Samsung Galaxy F13 Review: Your best bet under Rs. 13,000?

Samsung Galaxy F13 review Summary:

Editor’s rating: 4/5

Samsung is back at the top in terms of numbers games and one of the reasons is its Galaxy M, Galaxy F, and Galaxy A series phones.  Recently, Samsung expanded its Galaxy F series line up with the launch of Galaxy F13 which is a successor to last year’s Galaxy F12. The newly released Samsung Galaxy F13 falls into the budget category of the brand and ships with a huge 6000mAh battery. Interestingly, the company has decided to chip in with a charger inside the box which is usually not the case with Samsung phones in 2022.  The phone claims to offer fast and smooth performance.

Many of you must be wondering, does the Galaxy F13 performs as advertised? To answer that question, we decided to put it through various tests. Based on those results, here’s our Samsung Galaxy F13 review:

Samsung Galaxy F13: Design

Samsung with this F series continues to roll out phones that look trendy to the eyes, and so is the case with Galaxy F13. The phone looks elegant from all sides with soothing shades of color. The loaned unit I received has a Waterfall Blue color which looks like a unique shade of blue. The exterior shell of the Galaxy F13 is made up of polycarbonate-based material and it has a fingerprint-like texture at the back which makes it different from almost all the other smartphones in this price range.

The Galaxy F13 feels like has a strong build and it offers a very good grip for the fingers to hold on to. The textured back makes sure there are no fingerprints or smudges. The phone feels a bit bulky as it weighs 207 grams. Although this could be due to the large battery that has been packed, it can be inconvenient at times.  

The back sees a rectangular camera module with a vertical lens arrangement and an LED flash. There is Samsung branding at the bottom which feels like it’s engraved within the texture. The display at the front is slightly larger than Galaxy F12 with a selfie lens punched in right at the top of the middle of the screen.

The right edge of the smartphone features a power button cum fingerprint scanner and volume rockers whereas the left side sees a dual SIM tray. The bottom edge consists of a USB Type-C port, 3.5mm headphone jack, and speaker grille while the top edge is left idle. The smartphone has curved edges but there are noticeable bezels at the front. All in all, the design and build of Galaxy F13 5G is solid with the only issue of it being slightly bulky.

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Samsung Galaxy F13 Review: Display

The Galaxy F13 packs a 6.6-inch FHD+ LCD display with an Infinity-V design on the front. Samsung for its budget F series offering opted for an LCD screen and does fall a little short in comparison. The difference is mostly felt while watching content as the colors and contrast are not as punchy as one gets from an AMOLED screen.  The phone screen offers a peak brightness level of 480 nits which is decent for this budget. It is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 so you don’t have to worry about the screen getting damaged with a little drop.

Samsung Galaxy F13 Review: Camera

The Samsung Galaxy F13 is equipped with a triple camera setup at the back. It consists of a 50MP main lens coupled with a 5MP wide lens and a 2MP depth lens. The camera UI is simple and easy to use with limited options like portrait, pro, panorama, and food modes. Let us talk about the quality of the images.

The main 50MP lens gives decent images in daylight. The images are sharp, clear, and precise. The colors are bright, paunchy, and vivacious. The images clicked indoors are also clear and full of details. The autofocus works well and there is not much of a shutter lag.

There is no night mode available. This drawback is felt in the quality of the images clicked during the nighttime. The images are not the sharpest and lack details. Moreover, when images are clicked under artificial lights, the light looks scattered which makes the images blurry.

The 5MP wide-angle lens clicks usable images during the daytime provided there is a good amount of ambient light. The FOV covered is decent and various hues of the sky, as well as greens, look lifelike. However, using this lens in an indoor setting is not worth it as the shots that come out don’t have an adequate amount of detail.

The 2MP lens gives strictly average close-up shots. It can be totally avoided.

There is a fun mode called the Food Mode as well, which is a part of many mid-range Samsung smartphones. Using it gave good pictures of the food making it look more delicious and finger lick worthy.

The 8MP selfie camera gives above-average selfies both day and night time. There is no autofocus, so the key to taking good selfies is keeping your hand stable. The focus is kept on the human subject with the background being secondary. The skin tones captured are real and the selfies have detail as well.

Samsung Galaxy F13 Review: Performance

The Samsung Galaxy F13 is powered by Exynos 850 chipset with 4GB RAM. The processor delivers a decent performance as the apps load and opens fairly quickly. Multitasking is seamless as apps can run simultaneously in the background. There were no crashes or lags even when 4-5 apps were running together.

There is up to 128GB of storage which provides ample space to store documents, videos, audio, photos, and whatever you want. Considering the price range of the smartphone, the gaming performance is decent as well. Heavy games like COD Mobile and Asphalt 9 also ran well in medium graphics and frame rates but that won’t bother you if you are not an avid gamer.

In terms of software, Galaxy F13 runs on Android 12 OS out of the box beneath the One UI 4.1 with a simple user interface. There are loads of bloatware as many third-party apps like PhonePe, Snapchat, Dailyhunt and more come preinstalled. You need to uninstall them if you don’t need them. Otherwise, there are options for customizations and personalization and the UI is colorful in looks. Samsung promises 2 major software and 2 years of security updates.

The smartphone doesn’t come with 5G support so it is not future ready but in terms of connectivity, there is a USB Type-C port, WiFi 802.11, Bluetooth 5.0, and dual 4G SIM support. The speaker works well and the fingerprint sensor at the side is fast and responsive as well.

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Samsung Galaxy F13 Review: Battery

The battery is something that can be termed as a very strong point for Galaxy F13. The smartphone packs a monstrous 6000mAh battery which lasts for days if you are a light user. Moderate users like me will find that battery can last for more than a day and a half. My usage included calling, messaging, web browsing, social media browsing, clicking photos, writing articles, watching videos, and listening to music. I was using the phone as my secondary device and even when I left it idle for days, the battery did not drain out. The battery is powerful and a boon to those who are always on the go and hate charging batteries while traveling.

There is support for 15W fast charging which recharges the battery from 0 to 100% in about 2 hours. Although the charging time might feel long, what I noticed was that charging even 50% of the battery in about an hour can work for you if you have half a day to go. Samsung has also a boxed charger with the device, so you will find the adapter inside the box.

Samsung Galaxy F13 Review Verdict: Should you buy it?

The Samsung Galaxy F13 is a good option for those who want a budget-friendly smartphone with a unique design, large storage, triple camera setup, and a fast processor. Although the display of the device is underwhelming, it is not 5G ready and comes with loads of bloatware, still, it can be a smart choice for those who want to own a device with a monstrous battery. It also offers a decent selfie camera which is rear in this class. So, while Galaxy F13 might not be the strongest player in the segment, it has quite a few things that work for it.