The Samsung Galaxy A13 looks like a great upgrade from the Galaxy A12 in pretty much every way but there’s just one tiny problem. The name’s Izzi and welcome to the channel. Now let’s get started! Samsung is firing on all cylinders this year with the recent launch of the A series devices, pretty much releasing the entire A series in one go. I’ve reviewed a few of them and the latest I got my hands on is the Samsung Galaxy A13 which looks really nice as far as design goes. Actually this design reminds me more of the Galaxy A32 from last year thanks to its camera arrangement which we could also say is similar to the S22 Ultra, but I’m giving credits to the A32 for this design inspiration. But we’re not talking about design just yet. The Samsung Galaxy A13 actually is an upgrade from the A12 in every way as far as I can tell. I’m talking improvements in not just design but also display and performance thanks to the Exynos 850 which is actually not a new processor. It’s the same processor on the Galaxy A21s from 2020, and for the A13 this is a good upgrade from the Helio P35 on its predecessor.
Samsung Galaxy A13 Review
We’ll talk more on the processor and performance later. This is actually the A13 4G, different from the A13 5G which packs the more powerful Dimensity 700. I actually wish we got that one but it is what it is. The Samsung Galaxy A13 comes at the price of 95,000 Naira for the 64GB option, that’s just about $170 if I’ve done the conversion correctly. There’s also a 128GB option which costs more, but both have 4GB of RAM. Now to the box content we have the essential accessories except earphones. Thankfully we get a charger, actually a 15 watts charger, so it gets fast charging.
Samsung Galaxy A13 Review
There’s no screen protector nor protective casing here. We still have the headphone jack on the Galaxy A13 and all ports and buttons are in the conventional position. The fingerprint scanner is side mounted as we’ve become accustomed for budget devices. It works well to unlock the device without issues. There’s just a bottom firing mono speaker which actually sounds good and doesn’t get distorted at high volumes. Time to take a look at that interesting design on the Samsung Galaxy A13.
While it comes in the same color options as its bigger siblings, its design is more inspired by the older A32 with its individual camera bump. In my opinion this is a much welcome design improvement coming from the A12 which had a square camera bump. It’s a glossy finish on the rear so smudges should be expected. The Galaxy A13 takes a more rounded design approach on the edges. The A12 was a more boxy and I’d say slimmer phone The design on the A13 is more unibody, there’s no frame separating the rear from the display. Speaking of display we also see a major upgrade here. The Samsung Galaxy A13’s display is protected with Gorilla Glass 5. I don’t think there’s any device at this price point with this level of gorilla glass protection, correct me if I’m wrong. But that’s not all on the display upgrades, it is also a 1080p display, an upgrade from the 720p display on its predecessor. It is a 6.6 inches PLS TFT display with the infinity-v design, actually the same display quality as the higher A23.
Got to give credits to Samsung for this one. While it’s not AMOLED, it’s a much desired upgrade from what we had on the A12, and I don’t think any manufacturer provides AMOLED at this price point. Of all the display upgrades there’s one lacking which would’ve probably sealed this as the best value offering. It’s sadly a 60hz display, which is actually not bad if you’re coming from a 60hz device, but we have the likes of the Tecno Spark 8C, Infinix Hot 10T which costs less and has 90hz refresh rates. But we could also say those do not offer the FullHD display and Gorilla glass 5 protection or even software reliability the Samsung Galaxy A13 provides so I think we can overlook that... Can we? The software on the A13 is Android 12 and Samsung’s latest One UI 4.1 core version. As of now I think only Samsung has a device at this price point on Android 12. You’ll get the essential One UI experience on the A13 with the exception of some features like Smart View, Secure Folder, and edge panel.
These are features reserved for the higher devices with the full version of One UI. We do get RAM Plus here with the option to choose between 2 or 4GB for RAM extension. RAM plus is basically the device using from the available internal memory to support the base RAM. So that’s 4GB of base RAM and 4GB of virtual RAM for the Samsung Galaxy A13. That should make for improved multi tasking experience without putting too much strain on the RAM. You’ll need to have enough internal storage space available for it to work though, so best use an SD card if you’re getting the 64GB option of the A13.
Samsung Galaxy A13 Review
The Exynos 850 powering the Samsung Galaxy A13 like I mentioned earlier is a pretty good upgrade from the Helio P35 in pretty much every way. It’s a more efficient 8nm processor with much better performance. While not as powerful as what the competition is offering at similar price point, the Snapdragon 680 powered Redmi 10c for reference, it is still a solid one especially considering that it is powering a very budget device. The A21s which had the Exynos 850 was actually the best selling Android phone of 2020 so only time will tell if the A13 will be as good. Performance wise I’ve had no complaints whatsoever. For this price point you might want to keep your expectations low when it comes to gaming. The Galaxy A13 will be able to run some high graphics games like Call of duty at medium settings and run fine for the most part, but still keep your expectations low, you definitely can’t expect the best gaming experience at this price point. It has the Mali G52 for its GPU
Battery life on the A13 is actually impressive and you can expect at least a day of use as its 5000mAh battery is optimised pretty well. It supports 15 watts charging and thankfully it comes with the 15 watts charger in the box. In the camera department not much has changed except for it main sensor which is now 50MP. It remains a quad rear combination of a 5mp Ultra-wide, 2MP macro and depth sensors. The selfie camera remains unchanged at 8mp. It takes good pictures for its price and I’d say compared to its predecessor it looks to have improved in quality. Photos are good looking for its price and as long as you have the right lighting conditions you will get great results. It doesn’t have night mode so I won’t recommend using this in low light.
Selfies look great, not the sharpest but I’ll say quite good for an 8mp selfie camera. On video it is able to shoot up to 1080p 30 frames per second from both selfie an rear cameras. No OIS like its higher siblings. okay so this is a video on the selfie camera of the Samsung Galaxy A13, it's an 8 megapixel selfie camera and I'm currently filming in 1080p 30 frames per second. Let me know what the video is like, and then the microphone quality as well... looks good from viewfinder though. The Samsung Galaxy A13 is a really good upgrade from the A12 of last year and I can recommend this as a solid device with lovely design, great build quality, great display for its price and also great software support as this should easily get 2 to 3 years of major OS upgrades. However, for its price, it has to contend with the Redmi 10C which costs less and is powered by the more powerful Snapdragon 680. Or even the A22 which is likely to drop in price in the coming weeks since we already have the A23. What are your thoughts on this device? Will you be getting one? Or do you have any questions about it? Let’s discuss in the comments. Don’t forget to give this video a like if it was helpful and also consider subscribing to the channel. Peace!