OnePlus 13 review: is this instantly the best smartphone of 2025?

OnePlus has years of experience in releasing high-end smartphones. January saw the arrival of the OnePlus 13. We have been testing the device for the past few months. We share our experiences with you in the OnePlus 13 review.

OnePlus 13 review

With the DroidApp Awards 2024, we picked the OnePlus 12 as the biggest winner. The manufacturer keeps trying to come up with something great with every generation of smartphone. This year, that results in a new flagship, the OnePlus 13. In recent weeks, we have tested the smartphone extensively. We share our findings of the new device with you in the OnePlus 13 review. Because there is plenty to say about the device!

Design and interface

The OnePlus 13 is instantly recognisable as a OnePlus device. We see this through, for example, the alert slider on the side of the smartphone. This allows you to quickly set the phone to vibrate, silent or just sound. It remains an ideal feature of the OnePlus handsets. Also notable is the OnePlus 13's gigantic camera module. Like its predecessors, it is circular and quite thick. Then again, the advantage of this camera module is that you can easily put your finger behind it for just a bit more grip. And you need that grip, because the device is incredibly slippery. So we definitely recommend a case if you want to enjoy your expensive smartphone for a long time.

On the front, we see a 6.82-inch screen. This AMOLED panel has a high resolution of 3168 x 1440 pixels. The display is incredibly bright, making it easy to read even on sunny days. The lowest brightness setting, for in low-light environments, also suffices. What works less well in the dark is the face recognition. In no light, the face unlock does nothing, which some phones do better. It is also noticeable that the screen protector, which is already stuck on the screen by default, attracts a lot of dust. Fortunately, you can replace it yourself with one of your own, of course.

OxygenOS 15 can be found on the device, based on Android 15. We see that OxygenOS is getting more and more features and seems to look less sleek as the years go by, although this may be a bit subjective. For sure though, we see a clear influence of Apple's iOS reflected in OxygenOS 15. For instance, very conveniently, you can swipe the screen from top to bottom to search directly for an app, for instance. Furthermore, you can split the notification window from the quick settings and there is an alternative to the Dynamic Island, as we know it from the iPhone.

Communication and multimedia

Calling and texting are done via Google's standard apps. These work as you might expect. The smartphone's call quality is more than fine, calls sound clear and good. We don't experience any problems with reception either. Of course, the OnePlus 13 is fully equipped in terms of connectivity. For instance, you can insert two SIM cards into the phone, as well as use eSIM. Of course, Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS are also on board, and you can use NFC for mobile payments, for instance.

Multimedia

Multimedia is another strong point of the OnePlus 13. The smartphone has a set of tasty speakers, which can also go at high volume. At loud volume, the audio performance is still quite good. The smartphone's picture quality is also more than good. On sunny days, the screen is more than readable.

Camera

The OnePlus 13 is equipped with a hefty camera module, and whether you like it or
not, it does give you a range of options. This is thanks to the three cameras placed inside it. There is a 50-megapixel main camera, assisted by a 50-megapixel wide-angle lens and a 50-megapixel telephoto lens. This gives you extensive capabilities at your disposal. You can get 3x optical zoom and 6x hybrid zoom, combining optical and digital.

The device's camera app is lightning fast and easy to use. You can switch between different modes at the bottom of the screen, including panorama, manual mode and other options. OnePlus puts an (ugly) watermark in the image of your photos by default, but fortunately you can easily turn it off via the camera settings.

Nice, such a comprehensive camera, but how does it perform in practice? The smartphone is in excellent shape to take nice photos. Colours are usually true to life and images are very detailed. Sometimes dark elements in a photo are captured too dark, but we can say that the OnePlus 13 gives you an excellent camera. Photos are collected in the Gallery app, which also links to Google Photos' backup function.

When it comes to selfies, we are a little less satisfied. Once there is a bit less light, it is difficult to take a sharp picture and the images are relatively often a bit shaky. This despite the presence of image stabilisation. This is also noticeable in ambient light, such as in a restaurant. If you want to see more photos we took with the OnePlus 13, check out our digital photo album of the '13'.

Video camera

Taking videos is, of course, just as easy with the OnePlus 13. We shot the video below with the device.

Performance and battery life

Under the bonnet of the OnePlus is the lightning-fast Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, which we also find in Samsung's Galaxy S25 series. The phone is blazingly fast and our test model also comes with 16GB of working memory and 512GB of storage. Everything runs smooth and supple, exactly as you would expect from a high-end smartphone.

Turning to the endurance of the OnePlus 13, unlike previous models, the charger is no longer included with the phone. OnePlus is following the choices of other manufacturers with this. However, you don't have to worry about battery capacity right away; as the smartphone offers a 6000 mAh battery. That's quite a lot!

A hefty battery does not always mean a long battery life as well. With the OnePlus 13, it does. You'll get through a day without any worries, and depending on your usage, a second day should also work in most cases. A screen time of six hours is quite realistic, via a mobile data connection. If you use WiFi, screen-on-time runs much higher. More than eight hours of screen time can then be achieved with ease. These are values that make us happy! Also, charging is also done in no time, thanks to support for 100W wired charging or 50W wireless charging.

Update policy

A lot has happened in recent years when it comes to updates for smartphones. Brand after brand took software updates more and more seriously. Samsung in particular packed out and stretched the update policy to five years even for its cheaper devices, of which four years were Android OS updates. High-end devices get seven-year updates, even with Google. With the OnePlus 13, however, we see a less generous package of updates. This device gets four Android updates and six years of security updates. That's not incredibly bad for a €1,000 device, but manufacturers do go longer. However, it is another year of security patches longer than the OnePlus 12, while somewhere we also have to remember that OnePlus is a lot smaller than, say, Samsung, but still; work to be done.

Review

OnePlus puts an incredibly fine smartphone on the market with the '13'. The battery life is incredibly good and thanks to support for fast charging, the battery fills up in no time. The sound quality is very good and the display is of good quality. In addition, we have really appreciated the speed of the phone over the past few weeks and it takes great pictures.

The OnePlus 13 is a device you can enjoy for a long time. But do buy a case for it, because at least in this colour, the device is very slippery. We hope OnePlus adds at least one more Android update to its update policy and that a software update can do something about the selfie camera. For the rest; absolutely recommended! Partly because the device is clearly cheaper than the Galaxy S25+ or Ultra!

You can buy the OnePlus 13 at Coolblue, MediaMarkt, Belsimpel, Mobiel, Bol and KPN. Temporarily, you get the OnePlus Watch 2R with it as a gift.