After years of large phones, people are looking for compact devices. Take the case of iPhone 16e, which has been a success, and so has been iPhone 15. Yet, sales figures of devices like iPhone 16 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra are through the roof. What can be done to improve the fate of compact phones? Make fewer compromises and, at the same time, keep devices reasonably priced. That’s where the OnePlus 13s comes in. Not that it doesn’t make compromises… ask if the missing feature is worth anything to you.
Feels good in the hand
It’s a different OnePlus phone in a very long time, and probably the best we have seen in some years. OnePlus 13s is meant for one-handed use. Weighing only 185g, it’s 8.15mm thick. These are very good figures because you are getting a phone that’s not just sleek but lightweight enough for one-handed usage.
Plus Key on OnePlus 13s.
The build quality is premium — glass on the back, glass on the front, and there is a metal frame.
What excites me the most is the small display. It’s only 6.32 inches with bezels at just 1.34 mm. The compact form factor translates into a large viewing area, comparable in size to other 6.1-inch phones. Making the panel shine is 1.5K high resolution (2640x1216) with a 460PPI, one to 120Hz LTPO, ProXDR display with up to 1600 nits in high brightness mode.
Further, there is Aqua Touch 2.0 technology to come to the rescue whenever it rains or your hands are wet. It ensures every swipe on the display gets registered.
Great performance but…
Snapdragon 8 Elite chip means the best performance you can find on an Android phone. One problem with compact phones is that they tend to get hot if combined with a flagship processor. To reduce the heat, many brands tend to throttle performance. OnePlus has solved the issue by putting in a vapour cooling chamber inside. It’s a big 4,400mm 3D “Cryo-Velocity” vapour chamber, comparable in size to a competitor’s Ultra devices.
The company says the phone has an industry-first cooling layer on the back cover, “integrating a high-performance graphite layer into the back cover” to improve heat dissipation and reduce surface temperatures.
The phone doesn’t have an ultra-wide snapper but the main camera does a good job
Perhaps the biggest advantage OnePlus 13s has is its large 5,850mAh battery. Given the size of the phone, this is a very big battery. In fact, it is bigger than what many large-sized phones have.
With 80W SUPERVOOC, you can top up on a full day’s power in minutes. But why stop there? There is a bypass charging technology that directly powers the phone instead of the battery, reducing heating and allowing for extended gaming sessions without the need to worry about the battery or overheating.
Here comes the big choice you have to make. OnePlus has opted for a dual rear camera setup, housed in a single-piece aluminium module and positioned in the top left corner. The primary camera uses a 1/1.56-inch Sony LYT-700 flagship sensor, with good HDR capabilities. Paired with a wide f/1.8 aperture and OIS, the 50MP primary camera ensures good image quality in any lighting scenario. The 50MP telephoto lens features a high-resolution 50MP sensor, making it ideal for capturing detailed 2x zoom shots and beautiful portrait photography.
Instead of ultra-wide, OnePlus is going with a telephoto camera. iPhone 16e doesn’t have an ultra-wide camera but the main snapper is so powerful that you don’t miss any other lens; you can get things done. Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge has an ultra-wide but doesn’t have telephoto, which is fine because not many users care about a telephoto. The main camera on the OnePlus phone is good, but iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S25 have an edge. Personally, I would have preferred an ultra-wide on the OnePlus device over a telephoto.
The rear cameras support 4K 60fps Dolby Vision HDR recording, and with Ultra Steady, users can stable HDR video.
Alert Slider versus Plus Key
OnePlus phones are known for their Alert Slider. This time, OnePlus is trying out something new… something along the lines of iPhone. There is a Plus Key that’s customisable. You can long-press to switch between ring, vibrate and silent modes. Further, it can be programmed to access features like the camera, translation or flashlight. It has been integrated with OnePlus AI: A press of the Plus Key activates AI Plus Mind. Good work, OnePlus.
Images in daylight are excellent, rich in colours and there is sharp focus
AI power
OnePlus has finally incorporated a number of AI features and they look good. AI VoiceScribe allows users to record, summarise, and translate calls and meetings directly within popular messaging, video, and online meeting applications. AI Call Assistant (coming to India) works with the OnePlus Dialler to offer options for automatic Call Summaries or real-time Call Translation during calls.
AI Translation does what the name promises, AI Search allows conversational searching of local files, settings, notes, and calendars for contextually relevant results. AI Reframe analyses photo scenes, identifies the subject, and adjusts the composition.
There is also AI Plus Mind, which allows you to screenshot whatever you see on your screen. Your phone then makes a note of what it was for later while adding contextual AI info. Does it work well? More of this in a future article.
Make the call
OnePlus set out to make a phone that is different from anything else in the market. Clean software experience, smooth performance, AI features, good battery life, excellent display… it is one of the most promising compact Android phones out there at the moment. But is there something we haven’t seen on, say, Samsung Galaxy S25+? Are you willing to miss out on an ultra-wide lens? OnePlus 13s puts up a good fight in a cluttered smartphone space. It is a powerful offering that goes against the palm-stretching smartphone trend.
At a glance
Device: OnePlus 13s
Price: Upwards of ₹54,999 (12 GB/256 GB variant); open sale starts on June 12 while
pre-booking is open now
High notes
- Compact phone
- Clean UI
- Excellent performance
- Great battery life
- Packed with AI features
Muffled note
- No ultra-wide camera