OnePlus 13R review

A new zoom camera on board

The OnePlus 13R comes with an upgraded camera setup, replacing one of its somewhat useless macro cameras with a 2x optical zoom unit. So now, the handset boasts two 50MP sensors (main and 2x zoom) but settles for a less-than-ideal 8MP ultrawide camera.

• Wide (main): 50MP Sony LYT-700 (IMX 906), f/1.8, 1/1.56", 24mm, 1.0µm PDAF, OIS; 2160p@60fps
• 2x Telephoto: 50MP Samsung ISOCELL JN5 (1/2.76", 0.64µm - 1.28µm), f/2.0, 47mm, multi-directional PDAF; 2160p@60fps
• Ultrawide: 8MP Sony IMX355, 1/4.0", 1.12µm, f/2.2, 112˚, fixed focus; 1080p@30fps
• Front camera: 16MP Samsung ISOCELL S5K3P9, 1/3.0", 1.0µm, f/2.4, 24mm, fixed focus; 1080p@30fps

The selfie unit is still 16MP, no autofocus.

Daylight photos

Main camera

The main camera delivers nice daylight stills with little to no issues. The stills have plenty of detail, look sharp and have a wide dynamic range. Colors are juicy and the contrast is just right.

Main camera samples

However, we noticed a bit of sharpness drop in the shadows, while the algorithm sometimes tries to compensate with additional sharpening. The results aren't always ideal as oversharpening halos start to appear. Notice the 8th sample with the sofas and the table.

The 50MP mode isn't recommended as it produces extremely soft pictures.

50MP main camera samples

And here are some portraits too.

Portraits: Normal • Portrait mode

2x zoom camera

The 2x zoom camera offers near-identical processing with plenty of color, nice contrast and wide dynamic range. But to our surprise, sharpness and the amount of resolved detail were better. Let's just say we are extremely happy with the 2x zoom quality. The shooter remains consistent indoors too.

2x zoom camera samples

And some portraits too.

2x Portraits: Normal • Portrait mode

Ultrawide camera

The ultrawide camera is rather disappointing, although we didn't have high hopes to begin with. The photos are soft, lack fine detail, have limited dynamic range, and have anemic colors.

Ultrawide camera samples

Selfies

At first glance, the selfies are likable. They have punchy colors, a wide dynamic range and nice contrast. However, they seem a bit on the soft side, almost as if they are out of focus. Indoor selfies look slightly softer but maintain the same level of quality in general.

Selfies

Low-light photos

Main camera

Even if you are shooting in the standard Photo mode, the system will resort to the dedicated Night mode if necessary. In our case, the Night mode was active in all scenes and cameras.

Main camera samples

The main camera samples look pretty solid. They are clean, sharp, detailed and offer a wide dynamic range. Maybe even a bit too sharp at times. The Night mode seems a bit too aggressive at times and boosts the sharpness a bit too much, creating an artificial look.

Objectively speaking, the samples are excellent there are a few things to note here. The color temperature is warmer than it should be, the shadows tend to be darker, and the contrast is slightly boosted. This creates a more realistic and maybe sometimes grim look. It's up to you to decide whether you like it or not.

2x zoom camera

The 2x zoom camera produces similar-looking stills but with even warmer color temperature. They are also slightly softer than the main camera, but that's to be expected.

2x zoom camera samples

In any case, the 2x zoom shots are relatively sharp, detailed and offer wide dynamic range with the same tendency to keep the shadows darker than what we are used to seeing from other Night modes.

Ultrawide camera

We weren't expecting much from the dated 8MP sensor, but the nighttime still turned out decent. They are okay in terms of detail and noise, but contrast is low, colors are bland, color temperature is way too warm, and sharpness is sometimes unideal. Dynamic needs some work too, judging by the clipped highlights. And in stark contrast to the other two cameras, the ultrawide's photos come out with overly-bright shadows.

Ultrawide camera samples

Video recording

The OnePlus 13R supports video recording at up to 4K at 60fps with its main and 2x zoom cameras, while the ultrawide is capped at 1080p@30fps due to the limited resolution. The selfie unit is also capped at 1080@30fps.

When it comes to quality, the daylight clip taken with the main camera seems sufficiently sharp, with good dynamic range and plenty of detail. However, it could definitely use some color. It looks a bit pale to our liking.

The 2x zoom video seems slightly better in this regard, but it fails to impress with sharpness and objects in the shadows are quite soft too. We could notice some noise creeping in as well. We've definitely seen better 2x zoom videos.

You can check out the playlist below, which includes multiple video samples.

It's needless to say that the ultrawide video is very underwhelming. It's extremely soft with virtually no fine detail, limited dynamic range and washed-out colors.

The low-light video with the main camera seems to have the same conservative color reproduction, but we are impressed with the dynamic range and the lack of noise. The video is generally clean and relatively sharp too. A slight boost in colors and contrast would go a long way, though.