The OnePlus 13 is a massive upgrade thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Elite, huge battery, and more
What you need to know
- OnePlus 13 goes official in China and it brings in a lot of upgrades over the OnePlus 12.
- There is an improved screen, revamped design, a new powerful 3nm chip, and giant battery.
- It starts at CNY 4499 and is available for users to book now in China.
- With the early China launch, a sooner global launch is also expected.
OnePlus unveiled its top-of-the-line Android phone in China early this year, breaking the December launch tradition. Now, the OnePlus 13 is already available for preorder in China, and it brings notable upgrades over its predecessor.
The company’s 2025 flagship packs in the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite, Qualcomm’s flagship processor. The SoC introduces a new Oryon architecture built on a 3nm process with significant singing at improvements over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. It also makes the OnePlus 13 among the first phones to feature the latest silicon from Qualcomm, which was recently featured on the Xiaomi 15 series, also for the Chinese region.
Image 1 of 3
Next to the chipset, the OnePlus 13 also has ample storage options with up to 24GB of RAM and 1TB of onboard storage. Additionally, the flagship Android phone from OnePlus also uses a new upgraded Vapor Cooling system that promises better thermal conductivity.
For better gaming, the OnePlus 13 also supports 120fps gameplay support for large-scale mobile games. OnePlus is also introducing a new Bionic Vibration Motor Turbo, which should give you notable haptic feedback while gaming and while performing relevant system-wide tasks.
While the OnePlus 13’s screen size isn’t much different from the previous iteration, it does utilize a new 2K Oriental screen from BOE—the second-generation LTPO panel measuring 6.82 inches with 120Hz refresh rate support. It’s a mostly flat display, although with slight curves on each side. Also, for the first time on a OnePlus phone, the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor under the display is a new addition. Previous models relied on optical fingerprint sensors.
The Hasselblad camera integration is again present on the OnePlus 13, which has a triple camera setup featuring a 50MP Sony LYT-808 primary lens, aided by a 50MP periscope telephoto sensor and another 50MP ultra-wide-angle sensor. The device also relies on a 32MP selfie shooter on the front.
Keeping the lights on is a 6,000mAh battery, a new Glacier battery introduced by the company in June. It supports OnePlus’s super fast 100W wired charging and 50W wireless fast charging. The company is promising to juice up the higher battery capacity to full in a mere 36 minutes.
Lastly, the touch of AI is also seen on the OnePlus 13 across several departments, like the AI Assistant’s ability to recognize what’s on screen and answer your questions. There is also AI voice summary for calls, AI photo editing, and more. The device is shipping with Android 15-based ColorOS 15, which is, of course, confined to China, while the global variant will likely ship with OxygenOS 15.
The device also gets a nifty IP69 rating, alongside the conventional IP68 rating, which should now handle higher-temperature and higher-pressure water jets.
The OnePlus 13 starts at CNY 4499 ($632) for the 12GB+256GB variant and goes all the way up to CNY 5999 (~$843) for the larger 24GB+1TB storage variant. The device features three colorways: White Dew Dawn, Obsidian Sercrnet Realm, and Blues Hour (Translated). With the early China launch, we can expect the global launch of the OnePlus 13 to happen sooner rather than later.
