Oneplus 13 review: reliable in the rain and on long days
The Oneplus 13 is a reliable companion, even on rainy days – its specially designed display can be easily operated when wet. Plus, I find it refreshing that Oneplus is holding back on AI functions.
While the Oneplus 12 wasn’t sold in Switzerland and Germany for economic reasons, the manufacturer is returning with its new flagship. The Oneplus 13 is available in an unusual combination of blue artificial leather with silver and mother-of-pearl details. This only underlines the powerful interior: the manufacturer hasn’t skimped on hardware either.
Exceptional design and useful display
Smartphones are looking more and more alike these days. The Oneplus 13 definitely stands out from the crowd. I like the non-slip, dark blue imitation leather on the back. And while it’s impractical, I also like the huge round camera module. Mind you, when placed down, the Oneplus 13 will wobble on flat surfaces. Fortunately, Oneplus has again added another useful addition to its new model: a side slider. It allows you to quickly change the ring mode between loud, vibration and silent – shades of the iPhone.
The device measures 16.3 × 7.7 × 0.9 centimetres and weighs 210 grammes. Pleasantly light for my small hand, but too wide – I always have to use both hands to operate it. For those of you jumping into the comments, let me say it already now: yes, it could be a little smaller to fit perfectly.
The smartphone has a 6.82-inch display with 2.5K resolution. It achieves a brightness of 1,600 nits in High Brightness Mode (HBM). This allows me to read easily, even in strong sunlight. According to the manufacturer, a short-term peak brightness of 4,500 nits can even be reached.
Oneplus got this model IP68/69 certified. It’ll survive immersion in 1.5 metres of fresh water for 30 minutes without any problems. According to the manufacturer, heavy rain or even engine oil won’t affect it either.
Oneplus has equipped the display with a technology called Aqua Touch 2.0. This finish allows me to use the device reliably in the rain. For this review, I messaged a colleague about the annoying rainy weather in St Gallen on the wet display, playing the racing game Asphalt under the same conditions as well. Both worked perfectly. According to Oneplus, operating the device with gloves should be a breeze too. However, the only thing that works for me is a really thin pair.
Snapdragon Elite chip and a huge battery
Oneplus hasn’t cut any corners when it comes to hardware. The Snapdragon 8 Elite is currently the most powerful chip in Qualcomm’s range, impressing in various benchmarks. It also has 16 gigabytes of RAM as well as between 256 gigabytes and one terabyte of internal memory. There’s also space for up to two SIM cards, although the slot doesn’t support a microSD card.
The Oneplus 13 performs well in comparison with other devices using the same chip. Samsung clocks its chips a little higher, so the wins in most benchmarks make sense. Overall, the Oneplus 13 runs very smoothly and efficiently. Thanks to the large working memory, I can also switch quickly between different apps.
The battery holds an impressive 6,000 mAh, but this doesn’t always lead to longer runtimes. Here, however, the Oneplus 13 reaches almost 17 hours in PCMark 3.0. Oneplus even claims video playback lasting up to 24 hours. The manufacturer also provides the option of using a super power-saving mode. Here, the smartphone visually switches to dark mode, reducing the brightness and narrowing your options to a few basic apps. This almost doubles the running time. Sounds useful for emergencies or festival season, when I don’t have the opportunity to charge my smartphone every day.
Thanks to SuperVOOC technology, the battery charges extremely quickly to boot. With a suitable (separtely sold) power supply unit, the battery is fully recharged in just under 30 minutes. The smartphone can take up to 50 watts wirelessly. All in all, this may even appeal to my very impatient colleague Dayan.
Software: sharing files with iPhones, and just a pinch of AI
Oneplus has developed OxygenOS 15, based on Android 15. You’ll get four years of software updates and six years of security updates out of it. Good enough; Oneplus is just about catching up with companies like Google and Samsung. Both now offer seven years of updates.
The user interface is tidy, and there’s hardly any bloatware. Pre-installed apps are mainly from Oneplus. There’s also Google as well as Netflix and Facebook. A special feature that can only be found on a few smartphones today is infrared remote control. Extremely useful if you ever misplace the remote for your TV or need a remote shutter release for your camera.
Oneplus has gone light on artificial intelligence, using it mainly for photos. For example, reflections can be removed and dust grains retouched from old, scanned images. More on that later. Oneplus has brought Google on board for two practical reasons. Gemini acts as a voice assistant, and Circle To Search allows for better image and text searches. Other AI functions are currently only available in English, such as note summaries or searching documents for information.
If you want to use the Oneplus 13 to share photos with iPhone users, there’s an option similar to Apple’s Airdrop function. To do this, an iPhone owner can download the 0+Connect app. Oneplus then connects to the iPhone so you can exchange as many photos as you like via the app. Incidentally, this also works with Oppo and Realme smartphones. It took me a moment to set up, the service runs over a password-protected Wi-Fi network after all. Still, it works reliably once you’re going.
Ordinary cameras
Oneplus uses sensors from Sony, sticking to its proven collaboration with Hasselblad for the software. Otherwise, the manufacturer has primarily upgraded its AI functions for photos. For example, you can sharpen blurred images or remove unwanted reflections. This sometimes works better, and sometimes not as well.
Here’s every camera installed in the Oneplus 13:
- Wide-angle: 50 MP, f/1.6, 23 mm, 1/1.43"
- Ultra wide-angle: 50 MP, f/2.0, 15 mm
- Telephoto: 50 MP, f/2.6, 73 mm, 1/1.95", 3x optical zoom
- Selfie: 32 MP, f/2.4, 21 mm, 1/2.74"
The cameras take very nice pictures in daylight, and colours are accurately captured. I like the fact they stand out a bit more than the original motifs, but don’t look unnatural. A perfect mix.
You can use portrait mode to digitally add a bokeh and adjust it afterwards. This allows for a good mix that doesn’t look artificial.
I can zoom up to 3x optically and up to 120x digitally. For whatever reason, I’d only go up to ten times the magnification to still get a good result.
In low light, the photos don’t look that great to me. They’re fine on a smartphone, but I don’t like them as much on a larger computer screen. All in all, however, the cameras are impressive.
Even without moving subjects, I notice the usual drawbacks in dark scenarios: less detail and sometimes too much contrast. For a smartphone, however, it’s absolutely fine. You can also add watermarks and frames with information on the photo settings for social media posts.
There are four AI functions available for photo editing: Detail Boost, Eraser to remove objects, Unblur and Reflection Eraser. I’m not satisfied with the sharpening feature; enhancing details manually is about as good as automatic image processing. However, removing reflections is quite practical.
In a nutshell
Powerful and reliable without frippery
The Oneplus 13 gives you everything you need in a good smartphone. For example, a long battery life with great charging speed and a useful super power-saving mode. And thanks to the powerful chip, everything runs wonderfully smoothly and efficiently to boot. The cameras are also solid and take beautiful photos.
I like the look of the device, and the slider for silent mode on the side is really neat. Another great trait: Oneplus offers added value in its AI functions without going overboard. However, the Oneplus 13 could be more compact for my small hand – that’s my only personal drawback.
It currently costs just under 1,000 francs without any accessories. That’s definitely expensive, but you don’t have to compromise. With up to six years of security updates, you’ll also benefit for a long time. Even if manufacturers like Google and Samsung already add an extra year of updates onto that, six is still great.
Pro
- Battery lasts ages
- Fast
- No unnecessary AI functions
- Fancy photos
- Six years of security updates
Contra
- Too big for me
Header image: Michelle Brändle
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In my world, Super Mario chases Stormtroopers with a unicorn and Harley Quinn mixes cocktails for Eddie and Peter at the beach bar. Wherever I can live out my creativity, my fingers tingle. Or maybe it's because nothing flows through my veins but chocolate, glitter and coffee.
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