ZDNET’s key takeaways
- The OnePlus 13 is a snappy, nearly no-compromise phone that starts at $899.
- A Snapdragon 8 Elite, paired with a 6,000mAh battery and 80W fast charging, is a recipe for endurance success.
- IP69 is almost excessive, but you’ll appreciate it when least expected.
It’s not often that I review a smartphone in the first few weeks of January and feel confident in calling it a “Phone of the Year” contender. But the OnePlus 13 is almost as good as it gets. Whether Samsung launches an Ultra phone with a 300-megapixel camera at Unpacked later this month, or Apple releases a thinner iPhone in the fall, the OnePlus 13 will likely still be on my mind when the year-end nominations are due.
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There’s a lot going for the latest flagship phone, from the more secure (and reliable) ultrasonic fingerprint sensor to the IP69 rating to the 6,000mAh Silicon NanoStack battery. It’s also one of the first phones in North America to feature Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, which promises improvements to performance, efficiency, and AI workloads.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been testing the OnePlus 13 alongside my iPhone 16 Pro Max to see exactly how the new Android stacks up against one of the best phones from 2024. In a few ways, the OnePlus 13 falls short. In many ways, it puts the iPhone to shame.
When I first unboxed the OnePlus 13 and held it in hand, my reaction was audible. Allow me to geek out here: The slightly curved glass, slimness of the phone, and overall appearance made my four-month-old iPhone look and feel outdated. It’s as if OnePlus made the iPhone 17 Air before Apple did.
However, what sells the OnePlus 13 design for me is the new Midnight Ocean colorway, which flaunts a vegan-leather backing that makes the phone visually distinctive and more comfortable to hold than its glass-only predecessors. The texture isn’t as rough and grippy as actual leather though, so I’d be interested in seeing how it ages over the year.
If you were hoping the first major Android phone of 2025 would feature Qi2 wireless charging, I have good news and bad news. While the OnePlus 13 doesn’t have an in-body Qi2 charging coil, meaning MagSafe (and similar) accessories won’t attach directly to the back of the device, OnePlus has embedded magnetic guides within its protective covers, enabling users to take advantage of the accessories so long as the OnePlus 13 is encased. It’s a burdenless workaround, but one that hopefully won’t be necessary with the next model.
For years, one aspect that’s held OnePlus phones back is the water and dust resistance rating or lack thereof. With the OnePlus 13, the company is finally taking a stronger stance on the endurance standard, certifying the phone with an IP69 rating. It’s a step above the IP68 ratings we commonly see on competing devices, and allows the OnePlus 13 to withstand high-pressure, high-temperature water jets, and humidity changes.
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In practice, this means the OnePlus 13 can function properly even if you leave it in your washer and dryer, dishwasher, or a pot of boiling soup. The IP69 rating feels very much like a flex, but it’s a benefit that users will appreciate when they least expect it.
Powering the device is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chip that, from my weeks of usage, has some noticeable strengths and weaknesses. For day-to-day usage, such as bouncing between productivity apps, definitely not scrolling through TikTok, and taking photos and videos, the processor handles tasks gracefully. It helps that OxygenOS 15, based on the latest version of Android, has some of the smoothest animations I’ve seen on a phone.
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But once you fire up graphics-intensive applications like Adobe Premiere Rush and Honkai Star Rail, you’ll notice some stuttering as the higher heat development leads to throttling performance. This isn’t a dealbreaker, per se, as the nerfs are only apparent when you’re using the device for a prolonged time.
I’ve actually been using the OnePlus 13 quite liberally, as the 6,000mAh Silicon NanoStack battery has kept my review unit running for at least a day and a half per charge. That’s unseen with any other mainstream phone in the US market, and I fully expect more manufacturers to adopt silicon batteries for their greater energy density. If not that, copy the 80W fast charging or 50W wireless charging; they’re quite the revelation.
On the camera front, the OnePlus 13, with its triple camera setup (50MP wide, ultrawide, and telephoto), has been a reliable shooter throughout most of my days. While the Sony LYT-808 sensor isn’t on par with the one-inch sensors I’ve tested on international phones, it does an excellent job of capturing details and finishing the output vividly. If you’re a fan of sharp, bright, and slightly oversaturated imagery (read: more colorful than how the actual subject appears), then the OnePlus 13 will serve you well.
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Where the camera sensors fall short is in post-processing and AI-tuning features. For example, the phone leans heavily on computational photography to contextualize details when taking far-distance shots. This sometimes leads to images with an artificial, over-smoothening filter. But when the backend software works, it’s able to reproduce details that you probably didn’t think you’d capture in the first place.
ZDNET’s buying advice
For a starting price of $899, the OnePlus 13 delivers some seriously good value — possibly the best of all the major flagship phones I’ve tested lately. The company has improved the device in almost every way, from the design to the performance to its accessory ecosystem.
I just wish OnePlus offered more extensive software support, as the OnePlus 13 will only receive four years of Android OS updates and six years of security updates. Samsung, Google, and Apple offer at least seven years of OS support.
If you’re interested in the OnePlus 13, the best deal I’m currently seeing is on the OnePlus website, as the company is offering a free OnePlus Watch 2 (valued at $299), a free storage upgrade (valued at $100), and at least $100 off when you trade in any phone in any condition.