Motorola Moto G13 Review: Another Budget Beauty

Value When Reviewed

$149

Finest Costs Right this moment: Moto g13

$134

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

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

Design & Construct

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

Clearly, at this value you don’t count on premium supplies all through, and that’s actually 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 frequently tip 200g, it’s a pleasing shock to have a tool that received’t have your arms fatiguing after utilizing it for a short while. 

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The scale are moderately 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 arms 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 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 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 nicely), plus the twin (Nano) SIM card slot. It’s all tidy and nicely put-together, making it simple 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 counsel retaining it away from any important quantity of water when you can.

Display screen & Audio system

• 6.5-inch IPS LCD panel
• 720p decision, 90Hz refresh fee
• 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 working at 720p which is a bit low as of late, 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 a little bit muted) and superb off-angle viewing.

The 90Hz refresh fee 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. 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 okay, offered you don’t enhance issues too loud. The G13 can undoubtedly kick out some quantity, however there’s distortion on the increased finish which detracts from the standard. It’s high-quality 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 an appropriate different.

Clearly, you’re not going to get blistering tempo, however for working most conventional apps the cellphone chugs alongside fairly fortunately. The dearth of energy is extra notable on the subject of navigating by means of menus and graphic-heavy pages, with the juddering being extra obvious when attempting to load photographs 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. Actually, I performed Asphalt 9: Legends for whereas and should say that the G13 ran it in addition to most different telephones I’ve used not too long ago – together with some devoted gaming telephones. 

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So, except you’re a Genshin Influence devotee or play numerous 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 in opposition to a few of its closest rivals in our commonplace batch of benchmarks: 

The cellphone comes outfitted 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 needs to be famous that there’s no 5G help on the G13, however that’s frequent 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 primary
• 2MP f/2.4 macro
• 2MP f/2.4 depth
• 8MP f/2.0 selfie

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

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Utilizing the principle digital camera, you may get some acceptable pictures, however there’s an apparent quantity of software program sharpening, significantly in busy photographs. The colors additionally wash out means too simply, making footage flat and missing any form of vibrancy. I wasn’t on the lookout for the traditional Samsung super-saturated photographs of outdated, however I did discover it exhausting to seize any photographs that felt actually 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 form of deep bokeh (background blur), whereas the Evening mode does battle with noise in low-light pictures., However once more, that is all fairly frequent 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 typically on most telephones. 

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The entrance digital camera is an 8MP f/2.0 module. It takes moderately 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 high-quality reasonably than spectacular.  

Right here’s some pattern photographs 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 frequently ended the day with 20% or so left, even after taking part in some video games and streaming an episode of a TV present.

Clearly, this diversified 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 take a look at 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 received’t have to fret about working out of juice earlier than you get residence.

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It’s 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 the most effective 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 while you get to the workplace, because it received’t be prepared for motion in a rush. 

When on the lookout for a fast enhance, popping the G13 on its charger for quarter-hour delivers 11% of energy, whereas half-hour doubles this to 22%, all of which is way 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 often good at retaining Android fairly clear, and that’s the case on the Moto G13.

You don’t get any important adjustments to the model of Android discovered on Pixel telephones, which is sweet to see. Every little thing is easy 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 provide.

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

Value & Availability

Within the UK, should buy 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 identify suggests, this mannequin is 5G suitable. It additionally comes with a Snapdragon 480+ 5G processor, 120Hz refresh fee on its 6.5-inch show, and a distinct digital camera module, all for round $249.99. 

If you need 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 inexpensive Moto G84, which you’ll choose 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 the most effective choices in the meanwhile 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 superb cut price at £179/$150. There’s additionally the Realme C35 which provides primary spec for a funds cellphone and prices £149/$200. 

Loads of nice options can be found in our round-up of the most effective 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 maintain 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 when you’re keen to pay a little bit extra.

Specs

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