Oppo K13 5G Review: Best All-Rounder Under Rs 20,000?

When you start searching for phones under Rs 20,000, you have to compromise on either the camera, performance, display, or battery life. So when I got the Oppo K13 5G, I thought to myself, "What will I be compromising this time?" Now, after using the phone for a week, has it changed my opinion, or is it more of the same compromises we have come to see? Let me tell you in this review of the Oppo K13 5G. 

Oppo K13 Unboxing 

The Oppo K13 retail box comes with all the basics that you would need, including

I really liked that Oppo hasn't cut corners when it comes to box contents. Even the included cover is high quality and matches the colour of the phone you buy. 

Before I take you through my review, let's take a quick look at the main specifications of the Oppo K13. 

Oppo K13 Design and Build 

This year, we have seen some pretty slick phones under Rs 20,000. Compared to those, the Oppo K13 felt quite muted in its design language. No glass back, no fancy colour options or vegan leather, like the Moto G86 Power. However, it does have a diamond texture that appears when the light hits the back in a certain way. I admit that it looks bland, but the Oppo K13 has grown on me over the review period.

This is a functional look that feels secure to hold in hand. Even though the phone is big and slightly heavy, the smooth sides make it easy to carry with one hand. I have used the Oppo K13 without a case and had no issues handling it in day-to-day usage. In short, I liked its minimal but practical design language. 

The camera bump does not protrude that much either (because there is not much camera to speak of, more on this later). As a result, the K13 does not wobble much when laid flat on the table. Since we are talking about the camera bump, I must say that it bears a striking resemblance to the OnePlus 13s. But hey, it's a decent look and I am not complaining. 

Overall, if you desire a flashy design, then this might not be your cup of tea. But the basic aesthetics do feel secure and practical in everyday use, especially if you want a well-built phone for your parents or elders. 

Oppo K13 Display Quality

The practical design needs a good display to complement it. That's what Oppo has shipped the K13. Its 1080p screen is big enough to enjoy your favourite shows and movies. But there is a bit of a chin at the bottom, which can be a bit distracting. I guess I will count it into the list of compromises I was speaking about. 

As for the display itself, I found it quite decent for the price. It is set to Vibrant mode by default, outputting saturated colours, but I changed it to Natural to get true tones. You can be watching any content on it and have a good experience, and little to complain about. I was rewatching Spider-Man: No Way Home, and I noticed that some darker areas appear to be crushed, but that was about the only complaint I had. Else, this display will suffice you in daily use.

Let me also make it clear that Oppo K13's display does not come with HDR support. Neither on Netflix nor on any other platform like YouTube. This was another bummer, but in return, the K13 comes with one of the better stereo speaker setups I have heard in this segment. Honestly, if you are watching a loud, action-packed blockbuster movie, then the K13 speakers are as dependable as Tom Cruise. 

Oppo K13 Performance Tested

But how about that performance? Well, the Oppo K13 is one of the few phones under Rs 20,000 that comes with a Snapdragon processor. More specifically, the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4. This is a 4nm octa-core chipset. To check how it performs, I ran three of the most popular benchmarks - AnTuTu, CPU Throttling test, and Geekbench, and here are the results:

As you can see, it scores well, somewhat better than the MediaTek Dimensity 7400 found on the Realme P4. Even in daily tasks, I barely faced any major lags or problems with the device. It's not like it's blazing fast, as sometimes the K13 does stutter, especially with opening apps or the app drawer itself. But it is nothing too worrisome. 

In gaming, the K13 supports Extreme FPS at Smooth graphics in BGMI and Very High frame rate at Low graphics on COD Mobile. While the phone might not support the highest FPS, it is a good choice if you want stable gaming performance on a budget. Even hot dropping in Erangel or playing ranked matches in COD did not dip the FPS a lot. It remained firm at 60 FPS for me, whether it was my first match or the fourth. 

Oppo K13 Software Experience 

While the performance was decent, the software is a completely different story. Oppo K13 comes with ColorOS 15, filled to the brim with bloatware apps.  You get more than 20 unwanted apps and games, plus recommendations, and of course, Hot Games and Hot Apps. Don't even dare open the preinstalled App Marketplace, or it will trick you into downloading 10 to 20 more bloatware-ridden apps. 

This not only ruins the software experience but also the performance of the smartphone. It took me around 30 minutes to uninstall all these apps, turn off Hot Games and Hot apps, and disable the extra bloatware. Once I cleaned up the UI, the phone felt a lot smoother and snappier to use. 

ColorOS itself is one of my favourite skins, thanks to its slick animations and well-thought-out features. But the bloat and adverts really hampered the first impression. Since this is the norm for phones in this price category, I can't complain much.

The OS boasts a good user interface, but Oppo has packaged it with so many unnecessary apps that I highly recommend you get rid of them first. 

Oppo K13 Camera Review

As for the cameras, there's a 50 MP sensor available at the back of the Oppo K13. The second lens is a 2 MP depth camera. This is on par with other similarly priced phones like the Vivo T4R and iQOO Z10. I wish there were an ultrawide lens, or at least OIS on the main camera, but sadly that's not the case. 

The primary camera captures some nice photos in the day. As you can see, the photos look clean and appropriate for most people. The colours look slightly boosted, especially the whites, which look a bit overblown in the flowers. I think this is intentional since people buying this budget phone would prefer this kind of colour science. The details are good, and you can go to 2x for some close-up shots too. 

But during the night, you will have a hard time taking the same quality photos. The shots that I captured look fine for the most part, but the details are almost as good as absent. It also struggles with lights from direct sources, and you have to keep your hands steady if you want to take a standout photo. I feel the addition of OIS could have helped fix some of these problems. 

However, the selfie camera on the Oppo K13 is pretty good. I took a bunch of selfies with my friends at the Beebom office, and almost everyone liked the results. It does apply some beautification, which is a boon for sharing directly on Snapchat or Instagram. But it doesn't overdo it like some other phones in its price segment. The portrait bokeh also comes out looking nice with clean cutouts at the edges, but it does not seem very natural. 

Finally, the Oppo K13 can record 4K video at 30 FPS from the primary camera. Lowering the resolution to 1080p allowed me to get 60 FPS, and the videos were okayish. EIS stabilisation is not up to the mark, and it also has some issues with focusing on the objects. The selfie camera can also record in 1080p. 

Oppo K13 Battery Life and Charging 

Well, this is the highlight of the Oppo K13 since it features a 7,000mAh battery cell. This is plenty to last you a day and a half, which was the case with me. Over my week of usage, I typically ended the day with at least 30% left in the tank. So out of habit, I would put it to charge before going to bed. I struggled to get this phone to 0% in a single day with medium to heavy usage. 

On average, I managed to extract about 8.5 hours of screen time from the Oppo K13 during the review period. And when it came time to charge, the provided 80W charger in the box managed to top up the device to 100% in 1 hour and 10 minutes. 

Bottom Line: Should You Buy the Oppo K13? 

In a price segment with some good options, and the Flipkart/ Amazon sales bringing even better devices like the POCO X7 Pro around the same price, should you consider the Oppo K13?

Well, remember the compromises I mentioned above? Well, they are here on the K13, especially in the software and camera departments. 

Another thing to take note of is how much these compromises affect everyday usage. During my time with the K13, I was not bothered much by these issues, especially after cleaning up the software. The cameras are okay if you keep your expectations in check, and the thick bottom bezel didn't bother me after one day. So, Oppo K13 is a well-built phone worth recommending under Rs 20,000. That said, I do recommend checking out other options like the iQOO Z10 in the same price bracket.