OnePlus 13 vs Google Pixel 9 Pro XL: Here comes Johnny!
Intro
The OnePlus 13 flagship is the hot topic in the tech industry these days, and for a good reason. The recently announced flagship promises to take popular brands with a storm (in typical OnePlus fashion), and the Pixel 9 Pro XL is one of the potential victims.
The flat age is upon us
Today we're going to pit these two against each other in a preliminary comparison, and even though we know everything about the OnePlus 13, the usual caveat applies here as well; the we need to finish our review and populate this comparison with samples and benchmarks for a final verdict. The OnePlus 13 is expected to make a global debut sometime in January, probably alongside the Galaxy S25 series.
With that in mind, let's compare the OnePlus 13 and the Pixel 9 Pro XL.
OnePlus 13 vs Pixel 9 Pro XL expected differences explained:
| OnePlus 13 | Pixel 9 Pro XL |
|---|---|
| Similar size screen, different camera bump, slightly curved screen still | Flat sides, front and back design, similar size |
| 6.82-inch panel with 120Hz LTPO, 4,500 nits max brightness | Similar 6.8-inch panel, 120Hz, very bright in real life |
| Triple camera, three 50MP sensors, wide, ultrawide, and telephoto (3x zoom) | Triple camera with 50MP main, 48MP ultrawide, and 48MP telephoto, periscope 5x zoom |
| Less memory in the base version (12GB), but a version with 24GB of RAM | More memory in the base version (16GB) |
| More base storage (256GB) | 128GB of storage in the base model |
| Larger 6,000mAh battery that will potentially deliver better battery life | A smaller 5,060mAh battery |
| Faster wired and wireless charging, 100W and 50W respectively | Slower 45W wired charging |
Table of Contents:
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Design and Display Quality
The flat age is upon us
It's 2024, and the smartphone industry is finally moving toward flatness, so to speak. The era of aggressively curved screens seems to be coming to an end, and even Chinese brands now seem to take notes and flatten their pancakes, metaphorically speaking.
The design of the OnePlus 13 is already official, as the company itself teased the flagship in an official video, and the phone also made rounds in a strange gaming event in China prior to launching in its full glory on October 31. So, the OnePlus 13 follows the same design language of its predecessors, only with a flatter screen and an offset circular camera bump on the back.
The design of the OnePlus 13 is already official, as the company itself teased the flagship in an official video, and the phone also made rounds in a strange gaming event in China prior to launching in its full glory on October 31. So, the OnePlus 13 follows the same design language of its predecessors, only with a flatter screen and an offset circular camera bump on the back.
The size and weight of the OnePlus 13 are almost identical to the Pixel 9 Pro XL, down to a fraction of a millimeter. The OnePlus 13 is ten-or-so grams lighter but both phones come pretty close. The experience is different, though, as the OnePlus 13 is still rounded on the back, while the Pixel 9 Pro XL is now pretty edgy.
Speaking of which, Google made a substantial design turn with the Pixel 9 series moving to flat sides and overall more angular design, as well as a separate camera bump that sticks out quite a bit.
In terms of materials, both phones come with glass and metal, but the OnePlus 13 has a blue option with a faux leather back. Speaking of colors, below are the color variants of both models.
OnePlus 13 available colors:
Pixel 9 Pro XL available colors:
Let's move to the display portion of the comparison. Another area where these two look very similar.
The OnePlus 13 is rocking a 6.8-inch LTPO AMOLED display with a peak brightness of 4,500 nits and 1,600 nits in high brightness mode (HBM). The expected resolution is 3168 x 1440 pixels, which should result in a pretty high pixel density, around 510 PPI.
The Pixel 9 Pro XL, on the other hand, sports one of the brightest panels we've ever tested. It's again 6.8-inch LTPO with real-life brightness of 2,052 nits! We still don't know how the OnePlus 13 will fare in our display test and if the new flagship will be able to challenge the Pixel, so stay tuned for display tests soon.
In terms of materials, both phones come with glass and metal, but the OnePlus 13 has a blue option with a faux leather back. Speaking of colors, below are the color variants of both models.
OnePlus 13 available colors:
- While Dawn
- Blue Moment
- Obsidian Black
Pixel 9 Pro XL available colors:
- Hazel
- Obsidian
- Porcelain
- Rose Quartz
Let's move to the display portion of the comparison. Another area where these two look very similar.
The OnePlus 13 is rocking a 6.8-inch LTPO AMOLED display with a peak brightness of 4,500 nits and 1,600 nits in high brightness mode (HBM). The expected resolution is 3168 x 1440 pixels, which should result in a pretty high pixel density, around 510 PPI.
The Pixel 9 Pro XL, on the other hand, sports one of the brightest panels we've ever tested. It's again 6.8-inch LTPO with real-life brightness of 2,052 nits! We still don't know how the OnePlus 13 will fare in our display test and if the new flagship will be able to challenge the Pixel, so stay tuned for display tests soon.
Performance and Software
Snapdragon 8 Elite comes to take it all
Qualcomm already announced the next flagship chip, the Snapdragon 8 Elite (sorry, change in the naming scheme in the last minute, so no Gen 4, guys). We have some leaked Geekbench 6 results but won't put them into our official tables still, as we need to run those in our lab.
But we're pretty sure the new Snapdragon 8 Elite inside the OnePlus 13 will wipe the floor with the Tensor G4, at least when it comes to synthetic benchmarks. The cited scores of around 3,000 single and 9,000 multicore performance in Geekbench 6 are way above what the Pixel 9 Pro XL was able to output in our test. But we'll have to wait and get the real numbers soon.
The RAM situation is more complex than it probably needs to be. The OnePlus 13 is available with several different memory configurations, starting with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage as a base and going all the way up to 24GB of RAM. The latter is a bit of overkill, who needs that much RAM? But anyway, it is what it is. The Pixel 9 Pro XL has 16GB of RAM onboard and starts at 128GB storage.
Stay tuned for performance benchmarks!
But we're pretty sure the new Snapdragon 8 Elite inside the OnePlus 13 will wipe the floor with the Tensor G4, at least when it comes to synthetic benchmarks. The cited scores of around 3,000 single and 9,000 multicore performance in Geekbench 6 are way above what the Pixel 9 Pro XL was able to output in our test. But we'll have to wait and get the real numbers soon.
Camera
Three eyes with many, many pixels
This section is nothing without samples, and we don't have those at the moment, so we'll just list the specs for now. And they are pretty similar; both phones sport triple camera systems with high pixel count sensors, and they cover the most popular snapping scenarios: wide, ultrawide, and telephoto.
Let's start with the Pixel 9 Pro XL, as it already survived our camera benchmark (and with flying colors). The phone comes with a triple camera system on its back, consisting of a 50MP main sensor under a lens with f/1.7 aperture (this camera scored 84 out of 85 in our camera benchmark), another 48MP ultrawide camera, and yet another high-res 48MP telephoto with a periscope zoom system capable of 5x optical zoom.
The OnePlus 13 sports a very similar triple camera system with three 50MP sensors—wide, ultrawide, and a periscope telephoto with 3x optical zoom. But we need samples to judge those (as we all know, post-processing algorithms play a huge role in smartphone photography nowadays), so stay tuned for those.
Let's start with the Pixel 9 Pro XL, as it already survived our camera benchmark (and with flying colors). The phone comes with a triple camera system on its back, consisting of a 50MP main sensor under a lens with f/1.7 aperture (this camera scored 84 out of 85 in our camera benchmark), another 48MP ultrawide camera, and yet another high-res 48MP telephoto with a periscope zoom system capable of 5x optical zoom.
The OnePlus 13 sports a very similar triple camera system with three 50MP sensors—wide, ultrawide, and a periscope telephoto with 3x optical zoom. But we need samples to judge those (as we all know, post-processing algorithms play a huge role in smartphone photography nowadays), so stay tuned for those.
Battery Life and Charging
Moving toward 6K batteries?
There's one technology that keeps holding humanity back. It's batteries. Thankfully, companies like Honor try to innovate and develop this technology that dates back to the middle of the last century. The new silicone-carbon batteries are already here (unlike the solid state ones Samsung promised us with the Galaxy Note 20), and we're moving toward 6,000 mAh in capacity for thin and elegant flagship phones.
Speaking of, the OnePlus 13 is the latest flagship from China to come with a silicon-carbon battery, and thanks to that tech it has a 6,000mAh capacity. The Pixel 9 Pro XL, on the other hand, sports a relatively modest (for its size) 5,060mAh battery, although it managed to perform admirably in our battery test.
When it comes to charging, we know that OnePlus is something of a fast charging champion and has been for the past couple of years, so the OnePlus 13 will surely come out victorious with its 100W fast charging support, outperforming the Pixel 9 Pro XL. The latter comes with a 45W wired fast charging, and a full charge takes 83 minutes.
When it comes to charging, we know that OnePlus is something of a fast charging champion and has been for the past couple of years, so the OnePlus 13 will surely come out victorious with its 100W fast charging support, outperforming the Pixel 9 Pro XL. The latter comes with a 45W wired fast charging, and a full charge takes 83 minutes.
Specs Comparison
Here's a specs comparison for the number nerds out there.
| Specs | OnePlus 13 | Pixel 9 Pro XL |
|---|---|---|
| Dimensions | 162.9 x 76.5 x 8.5 mm | 162.8 x 76.6 x 8.5 mm |
| Weight | 210 г | 221 g |
| Screen | 6.82-inch Super AMOLED 1-120Hz | 6.8-inch OLED 1-120Hz |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite | Google Tensor G4 (4nm) |
| RAM, Storage and Price | 12/256GB for 4499 yuan (~$600) | 16/128GB for $1099 |
| Cameras | 50MP main 50MP ultra-wide 50MP telephoto, 3x zoom 32MP front | 50MP main, f/1.7 48MP ultra-wide, f/1.7 48MP 5X zoom, f/2.8 42MP front |
| Battery Size | 6,000 mAh | 5,060 mAh |
| Charging Speeds | 100W wired 50W wireless | 45W wired wireless |
Which one should you buy?
This depends on so many factors. This year's Pixels are probably the most thought-out and polished flagships Google has dished out so far, but they are still pretty… let's say specific in certain areas. When it comes to raw power, the Tensor G4 is still not there yet, and there are quirks here and there in the software. On the other hand, the camera is great, and the lengthy support is something many people want nowadays.
The OnePlus 13 promises to topple all that in typical OnePlus fashion while keeping the price down. The phone comes with the fastest Snapdragon chipset out there, a huge battery, and an ample camera system. Stay tuned for our final verdict once we finish reviewing the OnePlus 13.
The OnePlus 13 promises to topple all that in typical OnePlus fashion while keeping the price down. The phone comes with the fastest Snapdragon chipset out there, a huge battery, and an ample camera system. Stay tuned for our final verdict once we finish reviewing the OnePlus 13.
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