OnePlus 13: a flagship smartphone with almost no compromises

OnePlus smartphones have always had a large number of fans, because the brand knows how to make really interesting models, especially when it comes to flagships. Last fall, the new flagship OnePlus 13 was introduced. At first, it became available exclusively in its home market in China, and now a global version has been released. Looking at the specifications, the OnePlus 13 looks like an almost ultimate flagship smartphone. But it's still worth getting to know it in person. Today we'll tell you how successful the new OnePlus flagship really is.

Specifications

Package contents

The delivery package varies depending on the version of the smartphone. The OnePlus 13 arrived for review for the Chinese market, but with the global OxygenOS 15 firmware. The traditional red box contained the smartphone itself, a 100W charger, a Type-C cable, a white protective bumper with a matte finish, a protective film (on the screen), a tray eject tool, and documentation.

Unfortunately, the global version does not include a power adapter or a protective bumper. However, the smartphone supports the common fast charging standards Power Delivery and Quick Charge, so a third-party power adapter will work fine.

Design and ergonomics

The overall style of the OnePlus 13 continues the ideas of the previous model with some differences. As before, the rear camera is made in the form of a large round module with four holes inside. It is also shifted to the left, but does not go into the side face. A thin horizontal line runs through the entire back panel, and on the right is the Hasselblad logo. In the middle of the panel is the traditional OnePlus logo.

Depending on the color, the back panel can be either covered with eco-leather or glass with a matte rough finish. The white version, as in the review, has glass on the back. The glass has an unusual coating with a very fine texture. It is very pleasant to the touch and helps the smartphone not slip out of your hand.

The front panel is almost the same as the OnePlus 12: the main difference is that the display has no curves on the sides. Instead, what manufacturers once called 2.5D glass in marketing materials is used. That is, the protective glass itself has barely noticeable curves around the perimeter. The front panel is protected by the so-called Ceramic Guard.

The OnePlus 13 frame is metal with a glossy finish. It is flat around the entire perimeter and has minimal chamfers at the transition points to the front and back panels. On the right side, everything is standard: a dual volume control button, as well as a power button. The height of their location is quite comfortable for the right hand. The left hand still has to stretch a little. But it depends on the size of the palm.

On the left side is the OnePlus smartphone's signature three-position mode switch: loud, vibrate, and completely silent. It has a nice textured finish.

On the top edge of the OnePlus 13 are a pair of additional microphones, an additional speaker hole for stereo sound reproduction, and an infrared transmitter for controlling electronics.

At the bottom are USB Type-C version 3.2 connectors, two microphones, the main speaker, and a tray.

The tray can accommodate 2 nano-SIM cards. The availability of eSIM support depends on the region for which the smartphone is intended. In our case, it was present.

Given the 6.82-inch display, it is not surprising that the OnePlus 13 turned out to be quite massive: 162.9x76.5x8.5, weighing 213 g. But, thanks to a successful design, it is quite comfortable to use. And, importantly, the smartphone finally has full protection against dirt and water according to IP68/IP69 standards. After all, previous models only had splash protection.

Display

OnePlus 13 is equipped with an AMOLED screen with a diagonal of 6.82 inches and a resolution of 3168x1440 (QHD+). The pixel density is 510 ppi, the aspect ratio is 19.8: 9. The company itself calls the display ProXDR LTPO 4.1. It supports an adaptive refresh rate of 1-120 Hz. That is, a static image (for example, Always on Display) is displayed at a frequency of 1 Hz, which contributes to a longer battery life.

The manufacturer claims that the display has a color depth of 10 bits, and the color coverage is 100% of the DCI-P3 space. The maximum brightness in manual mode is 800 cd/m², in automatic mode — 1600 cd/m², peak — 4500 cd/m², there is support for Dolby Vision, HDR and HDR10+ standards. Additional features include Aqua Touch 2.0 technology, thanks to which the screen should work perfectly even with wet hands or in the rain. Another interesting technology is Radiant View: the smartphone not only increases the brightness in bright sunlight, but also analyzes the content on the screen and increases the brightness of individual areas.

There is a lot to do in the settings. In addition to the standard dark and light themes, selection of refresh rates (60, 120 and adaptive), there are color display modes, color temperature settings, a function that automatically adjusts color temperature depending on ambient light, night mode, selection of resolution (2376x1080 or 3168x1440), image sharpening, Always on Display, etc.

In the "Bright" mode, the maximum brightness was 763.78 cd/m², which is close to the declared value. The color gamut is much wider than sRGB, while the color reproduction is relatively accurate. The deviation towards cool shades is minimal.

In "Natural", the color gamut almost matches sRGB. Maximum brightness is 735.54 cd/m².

Security

If optical under-screen scanners won't surprise anyone, ultrasonic ones aren't very common yet. And these are mostly the most expensive models, including Samsung's top-end ones. The OnePlus 13 also uses ultrasonic. And it works really instantly and always accurately. There were no errors at all during use. Its location is quite convenient, you don't have to pick up the smartphone.

An alternative option in the form of facial recognition is also supported, but it uses only the front camera without additional sensors, so this option is less secure. And it works slowly at night.

Productivity and software

As should be the case in a modern flagship smartphone, the top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, which is currently one of the most powerful, is responsible for the performance of the OnePlus 13. Its performance reserve will be enough for several years to come. This is a 3-nanometer chip, which includes two Oryon V2 Phoenix L cores with a frequency of up to 4.32 GHz and six Oryon V2 Phoenix M cores at 3.53 GHz. Adreno 830 graphics accelerator with a frequency of 1.1 GHz. If we talk about the options for the global version (which interests us), then the younger one is available with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of built-in and the older one with 16/512 GB. RAM — LPDDR5X, built-in — UFS 4.0.

In synthetic performance tests, the smartphone shows quite expected high results. OnePlus 13 is currently one of the most productive Android smartphones.

In any heavy modern games, you can safely set the maximum graphics settings and get a stable 60 FPS. During prolonged play, the smartphone heats up a little.

But things aren't going so well with cooling in the OnePlus 13. In balanced mode, the performance drop isn't critical and the case doesn't get too hot. But in productive mode, things get pretty sad: in the CPU Throttling Test stress test, performance drops to 49%, and the metal frame gets hot:

OnePlus 13 is equipped with almost all modern wireless interfaces: tri-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e/7, Bluetooth 5.4 with support for AAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless, LDAC, LHDC 5 codecs, as well as NFC. Global positioning systems GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS, QZSS and NavIC are supported. Additionally, there is an infrared transmitter for controlling electronics with the appropriate application.

The global OnePlus 13 runs on Android 15 with the proprietary OxygenOS 15 shell, which is actually very close to ColorOS 15 from OPPO smartphones. Although the situation was once different: the old shell was based on the very popular CyanogenMod among enthusiasts. Four years of OS updates are promised. OxygenOS 15 itself is a convenient, fast and pleasant shell, in which there is practically no garbage. It has the usual Android logic, including standard navigation options, a separate application menu (or without it), widgets and a bunch of appearance customization options.

There are a number of useful additional gestures, both on the active and locked screen (quick camera launch, music playback control, etc.). There is a side sliding panel with frequently used applications. And the ability to run applications in a window, or in split-screen mode.

Of course, there are AI functions that work in the camera and proprietary applications like notes or voice recorder. Although for some reason I was unable to change from Polish to Ukrainian. But the pre-installed Gemini AI already copes with this perfectly. It recognizes the Ukrainian language and provides appropriate results.

Sound and vibration

The OnePlus 13 uses a classic stereo sound reproduction scheme: the main and conversational speakers. The latter has an additional hole on the upper edge. The speakers are well balanced and the difference is not noticeable. The sound was very pleasantly pleasing, both in volume and quality. And if the volume is not new, then the presence of a noticeable amount of low frequencies is quite rare in smartphones. Of course, there is support for Dolby Atmos and there are additional presets for different scenarios (music, games, movies).

Usually there is nothing special to say about the vibration feedback. But not in this case. The proprietary O-Haptic system is used with a large number of settings, including individual ones for different applications and separate modes, which in the Ukrainian version of the interface are called "Crunch" and "Gentle". The vibration feedback is very pleasant to feel both when interacting with the interface and in games.

Cameras

The OnePlus 13 has a triple rear camera setup. It includes:

• 50-megapixel Sony LYT-808 main module, 1/1.4-inch, 1.12 μm, 23 mm with f/1.6 aperture, multi-directional phase-detection autofocus and optical stabilization;
• 50-megapixel Sony LYT-808 telephoto 1/1.95-inch, 0.8μm, 73mm with f/2.6 aperture, phase detection autofocus, optical stabilization, and 3x zoom;
• 50-megapixel Samsung S5KJN5 ultra-wide-angle 1/2.75-inch, 0.64μm, 15mm with f/2.0 aperture, autofocus and 120° viewing angle;

Additionally, there is a laser rangefinder, a color spectrum sensor, and color calibration from Hasselblad is announced. A good, versatile set of cameras. And, what is pleasing, the ultra-wide-angle camera also has autofocus. It is still not available in all flagships. The main camera can shoot video up to 8K 30 FPS, including Dolby Vision. The front camera is 32 megapixels with an aperture of f/2.4.

The camera app interface is without any unusual features, everything is standard. The main settings are on the viewfinder screen, additional ones are in the drop-down menu, and the modes are a horizontal carousel:

In general, we can say that all the cameras were pleasantly pleased with the quality of the photos. Excellent detail, mostly correct white balance, wide dynamic range and natural colors. This applies to both day and night mode. At night, in some places, not quite natural yellowish-orange shades are still noticeable, but in a small amount. The ultra-wide-angle camera is not much weaker than the main and telephoto. This is especially noticeable at night. Photos with 6x zoom (crop from the telephoto camera) come out well during the day, but at night it is more difficult to get a clear picture. Main camera:

2x zoom (crop from main camera):

Telephoto camera 3x:

Zoom 6x:

Ultra wide angle:

The smartphone also does well with video. Here are some examples of 4K 60 FPS video from different cameras:

Battery life

OnePlus 13 is equipped with a 6000 mAh battery. A modern silicon-carbon battery is used, the advantages of which include greater endurance to low temperatures and more compact dimensions. The smartphone turned out to be really hardy and if you don’t constantly run games, then with everyday use you can easily get a day and a half of work. This is a small number of calls, a few hours of music via Bluetooth, a browser, mail, messengers, social networks, camera, YouTube videos. In the PC Mark battery test with 50% brightness, the smartphone lasted 15 hours, which is a very good indicator.

The smartphone supports 100W fast charging, which allows you to fully charge the battery in just over half an hour. There is also support for 50W wireless charging, 10W reverse wireless and 5W reverse wired charging, and 10W reverse wireless charging. The OnePlus 13 also has support for a variety of magnetic chargers.

The editorial team would like to thank the Pixophone store for the OnePlus 13 smartphone kindly provided for review