If you buy an official case for your OnePlus 13, you’ll find something unexpected in the box. It’s a sliver of flexible plastic, shaped like something you hang on a hotel room door when you don’t want the maid to come in, and although your first instinct will be to throw it away with the rest of the packaging, don’t do it.
You may end up needing it.
What does it do?
The plastic film serves a purpose if you bought one of the glass versions of the OnePlus 13. According to the blurb on the film itself, this is what it does:
“For the best wireless charging experience, please place the wireless charging cover between the back of the Arctic Dawn version of the OnePlus 13 and your phone case.”
The OnePlus 13 has wireless charging, and all the official OnePlus 13 cases have a ring of magnets inside to help locate the AirVOOC 50-watt wireless charging puck for the best performance. While the plastic insert comes with all the cases, it only seems to be required with the Arctic Dawn phone. I’ve reviewed the Midnight Ocean OnePlus 13, and wireless charging seems to work with and without the insert and at the same speeds.
Don’t throw it away. But why?
The weird plastic film does serve a purpose, and depending on the color of your OnePlus 13, it may be important. But what does it actually do, how does it work, and why is it only required for the Arctic Dawn phone? We asked OnePlus for clarification and received this reply:
“[The] OnePlus 13 is the first phone to feature a microfiber vegan leather color called Midnight Ocean, as well as two glass back colors called Arctic Dawn and Black Eclipse. As these materials have different thickness and compositions, we included a plastic film in the case of our Arctic Dawn and Black Eclipse models to ensure efficient and effective wireless charging.”
This doesn’t really give us much insight into how it works, but it does indicate the film may also be needed if you own the Black Eclipse phone, despite it not being stated on the film itself. The safe answer is if you want to use wireless charging, it’ll be wise to just put it inside the case anyway, regardless of which glass OnePlus 13 you buy.
Care is needed
Now we know why you need to place it in the case. Is it as simple as it sounds? Yes and no. It’s not a pretty item, and it’s the first time I’ve encountered the need to put something from the manufacturer between my case and phone to improve functionality. When you place the film inside the case, it’s hard to get it centered correctly, and it will probably stick out of the camera opening once it’s sandwiched between the phone and the case.
Instead, the better thing to do is place it on the back of your OnePlus 13 first, hold the phone flat with the back facing toward you, and then put the case on your phone. This keeps the film from shifting around. Once it’s inside the case, it can’t be seen, doesn’t add any weight, and will stay in place until you take the case off. It’s certainly not the most elegant solution to a problem of OnePlus’ own making, but at least it came up with a solution rather than just ignoring it and letting phone owners deal with unexpected slow wireless charging.
However, it seems unlikely third-party case manufacturers will manufacture and include the required film with their cases, particularly as it’s only necessary for two versions of the OnePlus 13, so anyone who doesn’t buy a case from OnePlus may end up encountering issues.
If you ripped open your OnePlus 13 case box and threw everything aside to get to the case itself, now you know what the strange piece of plastic you probably discarded does — and why you may want to make sure it gets used rather than sent for recycling.
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