OnePlus 13 Review: Great phone, excellent value, questionable camera
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OnePlus 13 Intro
The first OnePlus phone broke ground more than a decade ago, and ever since, the company's flagships have been continuously building a reputation for being great value. OnePlus phones have always carried the aura of (almost) never skimping on the hardware front, providing a lightweight and fun take on Android, and usually undercutting most of its rivals in terms of pricing.
Well, it's 2025 already and OnePlus has just announced the OnePlus 13, its latest attempt to wreak havoc in the US flagship space, currently oversaturated by iPhones, Galaxies, and Pixels.
From the initial looks of it, the phone meets the requirements for the job: it has one of the fastest chips on board, a fresh new design with the signature quirks still present, a massive battery with superfast charging, and a promising camera. All of that starting at $900, but in a typical OnePlus fashion, there are ways to write off up to $200 off for a much more appealing price tag.
Alse read: Best OnePlus 13 deals
So, is it all a bed of roses for the OnePlus 13, or are there reasons to skip the new flagship killer?
The OnePlus 13 achieves a PhoneArena Score of 7.52, which is mostly on par with last year's OnePlus 12 and the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL, but ultimately falls short behind the iPhone 16 Pro Max and the Galaxy S24 Ultra, which are better-rounded flagships overall.
What's new about the OnePlus 13:
- New design with flat sides and a thinner body
- 6.8-inch OLED screen with improved eye care features
- Snapdragon 8 Elite (3nm)
- A large 6,000mAh silicon-carbon battery
- IP68+IP69 water- and dust-resistance
- Android 15 with OxygenOS 15 and OnePlus AI
Table of Contents:
Also read: OnePlus 13 Review: Great phone, excellent value, questionable camera
OnePlus 13 Specs
Return to flagship norm for OnePlus
OnePlus phones have always relied on exceptional, top-tier hardware, and in a completely unsurprising development, the OnePlus 13 is yet another spectacular device that boasts a lot of oomph. Here's a brief rundown of the OnePlus 13 specs:
| Specs | OnePlus 13 |
|---|---|
| Size and Weight | 162.9 x 76.5 x 8.5 mm, 210gr |
| Display | 6.8-inch 1440p, OLED, 1-120Hz, HDR, 10-bit color, P3, Ceramic Guard |
| Processor | Snapdragon 8 Elite 3nm |
| Memory, storage, and prices | 12GB | 256GB - $899.9 (Black Eclipse) 16GB | 512GB - $999.9 (Black Eclipse, Midnight Ocean, Arctic Dawn) |
| Software | OxygenOS 15 (Android 15) 4 years of software support 6 years of secuirity updates |
| Cameras | Main: 50MP Sony LYT-808 1/1.4" sensor, F1.6 Telephoto: 50MP LYT-600 1/1.95" sensor, F2.6 Ultra-wide: 50MP ISOCELL JN5 1/2.75" sensor, F2.0, 120-degree field of view Front: 32MP, F2.4 |
| Battery Size | 6,000mAh |
| Charging Speeds | 80W wired charge 50W wireless charging |
OnePlus 13 Design and Display
A change of heart for OnePlus
OnePlus phones have always looked pretty smart, centered around a slowly evolving design language that hasn't been terribly unique, but has always been pretty discernible by phone geeks. It has also remained pretty consistent in the past few years, for better or for worse.
Well, the new OnePlus 13 is here to both carry on with the stylistic tradition but also evolve it in accordance to the current design trends. And those currently convey that flat frames and panels are hot, while curves are not.
As a result, the OnePlus 13 now comes with a flat screen and frame, finally going after the design trend that has been ruling the smartphone market in the past few years. Still, there's an ever-so-slight curve present towards all four sides of the aluminum frame, ensuring a nod to both the current ergonomic and design tendencies.
The triple cameras at the back are still bundled together in a large circular camera island, which is offset and slightly more compact than last year's OnePlus 12.
The phone is relatively lightweight at 210 grams; it's also actually slightly shorter but a bit wider than the OnePlus 12. The device is also exceptionally thin, being just 8.5mm thick, which is awe-inspiring given the 6,000mAh battery crammed inside.
From an ergonomic standpoint, the OnePlus 13 feels great in the hand, with no sharp edges to cave into the meat of your palms. Although it's fairly large, it somehow leaves the impression of being much more compact than it truly is, which is a great feat. Overall, a solid thumbs up in the handling department.
A noteworthy new feature is the highest possible water- and dust-resistance certification on board: IP69. A step up from the now standard IP68 certification, IP69 fully protects against powerful water jets and water immersion, which should give an even bigger peace of mind.
Colors-wise, OnePlus is keeping things safe with three color options: Arctic Dawn (white frosted glass), Black Eclipse (with a faux rosewood grain), and a blue Midnight Ocean version with a microfiber vegan leather finish. We had the latter in for review, and it's certainly a unique color/finish that feels good in the hand and provides some decent grip.
The signature OnePlus three-way ring switch is fortunately present here––and that's great news! However, unlike its close Oppo Find X8 Pro cousin, the OnePlus 13 doesn't feature a capacitive camera control button on the side, we definitely loved that feature on the Oppo. There is, however, an IR sensor at the top of the phone––and that's a great way to use your phone to control all your appliances.
The leather back feels great to the touch, but the aesthetics are certainly an acquired taste (Image by PhoneArena)"
What's inside the OnePlus 13 box? Well, inside the box you get a lot of extra stuff aside from the phone itself:
- OnePlus 13 in all its glory,
- the usual leaflets and manuals,
- 80W wall adapter
- USB-C cable (#RedCableClub)
- USB-A to USB-C adapter
- SIM ejector tool
Well, that's already a ton of value; most other phone manufacturers don't include even half of these accessories in the box.
OnePlus 13 has a bright and color-accurate display (Image by PhoneArena)
Taking a closer look at the display of the OnePlus 13, we get a 6.8-inch OLED screen with a QHD+ resolution, HDR+ support, smooth 1-120Hz refresh rate, and the familiar OnePlus eye-care features, like 2160Hz high-frequency PWM dimming for basically zero flicker. The screen is protected by OnePlus' own Crystal Shield glass, so do not expect Corning's Gorilla Glass to be making a cameo here.
There's also a new Glove Mode, which allows you to interact with the screen while wearing woolen or sheepskin gloves, while the new Aqua Touch 2.0 lets you use the screen even if it is wet or your hands are oily. The latter actually works great, which is marvelous news for people who watch Instagram Reels in the shower.
You can tweak the screen color mode and pick between the default Natural mode, the Pro mode (aligned with the D65 color temperature), and Vivid mode, which enhances color saturation. Each profile can be adjusted slightly to make the tones warmer or cooler based on your preference. Additionally, the OnePlus 13 includes an Adaptive Tone feature, which dynamically adjusts the screen’s color temperature to match ambient lighting, similar to Apple’s True Tone on the iPhone.
In our in-house tests, the OnePlus 13 screen performs admirably. It hits 2,326 nits at 20% APL, where a fifth of the screen displays a fully white image. The rest of the screen properties, like color temperature, contrast and gamma are all excellent and better than the Galaxy S24 Ultra, iPhone 16 Pro Max, and Pixel 9 Pro XL, which means that the OnePlus 13 has a very color-accurate screen. The only area in which the OnePlus 13 loses is the maximum brightness, but that's not a dealbreaker at all, as you surely won't have any problems with outdoor legibility anyway.
Display Measurements:
Biometrics-wise, the phone has an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, which works nearly flawlessly. It unlocks near instantaneously after you put your finger on the designated are of the display; the only instances where it might fail is if you somehow miss the sensor area. In those situations, the less secure but way more convenient face unlock on deck might come in helpful.
OnePlus 13 Camera
Hasselblad goodness
Hasselblad and OnePlus carry on with their fruitful partnership (Image by PhoneArena)"
For years now, OnePlus has been partnering with legendary photography powerhouse Hasselblad. Such is the case with the OnePlus 13, too, which now features the fifth-gen camera fine-tuned by Hasselblad. The phone packs a 1/1.4" 50MP Sony LYT-808 stacked main camera with optical image stabilization (OIS) to keep shots steady, a 23mm focal length, and a wide f/1.6 aperture. Next up, we have a 50MP ISOCELL JN5 ultrawide lens, giving you a 120º FoV with an f/2.0 aperture. That's wider than the OnePlus 12's ultrawide, so you can fit more in the frame.
Rounding things out is a 50MP telephoto camera with 3X optical zoom and the Sony LYT-600 sensor. It’s got OIS, an f/2.6 aperture, and gives you 3X optical zoom to get closer to the action. OnePlus seems particularly proud of the new super-compact Triprism design, which uses three prisms to bend light but occupies significantly less space than a standard periscope.
Although it maxes out at 3X, the telephoto can zoom up to 120X, and while it sounds like anything past 20X might be unusable, that isn't the case. Thanks to some pretty aggressive-in-a-good-way AI upscaling algorithms, you can actually get surprisingly decent results even when shooting at the max possible zoom. However, we'd have loved it if OnePlus had adopted a proper periscope like the 6X one on the Oppo Find X8 Pro. However good the AI upscaling algorithms, they can't really beat real glass.
Up front, we are greeted by a 32MP selfie camera, neatly tucked in a punch-hole cutout. Nothing spectacular about it, it does the job without much fanfare.
On the software front, there are a ton of features that are worth mentioning. The stock Photos app has a lot of AI quality-of-life enhancements, like Enhance Clarity, AI Eraser, Unblur, and Remove Reflections, which are pretty self-explanatory and generally work very well, but your mileage may vary.
Another great new addition is OnePlus' Dual Exposure Algorithm, which takes both a short and a long exposure image in real-time and merges them together to achieve sharp images with no motion blur. Thanks to this new feature, OnePlus has also improved burst photography, enabling you to capture precise and detailed blur-free images that capture moving objects very well.
Also read: OnePlus 13 camera: New ultra-wide and telephoto cameras, Hasselblad portrait engine, and more
In our own custom camera test, the OnePlus 13 does okay, achieving a total score of 144.9. In our still photo test, it achieves 148.8 points, which is lower than most of its flagship rivals but still decently high. With a score of 141 points in our video test, it fares better and actually ties with the Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL, but ultimately falls behind the Galaxy S24 Ultra and the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
What is the image quality like? For the most part, the OnePlus 13 is an improvement over the OnePlus 12, with lots of sharpness with all cameras. However, photos definitely look a bit over-processed and very far from natural.
Colors are a bit too vivid, while contrast is a bit too rich in some scenes, to the point where it doesn't look good. Dynamic range, while normally good, might sometimes appear too extreme and give off that faux over-processed HDR look that isn't appealing at all.
In terms of video quality, we get crisp and sharp 4K videos, with improved white balance and dynamic range in comparison with the OnePlus 12.
OnePlus 13 Performance
Power overwhelming
Gaming is a particularly strong point of the OnePlus 13 (Image by PhoneArena)
We've finally reached the era of 3nm chips on Android thanks to the new Snapdragon 8 Elite, which hums and buzzes inside the OnePlus 13. The latest Qualcomm chip is one rather potent powerhouse, which synergizes pretty well with the lightweight OxygenOS interface. The result is clear––the OnePlus 13 really has seemingly endless reserves of performance to throw at just about any task.
According to our benchmarks test which were ran in a controlled environment, the OnePlus 13 is one of the best-performing phones right now that successfully shakes up the status quo up at the top of the charts. In the Geekbench 6 CPU test, the OnePlus 13 achieves 2967 points in the single- and a whopping 9081 points in the multi-core test, beating just about any of its closest rivals on US soil! Only the iPhone 16 Pro Max turns out to be a tough nut to crack in the single-core test, but the OnePlus triumphs nonetheless.
In the 3DMark Extreme stress test, the OnePlus 13 blows every other phone out of the water as well. With a low score of 4452 points and a high one of 6330 points, it runs circles around the Galaxy S24 Ultra, iPhone 16 Pro Max, and Pixel 9 Pro XL, which is trailing so far behind you'd be forgiven for considering it being in the race at all...
Performance Benchmarks:
The OnePlus 13 is available in two memory configurations, one with 12GB RAM/256GB storage and a top-end variation with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. Even if you pick the 12GB version, have in mind that OnePlus lets you allocate a portion of your on-board storage to act as RAM, which is a neat and user-friendly feature to have.
OnePlus 13 Software
OnePlus 13 OxygenOS 15 interface
OnePlus 13 comes with Android 15 and OxygenOS 15 out of the box. The phone will get four years of major Android updates and six years of security patches down the road.
The recurrent theme with OxygenOS is AI, of course, but it also notably pays a rather big and obvious homage to iOS. Some iPhone features have been Android-ified here, which is both cool and, at the same time, not. For example, we get a 1:1 rendition of Apple's Live Photos, Dynamic Island widgets, as well as a home page indicator/search shortcut that feels like you're using an iPhone.
Overall, the interface is as customizable and as rich in features as ever. There's hardly any aspect of the interface that can't be personalized from a visual or functional standpoint. At the same time, there's no bloatware on board (in stark contrast with the Oppo Find X8 Pro).
- A visual redesign with new icons, while OxygenOS 15's Shelf widget panel has scored multiple new cards that expand the usability;
- New Split mode that lets you easily switch between the notification drawer and Quick Settings panel;
- New Parallel Processing feature that aims to provide system-wide seamless animation transitions;
- OnePlus Take––A seamless wallpaper transition from your home screen to the always-on display;
- OnePlus Canvas––Boosts multitasking by enabling three-app multitasking, allowing you to switch freely between two apps while keeping their full window sizes;
- Lock screen enhancements (clock color, "glass" textures, blurred wallpapers, depth effects) and home screen customization ("glass" patterns, blurred wallpapers, etc.)
Back to AI, you don't get any exclusive AI features on the OnePlus 13––aside from Google's Gemini assistant and Circle to Search, you only get a handful of cloud-based features, mostly found in the Gallery app and allowing for some honestly useful photo-processing edits.
- AI Detail & AI Unblur––Use the power of artificial intelligence to automatically sharpen blurred images and enhance low-resolution images with a single click;
- AI Reflection Eraser––Removes unwanted reflections when you shoot through windows;
- Global Search & Circle to Search––Lets you search across apps with natural language processing;
- Pass Scan––This one lets you store boarding passes directly to Google Wallet;
- AI Notes––Uses AI to automatically sort and organize your notes;
- AI Reply––Lets you reply with contextually relevant replies in most chat apps.
With the OnePlus 13, you can even share files to iPhones wirelessly thanks to a cross-platform app called O+ Connect. It does the job just fine, but doesn't feel like a native solution on the iPhone, and frankly, that's not a fault of OnePlus at all.
All of those features are available on the OnePlus 13, but also some previous OnePlus devices, like the OnePlus Open, 12, 12R, 11, 11R and OnePlus 10.
OnePlus 13 Battery
A massive improvement
The most exciting new feature of OnePlus phones, at least for me, has always been the superb battery life and ultrafast charging speeds. Fortunately, the OnePlus 13 doesn't disappoint in any of those two aspects!
The phone comes with a massive 6,000mAh battery inside its thin 8.5mm body, which is an exceptional feat. How is this possible?
Well, OnePlus has utilized the pretty promising silicon-carbon technology, which allows for vastly improved energy density. This technology might very well be the battery breakthrough we've been waiting for, allowing for increased capacity and superfast charging in a relatively slim package.
In our custom battery tests, which are always conducted with the displays manually set at 200 nits, the OnePlus 13 does a very decent job, though I'll admit I had higher expectations for a device combining a 6,000mAh batery with a 3nm chip.
The OnePlus 13 scores above 21 hours and a half in our custom browsing test, which emulates a standard browsing workflow, and that's nearly as good as the iPhone 16 Pro Max, beating both the Galaxy S24 Ultra and the Pixel 9 Pro XL in the process.
In our video streaming test, the phone fares well, beating the Galaxy but trailing behind the Pixel 9 Pro XL and Apple's finest. Finally, in the 3D gaming test, the OnePlus 13 endured for slightly more than eight hours, but that wasn't enough to best any of its opponents, which last significantly longer.
PhoneArena Battery and Charging test results
OnePlus phones have always had great battery life, and we expect nothing less of the OnePlus 13, but it's the charging that's usually the most exciting part. Just like most of its predecessors, the OnePlus 13 supports 100W wired SUPERVOOC charging and 50W AIRVOOC wireless charging, which still requires a bespoke wireless charger. OnePlus released a new AIRVOOC 50W Magnetic Charger alongside the OnePlus 13, which snaps to the back of the phone like a MagSafe accessory attaches to an iPhone; it goes for $80.
In our own charging test, the OnePlus 13 fully charges in 43 minutes with the supplied 80W wall adapter and stock cable, which is fairly fast, but we've definitely seen significantly faster-charging phones––the OnePlus 11, for example, took just 32 minutes for a full charge. The new wireless charger, on the other hand, does the same exercise in 65 minutes, which is significantly faster than most of its rivals.
Audio quality and haptics
When it comes to audio, the stereo speakers on the OnePlus 13 are fairly loud and clear, and for the most part, pleasing to listen to. However, bass isn't as deep as the iPhone 16 Pro Max, while the sound stage isn't very wide either. This doesn't mean there's something wrong with the audio experience––it's perfectly fine for casual listening to music or watching a Netflix show.
Personalization is ripe here: you get many sound effect settings, which fine-tune the audio experience for movies, gaming, or music. There's also a customizable spatial audio feature, which works quite well even with the built-in loudspeakers.
Haptics are once again extremely precise and sharp, which greatly improves the user experience. In a typical OnePlus fashion, there's lots of customization even here! You can not only customize the strength of the haptics, but also determine if vibrations should feel crisp or gentle.
OnePlus 13 summary
So, the final question––hot or not? (Image by PhoneArena)
Things are looking up for OnePlus 13, which is once again positioning itself as the hidden ultimate-value gem in the Android space, a phone with exceptional hardware, great software, but sadly, the lack of a more widespread brand recognition in the US and therefore trailing behind the Galaxies and iPhones. This definitely prevents the OnePlus 13 from ever beating the iPhones and Galaxies in the US, which is by now a popularity contest.
And looking past the brand name, the OnePlus 13 has it all: modern design in a compact body, top-notch performance (especially in gaming), good battery life, superfast charging, and a lovely screen.
However, there are some flies in the ointment. It feels like the battery life should be better, and the camera system isn't that good and leaves a lot to be desired in terms of image quality. The vegan leather design is also an acquired taste, while some software features inspired by Apple's iOS leave a sore taste in the mouth.
Starting at $900 for the base level trim, which gets you 12GB RAM and 256GB of storage, the OnePlus 13 is a $100 pricier than last year's OnePlus 12. However, the price is still more affordable than either the Pixel 9 Pro XL, iPhone 16 Pro Max, or Galaxy S24 Ultra, which start at $1,100, $1,200, and $1,300, respectively.
OnePlus also throws in a bunch of ways to save: a trade-in of any phone in any condition waivers off $100, and you also get a free memory upgrade to the 16GB/512GB trim for a limited time. That version of the phone normally starts at $1,000, so definitely a very decent offering.
Should you get it? If you're coming from an older OnePlus phone, now is the right time to upgrade. Those using OnePlus phones older than OnePlus 10 should consider getting the OnePlus 13, but if you have a newer one, you probably should abstain from upgrading.
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