What is new with the Samsung Galaxy A13?
Of the bunch, the cheapest Samsung A13 you can get is £179. Even for that low of a price, you still get a massive device that offers a quad rear camera system that can shoot good portrait and wide-angle shots. The battery department is no joke either, as the phone sports a 5,000mAh battery that will last you well over a day unless you do intensive tasks on it, such as gaming. When it comes to the storage size, you can get up to a whopping 1TB size. This is all thanks to the fact that there is a MicroSD slot in it that you can use to expand storage. If that’s not enough to entice you, know that it also comes in black, white, and blue.
Now, if you’re looking for just the general specifications, here they are. The Samsung A13 comes with a storage of 64GB but can be expandable thanks to the MicroSD slot. The CPU is the MediaTek Dimensity 700 that, while performing well, isn’t going to beat out the flagship processors. RAM comes in at 4GB which is decent, and the operating system comes with Android 11 and OneUI 3.1.
Of course, the battery is at the amazing 5,000 mAh that will last you through the day. As for the cameras, the front camera is a 5 MP camera, the back camera being a 50MP primary with a 2MP macro and 2MP depth camera. The dimensions are as follows: 164.5 x 76.5 x 8.8mm, and the display is a 6.5″ display with 720p resolution. The weight of the overall phone is 195g, which is quite limited despite its size.
Now, the main pros of the phone are the fact that, compared to other phones at the same price range, it is one of the best-performing ones. Battery life is also amazing thanks to its size, and with Samsung’s promise to provide four years of security updates, this phone is going to last you a long time. Now, for the cons of the phone, the first one you might notice is the 90hz screen. While that’s still great for many phones, it isn’t the buttery screen that people love about higher-end phones. The build quality is also quite poor due to the plastic, and this might be a problem when it comes to durability. Finally, the cameras also take a hit, where two of the three cameras aren’t particularly useful.
Display
The first observation is that the screen is big. Fans of large displays will be pleased as it measures a generous 6.5 inches. At 720p, its resolution is noticeably lower than more premium phones, but it’s decent. It does offer a maximum refresh rate of 90Hz, which makes scrolling and animations look smoother (or you can fix it at 60Hz to save battery life).
The screen performs admirably, so streaming video on this phone won’t be a problem. The sound isn’t great thanks to the single bottom-firing speaker, but I do appreciate it has a 3.5mm headphone jack (unlike many newer phones) so I can use my favourite pair of wired headphones.
Performance
Of course, first up is the fact that this sub-$250 phone offers 5G connectivity. It operates as you’d expect, so once you’re in an area with 5G coverage, you can expect lightning-fast downloads and buffer-free HD streaming. If you’re looking for affordable 5G plans, check out the variety of data plans we offer at Ting Mobile. As for processing power, the phone handled all the basic tasks I threw at it without any complaints. I wouldn’t recommend this phone to power users or hardcore gamers, though, who will want something with more processing power. The flipside of that is long lasting battery life. It charges pretty quickly as well—when I needed a quick top-up before heading out, it went from 25% to 50% in just 30 minutes.
Build/design/features
The A13 5G is a solid-feeling and modern-looking phone. I would say that it’s an extremely well-built and attractive phone for the price. Samsung has included some really cool features as well. Incorporating a fingerprint sensor into the side button, for instance, was a welcome surprise at this price point. Taking into account there’s 64GB of on-board storage (decent but not great), a micro SD slot is appreciated as well.
Conclusion
If you’ve been looking for a reliable phone from Samsung that doesn’t break the bank, the Samsung Galaxy A13 is a great option for you. Keep in mind that they still have other budget models that a priced a little higher and offer better features, so if you’re into that, then go for it! Regardless, the Samsung Galaxy A13 is a good buy if you’re price-conscious, so be sure to add it to the top of your phones-to-buy list if you’re in the market for one.
We offer screen protectors to protect your phone. See here for our A13 screen protectors.