaks the color temperature and brightness to help reduce eye fatigue. And if you’re gaming late into the night, the AI Gaming Eye Protection feature monitors your playtime from 10 PM to 7 AM, making adjustments to keep your eyes comfortable.

The realme 13 Pro 5G also has certifications like the SGS AI Eye Protection Screen Certification, so you know it’s designed with eye comfort in mind. Features like Bedtime Mode adjust settings for a softer experience before sunrise and after sunset, while Color Temperature adjustment and Paper Texture mimic the feel of reading from real paper, adding to your comfort.

Even when things get a bit wet, like if your hands or the screen are damp, the Rainwater Smart Touch ensures you can still interact with your phone accurately.

All these features combine to make the realme 13 Pro 5G’s display not just beautiful but smartly designed to enhance and protect your viewing experience.

The realme 13 Pro 5G is built to be tough, with an IP65 rating that protects it from dust and water splashes from any direction. Plus, the Emerald Green model has SGS 5-Star Drop Resistance Certification, meaning it can survive drops from 1.65 meters without damage and keep working normally.

While watching videos on Netflix and YouTube, and we can say that, the display on the realme 13 Pro 5G is outstanding. The colors are vivid, blacks are deep, and everything looks incredibly accurate, making for a fantastic viewing experience.

But it’s not just about the display—the audio quality is top-notch too. With its dual stereo speakers, the sound is clear and immersive. The speakers can get quite loud without any distortion, offering an impressive sound stage that enhances your multimedia experience.

Its Performance

The realme 13 Pro 5G features a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 processor with a CPU that includes high-speed cores and an Adreno 710 GPU. It supports 4G while making calls and has Dual Carrier Aggregation, allowing for two 5G SIM cards. The phone also offers Dual-Channel Network Acceleration for faster and more stable connections by combining WiFi and 5G.

If you need a reliable device for managing storage and files, the realme 13 Pro 5G is a strong choice, especially for tech enthusiasts, content creators and gamers. With a substantial storage option of 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage, which isn’t expandable due to the use of a Dual-Nano SIM card tray still,  it supports Dynamic RAM Expansion (Virtual RAM), allowing it to extend up to 12GB of virtual RAM, making for a total of up to 24GB of RAM. It offers smooth performance and plenty of space for all your apps, games, and files.

For cooling, it uses a 9-Layer 3D Vapor Chamber with a large graphite area to keep the device cool, with a 32.5% increase in cooling coverage compared to the previous model.

In the few days that I’ve been using the realme 13 Pro 5G, it’s proven itself that it can also handle itself on various games with ease, ranging from casual titles like Honor of Kings to more demanding ones such as Genshin Impact with occasional stuttering but can be set to low for better gameplay. Playing low-demanding games like Honor of Kings is smooth at optimal use of graphic settings.

Here are some benchmark results of the realme 13 Pro 5G.

Its Cameras

One of the standout features of the realme 13 Pro 5G, much like its predecessor, is its impressive camera system. Taking center stage is its Sony LYT600 OIS Camera featuring a high-resolution 50MP rear camera with a large sensor size of 1/1.95 inches, allowing it to capture more light and produce clearer photos. The camera is equipped with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) to ensure more stable shots and reduce blurriness. It also supports 2x in-sensor zoom for closer, more detailed images.

In addition to this, it has a 32MP Sony IMX615 selfie camera sensor allowing good light capture and detailed selfie or group photos. Additionally, there’s also an 8MP ultrawide rear camera that features a sensor which helps in capturing detailed and clear images. Unfortunately, it lacks a telephoto camera which for me is an ideal feature of a camera phone.

After using the realme 13 Pro 5G for a few days, I initially found the processed images to be less vibrant than expected. However, as I continued taking photos, I grew to appreciate the device’s approach to capturing realistic and true-to-life colors as we are exposed to smartphones that tweaks photos into more vibrant image outputs. The accuracy of the colors in the images reflects the actual raw hues of the subjects, making it easy to share photos that truly represent the scenes as they appeared. This feature ensures that the beauty of the places you capture is preserved in your pocket. This also means you’ll have plenty of room to adjust and tweak your images to match your preferred style.

Here are the sample pictures:

Its AI Features

Here’s where things get really exciting. The latest realme 13 Pro 5G is packed with cutting-edge AI features. It includes the new AI HyperRAW Algorithm, which fine-tunes light and shadows to bring out the best in your images. The AI Portrait Algorithm accurately separates the foreground, mid-ground, and background, creating beautiful, natural bokeh effects.

realme has been into innovation as it added the AI Smart Removal feature to delete unwanted objects from your photos. The AI Eraser in the realme 13 Pro 5G can sometimes generate images to fill in the erased sections of your photo, which can be handy. However, it can occasionally add elements that aren’t needed, especially when you simply want to remove photobombers or unwanted background details.

For example, when we tried to remove a small duck figure next to a LEGO DSLR toy, the AI Eraser filled the erased area with a stack of small batteries instead. This kind of unintended replacement shows that while the feature is useful, it doesn’t always perfectly match the original scene.

It also has the AI Ultra Clarity mode that steps in to boost resolution and enhances the clarity of blurry photos. But that’s not all. realme 13 Pro 5G has also introduced AI Group Photo Enhance to improve group shots, AI Audio Zoom to focus on audio from the subject of your videos while cutting out background noise.

We tested a blurred photo using the AI Ultra Clarity feature by rendering it three times, and the results were impressive. The final image was significantly clearer, with a noticeable improvement compared to the original blurred photo. This showcases the realme 13 Pro 5G’s ability to enhance image quality, making it a powerful tool for restoring clarity in less-than-perfect shots.

Despite some occasional quirks generated by the AI, all these features work together to elevate your overall camera experience and the condition of the image output rendered by the AI system is almost into perfection. Take into consideration that these AI features only work when connected to internet or data connection.

This camera setup offers versatile video features, including 4K at 30fps, and both 1080P and 720P at 60fps or 30fps. With stabilization (EIS + OIS) in 1080P and 720P, zoom support, and slow motion at up to 240fps in 720P, it’s great for capturing smooth, high-quality footage. Specialized modes like Movie Mode, Time Lapse, and Multi-View Video at 1080P add creative flexibility, making it suitable for both professional and casual use.

The Battery

The realme 13 Pro 5G is equipped with an impressive 5,200mAh battery and supports 45W SUPERVOOC charging, making battery anxiety a thing of the past. Whether you’re traveling, working, or simply going about your busy day, this powerhouse ensures you won’t be caught off guard by a low battery. With its substantial capacity and rapid charging capabilities, the realme 13 Pro 5G is designed to keep up with your demanding lifestyle, providing reliable power throughout your day and ensuring you stay connected and productive without interruptions.

In our charging test, the battery went from 0% to 100% in just under 30 minutes—an impressive performance that highlights the efficiency of the 45W SUPERVOOC charging technology.

Final Thoughts about the realme 13 Pro 5G

Overall, the realme 13 Pro 5G excels in both performance and image capturing across different lighting conditions, offering vibrant colors and clarity whether in bright daylight or low light. Its advanced AI features effectively enhance older or slightly blurry images, restoring their quality. Although there is room for improvement in skin tone accuracy and some aspects of the AI Eraser, these are relatively minor. For anyone seeking a capable and versatile camera phone, the Realme 13 Pro 5G stands out as a strong contender.

The realme 13 Pro 5G is priced at Php 24,999 for its 12GB + 256 GB model and is available for purchase at their official store, as well as on realme TikTok Shop. You can also receive a free TechLife Portable Steam Iron until stocks last upon your purchase.

8.9 Total Score

Overall, the realme 13 Pro 5G excels in both performance and image capturing across different lighting conditions, offering vibrant colors and clarity whether in bright daylight or low light. Its advanced AI features effectively enhance older or slightly blurry images, restoring their quality. Although there is room for improvement in skin tone accuracy and some aspects of the AI Eraser, these are relatively minor. For anyone seeking a capable and versatile camera phone, the Realme 13 Pro 5G stands out as a strong contender.

design
10
display
8.5
performance
8.5
Camera QQuality
9
Battery Life
9.5
Charging
9
Affordability
8
PROS
  • Elegant design
  • Realistic camera quality
  • Long Battery Life
  • Eye-care protection
  • AI Features
  • Fast charging
CONS
  • AI eraser has occasional quirks
  • No expandable micro SD Slot
  • No 3.5mm audio port
  • No NFC
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