After three weeks of daily use, the OnePlus 13 has proven itself to be a truly impressive device. It boasts three standout features that deserve close examination: a remarkable battery, a powerful new chip, and a record-breaking display. Let’s delve into each of these aspects, along with other key features and considerations.

Unparalleled Battery Performance: A New Era for Smartphone Power

The OnePlus 13 packs a massive 6,000 mAh battery. In a phone that maintains a reasonable size and slim profile, this capacity is truly remarkable. To put it in perspective, it’s double the battery capacity of the Galaxy S8. This significant jump in battery size raises the question: how is this sudden increase in battery capacity happening across several new phone models?

The answer lies in advancements in silicon carbon technology and a greater range of operating temperatures. This new technology, while currently somewhat expensive and primarily found in flagship devices, is poised to revolutionize smartphone battery performance. It enables smaller phones to have significantly improved battery life and is also beneficial for foldable phones, as demonstrated by the incredibly thin Honor Magic V2 with its 5,000 mAh battery.

The OnePlus 13 benefits directly from this technology. It’s thinner and lighter than its predecessor, the OnePlus 12, yet boasts a 10% larger battery. In practical use, this translates to exceptional battery life. Even with high brightness, extensive multitasking, and demanding tasks like GPS navigation, Bluetooth streaming, and hours of use, the phone consistently lasted for two days at 120Hz and high resolution. It was challenging to drain the battery completely in a single day. Even on days with 6 hours of screen-on time, the phone often had over 35% battery remaining.

When the battery finally does run low, the OnePlus 13 supports 80W fast charging, allowing a full charge from 0 to 100% in just 36 minutes. It also supports 50W wireless charging with a compatible charging pad. This represents the pinnacle of smartphone battery technology to date. The exciting prospect is that many more phones with similar battery performance are on the horizon.

Snapdragon 8 Elite: A Giant Leap in Performance

The OnePlus 13 is powered by the new Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. While annual chip updates typically offer incremental improvements, this year’s jump is substantial. The 8 Elite boasts a 31% higher CPU clock speed, a 36% higher score on the Antutu benchmark, a 44% improvement in 3DMark, and a 14% increase in graphics performance. These are impressive gains.

While these performance increases might not be immediately noticeable in everyday tasks like browsing Instagram or checking emails, they make a significant difference in demanding applications. The chip can sustain high frame rates and power output for extended periods without throttling, making it ideal for gaming and other resource-intensive tasks. Furthermore, the improved efficiency also translates to better battery life when performing less demanding activities.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite has already demonstrated its capabilities in gaming phones like the ROG Phone 9 Pro and Red Magic 10 Pro. Now, it’s making its way into mainstream flagships like the expected Galaxy S25 lineup, promising a significant performance boost across the board.

A Record-Breaking Display: Brightness and Clarity Redefined

The OnePlus 13’s display is another area where it truly shines. It’s a record-breaking display, achieving 1600 nits in high brightness mode and a peak brightness of 4500 nits. It’s also the world’s first display to receive an A+ rating from DisplayMate.

The display’s specifications are impressive: a 6.82-inch corner-to-corner size, QHD resolution for sharpness, and a 120Hz LTPO refresh rate. The screen is mostly flat with a slight curve at the edges, which is a design choice many can appreciate. It offers excellent viewing angles and gets incredibly bright from edge to edge, while also being able to dim significantly for comfortable use in low-light conditions.

For those with sensitive eyes, the display features 2160Hz high-frequency PWM dimming. An ultrasonic fingerprint reader is located beneath the display for fast and secure unlocking, and a new glove mode increases sensitivity when wearing thin gloves. The high peak brightness is particularly useful for outdoor photography and visibility in bright sunlight. Combined with minimal bezels, the display is truly exceptional.

Beyond the Big Three: Build Quality, Software, and Cameras

While the battery, chip, and display are the major highlights, the OnePlus 13 also excels in other areas. The build quality is excellent, with an IP69 rating, meaning it can withstand not just submersion but also high-pressure water jets and extreme temperatures. This is a significant shift from OnePlus’s earlier stance on IP certification.

While the phone doesn’t have built-in Qi 2 magnets, OnePlus has cleverly designed its cases with embedded magnet rings that are the same diameter as MagSafe. This allows the phone, when in the case, to be fully compatible with MagSafe accessories, expanding the range of available chargers, mounts, and docks. The camera bump is slightly offset, which might be a minor design preference issue for some.

The camera system is solid but not the phone’s strongest point. The primary camera uses a 50MP Sony LYT808 sensor with an f/1.6 aperture, the same as the OnePlus 12. It captures plenty of light and produces nice images in good lighting conditions, with good autofocus and the ability to freeze motion. However, performance degrades noticeably in low-light situations, a common issue with many smartphones but more pronounced here. The phone tends to over-brighten dark photos, losing some of the detail in shadows.

The OnePlus 13 also features a 50MP ultrawide camera and a 50MP 3x tri-prism telephoto camera. While the telephoto lens offers space savings compared to a periscope zoom, its low-light performance is also weaker than the main camera. Video quality is generally good, with all three lenses capable of shooting 4K60 video, and the main camera also supporting 8K30 recording.

The Hasselblad partnership, now in its fifth generation, offers some portrait mode enhancements, an orange shutter button, and tweaks to the pro mode. However, it hasn’t resulted in a dramatic reinvention of color science or a revolutionary new sensor. The camera system is adequate but not a standout feature.

OxygenOS 15: Smooth, Fast, and Familiar

The OnePlus 13 runs on OxygenOS 15, which is based on Android 15. The software is known for its speed and smoothness, offering a clean and responsive user experience. OxygenOS 15 includes some new features, including a “Live Alert Capsules” feature that mimics Apple’s Dynamic Island. This feature displays information about music playback, hotspots, and screen recording around the selfie camera and provides quick access to controls.

OnePlus has also optimized the phone’s animations for certain benchmark tests, although this is unlikely to be a significant factor for most users. Overall, OxygenOS will feel familiar to anyone who has used previous OnePlus or Oppo phones. It includes some AI-powered features, such as “Circle to Search” and an AI editor in the camera app with features like AI unblur, reflection eraser, and detail booster. These features offer varying degrees of effectiveness. There are also AI writing features for summarizing, adjusting tone, and proofreading text, but these are currently limited to the OnePlus Notes app and require an internet connection.

Conclusion: A Strong Contender

The OnePlus 13 delivers a compelling combination of exceptional battery life, powerful performance, and a stunning display. While the camera system is not its strongest point, it’s still capable of producing good images. OxygenOS provides a smooth and responsive user experience with some useful AI features. The phone’s overall package makes it a strong contender in the flagship market. The advancements in battery technology, chip performance, and display quality are exciting developments that will likely be seen in many other phones in the near future. The OnePlus 13 sets a high bar for other manufacturers to follow.

OnePlus 13 Specs