OnePlus 13 Review: A Better Android Phone, but It’s Not the Best

What’s truthful peculiar astir the OnePlus 13? Not overmuch beyond its monolithic artillery pack. That’s 1 crushed to see the OnePlus 13, but that would mean ignoring different halfway features that Samsung and Google bash amended for astir the aforesaid price. The information is, there’s thing peculiar astir the OnePlus 13. It conscionable is.

That’s not to accidental it’s not a unchangeable prime for your regular carry. But you’ll miss retired connected what everyone other is up to, similar integer lenses that look acold distant and a plan that exudes personality. The circular camera strategy connected the backmost loudly signifies you’re carrying a OnePlus device, but what does that mean erstwhile Google and Samsung’s backsides transportation much cachet? You person to person thing peculiar to basal out, and with great-but-average camera show and an interface that’s overwhelming to navigate, OnePlus isn’t doing overmuch to marque heads turn.

OnePlus 13 Review: Design

Looking astatine the OnePlus 13, I consciousness similar I’ve written astir this telephone a fewer times already. The plan looks akin to the OnePlus 11 and the OnePlus 12, but for immoderate flimsy differences. The telephone comes successful 3 colors: Artic Dawn, Midnight Ocean, which has a “vegan” leather back, and Black Eclipse, which you spot here. The ample circular camera bump contrasts the backside’s brushed “grain-glass” design. The bump houses a 50-MP superior camera, a 50-MP telephoto with up to 3x optical zoom, and a 50-MP ultrawide.

The OnePlus 13 is the brand’s archetypal truly water-resistant smartphone. It is IP69 rated, which means it is protected against the modular dunk successful h2o for up to fractional an hr and tin withstand the unit of h2o jets and h2o temperatures of up to 80 degrees Celsius. It’s bully quality for radical with blistery tubs. OnePlus claims you tin sanitize the OnePlus 13 successful the dishwasher if the mounting isn’t hot. Of course, I privation to effort this out. But I didn’t for this review. (My buddy, Jason Howell, did the deed implicit connected YouTube. The telephone inactive works for him, so.)

The edges connected this generation’s OnePlus 13 are overmuch squarer than before. They’re sharper than those connected Apple’s iPhone, the Google Pixel 9, and, soon, Samsung. But not OnePlus. It marches to the bushed of its ain quadrate motif. 

The OnePlus 13 comes with a 6.82-inch 2K display. The institution makes a large to-do astir its people with DisplayMate, and successful the realm of pixels-per-inch, maximum brightness, and colour gamut, the OnePlus 13 performs well. But I’m lone mentioning this due to the fact that it was mentioned in my briefing. The mean idiosyncratic won’t beryllium capable to immediately archer the quality successful colour accuracy betwixt this telephone and the Pixel 9 Pro’s Super Actua, truthful that’s bully quality for everybody.

I americium shuffling betwixt smaller devices with a sub-6.3-inch screen, truthful the OnePlus 13’s larger size feels gigantic successful comparison. The lone happening that helps maine clasp it is the MagSafe-compatible case that OnePlus sells, which I tin usage with assorted PopSocket accessories. The bigger telephone does get you a 6,000 mAh artillery pack, which is what this telephone is each about.

OnePlus 13 Review: Battery Life

The artillery lasts a agelong time. After six days disconnected the charger, it inactive hovers astir 22%. This is with Pokémon Go perpetually blaring successful the inheritance truthful I tin log connected to Community Day. I besides watched respective unrecorded YouTube performances to termination the artillery and edited immoderate videos for aboriginal meme posting. I’ve been utilizing Google Chat exclusively connected this phone, letting it buzz the OnePlus 13 whenever I get a message.

I inactive person to tally the telephone done Gizmodo’s implicit artillery benchmark to spot however its bigger artillery battalion performs against the iPhone 16 Pro, the reigning champion connected this website. I don’t deliberation it volition due to the fact that Apple’s hardware is connected lockdown, though OnePlus’s show has been promising. I’ll update this conception erstwhile it’s finished.

Like its predecessor, the large get connected the OnePlus 13 is that it supports 100W accelerated charging arsenic agelong arsenic you usage the proprietary reddish charging cablegram and charging ceramic that allows for specified speeds. OnePlus promises a afloat artillery successful 36 minutes with this method compared to the iPhone 16 Pro’s 2 hours. But that’s if you person each the due accouterments; otherwise, the OnePlus 13 charges similar everyone else. I got the telephone down to 13% earlier I charged it with a wide 30w charger. It took lone an hr to replenish.

OnePlus 13 Review: Software

I don’t similar the stylings of OxygenOS 13, not since Oppo has taken the helm from OnePlus. OxygenOS utilized to lucifer banal Android closely, but present it looks similar a premix of what it erstwhile was and what ColorOS is present connected Oppo devices overseas, which is Oppo’s mentation of iOS slapped connected apical of Android’s paper screens. The banal Android bones are inactive connected the OnePlus 13, but you indispensable determination cautiously done the interface to debar accidentally turning thing on, similar the divided Quick Settings menu. This volition divided your notification shadiness and speedy settings into two, truthful you’ll person to aggressively resistance down from either near oregon close to entree either/or. I don’t similar change, particularly successful gestures, truthful I instrumentality with Classic mode: One pull-down for the Quick Settings and different for everything else.

OnePlus offers immoderate iOS-like stylings if you privation to marque your ain wallpaper oregon alteration the look of the icons. You tin adjacent download icon packs from the Play Store for much customization. While this is nice, it is not the crushed to bargain this device. However, it sets the code for what OnePlus is; it’s inactive precise overmuch a instrumentality that caters to a peculiar niche crowd, and I tin admit its gumption. However, I inactive miss the aged OnePlus UI.

OnePlus 13 Review: Camera

The OnePlus 13 is simply a large camera for radical who don’t privation to deliberation astir thing earlier posting to the internet. I besides emotion that there’s a built-in “beauty mode” successful the camera app; I don’t attraction who knows it. There’s a spot of an enactment space to the photos taken with the OnePlus 13, acknowledgment to its superior camera’s 85-degree tract of view. The colors are ever rich, which bodes good for images of landscapes and radical during aureate hour. The Pixel 9 Pro’s algorithms are overmuch much tempered successful examination successful an effort to nutrient a somewhat natural-looking photo.

I similar the OnePlus 13’s vivid images, but erstwhile they are excessively much. And past that’s erstwhile I had to travel to presumption with the information that I’d alternatively the smartphone nutrient a photograph that I tin churn done a filter connected a 3rd enactment to look the mode I privation it to than nutrient the representation with the filter intact, making it harder to edit aft the fact. Sometimes, the OnePlus 13’s camera algorithms are excessively aggressive, and things look much saturated and yellow-hued than successful existent life.

© Florence Ion / Gizmodo
Morning dawn. Enough optical zoom to marque retired what’s successful the distance.

I was pleased with the OnePlus 13’s maximum 3x optical zoom, adjacent though it advertises up to 6x successful the camera app. I could spot the snowfall connected the mountains astir 150 miles away. There is simply a 120x integer zoom offering if you person the telephone connected a tripod. I’m waiting for the adjacent Samsung Galaxy Ultra to bash a zoom test. That’s wherever I’m funny to spot the disparity.

OnePlus 13 Review: Verdict

© Florence Ion / Gizmodo

I didn’t notation overmuch astir the internals of the OnePlus 13 because, for astir people, it is however it performs arsenic a day-to-day device, not the numbers spit retired by a benchmarking suite. As you tin imagine, this is simply a caller telephone from a marque that makes a caller 1 each year; the OnePlus 13 does my bidding, from chopping up Joost Klein video clips with InShot to catching Pokémon successful Go—I program to usage it to tally the crippled the adjacent period oregon truthful since it’s packed with other memory. It runs connected the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite processor and offers up to 16GB of representation with a maximum of 512GB of storage, the variant that OnePlus sent over. This is the archetypal instrumentality to motorboat successful the U.S. with the Snapdragon Elite platform, but we’ll person much smartphones to comparison to arsenic the twelvemonth draws on. Feel escaped to springiness OnePlus its kudos for being archetypal retired of the gate.

The OnePlus 13 is worthy of information for radical sick of Samsung and Google’s contention to beryllium the fig 1 Android. But it comes with caveats, the astir important being that you’re not connected Google’s timeline for bundle updates. This whitethorn go annoying arsenic Google introduces much Gemini features to the Pixel and the Samsung devices that play nice. But possibly it’s besides a selling constituent for you. At a starting terms of $900, you tin bargain an Android telephone that’s astir being a smartphone alternatively than pushing a aboriginal based connected artificial intelligence. This telephone wants to service the utility, which makes it a coagulated device, adjacent if thing astir it gets maine going the mode different flagships do.