UMIDIGI A13 Pro Unboxing and Review

UMIDIGI currently has about four active series of smartphone line ups. These includes the UMIDIGI A-series, the F-series, the Power series, and the almost forgotten S-series. Of these three, the A-series is the company’s best seller, and today, we have the UMIDIGI A13 Pro for a quick unboxing and review.

UMIDIGI A13 Pro Key specifications

• Display: 6.7-inch IPS LCD 720 x 1650px HD+ with 20.6:9 ratio
• CPU: Octa-core 1.8GHz UNISOC Tiger T610 along with Mali-G52 GPU
• Storage and RAM: 128GB and 4/6GB RAM; expandable up to 128GB via microSD
• OS: Android 11
• Camera: Triple-lenses: 48MP main, 8MP UW and 5MP macro with quad LED flash
• Front camera: 16MP Selfie
• Video recording: 1080p@30fps
• Connectivity: Dual Nano-SIM: GSM / HSPA / LTE
• Other Features: FaceID, USB Type-C, side fingerprint scanner
• Battery: 5150mAh with 10W charger

UMIDIGI A13 Pro Unboxing

The device came in a yellow box, and these are the items you’ll find in the box.

• A 10W charger
• USB Type C cable
• SIM ejection tool
• User manual
• UMIDIGI A13 Pro

The phone come in three colors, including Starry Black, Galaxy Blue and Sunglow Gold, which is the model sent to us.

Design and Built Quality

The UMIDIGI A13 Pro features a minimalistic flat design with sharp edges. The phone looks very flat all through, and when kept properly, it could stand on a hard surface, that is how flat the A13 Pro looks, although the phone’s frame is plastic.

On this plastic frame, you have the phone’s Power button on the right hand side. It also doubles as the fingerprint scanner and if properly setup, it unlocks the phone very fast, even without an actual press on the key.

Above that is your volume rocker, while a secondary microphone and a 3.5mm audio jack are on the top. The other side of the phone has a hybrid card slot, along with a quick customizable access button.

Down in the basement is where you’ll find the primary microphone, a USB C port, and the loud speaker grill. UMIDIGI might need to consider a slightly better loud speaker next time though.

Flipping to the back is an AG Glass with Matte finishing. This might not be a premium glass like Gorilla Victus, but the added matte finishing is everything, since it does not pick finger magnet.

Display Review

The UMIDIGI A13 Pro sports a 6.7-inches screen, featuring 720 x 1650 pixels resolution and outputting about 268 pixels per inch. The screen looks cool with vibrant colors.

Icon and text on the screen are sharp, and the overall color rendition is good for multimedia content consumption. Although I wish the display could be a little brighter, especially when using the phone under extremely bright clouds.

UMIDIGI A13 Pro Camera review

The rear of the A13 Pro carries the company’s logo, their new “Beyond Dreams” brand slogan, and the beautifully designed rear camera module.

This module carries a 48-megapixel main sensor, with f/1.8 aperture, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide lens with f/2.2 aperture, and a third 5-megapixel macro camera with f/2.4 aperture, along with four LED lights.

The camera interface looks cleaner than I expected. You have a handful of different camera modes, including time lapse, panorama, macro modes etc. The rear main sensor is capped at 12-megapixels out of the box, just to safe space.

But if you prefer to shoot with the full 48-megapixels, you’ll need to effect this change from the camera setting. Here are some camera samples from the UMIDIGI A13 Pro.

Main camera samples

Selfie Camera Sample

Software and Hardware

The UMIDIGI A13 Pro runs Google Android 11 out of the box. The OS is almost stock Android with minimal customization. Thankfully, it is quick and buttery smooth. You are also getting a bunch of personalization, from the home screen, down to how you want your navigations button to look.

You can even choose from regular home screen, which shows all your apps on the desktop, or switch to the App Drawer mode. With Android 11 means you can decide either you want to use on screen navigation button, or gesture-based navigation.

With such customization, one would expect the OS on the A13 Pro to be sluggish, but that is not the case. The phone is still fast and light, thanks also, to the CPU.

Talking about CPU, the A13 Pro is powered by UNISOC Tiger T610 8-core CPU, and our review unit has 4GB RAM, along with 128-Gigs of built-in storage. As far as testing goes, the Tiger T610 is very close to the MediaTek Helio G85 in both AnTuTu and GeekBench scores.

In real life usage, the A13 Pro runs most applications without noticeable lag, except for graphic intensive games, which are still very playable; you only need to endure extensive loading time.

UMIDIGI A13 Pro Battery review

As far as battery power is concern, the A13 Pro comes with a 5150mAh battery under the hood. Charging this unit takes a little time because only a 10W USB-C charger is includes. You’ll need to give the phone a little above 2-hours to touch 100% from 0%.

The good news though is when fully charged, the A13 Pro’s battery lasts a great deal. Our review unit came with around 70% battery power out of the box. This level kept the phone alive for almost 2-days, despite our tests. Inclusion of a 33W, or even 18W charges would have been great though.

UMIDIGI A13 Pro Review Conclusion, Price and Alternatives

As at witting, the A13 Pro costs $149, or around N75,000 in Nigeria. This price is for the base model with 4GB RAM and a 128GB ROM. The price seems reasonable given the phone’s battery stamina, display and the overall built quality. Although, there is still need for UMIDIGI to improve the loud speaker quality, and add 1080p video recording to the frontal camera via future OTA.

At the current pricing and performance, some top competitors to the UMIDIGI A13 Pro includes Xiaomi’s Redmi 10C, Infinix Hot 12 Play, and the recently released Tecno Spark 9-series. One thing that could make the A13 Pro stand out though is it bloatware-free OS.

UMIDIGI is giving away a total of SIX smartphone, including the A13 Pro. It is a GLOBAL giveaway, and you can participate using THIS LINK. You can also buy the A13 Pro from Aliexpress, or buy on Jumia if you are from Nigeria.