The OnePlus 13 represents an ambitious evolution in the company’s flagship lineup, though it’s not without its quirks. Unsurprisingly, the company’s latest flagship offers everything you’d expect from a OnePlus flagship – including incredible performance and display technology. This all arrives alongside a new luxurious but practical vegan leather design.
What’s especially quirky about the OnePlus 13 is that despite sporting a new luxurious design, the OnePlus 13 happens to be quite rugged. It offers an IP68/IP69 rating that effectively addresses user complaints about the OnePlus 12 lacking a substantial IP rating. As a matter of fact, the OnePlus team chose to host media reviewers on a cruise ship in late December specifically to demonstrate the flagship’s durability in challenging, watery conditions, in an environment where water exposure and drops were likely to occur.
Design and Build Quality
The most striking aspect of the OnePlus 13’s overhauled design is the introduction of microfiber vegan leather in the Midnight Ocean variant. This deep blue color is a departure from the green hued variants we’ve seen from OnePlus over the past few years. Personally, I’m more of a fan of green than blue, but that is a personal preference.
Although we’ve seen vegan leather show up on many flagships, the microfiber vegan leather from OnePlus is particularly unique and a first for smartphones. Not only does it look good, the material offers excellent tactile feedback and durability, so you won’t find yourself struggling to grip the phone or find it slipping out of your hand. It’s also a refreshing departure from the stereotypical combo glass/titanium designs we’ve grown accustomed to lately on competing flagships.
Fortunately, the microfiber vegan leather finish not only provides a luxurious feel but it also offers durability. OnePlus says the material can withstand extreme conditions including high temperatures, salt spray, and even chemical exposure, just don’t drop it in salt water.
Along those lines, the OnePlus 13 is company’s most rugged phone yet: OnePlus has equipped the 13 with ceramic guard, which is one of the most robust smartphone display glasses available. This material effectively provides exceptional drop protection and scratch resistance, ensuring your screen remains pristine even in challenging conditions.
And unlike many flagship phones that only offer IP68 protection, the OnePlus 13 boasts both IP68 and IP69 ratings. That means that the OnePlus 13 can withstand water immersion up to 1.5 meters deep for 30 minutes, and high-temperature water jets (80°C) projected from four different angles at it for up to 30 seconds each.
For those who aren’t a fan of the (blue) vegan leather look, there is an Arctic Dawn (white) variant made with a surface-based glass coating that manages to be fingerprint-free. There’s also a Black Eclipse variant available that shows off a unique yet subtle black rosewood grain glass process and is also fingerprint-resistant. All in all, there’s certainly a variant for every kind of taste in this lineup.
On the displayfront, the OnePlus 13’s QHD+ ProXDR display offers an impressive 4500 nits peak brightness and the new RadiantView technology makes outdoor visibility significantly better.
Weighing 210g and measuring 8.5mm thick, the phone maintains a relatively manageable profile despite its large 6.82-inch display. This is in part thanks to its micro-curve display. Speaking of which, the quad-curved glass blends beautifully into a flat mid-frame, further helping provide a solid, comfortable grip.
Camera System: Finally Competitive
Although the camera systems in the OnePlus flagship have gotten better year over year, it’s been a consistent pain-point because OnePlus flagships haven’t been able to compete with the cameras on flagships from the likes of OnePlus and Apple.
The OnePlus 13 changes all of that to an extent, as the camera setup is one of the areas where OnePlus has made significant strides. The flagship comes with a 5th Gen Hassleblad camera system, which offers a fantastic Hassleblad portrait mode, zoom and low light capabilities.
The new triple 50MP system, featuring Sony’s LYT-808 main sensor, shows that OnePlus is finally taking mobile photography seriously. Dubbed the Triprism telephoto lens system, it’s also 24% smaller and 30% lighter than traditional periscope designs, and it delivers impressive 3x optical zoom capabilities.
To that effect, I was able to easily take some beautiful portrait and zoomed in photos with the OnePlus 13 that are truly akin to what you could produce from a Hassleblad camera.
Excellence in low light photography has been a hallmark of OnePlus photography and the OnePlus 13 continues with that trend. Lowlight photos on the OnePlus 13 are ahead of most flagships. Likewise the OnePLus 13 camera system offers excellent zoom which produces sharp results even at 10X.
The camera’s snapshot feature allow you to capture details and HDR in every fast shot, something that most cameras simply can’t do. Plus, short exposure and long exposure are included in every fast shot. This is the kind of advanced camera technology we’ve seen from Oppo.
Having personally tested several Oppo flagships that offer excellent Hassleblad cameras systems, it’s apparent that Oppo’s camera prowess is really starting to trickle down into OnePlus’s flagships and this is a very good thing. While the camera system on the OnePlus 13 is not as good as what you’ll find on the overseas-only Oppo Find X8 series, it’s clear that Oppo’s Hassleblad excellent portrait and zoom photography has been carried over to the U.S. via the OnePlus 13.
Notably, the OnePlus 13 camera software includes several AI-enhanced photography features. AI Detail Boost restores cropped images to 4K resolution, while AI Unblur automatically sharpens fuzzy images, and AI Reflection Eraser removes unwanted reflections while preserving facial features, making it great for shooting through glass or in challenging lighting conditions.
Performance and Battery
The OnePlus 13 is powered by the latest and greatest chipset from Qualcomm – the Snapdragon 8 Elite platform which provides substantial performance improvements over its predecessor, effectively providing a 45% boost in processing power and 44% better efficiency. The phone can handle everything you throw at it, and then some. As expected, it’s a great gaming phone.
On the software front, OxygenOS 15 introduces Parallel Processing for smoother animations and multitasking. The system footprint has also been reduced by 20% compared to its predecessor, leaving more memory available.
When it comes to charging, the massive 6,000mAh battery is a welcome addition and the OnePlus 13 can charge from 1 to 100% in just 36 minutes using the included 80W charger. 50W wireless charging is also supported if you purchase a compatible AIRVOOC charger from OnePlus.
Software Experience
OxygenOS 15 introduces several AI-powered features that feel quite useful as opposed to being gimmicky, with OnePlus having worked closely with Google to bring many of the latest Gemini AI features features to OxygenOS.
To that effect, OxygenOS 15 now offers Intelligent Search which uses natural language processing to search across local files, analyzing hundreds of documents simultaneously to deliver more precise answers without having to manually open each file.
AI Notes provides comprehensive note-taking capabilities with automatic formatting and tone refinement, Circle to Search allows quick visual searches by drawing around items on screen, Pass Scan enables quick boarding pass digitization into Google Wallet, and Magic Compose offers AI-powered text suggestions in various styles
The OxygenOS interface has been completely redesigned too, with hundreds of useful features, including a new “Share with iPhone” feature that enables seamless file sharing with iOS devices -which is a software feature we first saw released from Oppo for the Find X8 series.
OxygenOS 15 also introduces a redesigned start screen, updated shelf design, refreshed widgets and apps, and future implementation of their Open Canvas multitasking software on a candy bar for the first time. The company is also bringing a Live Translation feature to the phone in Q1.
Last but not least, the OnePlus 13 supports BeaconLink, a walkie talkie-like feature that works up to 200 meters using Bluetooth calling.
The Bottom Line
Although they don’t like to say it out-loud, the OnePlus 13 is clearly a flagship engineered by Oppo. Between its improved Hassleblad camera system, to its vegan leather design which takes design cues from the Oppo Find X7 Ultra, the OnePlus 13 has got Oppo written all over it and that’s a great thing because Oppo is making some of the best flagships overseas. And while you can’t get an Oppo flagship in the U.S. – you can get a OnePlus 13.
Ultimately, the OnePlus 13 is a capable flagship that showcases many improvements, particularly notable are the improvements in its camera capabilities and ruggedness. While some might question the design shift to vegan leather, it’s impressive how OnePlus has made a flagship look this luxurious yet built to maintain its appearance and performance. Ultimately, the overall OnePlus 13 package offers a compelling alternative to most mainstream flagships.
The OnePlus 13 retails for a reasonable $999 price-point, and significant discounts are available with trade-ins.
OnePlus is promising long-term support for the OnePlus 13 with a commitment to including 4 years of software updates and 6 years of security updates.
OnePlus has a great track record when it comes to making beautiful cases for their phone. This time around their offerring some especially unique cases for the OnePlus 13 – they’re making cases for the OnePlus 13 that are compatible with MagSafe accessories.
Oneplus 13R: The affordable flagship
Alongside the OnePlus 13, OnePlus has announced the OnePlus 13R which is priced at just $599. The aluminum/glass device looks, feels and operates a lot like a more expensive premium flagship, while offering flagship specs for a lot less. While the OnePlus 13 is all about offering the latest and greatest, the OnePlus 13R is more of a return to OnePlus ethos of offering an affordable flagship and is likely going to be the more compelling option for those looking for a good value in this inflationary economy.