Motorola has upped its game in the last two years. The brand has been churning out excellent entry-level, mid-range, and flagship smartphones with an emphasis on hardware capabilities, along with a clean Android OS experience, all at a competitive price tag. The Moto G13 is the latest smartphone from Motorola’s stable, which comes with a retail price of Rs 9,499.
Is it similar to the competition? I have been testing the Moto G13 for over a week to find out exactly the same. Read our review of the Moto G13 4G to learn more about the newest budget smartphone on the market.
Moto G13 design review: Simple and practical
The Moto G13 4G features a simple and practical candy bar form factor. With a triple-camera setup on the back, the device definitely looks a lot more expensive than most phones in this price range. Although the back panel is made from a plastic-like material (PMMA), it feels soft to the touch and offers an almost matte glass-like finish, especially the matte charcoal variant that I have been testing.
However, the back panel does attract fingerprints and smudges to some extent, which can be prevented by using the bundled soft silicon transparent case.
The Moto G13 also has everything that one looks for on an entry-level smartphone, such as a 3.5mm headphone jack, a dedicated microSD card slot, and a USB Type-C port for charging and data transfer. Moreover, the smartphone is IP52 certified and splash-resistant, and this is one of the few smartphones under Rs 10,000 with any sort of official ingress protection certification.
Moto G13 display review: Best-in-class
The Moto G13 has a medium-sized 6.5-inch HD+ resolution screen with a 90Hz refresh rate. It has a punch-hole cutout, which makes it look more premium when compared to the devices with a water-drop-style notch. Additionally, the display also gets PANDA glass protection.
The Moto G13 is a medium-sized phone. Although it’s definitely not a one-handed device, it still feels very comfortable and weighs just 181 grams despite having a 5,000 mAh battery. While the Moto G13 might not have the sharpest display (in terms of resolution), it gets the job done for the most part. Due to the higher refresh rate of 90Hz, the phone does feel a lot smoother when compared to the competition.
Moto G13 camera review
The Moto G13 has a triple camera setup with a 50MP primary camera, a 2MP depth sensor, and a 2MP macro lens. The smartphone also has an 8MP selfie camera, which takes detailed pictures in the day-light situation. The primary camera is good enough for shooting pictures in good lighting conditions, while the macros shot on the 2MP sensor lack detail and look noisy.
Here are the camera samples from the Moto G13 resized for the web.
Moto G13: Performance and software experience
The Moto G13 is powered by the MediaTek Helio G85 SoC, one of the capable mid-tier 4G processors, which also makes it one of the most capable smartphones under the Rs 10,000 price range. The device offers 4GB RAM along with 64/128GB of internal storage. With just a Rs 500 difference between the two variants, we definitely suggest users get the 128GB variant with double the storage.
When it comes to software experience, the Moto G13 is one of the few phones under Rs 10,000 to ship with Android 13 OS, and the company has promised that the device will get one major Android OS upgrade and three years of security patches, which should keep the device up to date for the next few years.
While I absolutely loved the stock Android look of the Moto G13, I didn’t expect the phone to have a lot of bloatware. In fact, this is the first Motorola smartphone that I have seen with this much bloatware and hot apps in a long time. While some of them can be removed, it just spoils the overall user experience.
Motorola G13: Connectivity and Battery Life
I tested the Moto G13 with a Jio SIM card and had no issues with either cellular reception or call quality. I also liked the fact that the phone comes with dual-band Wi-Fi support along with Bluetooth 5.1. The 5,000 mAh battery with just 10W charging does take a while (over three hours) to fully charge. However, once charged, the phone can easily last for one and a half days for even heavy users, and normal users can easily expect two days of average battery life with over 8 hours of screen-on-time.
Moto G13 Review Verdict
Barring the bloatware in the operating system, the Moto G13 is one of the best smartphones under Rs 10,000 to consider in 2023. While most phones offer just a mono speaker, the Moto G13 has a stereo speaker setup, that too with Dolby Atmos. Things like a 90Hz display, IP52 rating, and the latest Android version make it a great package.
If you are looking for a smartphone under Rs 10,000 that has all the basic features with a few extra tricks up its sleeve, the Moto G13 is an excellent pick. If you are a Jio user, you can get 50 cashback coupons worth Rs 40 on the Rs 419 recharge plan along with a Rs 500 Myntra gift coupon.
