OnePlus 13 – Unboxing and 1st impressions

OnePlus has just launched the OnePlus 13 and OnePlus 13R which are this year’s flagship candy bar devices for the brand. I have been very fortunate to have been able to use the OnePlus 13 for a short time prior to the launch and I have had some time to gather up my first impressions. However, before we get into that I would like to share the unboxing video with you.

As you can see if you have watched the video we have got a few things to look at here. Firstly we have the OnePlus 13 in Eclipse Black and this is 512Gb Storage with 16GB of RAM version. Next up we have the newly announced OnePlus AIRVOOC 50W charger which looks very cool. Finally regarding the phone bits we have the OnePlus Sandstone Magnetic Charging Case. As an added extra I also had a pair of Merino wool gloves included which if you watched the above video to the end you will know what they are all about.

In terms of the specifications of the OnePlus 13 check out this nifty table below.

OnePlus 13
Height	162.9 mm
Width	76.5 mm
Thickness	8.5 mm (Arctic Dawn/Black Eclipse)<br>8.9 mm (Midnight Ocean)
Weight	213g (Arctic Dawn/Black Eclipse)<br>210g (Midnight Ocean)
Display
Size	17.32 cm (6.82 inches, measured diagonally from corner to corner)
Resolution	3168*1440 (QHD+), 510 ppi
Aspect Ratio	19.8:9
Brightness	HBM / Peak Brightness: 1600 / 4500 nits
Refresh Rate	1-120 Hz dynamic
Type	120Hz ProXDR Display with LTPO 4.1
Color Depth	Support 100% Display P3, 10-bit Color Depth
Cover Glass	Ceramic Guard
Display Features	Nature tone display, Eye comfort, Bedtime mode, Image sharpener, Video colour enhancer, Screen colour mode, Colour personalization, Colour vision enhancement, Auto brightness, Manual brightness, Screen Colour Temperature, Bright HDR video mode, Night mode, Multi-brightness colour calibration
Performance
Operating System	OxygenOS 15.0 based on Android™ 15
Platform	Snapdragon® 8 Elite Mobile Platform
CPU	Qualcomm® Oryon™ CPU @4.32GHz
GPU	Adreno™ 830
RAM	12GB/16GB LPDDR5X
Storage	256GB/512GB UFS 4.0
Battery	6,000 mAh (Dual-cell 3,000 mAh, non-removable)
Vibration	Haptic motor
Configurations	12GB+256GB / 16GB+512GB
Charging Wired/Wireless	100W SUPERVOOC™/ 50W AIRVOOC
Wide Camera	Sensor: Sony’s LYT-808, Sensor Size: 1/1.4″, Megapixels: 50, Pixel Size: 1.12 µm, Lens Quantity: 7P, ALC lens coating, Optical Image Stabilization: Yes, Electronic Image Stabilization: Yes, Focal Length: 23 mm equivalent, Aperture: ƒ/1.6, Field of View: 85°, Autofocus: Yes
Telephoto Camera	Sensor: Sony’s LYT-600 with 3X optical zoom, Sensor Size: 1/1.95″, Megapixels: 50, Pixel Size: 0.8 µm, Lens Quantity: 1G3P, ALC lens coating, Optical Image Stabilization: Yes, Electronic Image Stabilization: Yes, Focal Length: 73 mm equivalent, Aperture: ƒ/2.65, Field of View: 32.8°, Autofocus: Yes, Ultra Res (digital) Zoom: Up to 120X
Ultra-wide Camera	Sensor: S5KJN5<br>Sensor Size: 1/2.75″, Megapixels: 50, Pixel Size: 0.64 µm, Lens Quantity: 6P, Electronic Image Stabilization: Yes, Focal Length: 15 mm equivalent, Aperture: ƒ/2.05, Field of View: 120°, Autofocus: Yes
Flash	LED
Autofocus	Multi Autofocus(All pixel omni-directional PDAF+CAF+LDAF)
Rear Video Features	8K at 30 fps, 4K at 60 fps/30fps, 1080p at 60 fps/30fps and 720p at 30 fps, Steady video: 4K at 60 fps/30fps and 1080p at 60fps/30fps, Video zoom shooting support: 4K at 60 fps/30 fps, 1080p at 60fps/30fps, 720p at 30fps Dolby Vision: 4K at 60 fps/30 fps, 1080p at 60 fps/30 fps, Movie mode:4K at 30 fps, Time-lapse: 4K at 30 fps and 1080p at 30 fps, Multi-scene video recording supports 1080p at 30 fps, Slo-mo video: 1080p at 240 fps, 720p at 480 fps/240 fps
Rear Camera Modes	Photo, Video, Portrait, Nightscape, Master, High Pixel, Panorama, Movie, Slow Motion, Timelapse, Long Exposure, Multi-Scene Video, Document, Axis Shift, XPAN
Front Camera	Sensor: Sony IMX615<br>Megapixels: 32, Sensor Size: 1/2.74″, Lens Quantity: 5P, Pixel Size: 0.8 µm, Electronic Image Stabilization: Yes, Focal Length: 21 mm equivalent, Autofocus: Fixed Focus, Aperture: ƒ/2.45, Field of View: 90°
Front Video Features	Video: 4K at 60 fps/30fps, 1080p at 60 fps/30 fps, 720p at 30 fps, Steady video 1080p at 30 fps, 720p at 30 fps, Dolby Vision: 4K at 60 fps/30 fps, 1080p at 60 fps/30 fps
Front Camera Modes	Photo, video, portrait, night scene, panorama, time-lapse photography, multi-scene video recording
Connectivity
LTE/LTE-A	4×4 MIMO, Supports up to DL Cat 20/UL Cat 18 (2000Mbps / 200Mbps), depending on carrier support
2G GSM	850/900/1800/1900MHz
3G WCDMA	Bands 1/2/4/5/6/8/19
4G LTE FDD	Bands 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/17/18/19/20/25/26/28/30/32/66/71
4G LTE TDD	Bands 38/39/40/41/48
5G SA	n1/n2/n3/n5/n7/n8/n12/n20/n25/n28/n30/n38/n40/n41 /n48/n66/n71/n75/n77/n78
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 7,Wi-Fi 6,Wi-Fi 5,WLAN Display,WLAN tethering,WLAN overlay,1 60 MHz Wi-Fi channels over 5 GHz,2×2 MIMO
Bluetooth	Bluetooth® 5.4, SBC, AAC, aptx, aptx-HD, LDAC, LHDC5.0
NFC	NFC enabled
Positioning	GPS(L1+L5), GLONASS(G1), BDS(B1I+B1C+B2a), Galileo(E1+E5a), QZSS(L1+L5)
Sensors	Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor, Color temperature sensor, Compass, Acceleration sensor, Gyroscopes, Ultrasonic fingerprint, Hall sensor, Laser focus sensor, Spectral sensors, Infrared remote control
Ports	USB 3.2 Gen 1, Type-C, Support standard Type-C earphones, Dual nano-SIM slot
Buttons	Gestures and on-screen navigation support Alert Slider
Audio	OReality Audio, Noise cancellation support
Multimedia
HDR Supported	Dolby Vision®, HDR10+, HDRViVid
Audio Supported	MP3,AAC,AMR,APE,OGG,FLAC,WAV
Video Supported	MP4,3GP,MKV,MOV,AVI,FLV,HEVC,AVC,VP9,VP8,AV1
Image Supported	JPEG,BMP,PNG,DNG,HEIF,AVIF,WEBP,GIF,WBMP,ICO

Quite an impressive specs list I am sure you will agree.

Here is a quick visual tour of the device.

Here are some more images this time of the phone in the Sandstone Magnetic Charging Case.

Next up from the box of goodies that I received is the OnePlus AIRVOOC 50W charger.

Here is a quick clip of it in action as well.

As for the last items in the box, there was a pair of rather nice looking black gloves which were put in there to showcase the fact that the OnePlus 13 has an enhanced glove mode that is capable of detecting gloved hands with gloves of up to 0.5mm thickness. This has been pretty handy lately as it has been a bit nippy here in South East Englandshire

So that is the picture and the video dealt with. Now onto how the phone is to be used. Well, I promised 1st impressions in the title so here we go.

Overall, I’ve been very pleased with my limited time using the phone. It’s been working well for me in terms of how I use it. As frequent customers here will know, I have a lot of OnePlus Kit that my family and I all use. So, the OnePlus 13 has seamlessly integrated into our ecosystem.

The camera performs exceptionally well in bright conditions. However, when I attempted to take some shots in near-total darkness, the results were somewhat disappointing. Nevertheless, I believe I have some time to experiment with this feature further. I’ve taken a few shots that I’ll share below. Some of them are quite good, while others are not so great, but they provide a glimpse into my experience with the device so far.

Here are some samples of the zoom levels which are assisted by AI once you get into the higher zoom levels.

As you can see once we get past the 20x Zoom we start getting into territory that is a bit blurry and pixelated, Howeve rit is pretty good up to the 20x mark which is beyond the optical telephoto scope.

The battery life, which I had anticipated from a contemporary flagship smartphone, has been satisfactory. However, I encountered some problems with resource-intensive applications that caused the battery to deplete rapidly. Surprisingly, the same app exhibits the same behaviour on my Pixel phone, so I’m not overly concerned. I’ve given the phone the freedom to manage its battery usage independently, and I’m still able to obtain a full day’s usage, with sufficient charge remaining for the following day.

In terms of multimedia experience I have been very happy the speakers are loud and clear with a good depth and feel to the sound. It has paired perfectly with my headphones (both OnePlus and Pixel branded ones). I have been using it in the car with no problems connected to Android Auto again this was seamless. the screen recreates colours with great clarity for video and photos.

Talking of Photos again, I have also been having a bit of a play with the new AI functions within the Photos app editing suite. The AI Detail boost has been quite useful in that I have been able to improve some of my older photos from the late noughties, which is a nice thing to be able to do. This is made a bit easier as the OnePlus gallery app works really well with Google Photos.

Lastly, the call quality has been excellent, and this has been the case for OnePlus phones for the past 18 months, which is one of the reasons why both my wife and son now use OnePlus phones (the Nord 4 and Nord CE 3 LTE, respectively). The new antenna designs that OnePlus has developed have helped me get a stronger signal when I’m in the middle of the East Anglian countryside!

 

That about sums up my time so far with the OnePlus 13. It is now available from OnePlus’s website, and it is a great price: £899 for the 256GB version and £999 for the 512GB version.

I am going to be putting together a full review soon that will go into more depth about the cameras and performance aspects of the OnePlus 13. I would invite you to come back in about a week for that report.

Until then check out all the new features and whistles at the OnePlus site now