Realme 13 Pro Review: The Ups, the Downs, and Everything in Between

realme’s Pro series has recently been known for its camera prowess, which makes the newly launched realme 13 Pro series an interesting phone. As the successor to the realme 12 Pro, this latest model comes with the upgraded 7s Gen 2 chip and a starting price of ₹26,999 in India. But does it truly stand out in the crowded smartphone market? Let’s delve into the details in this review of the realme 13 Pro.

---

Realme 13 Pro Review – Design & Build

The realme 13 Pro features a Monet-inspired design, available in two distinct finishes: frosted glass and vegan leather. The frosted glass finish comes in Monet Purple and Monet Gold, while the Emerald Green variant sports a sleek vegan leather finish. 

On the practical side, the realme 13 Pro is well-designed. The top has a secondary speaker and microphone, while the bottom has a USB Type-C port, primary microphone, primary speaker, and SIM card tray. The left side is clean, with the power button and volume rockers on the right.

This phone is also rated IP65 dust and water resistance and has passed the Swiss SGS Premium Performance test with a 5-star rating for the Indian version, according to realme. As per the same test, it is supposed to handle drops from up to 1.65 meters onto granite from six angles.

The front is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 7i and Armor Shield Glass and realme says that this offers 160% better drop resistance and 100% more scratch resistance than the realme 12 Pro. In my tests, it stayed scratch-free. Speaking of, the included back cover has a nice texture and is of high quality.

The phone tips the scale at 188 grams for the Money Green and Monet Gold variants and 183.5 grams for the Emerald Green variant. The USB Type-C port is Gen 2.0, and the SIM card tray fits two nano SIMs. 
For biometrics, the realme 13 Pro includes both fingerprint and face unlock (2D). The optical fingerprint sensor is pretty fast and accurate, and I’ve had no issues with it during my usage.

Realme 13 Pro Review – Display and Speakers

The realme 13 Pro has a 6.7” OLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 2400 and a refresh rate of 120 Hz. Most apps, like YouTube, X, Slack, Telegram, Lightroom, Gallery, Play Store, run at 60 Hz or 90 Hz in the Auto-Select mode. 

You can force the apps to run at 120 Hz, but even then, apps like Maps, Keep Notes, WhatsApp, and some others run at 60 Hz or 90 Hz. 

For the best experience, I’d recommend using the auto-select refresh rate, which adjusts to 90 or 60 Hz for some apps. If you prefer 120 Hz, you can force it in the settings for specific apps.

I have one complaint, though, and that is with the animations. When opening an app for the first time, there is no app opening animation but when opened for any subsequent time, the app opening animation is there. Hopefully, realme can fix it via a software update.

The display is vibrant and looks good when watching content. The bezels are neither thin nor thick, somewhere in the middle. It boasts a peak brightness of 2000 Nits; however, the manual brightness is limited to 600 Nits while the HBM is 1200 Nits, which is sufficient. It also supports 2,160 Hz PWM dimming.

Audio-wise, the phone features stereo speakers that deliver balanced and pretty loud sound. Although there’s a slight difference between the top and bottom speakers, it’s hardly noticeable. The top speaker performs well during calls, too.

Realme 13 Pro Review - Software and Haptics

The realme 13 Pro runs on realme UI 5.0 based on Android 14 and is promised 2 years of OS updates and 3 years of security updates. This means that the device will go up to Android 16 and will receive security updates until 2027. Also, realme’s track record with updates has been good, so you can expect timely updates.

Right off the bat, the realme 13 Pro comes with a ton of ads & recommendation options, including Glance, which is turned on by default during the setup. You can turn them off, but there are dark patterns, such as switching the turn-off button with the turn-on one.

 

You get a total of 62 pre-installed apps on the 13 Pro, which includes Hot Apps, Hot Games, App Market, Facebook, Finshell Pay, and many others. Most of these apps can be uninstalled or disabled, which is a good thing. 

There’s also a security scan each time you install an app from the Google Play Store or somewhere else. Thankfully, this screen does not show any ads, but I think that scanning Google Play Store apps is redundant.

Aside from this, the software experience on the realme 13 Pro is good. The animations don’t feel jittery, and the UI is pretty responsive. There is a suite of AI features like Smart Sensing, AI Smart Loop, AI Screen Recognition, AI Eraser, AI Ultra Clarity Feature, and more that elevate the experience. You can read more about these features here: Realme 13 Pro Series AI Features: AI Ultra Clarity, AI Eraser, and More.

The realme 13 Pro, just like any other realme phone these days, comes with the Google Dialer by default. However, if you wish, you can install the ODialer app, made for ColorOS/realme UI/OxygenOS, for a better dialer/calling experience. The haptics on the realme 13 Pro are great. They are tactile and give strong and narrow feedback, which feels nice.

Realme 13 Pro Review – Performance

The realme 13 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset, built on a 4 nm TSMC process. This chipset features 4x Cortex-A78 cores clocked at 2.4 GHz and 4x Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 1.95 GHz. 

For the graphics, it packs the Adreno 710 GPU. The phone offers up to 12 GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 512 GB of UFS 3.1 storage, along with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, and support for 9 5G bands. The base variant comes with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage.

Synthetic Benchmarks 

To gauge its performance, I ran a few benchmarks on the realme 13 Pro. On AnTuTu v10, the realme 13 Pro scored 677,049. In Geekbench 6, it achieved 967 in single-core and 2,779 in multi-core tests.

For graphics, the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme test resulted in a score of 802 with an average FPS of 4.8. I also ran a throttling test—during a 30-thread, 20-minute CPU throttling test, the CPU throttled to 77% of its max performance with an average GIPS score of 264,496. 

The storage test confirmed UFS 3.1, scoring 85,691 on AnTuTu storage test, with random read speeds of 660 MBps and random write speeds of 453 MBps. Overall, these benchmarks are decent for the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2.

Benchmark	Score
AnTuTu v10	677,049
Geekbench 6	Single-Core: 967, Multi-Core: 2,779
3DMark Wild Life Extreme	802
CPU Throttling Test	77% (Average GIPS: 264,496)
AnTuTu Storage Test	85,691 (Read: 660 MBps, Write: 453 MBps)

Gaming

Gaming performance is good. Asphalt 9 ran at Default mode with an average FPS of 24.8, which increased to 27.6 in Performance mode.

In BGMI, the Smooth + Extreme settings delivered an average FPS of 54.08, HDR + Extreme averaged 47.4 FPS, and Ultra HDR + Ultra settings averaged 33.2 FPS.

For Call of Duty, High + Very High settings gave me an average FPS of 52.

In everyday use, though, the realme 13 Pro runs smoothly and handles multitasking and daily tasks with ease. The camera app could use some optimization to reduce occasional jitteriness, but overall, the performance in daily usage won’t disappoint you.

Realme 13 Pro Review – Cameras

Now, let’s talk about the cameras. The realme 13 Pro uses the 50 MP Sony LYT-600 main sensor, that’s also the periscope sensor on its elder sibling, the realme 13 Pro+. Here are the camera specifications of the realme 13 Pro:

• Main: 50 MP Sony LYT-600 1/1.95” f/1.88 OIS 26 mm (35 mm equivalent)
• Ultra-wide: 8 MP SmartSens SC820SC 1/4” f/2.2 16 mm (35 mm equivalent)
• Front: 32 MP Sony IMX615 1/2.4” f/2.45 21 mm (35 mm equivalent)
• Video: Main—4K 30 fps, 1080p 120/60/30 fps, 720p 240/120/60/30 fps; Ultra-wide—1080p 30 fps; Front—4K/1080p/720p 30 fps 

Unfortunately, realme has decided to remove the 32 MP telephoto zoom lens that we had on the 12 Pro. However, they said that users who want a telephoto lens can buy the realme 12 Pro or the 12 Pro+, which will still be up for sale, perhaps at a discounted price.

Main camera

The realme 13 Pro packs a 50 MP Sony LYT-600 sensor with a 1/1.95” size and an f/1.88 aperture, complete with optical image stabilization. In bright conditions, the main camera does a pretty solid job. 

HDR is on point, and shadows are well controlled, though highlights can sometimes get overexposed. The sharpness is decent but can be overdone, making some images look a bit unnatural. 

Portraits are generally decent, but edge detection and skin tones can be hit or miss. Complex scenes, like trees or branches, might show some chromatic aberration, which isn’t ideal.

Zooming in digitally up to 20x isn’t the camera’s strong suit, with results often falling short. However, HYPERIMAGE+ can step in to enhance these shots, though it’s not a significant improvement. 

Contrast is solid, and color science stays consistent across various scenarios. Colors are vibrant and accurate, but watch out for over-sharpening, which might affect the overall look.

Shutter speed needs some work to handle moving subjects better and reduce blur. Detailing in a 2x crop can also be improved; images are mostly noisy and lack much detail. This is where a dedicated zoom lens would have come into play. 

In low light, the performance takes a dip. While HDR remains effective, there’s noticeable noise and over-sharpening, much like in daylight. The highlights can appear clipped, and images may look unnaturally bright. Improved noise reduction and highlight control would be beneficial here.

Ultra-wide 

The 8 MP ultrawide lens, with its 1/4” sensor and f/2.2 aperture, delivers good results in daylight with decent image quality. There are some inconsistencies with HDR, chromatic aberration, and exposure, but, for what it is, the lens performs decently in well-lit conditions. 

Front camera

The 32 MP front camera delivers good selfies in daylight with close-to-accurate skin tones and above-average HDR. The face can be slightly soft with minimal detail. The portrait mode handles edge detection similar to the main camera. 

The front camera offers digital zoom toggles at 0.8x and 1x, so you can fit in more people in the frame. In low light, selfies are decent but can cause the face to appear unnaturally bright compared to the background, and some noise is noticeable. 

Video

The realme 13 Pro lets you shoot 4K at 30fps from both the front and main cameras, while the ultra-wide lens is limited to 1080p at 30fps, for obvious reasons. The main camera also supports 1080p at 60fps or 30fps. For the best stabilization, use the 1080p60 mode, which combines OIS and EIS.

Videos are generally stable, especially in 1080p60 mode with Ultra Steady turned on. However, 4K stabilization isn’t as good, and you might notice some jittery footage, especially in low-light conditions. The front camera has a similar story.

The video quality is decent but not outstanding. It’s good for everyday use but has some room for improvement, especially in low-light scenarios.

Realme 13 Pro Review – Battery Life and Charging

The realme 13 Pro packs a large 5,200 mAh battery with support for 45W SUPERVOOC fast charging. According to realme, this battery is designed to maintain high capacity even after 3–4 years of use, but take that with a grain of salt as it’s their claim, not a guarantee. 

In my experience, the 45W charger takes a bit over an hour to fully juice up the battery. Unfortunately, there’s no support for PD and PPS charging above 18W. The charging front is a bit of a letdown since it’s slower than what we had on the 12 Pro.

In terms of real-world usage, I was consistently getting around 7-8 hours of screen-on time with moderate use. My daily activities on this phone included scrolling through Twitter and other social media, watching videos, writing documents, and playing games like BGMI and Clash of Clans. 

Of course, your mileage may vary depending on how you use your phone, but this should give you a solid idea of what to expect.

Review Verdict: Should You Buy the Realme 13 Pro?