Realme 13 Pro+ review

Bright 6.7-inch OLED, no HDR though

The Realme 13 Pro+ is equipped with a 6.7-inch OLED display with a 1,080x2,412px resolution - seemingly the same as on the 12 Pro+. It's a 10-bit panel for up to a billion colors; there's a 120Hz maximum refresh rate, and 2160 PWM dimming, plus an "AI eye protection function", of course.

Where things start to show signs of improvement is in the brightness specs - the new model promises up to 1,200nits in high brightness mode vs. the 12 Pro+'s 800, and 2,000 vs. 900nits of peak brightness.

In our testing, we measured just under 1,400nits with the adaptive toggle enabled, up from the 802nits we got on the 12 Pro+ and one of the highest results we've seen in this class - it's essentially flagship-grade maximum brightness. The 660nits in manual operation is also a higher than average result.

Refresh rate

The 13 Pro+ features three refresh rate modes, with the Auto Switch and High options behaving in mostly the same way - both allow the maximum 120Hz across the UI and switch down to 60Hz a few moments after the last touch input. Most apps (browsers, socials) are limited to 90Hz when actively scrolling, while video apps (YouTube, Netflix) are capped at 60Hz at all times.

There's no high frame rate gaming on the Realme 13 Pro+ - the display switches to 60Hz regardless of mode and games are capped at 60fps.

Streaming and HDR

There's no HDR support on the Realme 13 Pro+ - not according to hardware scanning apps, and not in practice in YouTube or in Netflix. The Widevine L1 does allow for FullHD streaming of DRM-protected content, so at least there's that. The phone also does not appear to comply with the Google Ultra HDR standard for photos, but there is support for a similar feature in the in-house Photos app for images taken on the 13 Pro+ itself.

Realme 13 Pro+ battery life

One of the few small changes from 12 Pro+ to 13 Pro+ is the increase in battery capacity and the new model has a 5,200mAh power pack - 200mAh more than before and 200mAh more than most potential rivals.

In our Active Use testing, the Realme 13 Pro+ didn't necessarily convert that increase in capacity into proportionally better longevity in the separate tests. In fact, we got shorter results (marginally so) in gaming, video playback and call times, but we did clock a more significant increase in web browsing. All things considered, the new model is once again offering best-in-class endurance (with an asterisk to account for whether you consider the Galaxy A55 in the same class or not).

Our new Active Use Score is an estimate of how long the battery will last if you use the device with a mix of all four test activities. You can adjust the calculation based on your usage pattern using the sliders below. You can read about our current battery life testing procedure here. For a comprehensive list of all tested devices so far, head this way.

Charging speed

The Realme 13 Pro+ ships with a SuperVOOC adapter that's rated for either 80W (when plugged into a 220V outlet) or 55W (when hooked up to a 110V network) - that's common practice in the Oppo/Realme/OnePlus realm. We're in a 220V region, and in our testing, we got a 67W peak, which corresponds well to the 80W promise.

The phone isn't the fastest around, with a full charge taking around 47 minutes, but it won't be keeping you waiting either.

The 13 Pro+ does not support wireless charging, but neither do any of its competitors, so we won't be holding that against it.

Speaker test

There are no surprises in the speaker setup of the Realme 13 Pro+ - two speakers, one on the bottom and another one up top also doubles as an earpiece. The top speaker gets the left channel when you hold the phone vertically, and the channels are switched depending on orientation when in landscape. Each speaker only gets its own channel's track, and the bottom is a bit louder.

Bottom speaker • Top speaker • Earpiece slit

In terms of overall loudness in our testing, the 13 Pro+ earned a 'Very Good' rating, same as the previous model and in the ballpark of the potential competition. It sounds a little different than the predecessor, with minor tweaks in the midrange and ever so slightly better low-end presence. We'd say it's superior to a Moto Edge 50 Fusion, but Galaxies do tend to sound larger and better overall.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.