OnePlus 13 review: thirteen is a lucky number

oneplus 13
Source : OnePlus

The number thirteen brings good luck for OnePlus. The OnePlus 13 is a shot in the arm. The bar has been set high for all premium phones coming out this year.

OnePlus is shooting straight out of the starting blocks in 2025. The new year wasn’t even a week old when the manufacturer was already putting its latest premium phone on shelves. The OnePlus 13 should build on the success of its predecessor, which made a very strong impression on our editors.

OnePlus’ new flagship is not simply a refresh. The manufacturer is tinkering with the screen, battery and software, among other things. The result is an up and coming premium phone that immediately sets the bar high for the competition to follow later this year.

Recognizable look

OnePlus always manages to come up with fun design touches for its phones. The OnePlus 13 – which is actually the twelfth generation – comes in three color options, each with their own finish. We were sent the blue model with a vegan leather cover, the other options are black with a wood-like texture on the frame and white with surface-based glass coating.

The look is recognizable and not that different from the OnePlus 12, except for the “flatter” screen bezels. The iconic notification slider for muting the volume of notifications is again present. By now, this is no longer a unique OnePlus feature as Oppo has shamelessly adopted it. The slider doesn’t add much, but if OnePlus dares to remove it, it will provoke a revolt among loyal fans.

oneplus 13

The Ultra Ceramic glass can take a beating. The leather case looks more vulnerable to scratches, so a cover is not unnecessary for this model. OnePlus is waving an IP68 and IP69 rating for the first time. That means the device can tolerate a few drops of water and can even be exposed to higher-pressure water.

Gloves

OnePlus proudly proclaims that the display has received a DisplayMate A++ rating, apparently a one-of-a-kind in the smartphone industry. The screen size remains unchanged at 6.82 inches, which accommodates 1,440 x 3,168 pixels. Brightness peaks at 1,315 nits, and the Radiant View feature increases readability in bright sunlight. Unfortunately, due to the foggy, gray winter days, we have not yet been able to test this feature thoroughly.

The screen contains some other tricks that do come in handy during a Belgian winter. In the previous generation, OnePlus already introduced Aqua Touch to keep the screen responsive when raindrops fall on it. Thanks to the new Glove Mode-you can operate the screen even when wearing gloves.

With thin gloves on you can effortlessly open and close apps or even take a picture, typing messages is more difficult. With thick ski gloves on, this will not work. You have to enable this mode yourself in the screen settings.

Welcome to the elite

With every phone launch comes a processor refresh. The OnePlus 13 launches first in Europe with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite. This processor is a smartphone-sized PC CPU and is the most powerful smartphone processor of the moment. That makes the OnePlus 13 the (provisional) computing champion.

In both CPU and GPU performance, the OnePlus 13 stands out head and shoulders above the rest. This does include the nuance that this comparison is based on devices with previous-generation processors. The Oppo Find X8 Pro is an exception with the latest (and equally capable) MediaTek Dimensity 9400. The Google Pixel 9 pro XL runs on its own Tensor processor.

You notice in everything you do that you are dealing with a performance bomb. Again, we see this clearly when we judge the processor on practical applications. Whatever you ask the device to do, the processor can and does do it in an instant. The generous RAM memory (16 GB) certainly helps with that as well. There is even a version with 24 GB of RAM, but it is only available in China for now.

Indefatigable battery

The OnePlus 13 not only has plenty of muscle, but also excellent endurance. The device comes with a massive 6,000 mA battery capacity. In practice, the battery consists of two 3,000 mAh batteries. This allows for better heat distribution while charging. This allows you to continue using the device while charging without the risk of overheating and also benefits the battery life.

As you might expect, this results in long battery life. We only needed to recharge our device every two days with average use, even if we did not start the first day with a fully charged battery.

The difference from competing devices with a smaller battery is significant. Even during a test where we pushed the device to its limits, the OnePlus 13 lasted more than 18 hours. That has a lot to do with the power-efficient architecture of the latest Qualcomm processor. Now, the processor has a big impact on battery life.

Juggling loading stands

Then, if the OnePlus 13 does need a charge, you are quickly set for a day or two. The battery has a charging capacity of 100 W. In just fourteen minutes you’ll be at fifty percent, and eighty percent charging only takes 25 minutes. With that, as usual, comes the caveat that you will only match this chrono if you have a SuperVOOC charger of the brand lying around, and it is not included this time.

The situation is fortunately not as bad as for the Find X8 Pro, which does not achieve the promised charging speed even with branded charger. The difference in charging times is negligible if you were to hang the OnePlus 13 on a universal Power Delivery charger. Charging to fifty percent takes only a minute longer, and in 27 minutes you’re at eighty percent. With these charging times, the device still scores above average. So you definitely don’t need to buy an additional SuperVOOC charger.

Wireless charging is supported up to 50 W. In theory, OnePlus supports magnetic charging, but instead of embracing Qi2 like the iPhones, it again chooses to work with its own standard (AirVOOC). There is no magnet in the device itself, so you have to snap a magnetic cover with thermal pad onto your phone. OnePlus’ explanation is that the cover controls the heat, but Apple has been doing without it for years.

We would like to see OnePlus (and Oppo) not stick so stubbornly to its home standards and embrace universal standards. Motorola and Xiaomi prove that this allows equally fast charging times in a safe manner. The impact is limited for the OnePlus 13, but the manufacturer is making it needlessly cumbersome.

No Hasse leaf for the mouth

Like Oppo, OnePlus works with camera manufacturer Hasselblad for its flagship devices. That collaboration has already proved very successful: the Find X8 Pro is the latest proof of that. In terms of setup, not much changes with the OnePlus 13. The three lenses are sorted into a neatly finished camera ring.

We get a triple 50 MP camera trio at our disposal. The main camera retains its 50 MP resolution, the wide-angle camera gets modest pixel upgrade from 48 MP to 50 MP: a difference that looks bigger on paper than in reality.

The OnePlus 12 was an excellent camera smartphone, so OnePlus had to pull out all the stops to do even better this year. One of the tricks it employs is Dual Exposure, where each photo is composed by combining two snapshots, one with short exposure and one with longer exposure. This technique improves contrast and dynamic range. The Clear Burst and Action Mode features help bring moving objects into clearer focus.

These days, every premium phone has excellent cameras, making it increasingly difficult to see differences in quality with the naked eye. Still, each phone puts different touches. The OnePlus 13 has a large Sony LYT 808 sensor to let in as much light as possible. As a result, photos remain sharp in different conditions. A difference is noticeable with the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL, which wants to show everything as true to life but produces “dark” photos as a result. Click on the photos to view them in full resolution.

The camera module offers five focal lengths (0.6x, 1x, 2x, 3x, 6x) between which you can switch effortlessly to find the best perspective for what you want to bring into focus. The wide-angle camera also performs very satisfactorily. During the day, you can perfectly juxtapose images from both cameras. At nightfall, you see sharpness loss when using the wide-angle camera.

Zooming and AI

The zoom features deserve a separate chapter. Surprisingly, OnePlus gives the telephoto camera a downgrade in pixel count on paper, from 64 MP to 50 MP. Don’t stare blindly at that figure. The optical zoom range is 3x.

6x digital zoom is the limit at which you can zoom in without any loss of quality. From 10x zoom, artificial intelligence is actively used to adjust and limit sharpness loss. This works well, because up to 30x zoom the photos remain sharp, although you do notice that the exposure decreases. If you zoom even further, the maximum zoom is 120x, then AI fills in the picture. No matter how hard the algorithms try, the artificial effect is visible and in difficult lighting conditions even AI has to give in.

A comparison with the Oppo Find X8 again calls to mind. This device we described as a “Hubble telescope in your hand. The Oppo Find X8 Pro features two periscope cameras and has a wider optical zoom range. Without infringing on the capabilities of the OnePlus 13, the Find X8 Pro seems to maintain that tad more sharpness with every zoom step, making us crown Oppo the zoom champion.

Now that the two-letter word AI has been dropped: you still get a lot of AI-driven features to edit your photos. Moving or removing objects from a photo is already unoriginal, and so OnePlus and Oppo are trying to unpack with a feature that lets you remove reflections from a window.

After trying this a few times, we can only conclude that these algorithms still need tinkering. In many cases where you would just want to apply this feature, the reflection is too strong for the AI. The feature requires an Internet connection because you have to upload your photo to the cloud.

Software

The OnePlus 13 comes with OxygenOS 15 out of the box, bringing it right along with the latest Android version. In terms of style and controls, OxygenOS is very similar to Oppo’s ColorOS, and to the dismay of OnePlus fans, the two operating systems are adopting more and more of each other. Fortunately, OnePlus is only adopting the good stuff and not making the same sins as Oppo.

One of our annoyances with the Oppo flagship is that ColorOS 15 aggressively suppresses background activity. It does that to conserve battery life, but it comes with some inconveniences with apps that require bluetooth or connectivity. We don’t notice this with the OnePlus 13; you’re bombarded with notifications to optimize settings, but at least the software always asks rather than proactively doing it for you.

The main sin of Oppo’s ColorOS is the bloatware. Not only the quantity is annoying, but especially what type of applications the manufacturer affords to install on your phone. What the added value of Temu, Spanish web stores or applications to order car parts with is supposed to be is a question mark to us. Xiaomi reaches the bottom by installing gambling games on its 14T smartphone.

Can OnePlus wash its hands of the problem? Not quite, as the manufacturer is equally pushing its own web store and applications like Zen Space. Those applications are tucked away in a folder and do not affect the user experience. There is some bloatware, but it does not take on disturbing forms.

You can count on four major Android updates. Why one less than the Find X8 Pro is beyond us, given how closely related the two devices are. More importantly, you’ll get six years of security updates, giving you the OnePlus 13 until 2030. That’s quite a long time, though Google and Samsung do just a little better for their high-end devices at seven years.

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OnePlus 13 review: thirteen is a lucky number

Bull’s-eye

OnePlus scores a direct hit early in the year. The OnePlus 13 earns the label “premium phone” in all its senses. The device looks, feels and performs like a premium device. There is currently no other Android smartphone that can deliver equivalent performance. A year ago, we asked “What more could you want?” and OnePlus answered that question.

Perfection does not exist and the OnePlus 13 also has some flaws, though they are more nitpicking than disturbing. Some new tryouts like glove mode and AI features still need some key work. We’d turn a blind eye to that, if OnePlus didn’t announce those features with so much fanfare. The soup of charging stands it creates itself is redundant, and if you want to spy on your neighbors across the street, the Oppo Find X8 Pro is the phone for you.

The OnePlus 13 is the best Android flagship of the moment. The base configuration (12 GB + 256 GB) remains just under the symbolic 1,000 euro mark (999 euro, incl. VAT). We repeat “of the moment” because the competition will soon follow. The bar has been set very high for OnePlus and it will not be easy for other brands to surpass this device.

OnePlus 13 – 999 euros incl. VAT. 4 years Android updates, 6 years security updates.

.pro’s

  • Stylish design
  • Quality screen
  • Snapdragon 8 is a top processor
  • Indefatigable battery
  • Fast charging (also with Power Delivery!)
  • Excellent cameras
  • Software without distracting bloatware

.contra’s

  • Cumbersome wireless charging
  • AI functions perform shakily