At the tip of the second full day of use on a single battery cost, I actually grasped it: the OnePlus 13 is a rattling good cellphone.
I appreciated it proper off the bat. I’m a sucker for a soft-touch again panel, and the darkish blue “vegan leather-based” had me from the second I unboxed it. “Touch this cellphone,” I commanded my mates as we gathered for vacation drinks. The OnePlus 13 isn’t only a looker, both. In two weeks of testing, it has confirmed itself repeatedly, with top-tier efficiency and battery life for days. Literally.
Most nights I set the OnePlus 13 on my bedside wi-fi charger. New Year’s Eve was totally different; fireworks threw off my routine, and I wound up tenting out on the pull-out mattress subsequent to my fireworks-averse toddler. Sleep was fitful and my cellphone charger was out of attain.
I may have plugged within the cellphone the following morning, but it surely didn’t even cross my thoughts. In truth, I forgot fully concerning the missed in a single day cost till I set it on my charger that night with 40 % left. Sure, it was a light-weight day spent on Wi-Fi, however to cruise via two days on a single cost and not using a care? That’s fairly particular.
To cruise via two days on a single cost and not using a care? That’s fairly particular.
There have been loads of moments like that as I examined the OnePlus 13 — issues that made me sit up and concentrate. I snapped a sequence of portrait-mode photographs of my kiddo operating round in dim lighting, and each body got here again sharp. I spent half-hour enjoying my little video games whereas the cellphone solely grew barely heat. I carried it in some extraordinarily linty pockets and luggage, and the vegan leather-based appears nearly as good because it did when it got here out of the field.
This is a real flagship cellphone, and it comes with a flagship worth beginning at $899. That’s a bounce up from the $799 OnePlus 12, however crucially, the 13 comes with every part I’d count on from a cellphone at that worth: a excessive score for mud and water resistance, wi-fi charging, assist from all three main US wi-fi carriers, and a robust software program assist coverage (4 years of OS updates and 6 years of safety assist). These are exactly the issues that OnePlus hasn’t gotten proper in its earlier makes an attempt at a real flagship gadget. It took a number of tries to get right here, however OnePlus has executed it. This is a rattling good cellphone.
The OnePlus 13 is an efficient cellphone, however it’s certainly not a small cellphone. It’s each bit as massive as its 6.82-inch display screen suggests it will likely be. It’s a good match getting it into the small outer pocket of my bike bag, and it stands proud the highest of the aspect pocket on my yoga pants. It’s tall, so it’s pretty comfy in a single hand, however reaching the far nook of the display screen is all however inconceivable with out two palms on the gadget. Also, this cellphone is lighter than its measurement implies, and a couple of one that dealt with it advised me they thought it felt mild.
The slim aluminum rail that runs alongside the sting of the OnePlus 13 is flat quite than curved this time, which I discover simpler to seize. I recognize it each time I decide it up off a desk. The cellphone itself carries an IP69 score, which means it may stand up to spray from water jets. I don’t usually discover my cellphone subjected to spray from water jets, so I’m undecided how beneficial that score is.
More importantly for most individuals, the cellphone can be rated IP68 for resistance in opposition to water immersion, an space the place earlier OnePlus telephones have come up brief. Personally, I sleep higher at evening figuring out that my cellphone will probably survive a dip in a physique of water.
The OnePlus 13 makes use of Qualcomm’s newest, fanciest chipset: the Snapdragon 8 Elite. The model I’m testing comes with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, which prices $999 and likewise is available in arctic daybreak (white-ish) or black eclipse (it’s black). There’s a 12GB / 256GB model too, but it surely solely is available in black. Bummer. In any case, the system dealt with each job I threw at it with ease, together with half-hour of tooling round my Pocket City 2 metropolis within the 3D-rendered free roam mode which can often make a cellphone fairly toasty. The OnePlus 13 was barely heat.
Battery life is one other energy, and it’s no marvel why the OnePlus 13 can go so lengthy on a single cost: it has a 6,000mAh cell inside. That’s big, contemplating most different Android telephones prime out round 5,000mAh. It would take rather a lot to empty the entire thing in a single day; I positive didn’t whereas I used to be testing it. I turned on each battery-draining function I may discover: high-performance mode, always-on show, and most settings for display screen decision and refresh price.
Even with all that enabled, the battery was usually between 60 and 70 % by the tip of the day. Using the default “balanced” efficiency mode obtained me via a day with 80 % to spare. This is a multiday cellphone battery irrespective of how you narrow it.
Despite its large battery, recharging is quick as a result of, properly, that’s OnePlus’ factor. The cellphone helps 80W charging with the included charger (the final in-box charger you’ll discover with a flagship cellphone lately) and 50W wi-fi charging in case you decide up OnePlus’ $49 suitable wi-fi charger. The cellphone doesn’t assist Qi2 charging, however OnePlus has a handful of circumstances for the OnePlus 13 that embrace Qi2- and MagSafe-compatible magnetic rings, so that you’ll a minimum of have the ability to use magnetic equipment and cost (slowly) on a Qi2 charger.
The OnePlus 13’s rear digicam array is broadly the identical because the OnePlus 12’s: a 50-megapixel important digicam with stabilization, a stabilized 3x digicam, and an ultrawide. You can file as much as 8K/24p video with the primary digicam, and there’s a 32-megapixel selfie digicam with fastened concentrate on the entrance.
The Hasselblad-branded coloration calibration that’s been a fixture on OnePlus’ high-end telephones over the previous few years is right here, and it’s usually good. It tends to pump up reds and oranges, particularly in indoor lighting, to the purpose of channel clipping — you’ll know that’s taking place when purple tones begin trying pink. But it handles combined lighting properly and is aware of precisely what to do with heat golden hour daylight. Overall, I like the colour therapy: punchy with out going excessive.
The OnePlus 13’s digicam makes use of a brand new Dual Exposure Algorithm that merges a brief publicity with an extended publicity to assist freeze topics in low-light circumstances — the perpetual smartphone digicam drawback. This is the form of method Apple and Google have been taking for years now, and it’s a welcome enchancment within the OnePlus 13. I’m positively seeing fewer blurry photographs indoors in dim lighting than I obtained with the OnePlus 12, particularly with the telephoto and the cropped 2x focal size. It lastly looks like OnePlus has created a digicam that may grasp with the most effective.
The OnePlus 13 is a little more costly than its predecessor. But it’s a greater cellphone in some massive methods: the digicam is meaningfully improved, the water resistance score is larger, and it’ll obtain software program assist for longer. Battery life wasn’t a priority on the OnePlus 12, but it surely’s class-leading on the 13. OnePlus is asking flagship cash, however for the primary time, it has created a cellphone that feels worthy of that worth.
That mentioned, the competitors is powerful. The Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus and Pixel 9 Pro XL — the opposite main Big Android Phone candidates — are $999 and $1,099 respectively. And truthfully? I don’t assume there’s a transparent winner between the three of them.
The OnePlus 13 is a greater cellphone in some massive methods
That’s form of a brand new state of affairs, the place Samsung’s S-series gadget has been the go-to premium Android cellphone for fairly a number of years operating. Google performed some main catch-up with the Pixel 9-series, and now OnePlus is within the dialog, too. That’s superior.
Samsung and Google would have you ever imagine that the AI options unique to their telephones are indispensable, however I don’t assume that’s true — not but, anyway. The OnePlus 13, in fact, gives all of the AI options obtainable to high-end telephones via Android, like Circle to Search and Gemini, which is a lot. I’d guess that extra folks care about higher battery life than AI methods proper now, and that’s the place the OnePlus 13 delivers.
Google and Samsung each provide richer ecosystems than OnePlus, which remains to be within the early phases of constructing out its household of earbuds, wearables, and tablets. That might be a deciding issue between this trio for some folks. But setting that apart, we’ve obtained yet another choice for a high-end Android cellphone within the US now, and it’s a rattling good one at that.
Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge
