OnePlus 13 Review: The Best $899 You Can Spend On A Phone

The much-awaited 2025 OnePlus flagship is finally here. The OnePlus 13 features a chic design, a more powerful processor, an upgraded camera system, the latest battery tech, and an all-new magnetic accessory system. But all of this comes at a price hike, and the OnePlus 13 has a reputation to maintain.

Can the new OnePlus flagship still retain the value-for-money tag, despite venturing into pricier territory? And does it still deserve a spot in your pocket? Given the headline, you might already know the answer, but there’s more to it.

Midnight Ocean Is The Way To Go

The OnePlus 13 sports a refreshing design. There are minute adjustments like the quad-curved glass with a flat frame and a new look featuring a microfiber vegan leather back on the Midnight Ocean model. Together, these elements offer a comfortable in-hand feel for a big phone. Plus, it’s lighter than the OnePlus 12, despite having a 9% bigger battery.

OnePlus claims the microfiber vegan leather is “incredibly” durable, withstanding high temperatures, salt spray, and chemical exposure. What does this mean for regular use? It’s pretty, durable, and resistant to smudges or dirt. More phones should adopt microfiber vegan leather backs.

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The other two variants feature a glass coating with fingerprint resistance. While I prefer the Midnight Ocean model, the Arctic Dawn (white) looks elegant too.

The OnePlus 13 is rated IP68 and IP69 for dust and water resistance. IP68 means it can withstand 1.5m water submersion for up to 30 minutes, while IP69 indicates it can endure 80-degree Celsius water jets for 30 seconds.

The power button and volume rockers sit slightly higher than usual, requiring some adjustment. Similarly, the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor inside the display is positioned higher than expected. You need to retrain your muscle memory but the good thing is it only takes a couple of days to get used to it. The sensor is fast, accurate, and reliable.

While the Hasselblad logo outside the camera module looks odd, some might argue it adds personality. Personally, I’d have preferred it on the module itself since a case will obscure it. That said, I recommend using the OnePlus 13 without a case, especially if you choose the Midnight Ocean variant.

A Big, Bright And Vivid Display

The OnePlus 13 features a 6.82-inch LTPO OLED display with a 1440 x 3168-pixel resolution, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and 4,500 nits of peak brightness for HDR content. Protected by the company’s Crystal Shield super-ceramic glass, it can withstand minor drops (I accidentally dropped the phone twice).

The global brightness sits at 1,600 nits, making the display legible outdoors. It’s sharp, bright, and vivid. Consuming content on it is a treat—the colors pop, and the flatter display feels more immersive. You also get an upgraded Aqua Touch feature that allows better responsiveness even with water on the screen. I wish more phones had this feature.

The display also boasts of 2160Hz high-frequency PWM dimming, reducing strain during low-light use. If you’re sensitive to OLED displays in dim conditions and it causes headache, the OnePlus 13 will feel better as it minimizes eye fatigue.

The OnePlus 13 Is Smooth And Powerful

The OnePlus 13 is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, offering 45% better performance and 44% greater power efficiency. It’s paired with up to 24GB RAM and up to 1TB storage, with availability varying by region (12GB + 256GB, 16GB + 512GB, and 24GB + 1TB).

Compared to previous OnePlus phones, the OnePlus 13 feels faster. Its high specs combined with the smooth animations of OxygenOS 15 make it snappier. Jumping from one app to the other, multitasking for work, and using it for entertainment ticks all the right boxes. The OnePlus 13 doesn’t heat up on sustained performance, like playing games including BGMI at 120fps.

OxygenOS 15 includes a new global search (dubbed Intelligent Search), which lets you find specific words in local files without opening them. For example, I found my travel ticket PDF by simply typing “Mumbai.” Theoretically, it can also answer questions like, “which was the best performing month for us” from a local Sheet file.

Other AI features include AI Notes, glare removal from photos, and Pass Scan for saving paper boarding passes to Google Wallet and Circle to Search. There’s an AI Summary option too, which can summarize whatever text you have on the screen. You also get Gemini and AI features like Magic Compose within Google apps but I haven’t gotten myself in the practice of using these.

The OnePlus 13 feels smooth and snappy in everyday use with one of the nicest UIs but there are bugs.

For instance, if you set a new wallpaper, it takes you back to the wallpaper setting menu instead of the home screen – making it seem like you need to set it again. If you change the icon grid (from 4×5 to 5×5 or vice versa) when you have the top portion of the home screen empty, the bottom icons move to the top part and you have to set them to your preference again. I had noticed similar bugs on my Oppo Find X8 Pro.

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OnePlus promises four years of software updates and six years of security patches, so you can expect it to last for years.

The OnePlus 13 packs a 6,000mAh silicon-carbon battery similar to other 2025 flagships like the Vivo X200 Pro, Find X8 Pro, and iQOO 13. It supports 100W (80W in the USA) fast wired charging that is rated to charge it from 1-100% in 36 minutes and 50W wireless charging with the AIRVOOC charger.

In terms of usage, I expected the phone to last longer on each charge. It’s still a one-day phone and goes under 20% by the end of the day (mind you, I’m a heavy phone user). But other devices with carbon-silicon battery tech have lasted me longer than the OnePlus 13. There’s some anomaly at play here that needs fixing.

Triple Camera Setup Is A Treat

The OnePlus 13 features a 50MP Sony LYT-808 primary camera with OIS, a 50MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, and a 50MP ultrawide camera. The telephoto lens uses a triprism design to minimize module width. On the front, you get a 32MP selfie shooter.

In daylight, the camera system delivers excellent dynamic range and consistent colors across lenses.

The Hasselblad color tuning on the OnePlus 13 is better than the Oppo Find X8 Pro. Portrait shots have good edge detection and natural background blur.

The OnePlus 13 features a new dual exposure algorithm that’s meant to merge a short and long exposure image in real-time to capture fast-moving objects with less motion blur. It also powers the Clear Burst feature, which minimizes motion blur of moving objects in burst photography. I’ve gotten some very good burst shots with minimal motion blur.

The problem arises at night when the system kicks in the night mode. It’s all blurry if you’re trying to click a moving subject in low light. OnePlus needs a better night mode toggle that can be turned off quickly, especially if the subject is a toddler.

That said, if the subject is stable you can get good results in low light too. Photos clicked across lenses have minimum noise and a good amount of detail for a night shot.

As for videos, you can shoot 8k @30fps, 4K @60fps, and 1080p @240fps on the rear cameras, while the front camera can go up to 4K @60fps. The 4K footage shot on rear cameras was surprisingly stable and of good quality. Oh, and there’s Live Photo too where the system takes short clips when you shoot an image. It’s a great feature to capture emotions behind a photo and I’m glad more 2025 phones are embracing it.

Overall it’s a good camera system for the price. More expensive phones with proper periscope telephoto camera deliver better zoom results. However, I like the consistency across lenses on the OnePlus 13’s camera system.

All-New Magnetic Accessories

The OnePlus 13 supports wireless charging but doesn’t have built-in magnets for alignment. To counter this, the company will be selling some magnetic accessories alongside its 2025 flagship.

If you want the AIRVOOC wireless charger, you need to buy a magnetic case for it to stick to your phone. That means, you need to spend extra on another accessory if you are buying the new wireless charging accessory.

The Woodgrain and Aramid Magnetic cases are priced at $40, while the Sandstone Magnetic cases will cost you $25. The new AIRVOOC wireless charger will set you back at $80.

OnePlus 13 Review: Verdict

Starting at $899 (USA) and ₹69,999 (India), the OnePlus 13 is more expensive than its predecessors and competitors like the iQOO 13 and Vivo X200 in India.

The OnePlus 13 offers a good in-hand feel, an excellent display, consistent color science and dynamic range across the camera system, and powerful performance. While the battery life didn’t reach my expected results, it’s still got the best battery with fastest charging for a $899 phone in the USA.

Talking about the US availability and competition, It’s still $100 less than the likes of Pixel 9 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro, while it’s more expensive than their vanilla variants. It’ll also face tough competition from the upcoming Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus.

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However, if you want an all-rounder Android phone, I’d pick the OnePlus 13 above the currently available phones like Galaxy S24 and Pixel 9 Pro for its performance, display, and battery.

As for India, the new OnePlus flagship is more expensive than the iQOO 13, which delivers superb performance at INR 15,000 less. If you want a Snapdragon 8 Elite-powered gaming phone, you can stick to the iQOO 13. However, the OnePlus 13 is a better phone overall.

The new OnePlus flagship also more expensive than the Vivo X200, which offers better optics at INR 5,000 less. It costs the same as the Oppo Find X8.

The price hike is going to pinch the OnePlus fans, especially considering that you have to spend extra to take advantage of the AIRVOOC wireless charge. But despite that and a tougher competition in India, the OnePlus 13 stands on its own.

OnePlus 13 remains an easy recommendation because it delivers a good experience across factors like display, performance, camera, system UI, and battery.

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Pros:

• Refined design feels better in the hand
• Excellent build quality
• Best display in the segment
• Powerful performance
• Smooth UI
• Constent color science and dynamic range across cameras

Cons:

• No Qi2 magnets, so you need to buy a case to use the AIRVOOC Wireless Charger.