OnePlus 13 review: it’s brilliant, no luck needed

The number 13 doesn’t have the best reputation. Whether it’s tall buildings shunning the number for its floors or the London Eye replacing the 13th pod with the 33rd, the number 13 has been considered unlucky for centuries.

Yet, here I am using the OnePlus 13, the brand’s top smartphone for the coming year. Has OnePlus misguidedly tempted fate, or is it about to redeem the number 13’s reputation?

OnePlus 13: specs

OnePlus 13: design

Provided you get the Midnight Ocean OnePlus 13, as seen in our photos, you’re going to own a stunning smartphone. The back is covered in vegan microfiber, which is softer than vegan leather and doesn’t have such a pronounced texture, although OnePlus has still added a distinct leather-like pattern to give it some character. It’s warm, grippy, and skin-friendly. There’s also the choice of two other colors, Arctic Dawn and Black Eclipse, which don’t have a vegan microfiber back (you can see all three colors in the picture below).

The front is covered in a Crystal Shield Ultra Ceramic Glass, not Corning’s Gorilla Glass as some may expect, but OnePlus promises it excels at drop and impact resistance. My OnePlus 13 did take an unexpected tumble, resulting in the screen protector ripping in the corner, but the screen remained unharmed, so it certainly appears to be hardwearing.

The body has IP68 and IP69 dust and water resistance, with the latter ensuring the phone can cope with jets of hot water. Inside the phone, OnePlus has used 13 different antennas for an improved connection, plus a new cooling system with two layers of graphite and 14 temperature sensors. This should help keep the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor under control, which we’ll come back to later.

I wanted to get all this more technical detail in ahead of talking about how the phone is to use, as it shows the advances OnePlus has made that you can’t readily spot. The phone is good-looking on the outside and high-tech on the inside, just as we want. I love the quad-curve glass over the screen and the polished metal chassis, which practically eliminates the bezel entirely and makes the OnePlus 13 look modern and high-quality.

It’s well balanced and effectively hides its 210-gram weight. And at 8.9mm thick (or 8.5mm thick if you choose one of the other colors), it has hit the sweet spot for comfort and convenience. I never feel like it’s going to slip out of my hand or that it’s tiring to hold. This wonderful usability extends to the new ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, which is set high up on the screen and reacts instantly to your touch. It has been completely reliable, too.

I’m pleased the handy Alert Slider is on the side of the phone (even though it’s no longer a OnePlus exclusive feature), and adore the feel of the haptics used throughout the system.

From the moment I saw the Midnight Ocean color and picked up the OnePlus 13, I knew things were looking good. Now, several weeks into living with it as my daily phone, it has met my expectations and even exceeded them in places. It’s a fantastic-looking and -feeling phone and one of OnePlus’s best ever.

OnePlus 13: screen

The OnePlus 13 has a 6.82-inch screen with some very impressive specs. It is the first to be rated A++ by industry consultants DisplayMate. It has a 510 pixel-per-inch (ppi) density, 2160Hz pulse width modulation (PWM). and a 4,500 nit peak brightness, plus a 1-120Hz refresh rate The screen has a mode for use when wearing gloves, and the latest version of OnePlus’s Aqua Touch system allows it to be used with wet fingers.

There’s also a bizarre mode where the screen can run two different refresh rates simultaneously, such as 120Hz for a game in a small window and lower for a less intensive app like messages on the main screen. OnePlus says it helps improve battery life, and games do look very smooth when running in a floating window, but I’m not sure how often anyone will use this feature.

Weird “features” aside, the screen looks superb — full of color and very bright — but it’s not without problems. It’s very sensitive and not very good at separating intentional touches from accidental touches, and because it’s so fast to react, lots of things happen all at once, none of them usually wanted.

There’s also a problem with the way the screen and software recognize upward swipes, and it’s a matter of luck whether you get an overview of apps or minimize your current app into a floating window. It’s really annoying, and it’s not intuitive to get your app back from its minimized form, either.

OnePlus 13: software and AI

The screen’s issues are tied to the OnePlus 13’s software, so what’s it like otherwise? It uses OxygenOS 15 over Android 15, and it will be supported for four years and will get six years of security updates. OnePlus makes a big deal about how smooth its animations and transitions are, and sure enough, it’s a visual delight. Still, I’m not sure just how much difference you really notice compared to OxygenOS and Android on the Google Pixel 9 Pro under regular use.

I liked OxygenOS 15 when I tried it out on a OnePlus 12, but I have noticed an issue that only shows up with extended everyday use. It’s not very good at delivering notifications. I’ll often unlock the phone and get a barrage of notifications from apps like Threads and WhatsApp that I wasn’t alerted to when the phone was locked.

I’ve seen a more positive difference, too, where the muddiness of OxygenOS 15 on the OnePlus 12 has been eliminated, making it appear more fluid in everyday use. The implementation of its Dynamic Cloud (a Dynamic Island clone) is also good as it’s never intrusive and prioritizes live information like music playback and some AI activities.

What about the AI? There’s nothing here we haven’t seen before, such as contextual search, AI replies (which I couldn’t get working), summaries, and AI Notes for auto-formatting, cleanup, and rewriting. There’s also Circle to Search, and Google Gemini is the default assistant. I used the Recorder app during an interview, and OnePlus’ AI created a short summary in the Notes app. It also weirdly summarized the conversation in transcript form, where a complete, unabridged transcript would have been far more useful. The feature worked, but neither the transcript nor the summary was especially helpful.

OxygenOS 15 has many more useful, non-AI features when you dig into the Settings menu. There’s a three-finger gesture for a dual-app split view, the aforementioned floating windows, a dedicated kids mode, a Quick Launch feature to attach an often-used app to the fingerprint sensor, and the Zen Mode app to help you focus by reducing interruptions. I like that none of these are pushed on you and are found after making an effort to learn the software.

OnePlus 13: camera

There are three 50-megapixel cameras on the back of the OnePlus 13: a 50MP Sony LYT808 primary camera, a 50MP wide-angle, and a 50MP Sony LYT600 telephoto with a 3x optical zoom using a clever “triple prism” assembly that’s smaller and lighter than a periscope zoom. This really shows in the phone’s design, as the camera module is almost flush with the rear. The app does push a 6x zoom, but this is a hybrid zoom driven by the cameras, software, and AI.

It’s a cracking camera and not just one aspect, but all of it. It takes punchy, detailed, and exciting photos in most environments, and I was especially impressed with its lowlight ability. I took a series of admittedly well-lit shots in Amsterdam, and the OnePlus 13 balanced the images well, never overexposing or using too much smoothing. The results are photos I didn’t need to edit, and I love that in a camera.

The 6x zoom may be a hybrid, but it’s really good. You have to zoom right in to spot the tiny amount of digital enhancement and a hint of blur, but otherwise, you probably won’t tell they aren’t optical zoom shots. There’s good consistency between the primary and wide-angle cameras, too. The zoom modes aren’t quite so good in low light, and the software can make images look unnatural in its quest to sharpen things up.

OnePlus has added a selection of different modes to increase value, but whether you use them depends on your lifestyle. There’s a special burst mode and an action mode for video where it shoots at 60 frames per second (fps) regardless of the camera used, plus software trickery to capture fast-moving objects. It did an average job of capturing a fast-moving kitten. It’s all very situation-dependent, just like the Smart Scene modes for taking photos of a faraway stage, fireworks, and silhouettes.

Hasselblad is involved in the OnePlus 13’s camera, but it’s hardly promoted at all outside of some branding, the X Pan mode, and a few mediocre filters. None of these “extras” matter, though, as you can safely ignore all of them and take fantastic photos with the OnePlus 13 just by tapping the shutter release.

OnePlus 13: performance

At the heart of the OnePlus 13 is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor with either 12GB or 16GB of RAM and 256GB or 512GB of storage space. Ever since the arrival of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, we’ve had some concerns about the amount of heat it generates when working very hard. How does the chip fare inside the OnePlus 13? During general use and relatively simple gaming sessions, it doesn’t get hot at all, so you shouldn’t have any concern about it under normal circumstances.

But what about when it’s working harder? The 3DMark Solar Bay Stress Test benchmark (which initially caused the Realme GT 7 Pro problems that were later fixed) runs and completes, and while the phone’s metal frame is hot to the touch, the back of the phone isn’t.

The new Qualcomm chip is very powerful, and it does get hot under strain, but it has not caused any problems for me at any other time. I don’t think it’s a cause for concern, and it performs no differently in the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro, but there’s some evidence in the benchmarking scores that the Asus phone is better adapted to serious gaming.

Leaving games aside, it’s hard to say the OnePlus 13 is faster than any of its Snapdragon 8 Elite competitors, but the combination of the chip and OxygenOS 15’s overall slick design and smoothness is a winner. Everything feels effortless, with no lag or stuttering, and every app I use opens immediately and operates without fault. This reliability introduces trust, and I’ve confidently lived with the OnePlus 13 for almost a month. Calls also sound excellent, and both its Wi-Fi and cellular connections are faultless.

OnePlus 13: battery and charging

The dual-battery configuration inside the OnePlus 13 gives it a total capacity of 6,000mAh, which means a seriously long battery life. Watching a 2160p video for around 30 minutes on YouTube depletes only 4%, and a Asphalt 9 Unite gaming session of a similar duration uses up the same amount. These impressive figures don’t even reflect how energy efficient the battery is when you’re just doing normal things. With around two hours of general use, the battery rarely depletes below 70% from a full charge in a day, making two or even three days of light use possible without visiting the charger.

Even when I’ve used the OnePlus 13 past four hours of screen time, the phone still has around 50% remaining at the end of my day, making the phone great for those who want a phone with a battery that can withstand heavy use. When it comes to charging, OnePlus does not include its proprietary SuperVOOC charger in the box. It’s hoping you already have one from a previous phone or are willing to buy one separately.

Using the 100-watt SuperVOOC charger will recharge the phone fully in 36 minutes or in 50 minutes if you use OnePlus’s 50W AirVOOC wireless charger. If you choose a more common wired charger, such as Anker’s 100W Prime GaN wall unit, it takes 15 minutes to reach 50%, but 70 minutes to fully charge. The phone still bears the SuperVOOC branding and claims “ultrafast charging,” just like using a OnePlus-branded charging block and cable, but it lacks the proprietary magic for rapid charging past about 70%. This makes paying $50 for OnePlus’ special 100W charger essential if you want the fastest possible charge time.

I’ve been trying out OnePlus’ new compact 50W AirVOOC wireless charger, too. The puck-like shape is cool, but an odd design decision makes it annoying to use, as the red “clown’s nose” in the center elevates the puck’s built-in fan, which noisily hums away while charging, off the surface and results in your phone wobbling around instead of staying level so you can reliably view the screen while charging.

OnePlus 13: case and wireless charging

There’s another wireless charging oddity to discuss. If you buy the Arctic Dawn OnePlus 13 and decide to get one of the Sandstone, Aramid Fiber, or Wood Grain official cases, you’ll find a sliver of plastic inside the box. Despite initial appearances, it’s not part of the packaging and shouldn’t be thrown away. It’s actually designed to slip between the case and the OnePlus 13’s rear panel and is supposed to improve wireless charging.

It’s an ugly and annoying solution to a problem clearly of OnePlus’ own doing, as getting it to sit in exactly the right place and not poke through the camera module cutout is irritating. I can’t confirm whether it makes any difference as I don’t have the Arctic Dawn version, but the Midnight Ocean phone wirelessly charges normally with the case and without the plastic.

OnePlus 13: price and availability

The OnePlus 13 is available starting January 7 and costs $900 for the 12GB/256GB version and $1,000 for the 16GB/512GB model. I have been reviewing the 16GB/512GB OnePlus 13. It’s unfortunate that OnePlus doesn’t provide a 1TB option, which may upset some potential buyers, as Google, Samsung, and Apple all offer the option of 1TB of storage space with their top devices. Although not unexpected, the prices are $100 more than the equivalent OnePlus 12 models, bringing costs in line with competing devices from Google and Samsung.

While there’s a difficult choice to make around phones at the same price, there’s also a fair amount of temptation below the cost of the OnePlus 13. The OnePlus 13R doesn’t have this year’s top Qualcomm chip inside, but the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is still a superb performer with excellent efficiency, and it’s good value at $600. If you’re looking at the 13R, you should also look at the Google Pixel 9. At the time of writing, we’re waiting for the Samsung Galaxy S25 to be imminently announced, and we don’t recommend considering the Galaxy S24 or Galaxy S24 Plus instead of the OnePlus 13.

OnePlus 13: verdict

I’ve been using the OnePlus 13 as my primary phone for about a month now, and it has been fantastic. I love the photos it takes, the speed and smoothness of the software, the striking design, the Midnight Ocean color, and how comfortable it is to hold. It’s the little things that make it so good to own, such as the vastly improved fingerprint sensor, tactile haptics, the Alert Slider’s helpfulness, and the incredible efficiency that leads to long battery life.

The screen is overly sensitive, though, and I’d like the notifications to be more reliable, but these are small issues that don’t dramatically detract from the rest of the phone. The OnePlus 13 is right up there with the Google Pixel 9 Pro as being an unequivocal recommendation, and Samsung really needs to deliver with the Galaxy S25 to come close to meeting the bar set by it.

The number 13 definitely hasn’t been unlucky for OnePlus, and you should put any superstitious worry aside and just go out and buy the OnePlus 13. Based on my time with it, I believe it’ll make you feel very lucky indeed.