The OnePlus 13R is a less expensive alternative to the more premium OnePlus 13 but still includes plenty of good features, like a powerful chipset, a large battery and an OLED display with all the bells and whistles. There is also a telephoto zoom camera, which wasn’t there in the previous model. But can this phone keep you happy for a few years?
Top-quality display
OnePlus has adopted a new design. Instead of a curved front and back, you get a flat and angular look while the back is made of glass and the frame is made of aluminium. The signature feature of OnePlus phones is the ‘alert slider’, which is retained here. Being IP65 rated, it can take on water and dust better than before but I wish it was IP68.
The display of the OnePlus 13R is a 6.78-inch OLED panel with 120Hz refresh rate. There is Gorilla Glass GG7i protection. The panel is very sharp, there is also support for 10-bit colour depth and HDR10 Plus and Dolby Vision video standards. In the brightness department, there is a peak brightness of 4,500 nits, otherwise, it’s 1,600 nits.
OnePlus has removed the 2MP macro lens on the 12R in favour of a 50MP 2x optical zoom on the 13R
To make the most out of the brilliant display, OnePlus has thrown in a pair of good-quality stereo speakers. You get good bass and vocal separation.
Snazzy processor
The interface of the phone is Oxygen OS 15 on top of Android 15. You get an expanded suite of AI features. For example, if you are writing a note and want AI to clean the copy or make it sound different, it’s possible to get it done. Many of the AI features are context-sensitive and show up when you are undertaking a task that can involve an AI element. Or use AI Summary to show you the salient features of a long document. It works well but it’s safe to go through the note since these are early days of AI. There is AI in the gallery section as well.
The phone will receive four years of Android OS updates and six years of software security support.
Unlike many current flagship phones, the OnePlus 13R comes with last year’s top chipset — Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile platform. That’s not a bad decision at all because it’s a powerful chipset that can easily run most games at high graphic settings, delivering excellent frames per second. At the same time, it keeps the cost of the phone low. Since the chipset has been well-tuned, benchmark scores are on the higher side. There is plenty of power for gaming and multitasking.
The OnePlus 13R comes with a larger battery this time — 6000mAh. Now, that’s quite a lot and you will easily get 14-15 hours of screen-on time or around two days of usage.
Good camera updates
The OnePlus 13R comes with an updated camera setup. For the main 50MP camera, you get Sony LYT-700 sensor (1/1.56”). In the 8MP ultra-wide department, the sensor size is 1/4”. And you get a telephoto 50Mp camera with S5KJN5 sensor (2X optical zoom) and the sensor size is 1/2.75”.
There are enough AI-related features to keep you busy
The main camera produces excellent photos, with plenty of details. The contrast is good and colours are more or less natural. Shooting indoors, the phone may oversharpen details from time to time. Photos of people and pets come out well, regardless of whether you use portrait mode or not. The automatic night mode kicks in low-light conditions and it does a decent job. The telephoto camera processes photos almost at the same level as the main camera. Even 2x shots taken at night are of high quality.
What the camera setup could have done better lies in the ultra-wide department. It’s roughly the same as last year’s though colour saturation is controlled.
The phone can record 4K videos at 60fps with the main camera but selfie camera can shoot only 1080p at 30fps.
Make the call
A few quibbles. The fingerprint scanner is slightly on the lower side, which means you have to stretch your thumb to unlock the phone. Further, given the pricing, IP68 ingress rating would have helped.
Negatives aside, OnePlus 13 series comes with a “lifetime warranty” for green lines. The software experience too is very good and I like the fact that the base variant comes with 12GB RAM (LPDDR5X) and 256GB storage (UFS 4.0). It’s shaping up to be a good year for OnePlus and the company made many good decisions with its OnePlus 13 series. The OnePlus 13R is a good blend of power and value for money.
The 'alert slider' is present on the OnePlus 13R
At a glance
Device: OnePlus 13R
Price: Upwards of ₹42,999
High notes
Excellent display and battery life
Good choice of processor
Clean UI
Effective stereo speakers
Intuitive AI features
Muffled notes
No 4K recording on selfie camera
Fingerprint scanner could have been higher up on the screen
