OnePlus 13 review

GSMArena Team, 07 January 2025.

6.82-inch OLED display

The OnePlus 13 features a thoroughly capable 6.82-inch LTPO OLED display. It's got a 1,440x3,168px resolution (510ppi pixel density) and a 1-120Hz refresh rate range, and uses a 2,160Hz PWM frequency for dimming. All sorts of HDR standards are supported, too.

OnePlus 13 review

The 13 introduces a new technology on improving sunlight legibility that we've occasionally seen in one way or another on phones from other brands. Dubbed Radiant View here, it not only boosts overall brightness, but analyzes content and can selectively crank up the nits on individual pixels.

When it comes to brightness, you shouldn't expect record numbers from the OnePlus 13, at least not under our standard testing conditions. We got just over 1,200nits with the auto toggle engaged and the phone placed under bright light. It's not a bad result, strictly speaking, but we've seen nearly twice that from some of the latest handsets, including the somewhat related Realme GT 7 Pro. While not chart topping either, the 800-ish nits that you can get manually is a more convincing figure.

Max display brightness test

White test pattern, 75% fill (nits)

  • Manual mode
  • Auto mode
Pixel 9 Pro XL Pixel 9 Pro XL
1333
6.8" LTPO OLED 1280 x 2856 px
Realme GT 7 Pro Realme GT 7 Pro
1095
6.78" LTPO AMOLED 1264 x 2780 px
iPhone 16 Pro Max iPhone 16 Pro Max
900
6.9" LTPO Super Retina XDR OLED 1320 x 2868 px
Oppo Find X8 Pro Oppo Find X8 Pro
897
6.78" LTPO AMOLED 1264 x 2780 px
OnePlus 13 OnePlus 13
809
6.82" LTPO AMOLED 1440 x 3168 px
OnePlus 12 OnePlus 12
794
6.82" LTPO AMOLED 1440 x 3168 px
Honor Magic6 Pro Honor Magic6 Pro
774
6.8" LTPO OLED 1280 x 2800 px
Galaxy S24 Ultra Galaxy S24 Ultra
755
6.8" Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X 1440 x 3120 px
nubia Z70 Ultra nubia Z70 Ultra
618
6.85" LTPO AMOLED 1216 x 2688 px
vivo X200 Pro vivo X200 Pro
549
6.78" LTPO AMOLED 1260 x 2800 px
iQOO 13 iQOO 13
515
6.82" LTPO AMOLED 1440 x 3168 px
Motorola Edge 50 Ultra Motorola Edge 50 Ultra
502
6.7" P-OLED 1220 x 2712 px
Pixel 9 Pro XL Pixel 9 Pro XL
2365
6.8" LTPO OLED 1280 x 2856 px
Realme GT 7 Pro Realme GT 7 Pro
2336
6.78" LTPO AMOLED 1264 x 2780 px
vivo X200 Pro vivo X200 Pro
2042
6.78" LTPO AMOLED 1260 x 2800 px
iQOO 13 iQOO 13
1804
6.82" LTPO AMOLED 1440 x 3168 px
iPhone 16 Pro Max iPhone 16 Pro Max
1796
6.9" LTPO Super Retina XDR OLED 1320 x 2868 px
Honor Magic6 Pro Honor Magic6 Pro
1578
6.8" LTPO OLED 1280 x 2800 px
Motorola Edge 50 Ultra Motorola Edge 50 Ultra
1473
6.7" P-OLED 1220 x 2712 px
Galaxy S24 Ultra Galaxy S24 Ultra
1447
6.8" Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X 1440 x 3120 px
nubia Z70 Ultra nubia Z70 Ultra
1382
6.85" LTPO AMOLED 1216 x 2688 px
Oppo Find X8 Pro Oppo Find X8 Pro
1333
6.78" LTPO AMOLED 1264 x 2780 px
OnePlus 13 OnePlus 13
1204
6.82" LTPO AMOLED 1440 x 3168 px
OnePlus 12 OnePlus 12
1155
6.82" LTPO AMOLED 1440 x 3168 px

Refresh rate

The OnePlus offers a fairly straightforward selection of refresh rate modes with both High and Auto allowing the maximum 120Hz and Standard capping things at 60Hz. In normal conditions we observed it readily dialing down to 1Hz for idle states in all three modes (provided the brightness was above a certain threshold), and the refresh rate would shoot to 120Hz or 60Hz (depending on mode) as soon as you touched the screen.

OnePlus 13 review

We didn't get anything above 60Hz/60fps in our typical set of games though - that's often been the case with Color OS phones (and their Realme UI/Oxygen OS relatives), though the OnePlus 12 did allow high fps gaming in our experience at the time of reviewing. The recent Oppo X8 and X8 Pro were hit and miss too, and the Realme GT 7 Pro was supposedly good for some titles, but not others.

Streaming and HDR

The OnePlus 13 has checkmarks for all major HDR standards including HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. We got HDR streams from YouTube, as well as Netflix (both HDR10 and Dolby Vision). The Widevine L1 certification does ensure you get high-res playback of DRM protected content, in Netflix too.

OnePlus 13 review

Unsurprisingly by now, the OnePlus 13 supports the Android Ultra HDR standard for displaying HDR photos with a brightness boost for highlights. It works in Google Photos and in Chrome - for images from other compliant phones, too. The in-house Photos app offers an additional button to turn off the effect on a photo-by-photo basis for comparison, or keep it off for all images.

OnePlus 13 battery life

The OnePlus 13 is powered by a 6,000mAh battery - a meaningful improvement over the OP12's 5,400mAh capacity. The 13 also gets a switch to the latest silicon carbon chemistry. It's the year of high-capacity SiC batteries and OnePlus is keeping up with the times.

In our testing, we got a pretty impressive video playback runtime and an excellent result in web browsing. The gaming test returned more of a so-so number, but the call time was pretty solid. The overall Active Use Score of 15:28h is an excellent figure.

Our new Active Use Score is an estimate of how long the battery will last if you use the device with a mix of all four test activities. You can adjust the calculation based on your usage pattern using the sliders below. You can read about our current battery life testing procedure here. For a comprehensive list of all tested devices so far, head this way.

Charging speed

The OnePlus 13's specsheet lists a 100W charging capability and a 36-minute zero to 100% time. Since the phone doesn't ship with a charger, we tried with the closest we had on hand - the Realme GT 7 Pro's 120W adapter.

OnePlus 13 review

Our power meter maxed out at around 79W up to a 5% battery state, at which point it dropped to about 68W and the usual gradual decline followed. OnePlus's speed claims checked out and we clocked 35 minutes from empty to 100% and around 55% at the 15-minute checkpoint. It's not quite the OP12's time, but not half bad either - better than most of the recent releases, in fact.

Charging speed

  • in 15 min
  • in 30 min
  • Time to full charge (from 0%)
Motorola Edge 50 Ultra Motorola Edge 50 Ultra
81%
4500 mAh 125W
OnePlus 12 OnePlus 12
70%
5400 mAh 100W
Realme GT 7 Pro Realme GT 7 Pro
58%
6500 mAh 120W
iQOO 13 iQOO 13
58%
6000 mAh 120W
OnePlus 13 OnePlus 13
55%
6000 mAh 100W
Honor Magic6 Pro Honor Magic6 Pro
47%
5600 mAh 66W
nubia Z70 Ultra nubia Z70 Ultra
47%
6150 mAh 80W
vivo X200 Pro vivo X200 Pro
42%
6000 mAh 90W
Oppo Find X8 Pro Oppo Find X8 Pro
40%
5910 mAh 80W
Pixel 9 Pro XL Pixel 9 Pro XL
39%
5060 mAh 45W
Galaxy S24 Ultra Galaxy S24 Ultra
39%
5000 mAh 45W
iPhone 16 Pro Max iPhone 16 Pro Max
27%
4685 mAh
OnePlus 12 OnePlus 12
100%
5400 mAh 100W
Motorola Edge 50 Ultra Motorola Edge 50 Ultra
100%
4500 mAh 125W
OnePlus 13 OnePlus 13
95%
6000 mAh 100W
Realme GT 7 Pro Realme GT 7 Pro
94%
6500 mAh 120W
iQOO 13 iQOO 13
91%
6000 mAh 120W
nubia Z70 Ultra nubia Z70 Ultra
84%
6150 mAh 80W
Honor Magic6 Pro Honor Magic6 Pro
82%
5600 mAh 66W
vivo X200 Pro vivo X200 Pro
73%
6000 mAh 90W
Oppo Find X8 Pro Oppo Find X8 Pro
70%
5910 mAh 80W
Galaxy S24 Ultra Galaxy S24 Ultra
69%
5000 mAh 45W
Pixel 9 Pro XL Pixel 9 Pro XL
67%
5060 mAh 45W
iPhone 16 Pro Max iPhone 16 Pro Max
46%
4685 mAh
Motorola Edge 50 Ultra Motorola Edge 50 Ultra
0:21h
4500 mAh 125W
OnePlus 12 OnePlus 12
0:24h
5400 mAh 100W
iQOO 13 iQOO 13
0:32h
6000 mAh 120W
OnePlus 13 OnePlus 13
0:35h
6000 mAh 100W
Realme GT 7 Pro Realme GT 7 Pro
0:35h
6500 mAh 120W
nubia Z70 Ultra nubia Z70 Ultra
0:42h
6150 mAh 80W
Honor Magic6 Pro Honor Magic6 Pro
0:44h
5600 mAh 66W
vivo X200 Pro vivo X200 Pro
0:46h
6000 mAh 90W
Oppo Find X8 Pro Oppo Find X8 Pro
0:53h
5910 mAh 80W
Galaxy S24 Ultra Galaxy S24 Ultra
1:05h
5000 mAh 45W
Pixel 9 Pro XL Pixel 9 Pro XL
1:18h
5060 mAh 45W
iPhone 16 Pro Max iPhone 16 Pro Max
1:57h
4685 mAh

If you're not using a SuperVOOC adapter, you'll probably get slightly slower results, though not necessarily by much. We tried with a random unit from our selection of (nice) aftermarket 65W adapters and got a steady 40-42W all the way up to 80%. The half-hour result was a rather solid 86% and the full charge took 51 minutes.

The OnePlus 13 also supports wireless charging, maxing out at 50W with proprietary peripherals - like the AirVOOC Magnetic Charger below (sold separately). Reverse power output is also possible - up to 5W over cable and 10W wirelessly.

OnePlus 13 reviewAirVOOC Magnetic Charger on top of the Sandstone Magnetic Case

As usual with Color OS and Oxygen OS, there's a fairly wide-ranging set of battery saver and battery health options on the OnePlus 13. It has the Smart charging toggle that attempts to learn your charging habits and does the final top off just before it predicts you'll be needing the phone. It also has the option to limit the charge to 80% when it detects you've got the phone plugged in for prolonged amounts of time. You can also turn off the Smart rapid charging and have the phone charge (slightly) slower than its maximum capability.

Speaker test

The OnePlus 13 doesn't bring any surprises with its speaker implementation and features a familiar hybrid system with one bottom-firing unit and another one above the display that directs sound towards the front and serves as an earpiece for voice calls. Both speakers will also output the opposite channel's track at a lower volume, in addition to their own. The phone will switch channels to match its orientation when in landscape, while the top speaker gets the left channel when the handset is held vertically.

Bottom speaker - OnePlus 13 review Top speaker/earpiece - OnePlus 13 review
Bottom speaker • Top speaker/earpiece

We got a 'Very Good' rating for loudness out of the OP13, a step up from the OP12 and on the same level as the vivo X200 Pro, Find X8 Pro , and Realme GT 7 Pro, though the OP13's numerical score is higher than all them. Sound quality is pretty great too, a noticeable improvement over the predecessor and better than most potential rivals.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.

Reader comments

  • iIi
  • 5 hours ago
  • a3y

First things first There's no such a thing as "bbk" anymore. It's just oppo and vivo.(just google it) Then the flagship thing, are oppo x8 pro, vivo x200 pro, Xiaomi 15 pro, the upcoming s25+ not flagships? They aren't ev...

  • Hi
  • 5 hours ago
  • 39x

Why this phone is not called Pro ? should be..

Just imagine how much this is in the Philippines. Its very close to the newest iphones and galaxy flagships.