OnePlus 13 review: The best flagship experience under ₹70,000
OnePlus 13 gets a lot of major upgrades from its predecessor like larger battery, improved design, IP68 + IP69 rating, ultrasonic fingerprint sensor and support for MagSafe accessories which make stand out as a leading contender in the sub- ₹70,000 segment.
Over the years, OnePlus has steadily evolved its number series from being 'flagship killers' to to striving for flagship status.. However, the company has often fallen short in one area or another—until now. The recently launched OnePlus 13 stands out as the company’s first complete flagship offering much of what premium devices from Samsung and Apple deliver, and in some cases, even more.
The OnePlus 13 is around ₹5,000 costlier than the asking price of last year, but it adds a whole host of features that make it a proper flagship device, including IP68 and IP69 protection, an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, a much more powerful processor in the Snapdragon 8 Elite, a bigger battery and support for MagSafe accessories.
I've been testing the OnePlus 13 for the past 15 days, and here's how the smartphone performed in the real world.
Unboxing and design:
OnePlus 13 comes in a red coloured box with the letter 13 plastered on the top and OnePlus and Hasselblad branding finding a place at the bottom. Inside the colourful box you get the phone itself, a 100W SUPERVOOC adapter, a standard OnePlus red coloured type A to type C cable, a SIM ejector pin, a black coloured case and some documentation.
While the OnePlus 13 retains much of the design of its predecessor, subtle changes have been made to make the device look much more premium and a little less bulky. For example, the Hassleblad branding has now been removed from the camera module and is instead placed right next to it, with a straight strip highlighting it beautifully. The aluminium frame remains the same, but the removal of the curved display makes for a more solid grip.
OnePlus' iconic alert slider is still there, and the IR blaster added last year is still a mainstay on this year's flagship, as is NFC. But it's the upgrades that OnePlus has made this year that really steal the show.
OnePlus 13 comes with an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, which feels significantly faster than the OnePlus 12's optical sensor. It also comes with an IP68 + 69 rating (up from the OnePlus 12's IP65), which means the phone can be submerged in up to 1.5 metres of water for up to 30 minutes, and also withstand hot water jets.
One thing I really liked about the OnePlus 13 is that it weighs in at around 213g (almost 10 grams less than the OnePlus 12), while packing in a bigger battery and making no other compromises to the hardware. That said, the OnePlus 13 was still a little heavy and slightly larger for my palm, and I really hope that OnePlus takes a leaf out of the Vivo X200's playbook to improve the dimensions on the OnePlus 14.
Display and battery:
OnePlus uses the same 6.82-inch QHD+ 120Hz AMOLED display with 4,500 nits peak brightness (1,600 nits on HBM) as its predecessor, but with the newer BOE X2 2K+ quad curved panel and LTPO 4.1 technology.
The display continues to be one of the strong points of the OnePlus range and it can easily compete with the Apple and Samsung of the world thanks to its good viewing angles, excellent colour accuracy and slim bezels. I also had no problems with the OnePlus 13 in bright outdoor conditions, where it even surpassed the brightness levels of the iQOO 13 and Vivo X200 that I also tested.
OnePlus 13 packs a 6,000mAh battery (up from last year's 5,500mAh) and supports 100W of wired fast charging and 50W of wireless charging. OnePlus has also launched a couple of cases (sold separately) with the OnePlus 13 that help the phone take advantage of all the MagSafe accessories on the market.
While most Chinese flagships launched in the last month have come with a massive battery, the continuation of wireless charging and even support for MagSafe accessories makes the OnePlus 13 stand out in a crowded market.
As for battery life, let me put it this way: the OnePlus 13 can easily last a full day even for more power users, but the relatively moderate users like me will find that it can last over 1 ½ - 2 days with a screen time of over 7 hours.
Software and performance:
While the OnePlus 12 was already pretty powerful with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the OnePlus 13 takes performance to the next level with the inclusion of the Snapdragon 8 Elite. In case you've been living under a rock, this chip is Qualcomm's flagship SoC, boasting many firsts, including Oryon architecture, hardware-accelerated ray tracing and support for AAA titles.
In reality, however, much of the new chip's capabilities are not yet practical, and you can just admire the smoothness with which the phone runs.
As far as benchmarks are concerned, OnePlus 13 scored 21,759 points on Antutu, which is a long way from the 27,883 points scored by the iQOO 13 (with the same SoC). On Geekbench 6, the OnePlus 13 had a single-core score of 3024 and a multi-core score of 9158, which is surprisingly very similar to iQOO 13's scores.
On the software front, the OnePlus 13 runs Oxygen OS 15 based on Android 15, with the promise of 4 years of OS updates and 6 years of security patches.
I feel this is perhaps the only area where OnePlus lags significantly behind the Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy series, which offer a much longer 7 years of OS updates.
There's been a lot of talk about the new OxygenOS 15. The new UI feels much smoother, with improved animations and app closing/opening times, along with some handy features like Live Alerts, aka the iPhone's Dynamic Island, and Open Canvas (OnePlus' improved split-screen system).
The AI features first teased with the OnePlus Nord 4 (review) and OxygenOS 15 are now fully integrated in OnePlus 13, including AI Summary, AI Speak (Chrome browser only), AI Transcript and Summary for the Recorder app, AI Detail Boost, AI Eraser, AI Unblur, AI Relfection Eraser and, of course, Circle to Search. To be honest, apart from AI Eraser and AI Transcript (for certain people), you won't be using most of these features, but it's still nice to have them bundled with the OS.
What isn't nice is the adware that OnePlus adds to even its flagship models. The OnePlus 13 comes pre-installed with a 'Phone Manager' and 'App Picks', while the infamous 'Global Search' that we first encountered on the OnePlus Nord 4 is also present here, but it's not turned on by default, meaning that there are no ads in the app drawer for now.
Camera:
The OnePlus 13 has the same 50MP Sony LYT-808 primary lens and 32MP Sony IMX615 selfie shooter as the OnePlus 12, while the ultra-wide-angle lens has been upgraded to a 50MP Samsung ISOCELL JN5 sensor. The telephoto lens, however, has seen a downgrade - at least on paper - from the 64MP OmniVision OV64B lens on the OnePlus 12 to the 50MP Sony LYT-600 shooter on the OnePlus 13.
The OnePlus 12 already had a very capable camera setup, and the OnePlus 13 has only improved on it. I compared the OnePlus 13 with some of its recently launched counterparts, such as the X200, to see where it stood.
One thing you notice immediately is that the OnePlus tends to use cooler colours, while the Vivo tends to use warmer tones in its images. The primary camera is pretty good, with both phones taking eye pleasing images in natural lighting conditions, but the Vivo generally has better detail. Things change for the worse at night and in artificial light, where both phones tend to boost colours, but Vivo is still much closer to the natural image, while the OnePlus struggles sorely.
Both the OnePlus 13 and the X200 are capable of taking good-looking portraits, but the Vivo has slightly better detail and colour accuracy. However, Vivo tends to overbrighten the face in certain portrait shots, while OnePlus comes closer to natural skin tones. The X200 offers more options for portraits, with lenses ranging from 23mm to 100mm, while the OnePlus 13 offers 1x, 2x and 3x portraits, as it did last year.
OnePlus 13 has a slight edge in macro shots, with good details and sharpness. But Vivo is the clear winner when it comes to zoomed-in shots, with the X200 able to capture good-looking images even at 25x zoom, while OnePlus clearly struggles with shots beyond 10-15x zoom.
The biggest letdown for me with the OnePlus 13 is the selfie camera. On its own, OnePlus 13 does a decent job with selfies, but when compared to the likes of the Vivo X200, the latter comes out far ahead with better skin tones, dynamic range and an overall more balanced image.
Overall, the OnePlus 13's cameras still fall a little short of Vivo's flagship range, but remain more than adequate on their own.
Verdict:
OnePlus 13 starts at ₹70,000 and at this price, it is the most complete Android flagship you can buy right now with a mix of good quality display, massive battery, fast wired and wireless charging, premium design and long software update policy. The addition of IP68 + IP69 water resistance and a fast in-display ultrasonic sensor are the icing on the cake.
However, OnePlus will want to focus on improving the selfie camera and the rear camera's night-time performance to maintain its edge in this highly competitive flagship market.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Impressive Quad curved display | Rear camera performance in low light |
| Massive 6,000mAh battery | Selfie camera needs a bit of work |
| Fast wired and wireless charging with support for MagSafe accessories | Potential adwares in UI |
| IP68 + 69 rating | |
| Ultrasonic fingerprint sensor |
Catch all the Technology News and Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.
MoreLess
First Published:10 Jan 2025, 09:37 PM IST
- Top Gainers
- Top Losers
- 52 Week High