Motorola Moto G13 Review: Another Budget Beauty

Greatest Costs In the present day: Moto g13

128,59 €

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 probably the most reasonably priced. So, can you actually get a good smartphone for lower than £150/$180? Right here’s the complete Tech Advisor assessment.

Design & Construct

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

Clearly, at this worth you don’t count on 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 lightweight cellphone, weighing in at 183.5g (6.49oz). Not fairly the lightest, however in a world of Android telephones that recurrently tip 200g, it’s a pleasing shock to have a tool that received’t have your fingers fatiguing after utilizing it for a short while. 

Martyn Casserly

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 numerous additional 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 gadget, 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 simple to consider this as a dearer unit than the value suggests. 

Martyn Casserly

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

Display & Audio system

• 6.5-inch IPS LCD panel
• 720p decision, 90Hz refresh price
• 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 nowadays, 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. 

Martyn Casserly

See also  Our favorite budget air purifier is still on sale post-Prime Day

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

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

Martyn Casserly

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 okay, supplied you don’t increase issues too loud. The G13 can positively kick out some quantity, however there’s distortion on the increased finish which detracts from the standard. It’s tremendous for YouTube movies and social media, however if you wish to stream any motion pictures or music, you’ll most likely wish to join headphones through 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 a suitable various.

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

This additionally applies to gaming, the place the G13 does battle with busier 3D video games, however that’s to be anticipated. That’s to not say that gaming is no-go. In reality, I performed Asphalt 9: Legends for a very good 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. 

Martyn Casserly

So, until you’re a Genshin Influence devotee or play quite a lot of PUBG, you may discover that the Moto G13 has all of the gaming efficiency you want.

Motorola Moto G13 benchmarks.

Right here’s the way it fared towards 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 may be expanded by as much as an extra 512GB through a Micro-SD card. 

When it comes to connectivity, it ought to be famous that there’s no 5G help on the G13, however that’s frequent for telephones on this worth 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

Typically an achilles heel with cheaper telephones is the digicam, 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 finances gadget.

Martyn Casserly

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

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

Portraits are additionally lacking any sort of deep bokeh (background blur), whereas the Evening mode does battle with noise in low-light photographs., However once more, that is all fairly frequent when you think about the value of the gadget. The macro digicam can be a little bit of a waste of time, as it’s usually on most telephones. 

Martyn Casserly

The entrance digicam 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 tremendous relatively than spectacular.  

Right here’s some pattern pictures 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 recurrently ended the day with a very good 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, cell information utilization and if location information was enabled, nevertheless it nonetheless felt fairly constant throughout my time with the gadget. 

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

Martyn Casserly

It’s a very good job too, because the charging speeds should not nice. You get a 10W charger within the field, and from a totally 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 if you get to the workplace, because it received’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 a little bit bloatware
• Safety updates till Jan 2026

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

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

Martyn Casserly

It’s Android 13 out of the field, with the corporate confirming that the gadget 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 provide.

Admittedly, there’s a little bloatware, with a number of video games pre-installed in addition to Reserving.com. However, it’s not egregious and you’ll shortly eliminate them if you need. 

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 most likely being the Moto G 5G. Because the title suggests, this mannequin is 5G appropriate. It additionally comes with a Snapdragon 480+ 5G processor, 120Hz refresh price on its 6.5-inch show, and a unique digicam module, all for round $249.99. 

If you would like a slight bump in specs, then there’s the Moto G23, which retails for across the similar worth 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 web site.

Within the UK, the Moto G13 can be obtainable on contract, with one of the best choices in the mean time 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 a substitute.

For those who fancy one thing aside from a Moto, the Samsung Galaxy A14 is a superb cut price at £179/$150. There’s additionally the Realme C35 which presents a very good fundamental spec for a finances cellphone and prices £149/$200. 

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

Verdict

For those who’re on a strict finances of round £150/$180, the Moto G13 is a stable purchase.

You get glorious battery life and respectable efficiency, plus expandable storage which means you may preserve a great deal of motion pictures and music on the gadget. Nonetheless, there’s a little bit of lag within the day-to-day efficiency, whereas the cameras should not that nice.

However for the value, it’s nonetheless a cellphone that may allow you to do many 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 vital upgrades if you happen to’re prepared to pay a little bit extra.

Specs

• Android 13
• 6.5-inch IPS LCD panel, 1600 x 720 decision, 90Hz refresh price
• MediaTek Helio G85 chipset
• 4GB RAM
• 128GB Storage (expandable by 512GB with microSD card)
• 50MP f/1.8 Essential/Broad
• 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