OnePlus 13 Review: Redefining What It Means to Never Settle

Most people put out New Year’s resolutions at the start of the year to make sure they put their best foot forward from the get-go. For OnePlus, that means starting the year with a “BANG!” by unleashing its newest flagship to the whole world. Already in its 12th incarnation (skipping the nefarious “4” and skipping the “T” models), the brand has gone through just as many redesigns and direction changes, all while still trying to stay true to the revolutionary spirit that quickly catapulted it into fame.

The OnePlus 13 is poised to be the culmination of that colorful history, at least up to this point, leveraging all the lessons that it learned in over 10 years while also boldly venturing into new territory. Can its latest flagship live up to its pedigree or has the brand lost its way? We take the OnePlus 13 for a spin to find out if the former upstart’s spirit lives on.

Designer: OnePlus

Aesthetics

OnePlus has always been quite revolutionary when it comes to the materials it uses for its smartphones, from wood to sandstone to faux leather. For the OnePlus 13, it opted to revisit materials associated with luxury products, in this case, leather. But in typical OnePlus fashion, it wasn’t content to just slap on that luxurious but unsustainable material and it created its own eco-friendly variant.

With the world’s first microfiber vegan leather applied to a smartphone, the OnePlus 13 immediately exudes a sophisticated appearance that doesn’t just look good but also feels great. It’s soft and warm to touch, adding a new tactile dimension to the smartphone experience. It also puts an extra level of durability into play, protecting the phone from high-temperature, salt spray, and even chemical exposure.

It’s undoubtedly a nice touch (pun intended), but it’s sadly not standard across the different colorways. Black Eclipse instead uses a unique process that gives its glass back a texture reminiscent of rosewood grain, a material near and dear to OnePlus’s heart. Compared to these two, unfortunately, the white Arctic Dawn looks and feels almost too mundane.

The OnePlus 13 also tries to combine the best of modern designs. On the one hand, you have the predominant flat aesthetic clearly seen on the phone’s edges. On the other hand, OnePlus also applied a quad-curved glass for the front, making the surface blend gracefully into the mid-frame. The back has a similar subtle curve around the edges, not enough to make it feel like you’re holding a phone from the 2010s.

If there’s one detail about the design that might not sit well with everyone, it would be the cameras. Large circles are in fashion today, but many now try to put that raised disc in the middle rather than off to the side like the OnePlus 13. While aesthetic tastes may vary, the design does have some practical implications on the weight distribution of the product. Suffice it to say, expect it to wobble when you tap on it on a flat surface like a table.

Ergonomics

As well get to later, the OnePlus 13 is packed with quite a number of powerful hardware, including a very large battery pack. It needs at least that much to have a competitive edge, but thankfully that doesn’t come at the expense of the phone’s usability and ergonomics. In fact, despite all that, the OnePlus 13 is only 210g light and 8.5mm thin, a remarkable feat indeed.

What these figures mean in practice is that the phone remains comfortable to hold, giving confidence whenever you hold the phone in your hand. The texture of the microfiber vegan leather material also improves your grip, ensuring that the OnePlus 13 won’t easily escape your grasp.

Performance

As an early 2025 flagship, it’s no surprise that the OnePlus 13 would have the best of the best hardware available in the smartphone market at this point. That means, of course, the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, 16GB of memory, and 512GB of storage. You’ll hardly see the OnePlus 13 choke on anything you throw at it, from gaming to AI-powered photo touch-ups, and a massive cooling vapor chamber ensures it’s running at peak performance longer.

On the software side, the OnePlus 13 runs OxygenOS 15, which is based on Android 15. Unlike most “skins,” the latest iteration of the brand’s custom Android experience is pleasantly clean and light. It’s no accident, of course, as the company intentionally fine-tuned the user experience to feel fast and smooth to give it the feeling of responsiveness. Of course, there’s no shortage of AI features, both OnePlus’ as well as Google’s Gemini, and it can handle those functions quite gracefully.

Just as interesting as its back is the OnePlus 13’s front, where a flat 6.8-inch QHD+ (3168×1440) screen lies. It’s bright, colorful, and fast, making your content pop whether they’re static photos or fast-moving games. The experience, however, goes beyond just looking good, with a new Glove Mode that lets you operate the display even while wearing woolen or sheepskin gloves up to 0.5cm in thickness. And considering how much time we spend on our phone screens, the 2160Hz high-frequency PWM dimming promises to put less strain on the eyes.

Part of the reason for the OnePlus 13’s large size is the 6,000mAh battery inside. That’s immediately larger than what most flagship smartphones carry, and yet the OnePlus 13 manages to still remain thin and lightweight. More than just the oversized capacity and battery life, the battery also impresses with its fast 80W wired and 50W wireless charging speeds, making sure you’re up and running again in a little over 30 minutes. That is, of course, if you’re using compatible proprietary OnePlus chargers.

With mobile photography as one of the top reasons people buy smartphones today, it’s no surprise that OnePlus invested quite a lot on its new flagship’s camera system. It’s becoming quite trendy to finally have nearly co-equal camera sensors, in this case three 50MP cameras that deliver clear, detailed, and beautiful images, regardless of the angle or focal length.

A large 1/1.4-inch Sony LYT-808 leads the pack with an equally large f/1.6 aperture, making short work of most shots under any lighting condition. The 50MP Samsung ISOCELL JN5 sensor on the ultra-wide camera delivers a breath-taking panorama with every shot, and it doesn’t sacrifice any quality to get there. Having the same megapixel count removes that jarring jump when switching cameras, making it feel like you’re using a single camera with different lenses instead.

Admittedly, the most interesting of the three is the telephoto camera, and not just because of its 1/1.95-inch Sony LYT-600 sensor. It uses an innovative Triprism lens design that, despite having more prisms than your typical periscope-style telephoto lens, actually takes up less space inside. That’s how the OnePlus 13 manages to be thinner than the competition and still deliver a 3x optical zoom with a 73mm equivalent focal length.

Suffice it to say, the OnePlus 13 doesn’t disappoint when it comes to camera output, both in still photos and in videos. Even on an overcast day, you still get plenty of details and sharpness, even when zoomed in. And with its partnership with Hasselblad, portraits come out perfectly as if they were taken by professional Hasselblad cameras.

Sustainability

Smartphones remain one of the most numerous mass-produced electronics in the world today, and there’s no slowing down that market. This means millions of units are still produced annually, and just as many are replaced or simply discarded frequently. Any small change that reduces a phone’s negative impact on the environment adds up in the long run, like going with a more sustainable material such as the OnePlus 13’s microfiber vegan leather.

It definitely helps if a smartphone doesn’t have to be replaced any time soon, whether because of damages or obsolescence. The OnePlus 13 boasts IP68 as well as IP69 ratings, so some water accidents need not cause a panic. OnePlus also promises four years of software updates and an additional six years of security updates, ensuring that your phone is running smoothly for years to come.

Value

With quite a number of players in this already crowded market, OnePlus is definitely smart in getting a head start this year with the global launch of the OnePlus 13. It is making a competitive and well-rounded product available early before some of its rivals even announce their next big thing. And the OnePlus 13 is definitely worth checking out with all the features it has to offer.

More than just the powerful high-end hardware, impressive triple 50MP cameras, and long-lasting battery, what the OnePlus 13 offers is a holistic experience that checks all the right boxes. An elegant and sustainable design, a clean and fast user interface, and the right balance of AI-driven features, all contribute into making the OnePlus 13 a good choice for an early 2025 purchase.

Verdict

OnePlus began as a challenge to the status quo of the smartphone market and delivered products that made the same premium features more accessible to people. It was never just about the price, however, and the focus was always on providing a design and user experience that could keep up with users’ needs and preferences, facets of their lives that change and grow over time.

The OnePlus 13 aims to be that kind of companion on people’s life journeys. Not just a technological tool but a part and extension of themselves. Its future-proof features, stylish aesthetics, and environment-conscious design allow it to keep up with users from all walks of life, whether they’re content creators, mobile gamers, knowledge workers, or anyone in between. In that sense, the OnePlus 13 definitely carries the torch of the brand’s “Never Settle” philosophy, delivering an uncompromising experience that empowers you to stay ahead.

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