SAMSUNG Galaxy A13 Review – Aesthetically Minimalistic, Decent Camera Works, And Easy On The Wallet

I’ve been missing for quite a while, dealing with a lot of stuff and shenanigans. But hey, now I’m back! And what could make a comeback better? With an all-new Samsung Galaxy A Series smartphone! This round with the Galaxy A13 added to the A-Series collection. Would the unit be good? Would it outperform its predecessor? Would achieve all the fundamental needs of modern-day phones along with some innovative tweaks thrown in? Well stick around and find out as we’ll dive deep into the Galaxy A13 so you would get a better idea of this modern gem.

The Galaxy A13 we received came with a USB-C cable, a user manual, and the ACE unit itself. Nothing bombastic and nothing underwhelming. Just a simple starter pack to kick start your user experience. Simplistic is written all over the design, as that’s probably what Samsung was aiming for. The colour, though may seem a bit dull, may pair well if you’re into minimalistic fashion and attire. That being said it’s suitable for people of ages. The Galaxy A13 that we received came in Awesome Blue. Though the word awesome seems kinda dramatic, still it does have its unique aesthetic. There are a total of 3 colours, the one I mentioned earlier and 2 more which are namely Awesome Black and Awesome Peach. Personally, I much prefer Awesome Peach as it looks much more vibrant and lively but that’s just me.

LAYOUT

The entire dimension of the phone is 16.51 cm (6.50 inches) in height, 7.65 cm (3.01 inches) in width, 0.88 cm (0.35 inches) in depth. Weighted 195 g (6.88oz) making it a standard as most of the phones on the market has a similar weight. All the general buttons and SIM slots (Hybrid SIM slot) are in their respective place, with the voice cancelling mic located at the top while the primary mic is at the bottom along with the speakers, USB-C port and the headphone jack. Roundish-rectangular in structure and so does the screen. Being 6.6 inches or 104.9 cm² in area, the screen possesses approximately 83% of the entire phone. Having plenty enough space for users’ scrolling and browsing pleasure.

Like its predecessor, there’s a nudge on top of the phone’s screen where the 8-megapixel (f/2.2) front camera is fitted. Right behind the rear with its full awesome blue glory sprouted 3 islands at the top left corner, which are the 3 main cameras with 2 cutout holes situated beside them. The 3 main cameras are, in order,

• The 5-megapixel (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera,
• The 50-megapixel (f/1.8) main camera with PDAF feature, and
• The 2-megapixel (f/2.4) depth camera

The 2 holes are actually the 2-megapixels (f/2.4) macro camera and the LED flashlight respectively. One word to describe the macro camera and the LED flashlight is that it felt a bit unprotected, and could be easily scratched by anything if not much attention is given. So users do handle it with care.

DISPLAY AND AUDIO

Composed of Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and PLS LCD, 20:9 aspect ratio (400 PPI density.) and a resolution of 1080 x 2408 pixels as well as a 60 Hz touch sampling rate, the Galaxy A13 does improve from its predecessor, albeit not drastically. It still delivers vivid colours and responsive touch nonetheless. Smooth to scroll and easy on the eyes for a midrange phone. Which is not too shabby if you ask me.

The main speaker below the phone is okay, decent enough, and not too far off. That’s it, just decent, in a particular general sense. There’s no depth nor beats to it just a decent speaker that gets the job done which is understandable because, at the end of the day, the A13 is catered towards the midrange budget market hence it is still fairly decent.

But it doesn’t mean that the A13 has no tricks up its sleeves. Through the sound quality and effects settings, you’ll find a decent selection of equaliser settings that suits your taste, be it presets (5 in total) or customisation. To top it all off, with a headphone injected, or Bluetooth earbuds and speakers connected, one may find the choice to switch on Dolby Atmos and Dolby Atoms for gaming mode. Limited selection? maybe but it’s a nice touch nonetheless. Last but not least, there’s also the long-standing adapt mode available in most Samsung smartphones. Which would have suitable presets based on the age settings selected.

CAMERA

My experience with the Galaxy A13 camera was quite favourable. But truth be told that the best quality could be taken during the daytime. When it comes to nighttime, I wouldn’t say it’s lackluster but if you managed to capture pics with the right amount of lighting, it could still come out as decent and near-perfect crisp (speaking from a midrange standard of performance). Portrait mode is surprisingly good, however, each image taken via any bouquet settings would require a tat bit of time for the phone to process. But all these could be overlooked because the end results are rather fantastic.

The selfie camera is quite passable, as it is able to capture decent selfies with fundamental details such as colours and background to a certain extent. There are two available modes for the selfies camera, the narrow mode for a single person and the wide mode for group selfies. Both works decently well.

Since the Galaxy A13 is powered by the Exynos 850 (8nm), it means that the device could only capture video at 1080p 30fps for both the front and rear camera, like most midrange phones out in the wild. Having the option to capture video using either FHD 30 or HD 30, I tend to favour FHD more as it doesn’t differ much from HD except for a sharper quality when captured up close. Stutters are rarely visible surprisingly, which is a good thing, especially for a budget entry smartphone. Details are great just the brightness may seem a bit dim but overall it’s quite outstanding compared to its predecessor.

Having all being said, the camera is still able to function as it should, but would it be a perfect vlogging tool? Yes and no as it depends on what nature of vlog you’re into. Personally speaking, I much prefer scenery when it comes to the Galaxy A13, especially through the 3:4 ratio 50 MP camera mode. Wouldn’t suggest it for YouTubers though, but TikTokers? Yes.

PERFORMANCE

The Galaxy A13 is powered by the Samsung Exynos 850 (8nm) Octa-core (2.2 GHz & 2.0 GHz). The above are for reference purposes:

The operating system that Galaxy A13 runs on is the Android 12 (Snow Cone) with its One UI Core being version 4.1 which is similar to its predecessor Galaxy A12. Switching between gaming and apps may cause a bit of delay but overall there’s no issue at all.

As shown above through the benchmark performance, although the chart may seem that the Galaxy A13 is a bit underperformed, the truth is, Galaxy A13 is quite on par with other midrange smartphones out there. It does seem that some functionality of the phones may be laggy but this is highly due to the 32GB + 3GB RAM variant we have on our hands. I do believe that the 128GB + 6GB RAM released nationwide would be much faster and better than the one we currently have.

Gaming-wise, the Galaxy A13 could be on par with most mid-range phones out on the market. I have no issue with playing with a few rounds of Mobile Legends as it runs decently. I also tried out Asphalt 9, it does run but not without some staggerings as the phone struggles a bit in maintaining the frame rate. But frankly speaking, the phone wasn’t really meant for gaming, but for productivity. Not to mention it gets a tat bit warm after 30 mins of Mobile Legend. But still, it did manage to perform quite okay, so if you’re a casual player that would like to have a few rounds of Mobile Legends or Call of Duty Mobile, by all means.

STORAGE

The Galaxy A13 unit we received comes in 32GB + 3GB RAM, but fret not as the standard storage released nationwide in Malaysia is 128GB + 6GB RAM, pretty standard stuff for a midrange phone. External storage is expandable up to 1TB through microSD memory cards or you could just use Samsung Cloud if you feel like it.

BATTERY

Battery-wise, the Galaxy A13 has a 5000 mAh battery installed. Of course, depletion varies depending on how the user uses it and what mode was switched on during the usage such as the battery saving mode or the sleeping apps and deep sleeping apps mode available in the phone’s feature. But speaking from experience you could easily last up to 13 hours with a mixture of streaming, phone calls, and gaming (Mobile Legend). But standby mode could last you 40 hours at most. As a final note, the A13 also supports fast-charging up to 15W.

SPECIFICATION

VERDICT

The Samsung Galaxy A13 is alright in my book, the overall performance is still considered on par with its current price tag. A significant step up from the Galaxy A12 model in terms of the performance alone. While also able to present itself as a simple yet reliable midrange budget device. The camera may not be the best selling point but the overall functionality is suitable for everyone regardless of age. Also in my personal opinion, the screen refresh rate as mentioned above, is 60 Hz, which is great if it has 90Hz display.

TL;DR

Pros :

• It’s affordable for all
• Decent camera
• Lightweight
• Suitable for low-capacity apps

Cons :

• Gets overwhelmed with fingerprints without a phone case
• No night mode

The Samsung Galaxy A13 is availble for purchase at only RM799 now nationwide. If you would like to own one, you may buy it through the Official Samsung Malaysia Website, Shopee, and authorised Lazada partnered store.