OnePlus 13 — here's everything you need to know

As you read this, the OnePlus 13 is both launched and not. It's official in China already, so all the specs are public if you know where to look. But for us in the rest of the world, we're having to wait until the new year to actually try both the regular OnePlus 13 and the cheaper OnePlus 13R.

We already love the OnePlus 12, so seeing it come back with a fresh design, improved battery and performance plus a few other surprises would make us very happy. Even with tough competition from the Samsung Galaxy S24 series (and upcoming Galaxy S25), the Google Pixel 9 and the iPhone 16, the OnePlus 13 still has a lot to prove when taking a place at the table with its usual habit of providing amazing specs for less money than you'd expect.

We've detailed all the details that we know for the OnePlus 13 so far below, so if you're curious about what this phone could bring with it once it is officially available in a store near you, read on.

OnePlus 13: Specifications

OnePlus 13: Price and release date

This year the OnePlus 13 made its debut two months earlier in China, on October 31. The global launch has been announced for January 7.

As for price, the OnePlus 13 with the base 256GB version starts at 4499 yuan in China (or about $632). It's difficult to say if that price will remain the same for the global release of the phone, but we suspect it to come in between $699 to $799, barring any new price rumors. Given OnePlus' history with trade-in offers, we could end up seeing the price being lower.

OnePlus 13: Design

Taking the same formula as past devices, the OnePlus 13 doesn't deviate from the distinctive design language that the series is known for. Official images from the company show us a flagship phone that looks similar to its predecessor, complete with a circular protrusion on the back of the phone that houses its triple camera array.

This time around, the OnePlus 13 is available in white, black and blue with a faux leather back. It's also fairly thin at 8.5mm. But interestingly enough, this model sports dual IP68 and IP69 ratings — which not only gives it the properties to survive immersion in water for a period of time, but also to endure high-pressure jet streams of water.

Other design traits include the alert slider on the side of the phone. Meanwhile, the inside of the phone gets redesigned to feature an improved cooling system that includes a vapor chamber to better dissipate heat given off by the phone.

OnePlus 13: Display

Around the front, there doesn't appear a whole lot different from what we know. In fact, the specs line up to what we've seen already with the prior model. Meaning, there's a 6.82-inch 2K OLED screen on the OnePlus 13 — but it's being marketed as quad-curved. While this is nice, what's really going to matter is how bright it can get.

Just as before, it also has a variable refresh rate of up to 120Hz to make animations and videos look extra smooth on the display. Although it's hard to say how thin they are, the bezels around the screen are thin enough to make it look like the screen stretches all the way to the edge.

OnePlus 13: Cameras

Cameras have been an area where OnePlus has made substantial gains, thanks in large part to its partnership with lens specialist Hasselblad. In our testing, the OnePlus 12 proved to be the best camera phone OnePlus has ever made. That phone features a 50MP main camera with a 48MP ultrawide shooter and a 64MP telephoto lens capable of supporting a 3x zoom.

With the OnePlus 13, it's packing 50MP Sony sensors across the board with its main, ultrawide, and telephoto lenses. The Hasselblad partnership continues with this new triple camera array, which runs the same Hasselblad Master Imaging algorithm that debuted on the Oppo Find X8.

Until we get our hands on a unit, it's going to difficult to say if these changes are enough to elevate its camera performance in a substantial way over last year's OnePlus 12. We've seen how the company leverages pixel binning techniques with great effect, so we're hoping that more detail and sharpness can be pulled out by the new 50MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom.

And finally, there's a 32MP selfie camera around the front. Again, this is no different from the one we've seen already with the OnePlus 12. Another area of interest is around its video recording abilities. From what we know, it can shoot 4K 60 fps Dolby Vision Video. It certainly suffices, but perhaps there could be a chance for other upgrades with the global model.

OnePlus 13: Performance

OnePlus uses the leading Qualcomm system-on-chip in its flagship phones. For the OnePlus 12, that meant the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which has helped the phone keep pace with the Galaxy S24 family. The OnePlus 13 will turn to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 — now known as the Snapdragon 8 Elite.

Qualcomm has promised a big improvement to performance, and the OnePlus 13 may be our first opportunity to see the chip in action. At least that's what TENNA's certification documents claim. Considering how another phone running the Snapdragon 8 Elite faired in our testing, Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro, we have high expectations for the OnePlus 13 to exceed the scores put up by the OnePlus 12.

OnePlus 13: Battery

Battery life shouldn't be a concern for the OnePlus 13, if the OnePlus 12 is anything to go by. The current OnePlus flagship earned a spot on our best phone battery life list by lasting for 17 hours and 41 minutes. Only four other devices that we've tested in the last 18 months have out-performed that. (And one of them was the OnePlus 12R.)

OnePlus confirms that the phone will have a mammoth 6,000 mAh battery, supported by 100W wired charging and 50W wireless charging. Yes, despite rumors that wireless charging wouldn't be supported on OnePlus 13, it seems the company isn't pulling that feature for another year.

You may be able to fill up the OnePlus 13's battery with a magnetic charging system, based on a teaser from OnePlus' president on social media. This could be a charger of OnePlus' own design, but there's a good chance it's based on the open Qi2 specification that's partly based on Apple's MagSafe standard.

OnePlus 13: outlook

Even though the OnePlus 13 has been officially announced in China, there are still so many unknowns about it, like its pricing and exact release date. The January 7 launch will give us the answers, even if there's still a bit of waiting to do before then,

OnePlus has a hard launch window ahead of it given how it'll more than likely go head-to-head against the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra around the same time. Plus, it's going to be contending against the likes of the iPhone 16 Pro Max and Pixel 9 Pro XL as well. But if it can balance features and price, the OnePlus 13 could establish itself as an awesome value pick.

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