The OnePlus 13R Shows You Don’t Need To Spend Big On Flagships But Reminded Me Why They Still Matter

OnePlus 13R

If what you want most is a phone that’s fast, reliable, and long-lasting without breaking the bank, the OnePlus 13R makes a strong case for itself. It nails the fundamentals — performance, battery life, and display — with fewer compromises than ever. It’s not quite at the gold star OnePlus 13 level, but it’s as good as $600 phones get.

The OnePlus 13 series is the first major launch of 2025 and feels like the start of something new for both Android phones and OnePlus itself. For Android devices, this is one of the first times that flagship phones are embracing massive 6,000mAh batteries, signaling that 2025 might finally be the year we achieve the norm of true multi-day battery life. For OnePlus, the 13 series represents a major design refresh as the company pushes its phones closer to true flagship status, leaving behind the ‘flagship killer’ label.

While the OnePlus 13 grabs the spotlight this year (and for good reason — we loved it), the OnePlus 13R aims to deliver much of the same OnePlus DNA, rapid performance, and polish at a more accessible price point. After using it as my daily driver for nearly two weeks, I can confidently say it’s as good as a $600 phone can get — but it did remind me why flagships still serve a purpose.

The OnePlus 13R’s design takes two steps forward, one step flat

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Flat displays are in style, and the OnePlus 13R has embraced the trend — for better or worse. The 13R ditches the curved edges of its predecessors for a flat display with squared-off sides, giving it a sharp and modern aesthetic. I’ll admit I’ve never been the biggest fan of flat-edged designs, and this one hasn’t entirely won me over.

Case in point, while its dimensions (161.7 x 75.8 x 8mm) make it smaller and slimmer than last year’s OnePlus 12, the OnePlus 13R’s flat sides make it feel much bulkier in the hand. It’s also a lot less comfortable for one-handed use than its curvier predecessor, but hey, maybe that’s just me. Everyone else seems to be loving this trend, and it does mean you’ll encounter fewer ghost touches on the flatter display than we found with the OnePlus 12R.

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On the plus side, the OnePlus 13R looks gorgeous. Mine is the Astral Trail variant, which has a silver-white frosted finish with subtle yet eye-catching concentric rings spreading out from the circular camera module (the other colorway, Nebula Noir, looks a little more generic). The camera bump does stick out a bit, but thankfully, it doesn’t cause any annoying table wobble. That said, I do worry about scratching the glass over the lenses when placing it down. A slightly raised edge around the camera island would have been a thoughtful touch.

The frosted matte finish isn’t just pretty; it’s practical, too. Fingerprints and smudges are basically invisible, which is always a win in my book. The trade-off is that it’s a little slippery, and I’ve already had a few near-drops while picking it up.

Weighing in at 206g, the 13R definitely has some heft to it, but the weight is well-distributed. It feels solid and premium — though if your hands are smaller, you might want to keep both of them involved when handling it. Honestly, I would have loved it if OnePlus had rounded off the edges where the glass back meets the aluminum frame to make it feel less like holding a slab, but again, I realize I’m in the dwindling minority here.

Now, let’s talk buttons and ports. The iconic OnePlus alert slider is here and sits on the left edge for quick access to silent mode. At the bottom, you’ll find the USB 2.0 Type-C port, a speaker grille, and the SIM tray, while the top has an IR blaster — a nifty addition for those moments when the TV remote mysteriously disappears.

One notable improvement this year is the IP65 rating, protecting the phone against dust and water splashes. While an IP68 rating would have offered more robust water resistance, the IP65 rating should be sufficient for most everyday situations with protection against water sprays and jets, and it’s encouraging to know that OnePlus has put the phone through official testing. Rounding things off is Gorilla Glass 7i on the front, which is a recently launched cover glass designed especially for affordable phones. We’ll have to see how this holds up over time, but Corning’s tests suggest it’ll be about on par with its Gorilla Glass Victus flagship glass from 2020.

Display upgrades

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The OnePlus 13R’s display delivers an experience that punches well above its price tag. It’s a 6.78-inch AMOLED panel with a 2,780 x 1,264 resolution — identical to 2024’s 12R but with some meaningful upgrades in brightness. With 1,800 nits in High Brightness Mode and a peak of 6,000 nits, it’s bright enough to stay visible even under harsh sunlight.

OnePlus has done a fantastic job minimizing bezels and creating an almost uniform look around the display. Colors look vibrant and punchy, and the 10-bit panel supports HDR10 Plus for enhanced video quality. HDR content streamed perfectly fine on YouTube and Prime Video, though I couldn’t get Netflix to play HDR content as intended on the software build I had. Hopefully this gets fixed in stable builds.

Whether I was scrolling through social media or taking pictures outdoors, visibility was never an issue.

The phone also supports Aqua Touch 2.0, a really practical feature that allows you to use the display with wet fingers, in the rain, or even with gloves. An optical fingerprint scanner sits under the display, and it works fast and reliably enough that I never had to think about it.

Thanks to LTPO4 technology, the display supports an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz. Whether I was scrolling through apps or navigating the UI, everything felt smooth and responsive. In fact, compared to my $1,800 Galaxy Z Fold 5, the OnePlus 13R actually felt more flagship-like in terms of overall fluidity.

The OnePlus 13R’s earpiece doubles as a second speaker, complementing the bottom-firing main speaker for stereo output. It’s pretty loud and doesn’t distort even at max volume, though I would say that flagship phones offer slightly more depth and richness to the sound compared to OnePlus’ affordable offering.

The OnePlus 13R doesn’t settle on performance

OnePlus has ditched the entry-level 8GB/128GB configuration on its predecessor, as the OnePlus 13R comes standard with a generous 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage. You can see how it fares in benchmarks compared to some of its competitors.

What truly matters is how the phone feels in everyday use, and in that regard, the OnePlus 13R absolutely shines. Apps launch in a flash, multitasking is a breeze, and I never once experienced any lag or stutter, even when juggling multiple apps and demanding tasks.

Gaming on this phone is pure joy. The powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, combined with the bright 120Hz display, delivers a truly enjoyable gaming experience. It’s not in the same league as phones powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite, but it can handle the most demanding games, such as Genshin Impact, PUBG, and COD Mobile, better than most phones in its price range, which is reflected in its impressive benchmark scores.

I played multiple rounds of PUBG with the graphics set to “Smooth,” the frame rate set to 120fps, and the fps meter rarely dipped below 110. Even after 30 minutes, the experience was smooth and responsive, with no noticeable frame drops or stuttering. However, while testing Genshin Impact at high graphics and 60fps, the phone was hovering closer to 45fps most of the time.

Rushil Agrawal / Android Authority

OnePlus claims the aluminum mid-frame features a “built-in firewall design” to dissipate heat more effectively. There’s also an under-display temperature sensor to monitor and regulate the phone’s temperature during intensive tasks. I did notice a slight warmth while running Genshin Impact and right after a 3DMark stress test, but it never got uncomfortably hot, even under those extremely demanding circumstances.

The OnePlus 13R’s 6,000mAh battery was one of the features I was most excited to test — and it didn’t disappoint. From the first charge, it gave me a taste of what it’s like to live without battery anxiety. With moderate use, including browsing, social media, and video streaming, the phone easily lasted two full days. On heavier days, which included more than six hours of screen-on time, it still finished with over 25% left.

It can be argued that despite the larger battery, the 13R’s endurance feels similar to that of the 12R’s 5,500mAh cell. But it’s still impressive that OnePlus managed to fit this larger battery into a frame that’s both thinner and lighter than the 12R. That’s thanks to the new Silicon Carbon battery, which improves efficiency and heat management and should make the 13R more reliable under heavier workloads.

The only minor drawback is the slower charging speeds compared to the OnePlus 12R. While still fast, the 13R takes around 55 minutes to fully charge its single-cell battery, compared to the 12R’s 40-minute charge time. That said, you still get the 80W SuperVOOC charger in the box — though it’s a USB-A brick instead of USB-C, which feels outdated for 2025. Also, there’s still no wireless charging here. This was pretty common at this price point a few years ago, but it’s starting to stand out now when rival phones like the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE and Google Pixel 8a at least offer some form of wireless charging.

Same, new Oxygen OS

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The OnePlus 13R runs on Android 15 with Oxygen OS 15 on top. If you’ve been following OnePlus for a while, you might be relieved to hear that Oxygen OS 15 feels like a return to form for the brand. It’s fast, fluid, and offers a bunch of new customization options, with features like Flux Themes, which makes it easy to match the interface to your style. You can check out our detailed hands-on of Oxygen OS 15 for a deeper dive, but here’s a quick rundown of the key features.

OOS 15 brings Open Canvas to OnePlus’ candybar phones, which rethinks split-screen mode. Instead of splitting the screen in half, it lets one app occupy most of the display while another waits at the edge, ready to swap in with a tap. It sounds promising, but in practice, I found myself sticking to standard app switching, as Open Canvas didn’t feel as useful on a phone-sized screen as it does on tablets or foldables.

Another new feature with a specific target audience is Share to iPhone. This feature aims to bridge the file transfer gap between Android and iPhones. It works similarly to file-sharing apps, but iPhone users will need to download a separate app called “O Plus Connect,” making it a bit less seamless than AirDrop.

Of course, it’s 2024, and AI is all the rage. Oxygen OS 15 joins the party with a handful of AI-powered features, though it’s worth noting that most rely on cloud processing rather than on-device AI. The OnePlus Gallery app now boasts AI photo editing features, such as Detail Boost, Photo Unblur, and Reflection Eraser. The AI eraser seems faster than some competitors’ offerings, but the results weren’t the most impressive.

Intelligent Search is an interesting feature that lets you search for information within your local files using natural language. It worked well for some of my queries, pulling up information from downloaded PDFs. However, it also completely missed the mark with other documents on my phone. It has the potential to be a very useful tool, but its current reliability is inconsistent.

Oxygen OS 15 also adds some interesting contextual features to the Smart Sidebar. For instance, when you’re chatting, you’ll see an AI Reply option. This feature analyzes your conversation and suggests AI-generated replies, even letting you choose the writing style or tone. It’s not dependent on a specific keyboard, which is nice, but the generated replies themselves tend to sound robotic and unnatural.

On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised by the AI Speak feature. It reads web content aloud in a surprisingly natural-sounding voice, with proper enunciation and flow. You can even minimize the feature into a floating bubble and continue using your phone while the article is being read. AI Summary does a decent job of summarizing web pages, though I would have liked the option to control the summary length.

Standard Google features, such as Circle to Search and the ability to use Gemini as the default voice assistant, are also present. The phone will also get four Android OS updates and six years of security updates, which isn’t quite up there with the software policies from Samsung and Google, but it is a marked improvement over the OnePlus 12R’s three Android platform updates and four years of security updates.

A few camera compromises

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Cameras are usually where the more budget-friendly phones cut corners, but I was genuinely surprised by how well the OnePlus 13R held up… mostly. OnePlus has dropped the practically useless 2MP macro sensor from the 12R and replaced it with a far more functional 50MP 2x telephoto lens. The main camera has also been upgraded to a new 50MP optically stabilized sensor, while the 8MP ultrawide camera carries over unchanged.

The main camera on the OnePlus 13R delivers surprisingly solid performance during the day. I took several side-by-side shots with the OnePlus 12 to see how it compares to one of OnePlus’ best camera setups in recent years, and the results were closer than I expected. In terms of dynamic range and fine details, the 13R kept up well with the bigger and better sensor on the 12.

Where the differences start to show is in color reproduction. While the OnePlus 12 leans toward natural and true-to-life colors, particularly with skin tones, the 13R tends to skew slightly cooler or warmer depending on ambient lighting. I suspect this is partly due to the 13R missing out on the Hasselblad tuning that its flagship siblings enjoy.

Low-light performance on the 13R was another pleasant surprise. Even without switching to Night mode, the camera automatically takes longer exposures to brighten up scenes, resulting in well-lit and fairly detailed photos.

In good lighting, the 2x telephoto camera delivers decent shots, and I found myself enjoying the extra versatility it adds to the setup. While most phones manage a decent 2x digital zoom these days, having a dedicated telephoto lens is still useful, particularly for portraits. That said, the difference in quality between the telephoto and main sensors is hard to miss in low-light or tricky conditions.

For example, I took some candid shots of my wife while she was moving around, and the results were noticeably noisier than what the main camera produced. In fact, even the OnePlus 12’s digital 2x zoom seemed to perform better in those scenarios.

So far, so good, but the 8MP ultrawide camera is where things start to feel a bit compromised. The drop in quality is obvious in nearly all conditions, but it’s particularly bad in low-light or indoor shots. Photos tend to be noisy, soft, and lacking in detail, and the colors don’t match the other two cameras.

Outdoors in bright daylight, the ultrawide camera can capture decent landscapes, and maybe the occasional wide-angle group shot. However, video recording from the ultrawide is severely compromised, too. It is stuck at 1080p, and even at that, it can hardly capture any light or details in less-than-ideal lighting.

Meanwhile, the primary and telephoto cameras support 4K video at up to 60fps, and the quality is decent for an upper mid-range phone. Stabilization works well, and videos look sharp in good lighting. That said, it’s not quite flagship-level video performance like what you’d get from a top iPhone or Pixel.

The 16MP selfie camera performs well enough for casual use, producing decent skin tones and details. However, it’s also limited to 1080p video, which feels like a missed opportunity in 2025.

Overall, the photography experience on the OnePlus 13R is perfectly acceptable for its price, but it’s clear that it doesn’t quite match up to the best camera phones. Photos taken on it often lack that eye-catching, social-media-ready polish that you’d get from a Samsung or Pixel. But if you’re like me and use your phone’s camera more casually, the OnePlus 13R’s setup might do the job well enough.

Check out the Drive folder at the link for full-res OnePlus 13R photo samples.

OnePlus 13R review verdict: R-eally good value for money

Rushil Agrawal / Android Authority

The OnePlus 13R is everything you’d expect from a OnePlus phone — blazing performance, amazing battery life, and rapid charging. Add to that a gorgeous display and a smooth, feature-packed Oxygen OS experience, and you have a phone that feels like it punches well above its $600 price tag. OnePlus has even addressed some long-standing pain points with the R series, thanks to the addition of an official IP rating, improved camera hardware, and an extended software update promise.

That said, it’s not without its quirks. Some folks might miss a proper IP68 rating, wireless charging, or a more consistent camera setup. As for me, I just can’t stop thinking how much nicer this phone would’ve been with a slightly better ultrawide camera. Of course, these are the finer touches you get with a bonafide flagship, which is why the OnePlus 13 ($899.99 at OnePlus) has a reason to still exist. Even so, the OnePlus 13R offers a rare combination of near-flagship performance, multi-day battery life, and robust build quality at a price that’s hard to beat. For most people, that’s more than enough reason to make this their next phone.

The OnePlus 13R offers near-flagship performance, multi-day battery life, and robust build quality at a price that’s hard to beat.

If you’re considering alternatives, the year-old OnePlus 12 ($899.99 at Amazon) might be worth the extra dollars. It offers similar performance, better cameras, wireless charging, and a more premium feel — though it does have curved edges, which might not be everyone’s preference. Though, compared to the 13R, it will also get one less year of software updates, and you’re already down another year because it was a 2024 phone.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE ($552.54 at Amazon) is another very strong contender. It boasts flagship features like an IP68 rating, wireless charging, and seven years of software updates. It also offers a more consistent camera setup and deeper integration with the Samsung ecosystem. However, it can’t match the OnePlus 13R’s battery life or charging speeds, which might be a dealbreaker for some buyers. It’s also not as stylish, and Samsung’s main cameras struggle more with motion.

The OnePlus 13R is available in a single 12GB/256GB configuration in the US for $599.99. Pre-orders are open now, with sales starting January 14, 2025. It’s available unlocked from OnePlus’s website, Best Buy, and Amazon. While the OnePlus 13R’s $600 price tag might seem higher than the $500 starting price of the OnePlus 12R, it’s important to note that the 12R’s base model had only 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The 12GB/256GB configuration of the 12R was also priced at $600, so there’s no nasty price hike here.

OnePlus 13R

OnePlus 13R

Speedy performance • Long-lasting battery • Superb value for money

R-eally great.

The OnePlus 13R is everything you’d expect from a OnePlus phone — blazing performance, amazing battery life, and rapid charging. Add to that a gorgeous display and a smooth, feature-packed Oxygen OS experience, and you have a phone that feels like it punches well above its $600 price tag.