OnePlus 13R Review: The New Flagship Killer!

Day by day, phone companies are striving to secure their place in the market and in the hearts of users. Among them, OnePlus is not far behind in this race. They are also doing their best to overtake the giant phone companies in the market and claim their position. This time, they have launched a new model and introduced us to the OnePlus 13R.

The OnePlus 13R is not just a phone—it’s a flagship killer at a midrange price. You should know that the OnePlus 13R is one of the best-selling Android phones from OnePlus. The most interesting thing is that you’re getting almost all the features of a flagship phone at a midrange and affordable price.

When I first received this phone, I was very curious about it. Now, I’m excited to share my daily experience with the OnePlus 13R. Here, I will provide every detail I’ve gathered from using it in my daily life. So, let’s dive deeper into the OnePlus 13R review.

Design & Build Quality

You don’t have to look closely; your first impression of the OnePlus 13R will immediately reveal that its design has undergone a complete transformation compared to its predecessor, the OnePlus 12R. At first glance, you’ll notice its sleek and modern appearance. Unlike the previous model, which featured a curved display and back, the OnePlus 13R now comes with a flat display and a flat back.

This time, they have also made changes to the camera layout. The phone’s clean lines and ergonomic curves make it visually striking and comfortable to hold for long periods. The weight distribution is excellent, and despite its 206g weight, it feels surprisingly light and easy to sustain in your hand for extended use.

The phone features a Metallic Aluminum frame and Corning Gorilla Glass protection on both the front and back. This not only ensures durability against accidental drops and scratches but also enhances its premium feel. The back panel has a matte-frosted glass finish, which feels soft and pleasant to touch during use.

For water and dust protection, the OnePlus 13R comes with an IP65 rating. While this is good, I wouldn’t call it the best. Typically, in flagship phones, an IP67 rating is expected. I’m not sure why OnePlus opted for IP65, but if they had used the higher rating, it would have been a better choice in my opinion

Display

This time, the display is very impressive. For a mid-range phone, having this kind of display is worth more than the price you pay—it’s truly a great value. The device features a 6.78-inch LTPO 1.5K AMOLED display, delivering vibrant colors, deep blacks, and excellent contrast. It enhances your experience when watching videos or scrolling through social media. The screen also offers a Full HD+ resolution (1080 x 2412 pixels), providing crisp visuals and sharp text. You’ll enjoy incredible detail, whether watching high-definition content or browsing detailed images.

The refresh rate is also great. With a 120Hz refresh rate, you’ll experience smooth animations and lag-free scrolling, making the phone feel smooth and responsive.

What about outdoor use? The OnePlus 13R provides up to 4500 nits of peak brightness, so you won’t have to struggle when using your phone outdoors.

The screen supports HDR10+, ensuring an enhanced dynamic range for compatible content. This means brighter highlights, deeper shadows, and overall better visuals when watching HDR content on platforms like Netflix or YouTube.

Concerned about screen protection? The OnePlus 13R uses Corning Gorilla Glass on the display, offering scratch-free and excellent protection.

What about the green line issue? One of the known issues with some displays is the green line problem. However, you don’t have to worry about that with the OnePlus 13R. They provide a lifetime guarantee, so if you encounter any green line or other issues with your display, they will fix it for you. They are also providing a 180-day repair or replacement guarantee. This means that if you encounter any issues within 180 days, they will repair the problem free of charge, or you can opt to replace your phone with a new one. In this variant, the green line issue is not a concern.

The phone uses an optical in-display fingerprint sensor, which works well, and the touch response is good. However, the fingerprint sensor’s position is a bit too low. In my opinion, it would be better if the fingerprint sensor was positioned slightly higher for a more comfortable experience.

Performance

The most satisfying aspect of this phone is its performance. To experience such performance in this mid-range price range is exceptional.

For the best gaming and everyday usage performance, OnePlus has equipped the phone with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, built on a 4nm process, providing exceptional computational power. This ensures smooth performance even during intensive tasks like gaming, video editing, and multitasking (as mentioned earlier).

OnePlus 13R Review: The New Flagship Killer!

The Adreno 750 GPU delivers excellent graphics performance, making gaming and high-definition content rendering seamless. Games like Call of Duty and Asphalt run smoothly at high settings, which is impressive for a mid-range phone. Additionally, with the 120Hz refresh rate, you won’t have any complaints about smoothness. I played various games on this phone, and the performance level was highly satisfying.

This time, they are offering UFS 4.0 storage (available in 256GB and 512GB variants), ensuring rapid read/write speeds, which enhances overall system performance, app launches, and file transfers.

Overall, for this price and the specifications provided in this phone, you won’t have any reason to complain.

Camera

The camera of the OnePlus 13R is quite good. It features a 50 MP Primary camera, an 8 MP ultra-wide camera, a 50 MP 2x telephoto camera, and a 16 MP front camera. The photos are decent, but they could be better. OnePlus should consider further improvements to the camera in future updates. However, the color, contrast, and other aspects of the photos are good enough to compete with other flagship phones.

Primary Camera

Ultra-Wide

Telephoto

The color accuracy, contrast, and sharpness in every photo are satisfactory for capturing beautiful moments. The camera on this phone is worth it, but we hope OnePlus will enhance the camera performance in the next variant.

For video recording, you can use the main and telephoto cameras to record up to 4K resolution at 60 fps. The ultra-wide and front cameras support video recording at up to 1080p at 30 fps. In daylight conditions, the main camera records sharp videos with a good dynamic range, although colors may appear slightly muted. Overall, the video quality of this phone is quite satisfying.

Battery & Charging

Another impressive aspect of this phone is its battery. It features a 6000mAh battery capacity, ensuring long usage times. If you’re streaming videos (e.g., YouTube, Netflix) at high brightness and resolution, the playback time may drop to 15–17 hours. You can also expect about 7–9 hours of gameplay on a full charge, depending on the game’s intensity, graphics settings, and refresh rate (e.g., 120Hz will drain the battery faster). For lighter games (e.g., Candy Crush, Among Us), the playtime extends to around 10–12 hours. Overall, the battery backup of this phone is excellent.

As for charging, the phone comes with 80W fast charging, allowing you to regain about 70–75% battery in just 30 minutes and charge from 0% to 100% in approximately 42 minutes. Though they are providing an 80W fast charger, the phone actually supports up to a 100W fast charging system. However, a downside is the lack of wireless charging support. They are only providing a wired charging system, which is a drawback.

Verdict

The OnePlus 13R is one of the best flagship-level phones you can get at a mid-range price. It offers almost everything you’d expect from a high-priced flagship phone.

The phone’s performance in gaming, daily use, battery capacity, battery backup, and camera is exceptional for the price.

Who should buy it? If you’re someone who wants a flagship-level phone at a mid-range price and prioritizes top-notch performance in gaming, daily usage, and excellent battery life with great backup, then this phone is absolutely worth buying.

In my daily usage, the OnePlus 13R exceeded my expectations for a mid-range phone. It’s not just a phone—it’s the best phone in its class, providing outstanding performance and user experience in my day-to-day life.

What are your thoughts on the OnePlus 13R? Would you consider making it your daily driver? Let me know also