OnePlus has consistently pushed the boundaries of smartphone innovation. With the OnePlus 13, they’ve once again raised the bar. This flagship device, powered by the Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition, offers a compelling blend of performance, display, and battery life.
- Unmatched Performance: The Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition, coupled with OnePlus’ proprietary technologies like the Aurora Engine and Tidal Engine, delivers exceptional gaming performance, especially for demanding titles like “Genshin Impact” and “StarTour.”
- Stunning Display: The second-generation 2K Oriental screen, co-developed with BOE, offers stunning visuals with accurate colors, deep blacks, and adaptive refresh rates. It’s a visual masterpiece.
- Advanced Imaging: The upgraded Sony LYT600 sensor on the telephoto lens captures stunning low-light photos and videos.
- Enduring Battery Life: The 6000mAh battery, one of the largest in a flagship phone, ensures all-day usage. Fast charging capabilities, both wired and wireless, keep you powered up.
A True Flagship Experience
The OnePlus 13 isn’t just a phone; it’s a statement. It challenges the traditional notion of a flagship device, offering a premium experience without the premium price tag. With its powerful performance, stunning display, advanced camera system, and long-lasting battery, the OnePlus 13 is a compelling choice for tech enthusiasts and everyday users alike.
Design and Screen
The OnePlus 13 introduces a stunning “Dawn” design language, highlighted by the Horizon Light running through the camera module. The device is cloaked in the innovative BabySkin material, a velvety leather-like texture that’s both elegant and incredibly comfortable to hold. The lightweight design further enhances the overall user experience.
The camera module, a signature OnePlus element, boasts a triple camera setup with a periscope lens. The iconic Hasselblad branding is prominently displayed, promising exceptional imaging capabilities.
The OnePlus 13 features a groundbreaking 2K Oriental display, co-developed with BOE. This cutting-edge screen leverages X2 luminous materials and 8T LTPO technology, ensuring vivid colors, deep blacks, and adaptive refresh rates for optimal power efficiency. The Display P2 chip fine-tunes the display for unparalleled accuracy and responsiveness.
OnePlus 13 prioritizes eye health with “Bright Eye Care 2.0.” This comprehensive solution includes full-brightness DC dimming, low-flicker technology, and natural light display, reducing eye strain and ensuring comfortable viewing experiences in various lighting conditions. The device has earned the prestigious German Rhine TÜV Intelligent Eye Care 4.0 certification.
The Crystal Shield super-ceramic glass offers robust protection against drops and scratches, safeguarding the stunning display. The fully curved screen design provides a seamless viewing experience while maintaining precise touch responsiveness.
The OnePlus 13 features a dedicated three-stage volume rocker and a power button on the right side. The top and bottom edges house stereo speakers, delivering rich, balanced audio. Additionally, the integrated infrared sensor allows you to control various devices with ease.
The OnePlus 13 ships with a 100W Super Flash Charge adapter, ensuring rapid charging times and minimal downtime.
Hardware and Gaming
The OnePlus 13, the latest flagship, boasts Qualcomm’s cutting-edge Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition platform, 24GB LPDDR5X memory, and 1TB UFS 4.0 storage—the most powerful configuration of any phone in its class. We tested the 16GB+512GB model, measuring both theoretical performance and gaming capabilities under high-performance mode, with memory expansion disabled to ensure accurate results.
Benchmark Performance
In AnTuTu’s comprehensive performance test, the OnePlus 13 scored over 2.93 million points, marking a 38.5% performance boost over the OnePlus 12. The CPU scored 614,419 points (up 31% year-on-year), and the GPU scored 1,204,938 points (up 34.2% year-on-year). In GeekBench6, the CPU scored 3139 (single-core) and 9593 (multi-core), with single-core and multi-core performances improving by 41.9% and 44.2%, respectively. Storage tests with Androbench showed sequential read speeds of 4044MB/s and random read speeds of 3641MB/s.
Gaming Performance
OnePlus 13’s custom gaming graphics engine delivers a smooth 120 FPS experience for “Genshin Impact” and “Honkai Impact 3rd,” optimized with high-end cooling and enhanced touch response. The GPU-optimized rendering and HDR 4.0 technology ensure high frame rates without delays, making it the first phone to support a stable 120 FPS experience in “Honkai Impact 3rd.”
- Genshin Impact
- During a 15-minute test in Xumi City, the game ran at an average frame rate of 59.78 FPS at maximum graphics settings, with minor fluctuations.
- Switching to ultra-high frame rate mode increased gameplay to a smooth 120.66 FPS average, marking a breakthrough in mobile gaming.
- The phone maintained a cool 37.6°C on the back, even at this demanding performance level.
- OnePlus’ “super-resolution” and “HDR 4.0” technologies enhanced graphics quality up to 3168×1440 resolution, highlighting sharp details at 2K resolution.
- Honkai Impact 3rd
- With all effects enabled at 60 FPS, the game averaged 59.78 FPS with stable temperatures around 38.4°C, even during extended play.
- Testing the 120 FPS mode, the game achieved an average frame rate of 119.67 FPS, with a maximum temperature of only 40°C, aided by an upgraded cooling system covering 43,697mm².
Overall, OnePlus 13 sets a new benchmark in mobile gaming with 120 FPS capabilities, effective cooling, and ultra-high resolutions, creating an immersive and smooth gaming experience.
Cameras
The periscope telephoto lens upgrades to the new Sony LYT600 CMOS sensor, also 50 megapixels, with a 1/1.95-inch sensor and an f/2.6 aperture. It supports 3x optical zoom and OIS for stable, high-quality zoomed-in shots.
This lens also uses the same three-fold periscope mechanism as the OPPO Find X8 series, allowing the OnePlus 13 to maintain a slim profile while incorporating advanced zoom capabilities.
The ultra-wide-angle lens features a 50-megapixel Samsung S5KJN5 CMOS sensor with a 1/2.75-inch photosensitive unit and 0.64μm pixel size. It boasts a 120-degree field of view for expansive, dynamic shots.
We also captured some sample photos with the OnePlus 13 to showcase its camera capabilities.
Main Camera
Sample images from the main camera in daylight reveal its impressive light-capturing abilities. The 1/1.4-inch sensor delivers vibrant, natural colors with a strong sense of depth and presence. In backlit conditions, while brightness may slightly fall short, the color accuracy remains commendably consistent.
Night Mode
In low-light conditions, the main camera’s night mode excels, producing clear, sharp images with minimal blur. The glare is well-controlled, and the optical performance holds up even when shooting directly into bright light sources.
Telephoto
The 3x periscope telephoto lens captures natural light and shadow with precision in daylight. At this zoom level, there’s no need for cropping, and the colors remain balanced, with fine details and textures clearly visible in the light and shadow transitions.
When zoomed to 6x, the periscope’s large sensor ensures that image quality remains excellent, maintaining lossless detail and clarity even after cropping.
Battery
OnePlus has designed the OnePlus 13 with battery life as a core priority, packing a larger battery into its slim flagship device. It includes an impressive dual fast-charging feature, alongside a full suite of magnetic wireless charging options. This innovative combination results in four standout features: ultra-long battery life, lightweight design, rapid charging, and convenient wireless charging.
The OnePlus 13 houses a substantial 6000mAh “glacier” battery that uses advanced spherical silicon-carbon technology with an energy density of 805Wh/L, an improvement of 16.1% over the previous model. This innovation enables extended battery life while maintaining a lightweight profile.
Moreover, the device includes the SUPERVOOC S power management chip, achieving 99.5% charging efficiency. This allows the OnePlus 13 to reach up to 1.96 days of battery life, ideal for extended video playback and demanding tasks.
It also supports 100W Super Flash Charging and 50W wireless flash charging, reaching 50% battery in just 14 minutes and a full charge in 36 minutes with exceptional heat management.
Charging Test
In testing, with the screen off and starting from 1% battery, the OnePlus 13 reached 40% in 10 minutes, 75% in 20 minutes, 96% in 30 minutes, and completed a full charge in 36 minutes. Fully charging a 6000mAh battery in under 40 minutes is impressive, showcasing the OnePlus 13’s rapid charging capability.
Battery Life Test
For battery life, we utilized Fast Technology’s Battery Dog tool, simulating various real-life scenarios—high CPU load, multitasking, AI processing, image browsing, video playback, and web surfing. Battery Dog automatically sets consistent testing conditions: screen brightness at 50%, volume at 30%, and no auto-brightness adjustments.
After continuous testing, the OnePlus 13 lasted from 100% to 20% in 11 hours, 1 minute, and 36 seconds, equating to nearly 13 hours of full-charge use, which is exceptional for a flagship device and competitive even against some mid-range phones known for battery life.
For everyday usage, the OnePlus 13 can easily last a full day on a single charge with moderate to heavy use.
Conclusion
Since its inception, OnePlus has stood out for its unique approach, consistently avoiding trends, blind imitation, and compromise. This commitment is embedded in its brand identity.
The OnePlus 13 leverages a self-developed esports-grade graphics engine to maximize the Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition’s powerful GPU rendering capabilities. For open-world adventure games like Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact 3rd, which demand exceptional performance, this innovation significantly enhances game frame rates.
Additionally, super-resolution and HDR 4.0 technology keep Genshin Impact running smoothly, with an average frame rate of 120.66 FPS, clear visuals, and minimal lag. The device temperature remains at a comfortable 38°C, ensuring a stable grip. For Honkai Impact 3: Sky Railway, frame rates stay steady at 119.67 FPS in 120-frame mode, with effective heat dissipation limiting the maximum temperature to 40°C—delivering a genuinely revolutionary gaming experience.
The second-generation Oriental display on the OnePlus 13 is among the best flagship screens we’ve experienced, offering enhanced color accuracy, consistent color from wide viewing angles, and higher brightness for improved visibility in bright outdoor settings.
Finally, the 6000mAh battery provides nearly 13 hours of usage, making it OnePlus’s longest-lasting all-round flagship despite falling just short of the OnePlus Ace 3 Pro’s 6100mAh capacity.
As OnePlus’s premier release for the new decade, the OnePlus 13 embodies top-tier performance, displaying a balanced strength across all aspects. In the 4K-5K price range, it’s difficult to find any major drawbacks, making it one of the most well-rounded flagship Android phones of the year and a highly recommended choice.
Read Also: Oneplus Ace 5 Mobile Phone is Expected to Support 100W Fast Charge