It’s a brand new year and we’ve got brand new OnePlus number series phones. The OnePlus 13 and OnePlus 13R were launched in India earlier this week with the latest hardware and new design. OnePlus has managed to keep the pricing very competitive as well. Talking about being competitive, the underdog 
Photos shot from the main camera in 1x [Tap to expand]
This year, the new telephoto camera is a nice addition and produces very good results in daylight conditions. Once again, there are lots of details, the colours closely match the primary sensor, and the image has a good dynamic range.
Samples shot using the 2x telephoto camera [Tap to expand]
Next, the ultrawide camera, which remains the same as last year, takes good photos when there’s plenty of light. The images have good detail, but the colours are more saturated than photos from the other cameras.
Camera samples from the ultrawide camera [Tap to expand]
The 2x telephoto camera is also pretty decent when it comes to Portrait photos. You get 1x and 2x crop in the camera app, and the edge detection is not too bad either. However, the images tend to have plenty of noise and softness in lowlight conditions.
Portrait photos with the 2x telephoto; Daylight (Top), Lowlight-indoors (Bottom) [Tap to expand]
Talking about lowlight conditions, the main sensor continues to perform well, with images offering good detail, natural colours, and a pretty accurate white balance.
Lowlight camera samples from the primary rear camera at 1x [Tap to expand]
However, ultrawide and telephoto cameras aren’t very good when there’s not enough light. You’ll notice a lot of noise and softness in images.
Lowlight samples: Ultrawide (Top 3); 2x Telephoto (Bottom 3)
The front camera on the OnePlus 13R produces pretty good photos in daylight conditions. There are good details, and the skin colours are pretty accurate. However, the camera doesn’t perform well in lowlight conditions. There’s a lot of noise and softness in selfies taken with less light.
The OnePlus 13R can record videos at up to 4K 60fps, and you do get optical image stabilisation, but it only works in 1080p 60fps. Videos taken on the phone, using the main camera in 4K, have a good amount of detail with slightly boosted colours. Lowlight videos lack the same amount of detail, and you’ll start seeing some noise and darker shadows. Stabilisation is good when using Ultra Steady video mode in 1080p resolution, but you’ll see some shakiness and sudden jumps when running or panning.
OnePlus 13R Battery: Massive in all ways
- Capacity – 6,000mAh
- Charging speed – 80W
- Charger – 80W (In the box)
The OnePlus 13R uses a new Silicon-Carbon battery that is denser and larger than before. Despite packing a larger 6,000mAh cell, the 13R is slimmer than the 12R. In my daily usage, the phone consistently delivered over 7 hours of screen-on time. Most of my days usually ended with over 40 percent of battery still remaining. In our HD video loop test, the phone lasted 32 hours and 16 minutes, which is quite impressive but not surprising.
A full charge takes about 1 hour 30 mins
OnePlus provides an 80W SuperVOOC charger in the box, which can charge the phone from 0 to 100 percent in about 1 hour and 30 minutes. I ran some more tests and found that you can get about 40 percent charge after 30 minutes of being plugged in and about 60 percent in 45 minutes. Overall, I’d say this is an excellent performance.
OnePlus 13R Verdict
Is the OnePlus 13R a great package? Yes. Is it complete value for money? Yes. Has it improved over last year’s 12R? Yes. The new OnePlus 13R is definitely worth the upgrade. It gets better cameras, a larger battery with longer life, better build quality, longer software support, and other minor improvements.
As for alternatives, I can only think of a few. There’s the newly launched Oppo Reno 13 Pro (Review), which costs higher but lacks in key areas such as performance and battery life. There’s also the Xiaomi 14 (Review), which gets the same chipset, offers better cameras, a compact design, and also costs about a little higher. You can also go for the iQOO 12 (Review), which, although older, still offers great performance and a decent camera setup.
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