| Pros | Cons |
| Very affordable | Doesn't have 5G |
| Good main camera | Sluggish performance |
| Above average battery life | Weak secondary cameras |
The Samsung Galaxy A13 4G packs in a good screen, main camera and battery life at a very low price, but the lack of 5G holds it back.
In a world where the majority of new phones are now 5G, the Samsung Galaxy A13 4G immediately stands out for being 4G. That’s not a good way to stand out, but it helps the handset achieve an extremely low price, so if you’re after a super-cheap smartphone and you don’t need 5G, then it’s well worth considering.
Especially as aside from the lack of 5G, the Samsung Galaxy A13 4G has a lot going for it, including a sharp screen, a quad-lens camera and a big battery.
So is this a phone worth buying? And is the lack of 5G a compromise worth making? Read on to find out.
The Samsung Galaxy A13 4G has a 6.6-inch 1080 x 2408 LCD screen with around 400 pixels per inch. So it’s fairly large and at FHD+ it’s quite high resolution – in fact this is a bigger screen and packing more pixels than the Samsung Galaxy S22.
That doesn’t make it better than the Galaxy S22’s screen though, or even anywhere near as good. Samsung’s flagship uses AMOLED tech, for more vibrant images and better contrast than you’ll find here.
You’re also stuck with a standard 60Hz refresh rate on the Samsung Galaxy A13 4G, so interactions won’t feel as silky smooth as on higher end handsets, and there’s no support for HDR.
Aside from the resolution then this is a very basic screen really, but the actual quality of the picture is reasonable, and it’s certainly sharp, so for what this phone costs the screen is just about a strong point.
The design of the Samsung Galaxy A13 4G isn’t likely to excite anyone, but nor will it offend. It’s not an ugly phone, just an ordinary one.
It has larger bezels than a flagship, but aside from the bottom one they’re still reasonably small, and Samsung has opted for a small notch at the top of the screen instead of a punch-hole.
On the back of this 165.1 x 76.4 x 8.8mm device you get a quad-lens camera, which rather than being housed in a distinct block just sees the lenses rise individually out of the shell, a bit like on the far more expensive Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.
The back is otherwise plain and plastic, and the Samsung Galaxy A13 4G is fairly lightweight at 195g.
So the only interesting design element here is the camera lenses, as they’re a bit different in design to most phones, but the rest is perfectly fine. There’s no water resistance on this phone, which is always a mark against a handset, but at this price also isn’t at all expected – it’s more just something to be aware of if you buy it.
The Samsung Galaxy A13 4G has an Exynos 850 chipset and 4GB of RAM, which are a pair of quite basic specs.
4GB of RAM is about the least we’re comfortable with in an Android phone, and the Exynos 850 is one of Samsung’s low-end chipsets. The result is a phone that’s not overly powerful, and if you try and jump between too many apps or run demanding games then you might notice it struggle a bit.
That said, performance isn’t a disaster. While we wouldn’t recommend mobile gamers or power users opt for the Galaxy A13 4G, less demanding users should find it more or less fine – it might just take a beat longer than some other phones when doing things like launching apps.
At first glance, the camera on the Samsung Galaxy A13 4G might look very promising. After all, there are four lenses here, which is a lot more than some phones offer.
But the Samsung Galaxy A13 4G plays the same trick here as a lot of other budget handsets – namely going for quantity over quality. That said, there is some quality to be found too.
The main 50MP sensor is actually quite decent, taking detailed shots, many of which can genuinely look great – especially if the light is good.
The 5MP ultrawide camera is less impressive, and we’d recommend sticking to the 50MP one where possible, but if you really need to squeeze more into a shot then it should get the job done.
The 2MP macro and depth sensors meanwhile are basically complete filler. We’d rather have seen these absent and more focus put on the wide and ultrawide lenses, but there will be the odd occasion where these come in handy – especially the depth sensor.
There’s also a reasonable 8MP camera on the front of the Samsung Galaxy A13 4G, and the phone can record video in an acceptable 1080p resolution, at 30fps.
The Samsung Galaxy A13 4G runs Android 12. That’s the latest version of Android at the time of writing, which isn’t always guaranteed on devices this cheap, so it’s nice to see. It’s overlaid with Samsung’s One UI 4.1, which we’d say is a middling-busy interface. It’s not as bloat-free and intuitive as stock Android, but nor is it as packed with extra apps and features as, say, Xiaomi’s UI.
The phone also has a fingerprint scanner, but unlike pricier handsets this one is side-mounted, rather than being built into the display.
There’s a 5,000mAh battery in the Samsung Galaxy A13 4G, which is a good size, if fairly standard for budget phones – which tend to put a focus on battery size and life.
It will get you at least a day of life unless you’re really glued to your phone, and most people should get over a day – but two days is less realistic. This has above average battery life then, but nothing exceptional. The 15W charging is nothing exceptional either.
There’s just 64GB of storage built in, but you do at least get a microSD card slot – and will probably need it.
For connectivity you get 4G, Bluetooth 5.0 and NFC. As noted at the start of this review there’s no 5G, which is a major mark against the handset. That’s likely kept the cost down and arguably it’s still not quite an essential feature yet, but a year or two from now it likely will be for most people, so the Galaxy A13 4G isn’t very futureproofed.
The Samsung Galaxy A13 4G is a phone that’s full of compromises. The price is extremely low, but to achieve that Samsung has limited it to 4G connectivity.
That’s the biggest blow against this phone, but its secondary cameras and its performance aren’t up to much either. Then again, it has a good primary camera, above average battery life, and a reasonable screen. So if you’re considering buying this you’ve just got to weight up whether its areas of focus are the most important to you.
