This year has been kind of weird for realme’s Number Series. Earlier this year, the realme 12 Series 5G leaned hard on its cameras. Last August, realme doubled down on the camera experience with the realme 13 Pro Series 5G. This time, we’re getting gaming-centric phones in the form of the realme 13 Series 5G. With multiple features catering to mobile gamers such as 80W SUPERVOOC Charge and a Vapor Chamber Cooling System, is the realme 13 Plus 5G (stylized as realme 13+ 5G) a right choice for them? Find out in my review.
Disclaimer: realme Philippines sent over the realme 13+ 5G in Dark Purple with 12GB RAM and 256GB of storage. It arrived on October 4, 2024 and I unboxed it on October 5, 2024. I’ve been using the realme 13+ for around 2 weeks.
Unboxing Experience
We still get a typical realme phone unboxing experience with the realme 13 Plus 5G complete with the usual yellow box. There aren’t any surprises here either besides the fact that realme still includes chargers in the box. (Even a certain brand started ditching the charger with its latest phones.)
You can check out my realme 13+ unboxing below:
Design and Build
While its predecessor leaned heavily on having a more flat design, the 13+ scales that back and went for a curved back. I honestly don’t mind the flat sides since they add to the grip. The curved back really helps with the hand feel a lot. I also like the “Victory Speed Design” with that curve to show a different kind of pattern. It’s more subtle on this Dark Purple color, but I like the effect it has.
Since this is a gaming-centric phone, I love how there are features that we don’t see in most smartphones these days. Both the 3.5mm headphone jack and the microSD card slot are welcome features especially as gamers are sensitive to delays in audio and need more storage for games. The buttons on the 13+ are clicky enough for me.
Display and Speakers
We have reached the point where most smartphone displays are good enough for most people. The realme 13 Plus 5G is no different with its 6.67-inch 120Hz OLED Esports Display. It supports up to 2000 nits peak brightness, 180Hz touch sampling rate with up to 1200Hz instantaneous sampling rate, and Pro-XDR. This display also has Rainwater Smart Touch so you can reliably touch the display even when it gets splashed on.
I’m not showing the GT 6’s display alongside the display of the 13+ to make the latter look bad. It’s the opposite: the 13 Plus’ display basically gets around 80% of what the GT 6 has. I even prefer the 13+ for mobile gaming strictly because of its flat display!
Performance and Software
The realme 13 Plus 5G uses a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Energy processor and comes with 12GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. This phone has a Vapor Chamber Cooling System that helps cool the phone in longer gaming sessions. It also has GT Mode: a software feature that dedicates more of the phone’s resources towards the game you’re playing. One other thing the 13+ has is a feature I’ve seen in the GT 6: Geek Power Tuning. This feature allows you to customize the CPU and GPU speed to some preset values in order to get more out of the 7300 Energy chip.
The Gaming Review
During the review process, I actually played more this time around. I usually limit myself these days to playing Pokemon UNITE and a bit of Zenless Zone Zero. This time around, I recorded a part of my gameplay in order to do that casual gaming review. I also played some Honor of Kings to check realme’s claim of 120 fps. I am happy to report that the claim is real and I’ve played it at or near 120 fps without much stuttering.
realme UI
The realme 13+ runs realme UI 5.0 based on Android 14. Besides all the gaming-specific features like GT Mode, this phone gets those “Real Essentials” features that we prominently saw in the realme C65. While they can be useful, I generally don’t use them and I simply appreciate how smooth the UI is. I have always mentioned that realme UI is my favorite Android skin and this hasn’t changed in version 5.
Some Benchmark Results
I also took the liberty to do some benchmarks for those looking for the results. I’m showing some of them below. To test whether realme’s claim of 750,000+ in AnTuTu benchmark is true, I ran some tests with one of them using up to 14GB of Dynamic RAM thanks to RAM expansion. The results speak for themselves, as turning on RAM expansion really hurts performance.
I do appreciate the 98.6% stability when running the 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test though. This means that the phone can maintain its peak performance more often than not.
Battery Experience
The realme 13 Plus 5G may have the usual 5000 mAh battery, but we get better fast charging this time compared to its predecessor. Since gamers need to be back in action as soon as possible, realme decided to bring 80W SUPERVOOC Charge to the 13+. Seeing this feature in a non-Pro Number Series phone is great, and charging to full can reach around 50 minutes in my experience. This might be a bit off from the claimed 0 to 100% in 44 minutes, but I don’t mind as long as it’s less than an hour.
As for battery life? Using a more efficient chip really helps here. The results actually surprise me since we’ve had 5000 mAh batteries in realme’s Number Series for years now. Optimizing for battery life while still being able to bring enough performance for stable high frame rate gaming is impressive.
Cameras
I have to be honest: when I found out that the realme 13 Plus 5G lost its ultrawide camera, there was immediate concern. Sure, the 50MP Sony LYT-600 main camera is plenty capable for most scenarios, but the ultrawide camera
Click on the photos for full-resolution versions!
Since the realme 13+ carries the same 50MP Sony LYT-600 main camera as its predecessor, I already expected it to be as good. The colors and white balance on the photos I took look really similar to the predecessor.
And we now come to the part of the camera section where I just post food photos. The main camera of the realme 13 Plus 5G does a good job in making food pop when needed.
Low light photos from the realme 13+ can be hit or miss, but I also expected this because of how its predecessor does low light.
This phone uses a 16MP front camera that does a decent to good job in taking selfies depending on the lighting situation. While I would like to see a better front camera in future Number Series phones, this specific camera served realme well for years.
If you noticed, there’s no mention of the other rear cameras in this review. That’s because there’s no longer an ultrawide camera on the realme 13+ 5G. We only get another 2MP camera on the back for depth sensing. Phone makers should just stop it with these 2MP sensors.
Should You Buy the realme 13+ 5G?
In some parts of this review, I’ve been comparing this phone to its “flagship killer” brother. I normally review this phone on its own merit and against competitors of its price range. However, I’m getting some GT 6 vibes with this phone. Don’t get me wrong: those already considering that phone know who they are.
What I’m trying to say is that the realme 13+ 5G brings more of the performance-centric features that the GT 6 has in a more affordable phone. The good thing about this phone is that it has some features that I can deem better for gaming like a flat display. At P19,999, this phone has competitors that can go toe-to-toe or even better performance-wise for cheaper. For me though, realme UI and the software optimizations it brings have some merit. You may not pay for that premium, but I would if my budget was around P20,000.
Pros
- Curved back makes the phone more ergonomic than its predecessor
- 3.5mm headphone jack and microSD card slot are welcome features for gamers
- Good quality 120Hz OLED display
- Dimensity 7300 Energy is an unexpectedly capable performer with LPDDR4X RAM + UFS 3.1 storage
- The GT Mode and its vapor chamber really helps for longer gaming sessions
- Battery experience is very good thanks to its 80W SUPERVOOC charge
- A good 50MP Sony LYT-600 main camera
Cons
- The Dark Purple color doesn’t show off the Victory Speed Design as much
- Its display isn’t as bright in most scenarios
- Other phones provide even more performance for its price point
- Could have used LPDDR5 RAM
- Useless 2MP depth camera
- Lack of ultrawide camera
- The quality of the 16MP front camera could be better
The realme 13+ 5G is available in a single 12GB+256GB variant for P19,999 in two colors: Victory Gold and Dark Purple. It is available at realme physical stores and authorized retailers nationwide. You can also get it online first via e-commerce partners Shopee and TikTok Shop.