Motorola Moto G13 review

Motorola has been turning out some spectacular low-cost telephones over the previous couple of years.

The present reasonably priced Moto G vary sports activities a number of fashions, with the G13 being essentially the most reasonably priced. So, can you actually get a good smartphone for lower than £150/$180? Right here’s the complete Tech Advisor evaluate.

Design & Construct

• Light-weight
• Aspect- fingerprint sensor
• Plastic physique

Clearly, at this value you don’t anticipate premium supplies all through, and that’s definitely the case with the Moto G13. It’s a plastic physique, however that’s not essentially a nasty factor.

One benefit is that it’s a light-weight cellphone, weighing in at 183.5g (6.49oz). Not fairly the lightest, however in a world of Android telephones that usually tip 200g, it’s a pleasing shock to have a tool that gained’t have your fingers fatiguing after utilizing it for a short while. 

The scale are fairly compact at 162.7 x 74.66 x 8.19mm (6.41 x 2.94 x 0.32 inches), making it a genuinely good cellphone to carry in your fingers and slide into your pocket with out feeling such as you’re weighed down.

Motorola provides a free TPU silicon case, and making use of provides a lot of further grip, even when it does look a bit low cost. Although even with out the case, it doesn’t really feel too slippery.

You additionally get a charger and cable within the field, in contrast to some dearer choices on the market. 

Trying across the system, you’ll discover a USB-C charging port, 3.5mm headphone jack, single speaker grille and microphone, plus quantity controls, an influence button that doubles as a fingerprint sensor (and works very properly), plus the twin (Nano) SIM card slot. It’s all tidy and properly put-together, making it straightforward to consider this as a dearer unit than the value suggests. 

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Motorola does declare that the G13 has a ‘water-repellent’ design, nevertheless it doesn’t include an IP score, so I’d recommend holding it away from any important quantity of water should you can.

Display screen & Audio system

• 6.5-inch IPS LCD panel
• 720p decision, 90Hz refresh charge
• Stereo audio system and three.5mm headphone port

Whereas the Moto G13 feels fairly compact, it nonetheless manages to slot in a 6.5-inch IPS show. True, it’s solely operating at 720p which is a bit low lately, however Apple has been serving up its iPhone SE for years now with the identical spec and that doesn’t appear to have held it again. 

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The panel on the G13 appears good, with acceptable brightness ranges (maxes out round 400 nits), respectable colors (albeit slightly muted) and excellent off-angle viewing.

The 90Hz refresh charge is a bonus on such an inexpensive cellphone, although the processor doesn’t appear to profit from this, as scrolling does really feel sluggish and juddery. General, the show on the Moto G13 is nice for the value. 

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The sound on the Moto comes from a devoted speaker on the underside edge, which mixes with the earpiece above the show for a stereo setup.

The audio produced is ok, supplied you don’t increase issues too loud. The G13 can undoubtedly kick out some quantity, however there’s distortion on the larger finish which detracts from the standard. It’s nice for YouTube movies and social media, however if you wish to stream any motion pictures or music, you’ll in all probability wish to join headphones by way of Bluetooth or the three.5mm jack.

Specs & Efficiency

• MediaTek Helio G85 chipset
• 4GB RAM
• Efficiency is a bit patchy

Moto couldn’t fairly stretch to a Snapdragon chipset for a cellphone this cheap, however the MediaTek Helio G85 is an appropriate different.

Clearly, you’re not going to get blistering tempo, however for operating most conventional apps the cellphone chugs alongside fairly fortunately. The dearth of energy is extra notable in the case of navigating by menus and graphic-heavy pages, with the juddering being extra obvious when attempting to load photos or transfer them round a web page.

This additionally applies to gaming, the place the G13 does wrestle with busier 3D video games, however that’s to be anticipated. That’s to not say that gaming is no-go. Actually, I performed Asphalt 9: Legends for an excellent whereas and should say that the G13 ran it in addition to most different telephones I’ve used lately – together with some devoted gaming telephones. 

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So, until you’re a Genshin Impression devotee or play a variety of PUBG, you would possibly discover that the Moto G13 has all of the gaming efficiency you want.

Motorola Moto G13 benchmarks.

Right here’s the way it fared in opposition to a few of its closest rivals in our commonplace batch of benchmarks: 

The cellphone comes geared up with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, the latter of which could be expanded by as much as an extra 512GB by way of a Micro-SD card. 

When it comes to connectivity, it must be famous that there’s no 5G help on the G13, however that’s widespread for telephones on this value bracket. You do get Bluetooth 5.1, NFC, GPS, and Wi-Fi 5, although.

Cameras & Video

• 50MP f/1.8 essential
• 2MP f/2.4 macro
• 2MP f/2.4 depth
• 8MP f/2.0 selfie

Usually an achilles heel with cheaper telephones is the digital camera, and that proves to be the case with the Moto G13. It’s geared up with a 50MP f/1.8 essential shooter, aided by 2MP macro and depth sensor modules, which is a good quantity of lenses for a funds system.

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Utilizing the principle digital camera, you will get some acceptable photographs, however there’s an apparent quantity of software program sharpening, significantly in busy photos. The colors additionally wash out approach too simply, making photos flat and missing any type of vibrancy. I wasn’t searching for the basic Samsung super-saturated photos of outdated, however I did discover it arduous to seize any photographs that felt really good.

They are often adjusted utilizing filters and different picture enhancing instruments, however the picture you get out of the digital camera itself is usually missing vibrancy.

Portraits are additionally lacking any type of deep bokeh (background blur), whereas the Night time mode does wrestle with noise in low-light photographs., However once more, that is all fairly widespread when you think about the value of the system. The macro digital camera can also be a little bit of a waste of time, as it’s usually on most telephones. 

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The entrance digital camera is an 8MP f/2.0 module. It takes fairly good selfies if the sunshine is plentiful, however in a murky pub or membership you won’t get the snap that you just wished. 

Video tops out at 1080p and 30fps, so once more it’s nice fairly than spectacular.  

Right here’s some pattern photos from the Moto G13:

Battery Life & Charging

• 5,000mAh cell
• 10W wired charging 
• No wi-fi charging

One space the place the Moto G13 shines is battery life. I usually ended the day with an excellent 20% or so left, even after taking part in some video games and streaming an episode of a TV present.

Clearly, this various relying on brightness, cellular information utilization and if location information was enabled, nevertheless it nonetheless felt fairly constant throughout my time with the system. 

Within the PCMark battery check we run on all telephones (with brightness set to 200 nits), the Moto scored a powerful 9 hours and 19 minutes. You’re unlikely to get that in real-world utilization, however you additionally gained’t have to fret about operating out of juice earlier than you get residence.

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It’s an excellent job too, because the charging speeds aren’t nice. You get a 10W charger within the field, and from a very flat battery, it took one of the best a part of 3 hours to get again as much as 100%. So that you’ll wish to cost this one in a single day or once you get to the workplace, because it gained’t be prepared for motion in a rush. 

When searching for a fast increase, popping the G13 on its charger for quarter-hour delivers 11% of energy, whereas half-hour doubles this to 22%, all of which is much behind many different telephones – together with many low cost ones. 

Software program

• Android 13
• Solely slightly bloatware
• Safety updates till Jan 2026

Motorola is often good at holding Android fairly clear, and that’s the case on the Moto G13.

You don’t get any important modifications to the model of Android discovered on Pixel telephones, which is good to see. The whole lot is straightforward and straightforward to make use of, with gesture help making the cellphone really feel very very similar to my Google Pixel 6a. 

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It’s Android 13 out of the field, with the corporate confirming that the system ought to get the Android 14 improve. It additionally says that the G13 will obtain safety updates till January 2026, which is greater than some low cost Android cellphone makers supply.

Admittedly, there’s a little bloatware, with just a few video games pre-installed in addition to Reserving.com. However, it’s not egregious and you may shortly do away with them in order for you. 

Worth & Availability

Within the UK, should purchase the Moto G13 direct from Motorola for £129.99 and even cheaper on Amazon.

There isn’t the very same mannequin obtainable within the US, with the closest in all probability being the Moto G 5G. Because the title suggests, this mannequin is 5G suitable. It additionally comes with a Snapdragon 480+ 5G processor, 120Hz refresh charge on its 6.5-inch show, and a distinct digital camera module, all for round $249.99. 

If you’d like a slight bump in specs, then there’s the Moto G23, which retails for across the similar value because the G13, or there’s the extra premium however nonetheless reasonably priced Moto G84, which you’ll decide up within the UK for £249.99, though it isn’t listed on the Motorola US website.

Within the UK, the Moto G13 can also be obtainable on contract, with one of the best choices for the time being as follows.

Sadly, there’s no contracts within the US we might discover, so that you’ll want to purchase it outright after which pair it with a SIM solely contract as an alternative.

Should you fancy one thing aside from a Moto, the Samsung Galaxy A14 is a good discount at £179/$150. There’s additionally the Realme C35 which gives an excellent primary spec for a funds cellphone and prices £149/$200. 

Loads of nice alternate options can be found in our round-up of one of the best funds telephones.

Verdict

Should you’re on a strict funds of round £150/$180, the Moto G13 is a stable purchase.

You get wonderful battery life and respectable efficiency, plus expandable storage which means you possibly can preserve a great deal of motion pictures and music on the system. Nevertheless, there’s a little bit of lag within the day-to-day efficiency, whereas the cameras aren’t that nice.

However for the value, it’s nonetheless a cellphone that may allow you to do a lot of the belongings you’d need from a smartphone with out breaking the financial institution. There aren’t any scarcity of different choices although, together with some important upgrades should you’re prepared to pay slightly extra.

Specs

• Android 13
• 6.5-inch IPS LCD panel, 1600 x 720 decision, 90Hz refresh charge
• MediaTek Helio G85 chipset
• 4GB RAM
• 128GB Storage (expandable by 512GB with microSD card)
• 50MP f/1.8 Fundamental/Large
• 2MP f/2.4 Macro
• 2MP f/2.4 Depth
• 8MP f/2.0 Selfie
• Fingerprint sensor in Energy button
• Stereo audio system 
• 3.5mm headphone port
• Bluetooth 5.1
• NFC
• GPS
• Wi-Fi 5
• 4G
• 5,000mAh cell
• 10W wired charging 
• 162.7 x 74.66 x 8.19mm / 6.41 x 2.94 x 0.32 inch
• 183.5g / 6.49oz