I have been using OnePlus 13 and OnePlus 13R last month—during the 2024 holiday season and CES 2025—which means I’ve put them through the lightest and busiest workloads. There’s not much to complain about these new ones Android phoneWho are experts in a little bit of everything. The premium OnePlus 13 has all the features you’d expect in a modern-day flagship smartphone.
The OnePlus 13 Starting at $900 for the base 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage version, slightly undercuts competitors, while OnePlus 13R It costs $600—it has fewer features than its sibling and misses out on some features. This generation’s updates are all about efficiency. The software is smooth, the batteries last long, the screens are bright, and the phones are water-resistant. If you’re looking to switch phone brands, and battery life is the number one priority on your list, these OnePlus phones are worth considering.
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The OnePlus 13 and 13R look similar but there are some minor differences in their dimensions — the flagship has a 6.82-inch screen, while the cheaper phone has a 6.78-inch display. The most obvious difference between the pair is the Hasselblad branding on the OnePlus 13, as well as curvier edges around the display. The OnePlus 13R has flat edges, which I prefer as they are easier to hold.
There’s a fun marble-like pattern on the OnePlus 13 and a brushed look on the 13R, but not as pretty as last year. OnePlus 12 and 12R– Emerald and snow were blue The chef’s kiss. There is A nice Midnight Ocean color for the OnePlus 13 this year, which has a luxurious-looking microfiber vegan leather material, but I didn’t get a chance to try it out.
OnePlus has finally upgraded the water resistance on its top-end device. Now you get a combined IP68 and IP69 rating, meaning the OnePlus 13 can be submerged in up to 1.5 meters of water for 30 minutes and can handle heavy rain. This ultimately puts it on par with its peers. The display employs Ceramic Guard, OnePlus’s take on Apple’s Ceramic Glass, and is reportedly stronger than the Gorilla Glass Victus found on other phones. Glass is still glass, and you should use a screen protector—mine iPhone 16 Plus Screen cracked during testing.
As for the screens, the 120-Hz OLED displays are sharp, colorful and smooth. The only difference apart from size is sharpness, although by default the OnePlus 13 is set to a lower resolution to save battery life. Both look amazing. My only gripe is that I had to manually adjust the brightness slider compared to most other Android phones—these devices turn the brightness down a bit too much for me.
The OnePlus 13R settles for an IP65 rating, which is fine with rain but won’t survive a dip in a pool. It is one of the first to use cornings Gorilla Glass 7iThat’s a budget-to-midrange offering from the glass maker, so don’t expect the same level of durability, though it should be comparable if not slightly better than other phones around this price point. The rest of the hardware is all there, and the OnePlus alert slider makes me wish every phone had a sliding switch to toggle between mute, vibrate, and sound (ahem, Apple).. I don’t mind a very large camera bump.
