OnePlus has been my smartphone brand of choice since I began working with CGMagazine and reviewed my first OnePlus device with the 10 Pro. Now we’re discussing the OnePlus 13 smartphone, and I’m still impressed by the company after two years and various device launches.
OnePlus brought CGMagazine and a slew of other writers and creators to OnePlus Offshore, a cruise event to take a deep dive (pun intended!) into the OnePlus 13, allowing us to test our brand-new devices in a variety of conditions. The OnePlus 13 is now IP68 and IP69 rated, hence the “Offshore” portion of this press event.
What this means is that the OnePlus 13 is not only able to handle rain, splashes, and submersion in up to 1.5 metres of water for up to 30 minutes (IP68), but it can also withstand water as hot as 80 C projected at it (just not salt water!). One example provided was the OnePlus 13 falling into a deep fryer and surviving. During testing, we even placed the OnePlus 13 in a dishwasher to get it squeaky clean. Thanks to its Ceramic Guard glass cover, everything still worked after the full cycle, though the warm water did turn the flashlight on.
Do I need all this? Hopefully not. However, being less concerned about my phone in the rain, by the pool, or in the bath adds a bit of extra comfort. What I truly appreciate is Aqua Touch 2.0. Even with wet hands or a wet screen, I experienced no issues using the OnePlus 13, including unlocking it with the fingerprint sensor while wet. There’s also Glove Mode, which allows the screen to be used with wool or sheepskin gloves up to 0.5 cm thick. However, when using cheaper gloves, like I often do, it rarely worked.
Some interesting additions to the OnePlus line including BeaconLink and message sharing via Bluetooth. BeaconLink allows you to connect to other OnePlus users and use your phone similar to a walkie-talkie. This is great for areas where you don’t have service, like travel. However, you need to have others connected to the OnePlus ecosystem to use it. An over-the-air update will bring Bluetooth messaging, allowing you to send messages and photos without needing a connect.
Beyond the water performance, the OnePlus 13 is outfitted with OxygenOS 15. What this means for users is all good news. If you’re coming from past OxygenOS devices, you will feel at home here, and even if you aren’t, it is one of the friendlier operating systems to take on. I saw a few notable improvements. For instance, now, when playing music on your phone, the animation doesn’t cover all your important notifications anymore, though hitting close all on your apps STILL doesn’t actually close everything, which drives me mad.
OxygenOS 15 is prioritizing a “Fast & Smooth experience”, meaning things like animations are being rendered incredibly quickly, allowing you to swap between apps, or even unlock your phone quicker. This operating system also takes up 20% less space on your device compared to OxygenOS 14. Oh, and themes! OxygenOS 15 brings themes to the OnePlus 13!
However, these aren’t like the themes you might find on other devices, where you can search a shop for cute cats and all your buttons will change, however. You can feature your own themes, essentially. Choose from images on the OnePlus 13 or in your own albums to create classic, cover, snapshot or playful themes. Snapshot and Playful allow you to carry a theme through your Always on Display, Lock Screen and Home Screen, slightly changing the image for each screen. Playful allows you to include word art, but so far it is only a few predecided words, which seems odd to me.
In the same Wallpaper & Style screen you can change the font, interface colours, fingerprint animations (which I love), and edge lighting. Something I enjoy that was carried over from the OnePlus 12 are the Always on Display Custom Patterns, where you create a cool design and animation for your screen. You can also use an image to create a Canvas design, plus many other options. Here you can change your icons as well, using premade versions or designing them yourself.
The OnePlus 13 is more about creating your own theme than importing one someone else created, and though we are getting closer, I would love to have the option for both. Luckily, the company is also keeping the user in mind with updates, as the OnePlus 13 will feature four years of security updates and six years of security updates.
User interface and operating systems are vital, but what else is OnePlus bringing to the table? The OnePlus 13 is 210g and 8.5mm thin (8.9mm for the vegan leather version). Its finish is available in Midnight Ocean (vegan leather, device tested), Arctic Dawn and Black Eclipse. I really love the colours this time around. But powering it all is the Snapdragon 8 Elite featuring the Qualcomm Oryon CPU, and the Adreno 830 GPU. The system runs their new Dual Cryo-velocity VC to keep things cool under pressure.
“The OnePlus 13’s 6.82-inch QHD+ display, paired with the Snapdragon 8 Elite and Adreno 830 GPU, delivers stunning visuals and smooth gaming performance.”
During gaming sessions the device never got overly warm, and it kept things running smoothly in Fortnite, Zenless Zone Zero and games that are easier on the system like Balatro and Hidden in my Paradise. Games and photos look beautiful on the 6.82 inch, 3168×1440 (QHD+) display.
The OnePlus 13 also comes in numerous storage options to suit your needs, with 12 or 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and 256 or 512GB of storage, though online I can see details about a 1TB/24GB version, but that is not the North American market. Something to note is that the 12GB/256GB model is only available in Black Eclipse.
Battery life on the device is excellent, as always. Featuring a 6000mAh battery, the OnePlus 13 supports 80W SUPERVOOC charging (though with the right power can work with 100W charging) and 50W AIRVOOC wireless charging. In practice, I could go all day without needing to charge my OnePlus 13. After a day of taking videos and photos, using AI editing, plus tons of texting and social media, I was still sitting at 35% battery. Charging of OnePlus devices is always fast, so there is never a need to worry about battery life unless you’re gaming.
Speaking of gaming, OnePlus has also brought in magnetic accessories, allowing for wireless charging on the go. I currently have the OnePlus 13 Aramid Fiber Magnetic Case and have been able to pair it with the OnePlus AIRVOOC 50W Magnetic Charger. This charger is not wireless, however. It is meant to connect to your device while gaming or during other intense use cases as it both charges and coles your device. Though I have not used it, there is also a new OnePlus Slim Magnetic 5000mAh Power Bank. This looks ultra-thin, and I am hoping to add it to my ecosystem soon!
The cameras in OnePlus devices are always something to note. Continuing the partnership, the OnePlus 13 features the 5th-Gen Hasselblad for mobile. The company is boasting “Flagship Triple 50MP Cameras” and the quality doesn’t lie. On the OnePlus 13, you will find a 50 MP Sony LYT-808 1/1.4” sensor.
Along with that, there is a 3X Triprism Telephoto lens, with a 50MP Sony’s LYT- 600 1/1.95” sensor and the Ultra-Wide 50MP 120° field of view, 1/2.75″ ISOCELL JN5 sensor. These cameras can take video at 8K at 30fps, 4K at 30/60fps, and 1080p at 30/60/240/480fps.
The selfie camera is where I am always impressed by OnePlus. Though the main cameras are impressive and will regularly thrill mobile phone photographers, many more casual users, or even content creators, will find a lot of value in the OnePlus 13 selfie camera. The OnePlus 13 features a Sony IMX615 32 MP camera with a 1/2.74 sensor.
Comparing the OnePlus 13 selfie camera against the flagship devices of the biggest brands in the world has OnePlus blowing them out of the water. The iPhone 16 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra features a 12MP front camera. Though selfies aren’t often the make or break of a smartphone, as a mother who regularly snaps pics with her kids, the extra attention here absolutely makes my mind up when purchasing a smartphone. Companies like OnePlus and Xiaomi take this into consideration, but brands more popular in North America, like Apple and Samsung cut corners here.
The OnePlus 13 is the first time I have cared about AI in my smartphone. Although efforts were made to familiarize me with Google Gemini and some AI-powered note features, those weren’t the AI tools I was interested in. The OnePlus 13’s AI camera additions are ones I’ll be using regularly. This year, OnePlus introduced several new AI photo assists, including AI Detail Boost, AI Unblur, AI Reflection Eraser and AI Eraser.
The AI Reflection Eraser is my favourite so far. When taking photos from my car or even through the window of an airplane, reflections always interfere with my sunrise or cloud photos. With the AI Reflection Eraser, I was able to remove my face, smudges on the window and even the reflection of my camera from the image. The feature can be used multiple times on the same photo or on photos taken with other devices.
The AI Unblur is a bit funny to me. It does, indeed, crisp up photos, but it seems to create more defined lines (like a bathroom counter) while leaving the things within them still blurred. I also tried this on a photo of my five-year-old who is always moving. It sort of recreated her face, and while from a distance, it works, when you zoom in, she looks like something akin to wrestlers I used to create on the N64.
“At $999.99 USD for the 16GB/512GB model, the OnePlus 13 delivers flagship features at a price point that undercuts competitors like Samsung and Xiaomi.”
The OnePlus AI Eraser is surprisingly functional. It includes a Smart Lasso, Paint Over and Remove People option. The Remove People feature keeps the person in the foreground while removing those in the background, along with any clutter that would be difficult to smooth out. It works incredibly well. Smart Lasso performs similarly—I removed yellow signs and cars from a late-night photo, and you’d never know they were there. I struggled with Paint Over; the results were never as seamless as with Smart Lasso.
Outside all that, I can see OnePlus’ software working in the background of my images. This can be both good, and bad, I think. Thanks to the Dual Exposure Algorithm OnePlus has implemented, a single photo now takes both a short and long exposure image and merges them for the best possible result. In practice, I have noticed less blurring; however, it does require you to stay in place for an extra second to make sure the entire image doesn’t distort. If you move before ensuring the process is complete, you will see what I mean.
Clear Burst is another feature you can find on the OnePlus 13 that uses this algorithm, and all you need to do here is hold down your shutter button to take a series of quick snaps. Pairing this with Action Mode, I was able to get some insane shots of a belly flop competition on the cruise ship. Action Mode doubles the photo output from 30 FPS to 60 FPS to really catch everything without motion blur.
From what I would assume is this and some AI image processing, I noticed a few odd sections in photos, but usually only ever in poor shooting conditions. While taking a photo of streetlights, at night, from a moving vehicle, the centre of the lights became a block of pixels. Similarly, when taking an extremely zoomed in photo of a boat across the ocean, the OnePlus 13’s software tried to sharpen the image of the boat, which sort of left it looking like it had been drawn over.
These may seem like negatives, but I love to see the OnePlus 13 working in the background to give me some great photos, and nine times out of ten, it does. There is a little bit of a learning curve when using the camera, like how I mentioned taking a beat before you pull the camera away from a photo, but once you master these techniques, you will end up with some stunning photos in most conditions.
If you’ve stayed with me up until this point, good for you. This was a ton of words to say “The OnePlus 13 is a great phone”. Something else that makes it even sweeter is the price. For $999.99 USD you can pick up the 16GB/512GB OnePlus 13 ($899.99USD for the 12GB/256GB model). As a comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is $1,369.97USD for the 12GB/256GB model. I think the most competitive pricing you will find is the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, but even then OnePlus has managed to undercut them.
OnePlus consistently delivers “flagship killer” features at unbeatable prices, and they have done it again with the OnePlus 13. The OnePlus 13 will remain my daily device, and it is absolutely their best phone yet.
