Will the OnePlus 13 Dominate the Premium Market? Revealing Tests
After three weeks of rigorous testing, the OnePlus 13 stands out with its record 20-hour battery life, innovative Hasselblad camera, pervasive AI, and sleek vegan leather design, setting new standards for premium smartphones in 2025.
The 2025 OnePlus flagship showcases its standout features: a 5th generation Hasselblad camera with multiple innovative features, the AI-optimized OxygenOS 15, a sleek microfiber vegan leather design, and top-tier performance powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite. It includes Ceramic Guard for drop and scratch protection and boasts IP68 and IP69 ratings for water and dust resistance—Prices: 256Gb at €1029 and 512 Gb at €1179.
Impressive Battery Life
In recent years, we have seen significant advances in battery life. Models like the iPhone 16 Pro Max and the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro have managed up to 17 and nearly 21 hours on a single charge, respectively. OnePlus phones have also demonstrated their endurance, and the brand new OnePlus 13 is no exception. We had the opportunity to test it for over three weeks before its official release yesterday.
The OnePlus 13 Triple Camera
The OnePlus 13 features a triple 50 MP camera system developed in collaboration with Hasselblad, including a 50 MP Sony LYT-808 main lens with an f/1.6 aperture and a large 2.24 μm pixel size for outstanding low-light performance, a 120-degree ultra-wide lens with a 50 MP ISOCELL JN5 sensor for wide-angle shots, and a telephoto lens with an innovative Triprism setup.
The remarkable Triprism lens of the OnePlus 13 consists of three prisms, allowing light to be reflected three times, achieving a 73 mm focal length (about 3x optical zoom) in a more compact space. It is 24% smaller and 30% lighter than traditional periscopic lenses, providing top-tier telephoto image quality.
AI is ubiquitous, enabling smart capture and merging of short and long exposure images in real time, resulting in sharp images with minimal motion blur. It also supports Clear Burst mode, capturing multiple shots while holding down the shutter button, preserving more details and HDR quality than traditional burst modes.
The Action mode doubles the sensor’s output from 30 fps to 60 fps, allowing for capturing fast-moving subjects without motion blur. It also enables panoramic photography at night, freezing moving objects against a blurred background. The enhanced Portrait mode offers 1X, 2X, and 3X portrait modes with professional-grade bokeh and flare effects, plus three new filters and three soft lighting options. The OnePlus 13 also excels in video, offering the ability to record in 4K HDR Dolby Vision at 60 frames per second with all its cameras.
Illustrative image. OnePlus 13 photo
OnePlus AI
The OnePlus 13 integrates advanced AI features that enhance both the software and hardware experience. Its mobile OS, OxygenOS 15 includes:
- AI Detail Boost: Restores cropped images to 4K resolution and enhances the quality of old and low-resolution photos.
- AI Unblur: Automatically sharpens blurry images.
- AI Reflection Eraser: Removes reflections from photos.
- Intelligent Search: Searches local files using natural language.
- AI Notes: Refines tone, organizes text, develops ideas, and formats notes intelligently.
- Circle to Search: Searches for images or text on-screen by drawing a circle around an item.
- Pass Scan: Scans paper boarding passes and adds them to Google Wallet.
- Magic Compose: Provides AI-based suggestions for rewriting text in Google Messages in various styles.
The OnePlus 13 is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile platform, featuring a faster Hexagon Neural Processing Unit (NPU) within its Qualcomm AI engine. This improved NPU offers a 45% increase in AI performance and a 45% improvement in performance per watt, enabling the OnePlus 13’s AI functions to operate more efficiently and swiftly.
A Feat of Endurance
Every phone we test undergoes a rigorous battery life test. We set the display at 150 nits and run a script that forces the phone to continuously surf the web via cellular network until the battery is completely drained. The average duration for a phone on this test slightly exceeds 10 hours, while the most performing devices can reach 14 hours or more.
During our test, the new flagship continued to operate until the battery was completely depleted, lasting nearly 20 hours.
This substantial battery is a wise choice, especially since the screen… ProXDR 120 Hz QHD+ (3,168 x 1,440) revolutionary display (DisplayMate A++) offers a maximum brightness of 4,500 nits, RadiantView technology for improved readability in full sunlight, an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, and Glove Mode and Aqua Touch 2.0 functions for use in all conditions including with gloves. Indeed, Glove Mode (accessibility and convenience), allows for seamless screen use even while wearing normal wool and sheepskin gloves (up to 0.5 cm thick).
It’s important to note that the OnePlus 13’s battery uses a dual-cell series design, with a typical capacity of 3000 mAh per cell, which equates to 6000 mAh. It’s worth mentioning that this 6000mAh feat is made possible by OnePlus’s new Silicon NanoStack battery technology, which uses a 10% silicon-carbon composite anode, offering the highest energy density in a dual-cell series design, at 805 Wh/L—5.5% more than previous generations.
Impressive Fast Charging
In addition to its battery life, the OnePlus 13 also stands out for its charging speed, particularly with its Standstone magnetic case. Although we couldn’t test the maximum recharge speed of 100W available in other regions of the world, using a 50W charger allowed us to reach 65% battery in just 15 minutes. After 30 minutes, this figure reached 92%. “This is quite spectacular and very useful if you’re short on power and time,” we note.
The OnePlus 13 positions itself as a phone whose battery should last you throughout your day. And in case you need to recharge quickly, you can recover a significant portion of the missing power in record time.
Illustrative image. OnePlus 13 charge
Illustrative image. OnePlus 13 charge 50w