Through the years, OnePlus’ ‘R’ collection smartphones have earned a status for providing excellent worth, with the model proudly calling them “flagship killers.” I reviewed the OnePlus 12R final 12 months and was completely impressed, rating it among the many finest telephones I’ve used. That mentioned, the OnePlus 13R doesn’t fairly hit the identical marks—and never within the methods you would possibly usually assume. So, does that imply it’s a nasty telephone? Removed from it; it’s only a bit more sophisticated than that. Let me make clear this detailed assessment of the OnePlus 13R, which I’ve now used for nearly two months.
Unboxing:
In case you’ve used a OnePlus gadget earlier, you may know what to anticipate. Contained in the OnePlus 13R’s pink fielfield, get the gadget itself with a plastic display screen protector utilized, a Sort B to Sort C cable, a pink USB cable, an influence brick, SIM ejector software, and a few pieces of paperwork that almost all of us won’t ever trouble to take a look at.
Sufficient in regards to the field, let’s dive straight into the gadget, and that is the place my criticism of the OnePlus’ newest flagship killer begins. Having used a fair proportion of units over the previous 12 months, I felt that the OnePlus 12R was some of the premium-feeling telephone with its curved AMOLED display and rounded edges on the back, making it not solely simpler to carry but additionally premium-looking, particularly with the blue color variant.
Sadly, the OnePlus 13R fails to dwell as much as my expectations. The telephone has the identical steel body and spherical digital camera module as final 12 months; however, nearly the whole lot else has modified. There’s a flat panel on the entrance, whereas the glass again on the 12R is now changed by a steel exterior with sharp edges, making the telephone look boxy and, frankly, just a little uncomfortable to carry for lengthy intervals of time.
Now, I do know that appearances are subjective and a few folks may discover this telephone interesting, but it surely’s my job to level out the plain that the design right here appears like a significant step down, particularly since OnePlus did such an amazing job final time round.
One other disappointment right here is that OnePlus has solely supplied a minimal improvement when it comes to waterproofing, going from IP64 on the final technology to IP65 on the 13R, which means you continue to have to hold it away from deep water.
The excellent news is that OnePlus has determined to ditch the optical fingerprint sensor on the 12R in favour of an ultrasonic one on the brand new telephone, and I’m joyful to report that the sensor is simply as quick and responsive as the one on the OnePlus 13 (Review).
Show:
The OnePlus 13R includes a 6.78-inch LTPO AMOLED display with a resolution of 2780 x 1264 pixels and a peak brightness of 4,500 nits; 1600 nits in excessive brightness mode (HBM). The flat display screen means it is going to be simpler to seek out third-party display screen protectors for the telephone, and when you do not need to put something in your display screen, know that the entrance screen is protected by Gorilla Glass 7i.
OnePlus continues to ship glorious shows with its Quantity collection, and the OnePlus 13R supplied glorious viewing high quality, both indoors and in vibrant out-of-doors circumstances. The show is paired with a stereo speaker setup that’s fairly loud and leaves little to complain about. A minor annoyance is that the audio system does not have Dolby Atmos help; however, this did not hamper my expertise an excessive amount because the stereo speaker does not appear to be missing in lots of areas.
Battery and software program:
The OnePlus 13R comes with the identical 6,000mAh battery as its elder sibling; however, surprisingly sufficient. OnePlus has lowered the quick charging functionality from 100W to 80W this time around.
The slower charging velocity paired with a bigger battery (up from 5,500 mAh for the final 12 months) signifies that the telephone takes around an hour to fully replenish. However, as soon as it is as much as its steads, one can simply count on it to finalise a full day—if not more—even whereas working battery-draining duties like gaming, video editing, and steady OTT streaming. In case you need particular numbers, count on a display screen of time of around 8–9 hours from this gadget.
The 13R runs on the most recent OxygenOS 15, primarily based on Android 15, and OnePlus guarantees 4 years of OS updates and 6 years of safety patches with this gadget. Mere statistics apart, OxygenOS 15 on this telephone is maybe essentially the most fluid UI out there at this level, with blazing quick animations and ultra-smooth transitions that make the entire expertise fluid and lag-free.
There are a restricted variety of pre-installed third-party get-together apps that incorporate LinkedIn, Facebook, and Netflix. Aside from that, there are not any advertisements to be discovered wherever within the UI; however, that will not keep the case as OnePlus’s OS takes an increasingly Colour OS twist.
Efficiency: That is the place the actual improvement lies
The OnePlus 13R is powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the processor discovered on most flagship units from the final 12 months, together with the OnePlus 12 and the iQOO 12. One other main improvement this 12 months is the pairing of a minimal of 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM (up from 8GB final 12 months) and 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage (sure, it is confirmed this time round).
It is an understatement to say that the 13R handles all of the duties you throw at it with ease, be it hardcore gaming, video modifying,, and switching between totally different apps. I’m not an enormous time gamer, however, I did strive for some fashionable titles on this gadget together with BGMI and Name of Obligation Cell; the telephone fared properly, and there have been no heating points to report.
As for benchmarks, the OnePlus 13R garners a rating of 18,31,677 on Antutu. On Geekbench 6, it will get a single-core rating of 2,236 and a multi-core rating of 6757.
In the meantime, on 3D Mark’s Wild Life Excessive Stress Take a look at the 13R, which comes out with a finest loop rating of 5036 and a lowest loop rating of 2,758 with 54.8%, suggesting the gadget might wrestle with some throttling points. I additionally ran the throttling take a look at on this gadget and the efficiency dropped to around 65 p.c. after quarter-hour of working the take a look at.
Digital camera:
OnePlus has refreshed its digital camera system this time around with the first sensor persevering with to be a 50MP shooter, however, with the Sony LYT 700 lens, whereas the 8MP Sony IMX 355 ultra-wide angle shooter carried ahead from the final 12 months. The most effective improvement, however, is the removal of the gimmicky 2MP macro shooter for a 50MP 2x Samsung JN5 telephoto; sadly, it does not include optical picture stabilization (OIS).
Simply the like final 12 months, the first shooter continues to be a really successful one with nearly nearly as good photographs—each day time and evening time—because the OnePlus 13. It isn’t the very best major digital camera on the market; however, it would get the job executed on most events.
Which isn’t one thing that may be mentioned in regards to the ultra-wide angle shooter, which continues to point out a big color shift and loss element as in comparison with the first lens. The 50MP lens does assist in taking portrait pictures throughout the day; however, the lack of OIS means evening time pictures are likely to get blurry simply and are not usually nearly as good as among the different telephoto shooters on the market.
The front-facing shooter is a 16MP Sony IMX480 that provides pictures with loads of elements and cooler pores and skin tones that we have now come to count on from OnePlus. I do really feel that the selfie shooter loses a little bit of element when taking footage in low light; however, the well-lit selfies come out as sharp as ever.
Verdict:
Purely when it comes to in-hand really feel, the OnePlus 13R is an enormous letdown from the final 12 months, and the removing of Dolby Atmos branding for the audio system and downgrading the charger to 80W are a couple of steps in the wrong direction. The OnePlus efficiency telephone can be caught with an IP65 score, whereas the competitors are attending to IP68 and past.
That being mentioned, the OnePlus 13R additionally will get many necessary upgrades from the final 12 months, together with a way more highly effective processor, a much bigger battery, the inclusion of an in-display ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, and a telephoto lens, making it probably the greatest flagship killers available on the market right now. In truth, let me put it to you this fashion: if you’re out there for a telephone within the ₹40,000 value range, there isn’t a wanting past the OnePlus 13R.
