Oppo K13 Review: A Budget Smartphone That Keeps on Chugging Along

The CMF Phone 2 Pro may have debuted to a strong reception, but I’m here to tell you that it faces stiff competition from a phone I’ve been using for a couple of weeks. That phone is none other than the Oppo K13. Yes, I have the Prism Black variant for review, but Icy Purple, with its matte finish and geometric pattern, would be my choice. It looks icy cool and stands out from the crowded segment. 

It’s 2025, and smartphone manufacturers are trying to be the “do-it-all” smartphone on paper. They’re trying to manufacture slim smartphones with huge batteries at inexpensive price points. Will it work? Only time will tell. As a technology reviewer with over ten years of experience, I am excited about the direction the industry is moving toward. Yes.

The Oppo K13 is just that. It’s a slim smartphone, measuring 8.45mm, and packs a substantial 7,000mAh battery in a package that costs less than Rs 20,000. Colour me excited.

It Doesn’t Attract Fingerprints

The smartphone design may be typical, but with an Icy Purple colourway and a matte finish, it does stand out of the crowd. The smartphone measures 8.45mm in thickness and weighs 208g.

It’s easy and comfortable to hold and very durable. The K13 is IP65-rated. The best part, though, is that the smartphone attracts very few fingerprints, if any. That’s thanks to the matte finish.

A transparent case is included in the box, which doesn’t detract from the smartphone's appearance.

Display: Good for IPL

 The 6.67-inch AMOLED display, featuring FHD+ resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate, is well-suited for content consumption. I binged a lot of cricket and was thoroughly impressed with the crisp quality of the content.

The colour reproduction was true-to-life, and even in outdoor conditions, the smartphone didn’t disappoint. There’s 1,200 nits of peak brightness, according to the company, and that was plenty for outdoor usage.

Battery: Keeps on Chugging

Yes, Oppo has bundled an 80W charger in the box. Budget consumers rejoice! The 7,000mAh battery easily lasted one full day, even until lunch on the next day.

This was even when I was playing games, clicking dozens of photos, and bingeing (like I mentioned above) the IPL. The battery, paired with the 80w charger, takes just under an hour to charge from 0-100.

Performance and Software

The Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chipset inside of the K13 gets the job done. Yes, Oppo has made tall claims here, but I found close to zero lag here unless I was pushing it with gaming and camera tests.

During peak performance, I noticed the smartphone getting too warm for my liking. The Delhi heat may also have contributed to this.

What I will ding Oppo a point for is the software. There’s a ton of bloatware and pre-installed apps here, which is a bummer.

The phone comes with ColorOS 15 (based on Android 15) and includes two OS updates, as well as three years of security updates.

Cameras

Last but not least, let’s talk about cameras. The K13 has a dual rear camera setup. There’s a 50MP primary sensor and a 2MP depth sensor (for those creamy bokeh portrait shots). It’s a vertically stacked camera and is presented in a neat finish. There’s a 16MP (punch-hole) selfie camera on the front. While the primary sensor produces good photos with vibrant colours in daylight conditions, it struggles with low-light situations. One of the reasons is the lack of optical image stabilisation. Yes, it has electronic image stabilisation to reduce the blur, but that isn’t enough, in my opinion. 

My friends enjoyed the selfies I took, and in my opinion, they’re good enough for social media but nothing more. Videos, though, come with a lot of noise and less clarity.

Verdict: A Good Budget Smartphone?

I was pleasantly surprised with the Oppo K13. The price is right, which is the tagline I want to go with. The Oppo K13 retails at Rs 17,999 (8 GB + 128 GB) and Rs 19,999 (8 GB + 256 GB). It’s a thousand or two more than I’d like, but you are getting a great display and two-day battery life.

The cameras themselves are nothing to write home about, but beyond that, the smartphone is a solid performer.

The software is feature-rich despite the additional bloatware, and the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 SoC ensures it remains snappy. And what’s not to like about the 80W charger that is bundled in the box!