OnePlus 13R Review: Value Priced, Flagship Performance And Specs

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OnePlus 13R - Priced At $599

The OnePlus 13R offers incredible performance, great battery life and a plethora of features, for a much lower price than competing phones.



hot flat
  • Bright, beautiful display
  • Excellent performance
  • Fast wired charging, charger in the box
  • Refined software with good update commitment 
  • Long battery life
    Sharp, bright display with 120Hz refresh
    ×Fast 80W charging and included plug
    ×Excellent performance with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
    ×Alert slider is back
not flat
  • No wireless charging
  • Cameras could be betterhothardware recommended small



The OnePlus 13 was announced with some fanfare recently, sporting the fastest Snapdragon chip currently available and a new Hasselblad camera array that ups image quality considerably. The more mainstream OnePlus 13R doesn't have those things, but it's still an incredibly compelling phone that offers great performance at a highly competitive price point. This phone has one of the fastest mobile processors in the world, even if it is about a year old, and it doesn't skimp on the screen, battery, or software support—yet it costs much less than the OnePlus 13 and other flagship smartphones.

Priced at $599.99, the OnePlus 13R sets a new standard for mid-range smartphone performance, even without a Snapdragon 8 Elite. Both the phone's hardware and the latest OnePlus Software look great. Add the longevity of a 6,000mAh battery and beauty of a fast, high-resolution OLED, and it's hard to come away anything other than impressed.

OnePlus 13R Specs And Features

Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
Display 6.78-inch 1264 x 2780 LTPO OLED (1-120 Hz)
Memory 12GB LPDDR5X
Storage 256GB UFS 4.0
Rear-Facing Cameras 50MP f/1.8 Main OIS/EIS, 50MP f/2.0 2x Telephoto, 8MP f/2.2 112-degree Ultrawide
Front-Facing Cameras 16MP f/2.4
Video Recording Up to 4K @ 60 fps, 1080p slow-mo @240fps
Battery 6000mAh, 55W SuperVOOC wired charging
OS Android 15 with OxygenOS 15
Dimensions 161.7 x 75.8 x 8 mm
Weight 206g
Connectivity Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC, USB-C, LTE, 5G (sub-6GHz)
Colors Nebula Noir, Astral Trail
Pricing Starting At $599 - Find It At OnePlus.com For Just $599

For the past few years, OnePlus R-series phones have looked like slightly less fancy versions of the flagship phone. That's no longer the case in 2025. The OnePlus 13R has a distinct design that sets it apart from the OnePlus 13 while still retaining some OP vibes. At a glance, you could easily mistake the OnePlus 13R for a Samsung phone, and we mean that in the best way possible. It looks great and feels nice in the hand. All the buttons are solid and tactile without any wobble. This phone is IP65 rated for water and dust, which is better than last year's IP64 12R, but not as tight as the IP69-rated OnePlus 13. 

The 13R has smooth, flat edges and a slim symmetrical bezel all the way around the flat OLED panel—there's no 2.5D glass like the OP13. However, flip the phone over, and it's all OnePlus. This device has the trademark round camera module that OnePlus has used on its phones for several generations. It's not exactly centered, but the flat body helps stabilize the phone when it's laying flat on a table or desk. The smaller camera module also makes the phone less top-heavy than the OP13.

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The display and back panel are made from a new Corning material called Gorilla Glass 7i, which is formulated with mid-range phones in mind. It doesn't quite match the latest Victus glass, but it's still twice as scratch-resistant as competing glass. The back panel has a silky texture that hides fingerprints well, but it is a bit slippery. The aluminum frame on our test unit is a nice, grippy matte black, though.

As you examine the OnePlus 13R, you'll see a lot more of note than on your average smartphone. There are power and volume buttons on the left edge, of course, but OnePlus also has the alert slider opposite that. The three-position slider lets you instantly switch between, ring, vibrate, and silent—it's a fabulous feature that helps set OnePlus apart. The lone USB-C port is on the bottom, and that's the only way to charge the phone—no wireless charging for this device. However, OnePlus kept the IR blaster up top.

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OnePlus has long offered some of the best official phone cases in our opinion, and the 13R is no exception. They fit great and don't affect the button feel. This year OnePlus added MagSafe-style magnets to the cases, which makes a bit more sense for the OnePlus 13 with its wireless charging. You can't stick chargers to the 13R, but it does still attach to other accessories. 

The OnePlus 13R takes a small step down in display quality compared to the 13, but the two are as close as they've ever been. Both phones have 120Hz refresh rates with LTPO technology that can drop the refresh as low as 1Hz to save power. They also share a peak brightness of 4500 nits. The OnePlus 13R's 6.78-inch OLED is totally flat, clocking in at 2780×1264, which is a little lower resolution than the 13, but still more than good enough even for pixel peepers. There's an optical fingerprint sensor under the OLED, and it's as fast and accurate as any OnePlus phone we've tested. 

OnePlus 13R Software And AI

OnePlus has gone through numerous phases of Android software, from Cyanogen, to the fully custom OxygenOS, to the shared codebase with the China-specific HydrogenOS. Today, the software on Chinese and international phones are basically the same, with the main difference being the presence of Google apps and services. That used to be a detriment for OnePlus phones, but the newer builds are noticeably cleaner and more consistent. 

There's a lot to like in the latest OxygenOS 15, which is based on Android 15. It's flashy and slick, featuring buttery smooth animations throughout. You won't get any of the stuttery animations you sometimes see with other phones, even if you're installing or downloading things in the background. We're also pleased to see that OnePlus has pulled back a bit on some of the overzealous animations, like the "shrinking" wobble whenever you tapped on a widget in older versions.

OP13R software

OnePlus includes more customization options that you'll get on something like a Pixel. There are multiple Quick Settings layout options, a customizable widget panel, and the option to hide some of the voluminous status icons. The home screen has also gotten sufficiently feature-rich that you might not feel the need to install a third-party option anymore.

However, this is still OxygenOS, and that means a lot of colors and some more strightforward integration, that lacks some Google glitz. While the phone theoretically supports Material You theming, it's buried in the settings and poorly implemented throughout the OS, to the point that it's not worth using. OnePlus has also "borrowed" some things from iOS, including expanded folders, frosted glass transparency effects, and "Live Alerts." The latter is an out of place and limited take on the iPhone's Dynamic Island interface.

OnePlus has not focused on AI quite as aggressively as Google or Samsung—that's fine by us as many of the AI features crammed into the latest phones lack refinement at this moment in time. The OnePlus 13R has some basics like Circle to Search and Gemini Live, though. The Gemini app also gets a place on the lock screen by default. The Photos app has a smattering of AI sharpening and object removal tools, too. The OnePlus Notes app includes an AI tool for summarizing and reformatting, which is one of the more useful things you can do with AI on phones.

Perhaps the best thing about the OnePlus 13R's software is how long it will remain updated. It's guaranteed four years of full OS updates, plus another two years of security patches beyond that. This isn't as generous as Samsung or Google policies, which promise full OS updates for seven years, but this is still solid for a phone in this price range.

OnePlus 13R Camera Performance

OnePlus 13R 3

While the 13R's camera module looks a lot like the OnePlus 13's, the sensors are a step down. The primary shooter is a 50MP Sony LYT-700 with an f/1.8 aperture lens and optical stabilization. That's the only optically stabilized sensor, though. The 50MP 2x telephoto and 8MP ultrawide both rely on electronic stabilization only. Finally, there's a 16MP selfie camera, a step down from the OP13's 32MP front-facing sensor. Even though the cameras aren't as capable as the OP13's, we've still been happy with the results.

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30mph dog

Taking photos in ample light or outdoors is a joy—the OnePlus 13R captures images quickly, and they usually look great. The white balance sometimes looks a bit off to us when viewed on other displays, but the colors pop without looking artificially vibrant. In more challenging lighting conditions, for example, when the subject is backlit, the OP13R does have a tendency to wash out the subject. Likewise, shots in low light present some problems. 

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Despite assurances that the LTY-700 is tuned for low-light performance, this is where the OnePlus 13R falters a bit. Captures take noticeably longer than Pixel phones, and sometimes even a bit longer than Samsung devices. That makes it hard to capture motion without blurriness. The camera largely avoids unusably dim photos, but low-light shots don't look very good, with second-tier colors and clarity. The image processing sharpens some details, but it can go overboard in dim lighting too. The OnePlus 13R simply lacks the powerful image processing software that Google and Samsung use to clean up photos. 

OP13R main1

The OnePlus 12R skimped on the cameras by including a dedicated macro lens, which took some disappointing photos. The 13R makes a notable improvement here, swapping in a 50MP 2x telephoto shooter. 2x zoom isn't very much, but it will get you closer to your subject before you have to start digital zooming. OnePlus says this camera's focal length is ideal for portrait shots. If you switch to portrait mode, the phone will automatically use the 2x telephoto. We like the images from this camera well enough, but the colors do look noticeably warmer than the other sensors. 

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As for the 8MP ultrawide, it's fine but far from groundbreaking. At just 8MP, you won't get a ton of detail, but it's good for a wide landscape shot. There's very little edge distortion, though.

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Ultrawide

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Primary

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Telephoto

This camera lacks autofocus, which is used for macro images on the OnePlus 13. So, you won't be able to get too close to your subjects with the 13R.

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