OnePlus has just announced its brand new flagship – the OnePlus 13 – at an event in China. This marks OnePlus' most powerful phone yet, with the company's largest battery and tons of power under the hood – but it also continues the brand's team-up with Hasselblad, with the iconic camera maker helping to design and tune the OnePlus 13's triple camera system.
The cameras in the new OnePlus 13 are not a huge departure from the previous OnePlus 12. Both phones featured three cameras – made up of a wide camera, an ultra-wide camera, and a periscope 3x zoom. Like the OnePlus 12, the cameras in the 13 were designed in partnership with Hasselblad, and feature Hasselblad's legendary color science as well as the ability to mimic the look of some of Hasselblad's uber-desirable lenses.
The main camera in the OnePlus 13 uses the same sensor as last year – Sony's LYT-808. This is a 1/1.4" sensor matched with an f/1.6 aperture which is capable of 50MP images. The camera also is optically image stabilized which should help with smoother footage. The main camera sensor also boasts a huge 1/10,000 second shutter speed – so you can really freeze even the fastest moving action.
The ultra-wide camera has had a small boost to 50MP (up from 48MP on the OP12), and has a slightly wider field of view, jumping from 116º on the prior model to 120º on the OnePlus 13. The ultra-wide angle camera is also the go-to for macro shooting, with focusing down to 3.5cm (1.38in).
Finally, the biggest change is in the periscope telephoto camera, which actually drops in resolution from 64MP in last year's model to 50MP in the 13 – but does get a slightly larger sensor with a 1/1.95" sensor (vs 1/2" in the OP12), the new sensor is also optically stabilized which is a huge benefit when zooming.
Screen
For reviewing photos – the OnePlus 13 sports the second generation of OnePlus' 2K Oriental screen, with a large 6.82in corner to corner screen with a 3168x1440 510ppi resolution. The screen is capable of showing 1.07 billion colors, so you can be more confident with the color accuracy of your edits, and has a peak brightness of 4500nits for outdoor viewing. The screen is also protected by Crystal Shield Ultra Ceramic Glass which should prevent damage from minor knocks and drops.
Under the screen is the company's first ultrasonic fingerprint reader which should be faster than the optical fingerprint readers used in previous devices. The screen also features OnePlus Glove Touch and Rain Touch, which aim to make the screen easier to use with gloves on or with water on the screen or your hands.
Power and battery
The OnePlus 13 will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition, which offers a single and multicore improvement of 45%, a 40% improvement in GPU performance, and a reduction in CPU and GPU power consumption of 44% and 40% respectively – when measured against the previous generation. The 13 will also have a whopping 24GB of LPDDR5X memory, and up to 1TB of storage.
The OnePlus 13 will feature OnePlus' largest ever smartphone battery at 6,000mAh, which OnePlus quotes as lasting up to 1.96 days. The battery can also charge at a super-speedy 100W via wired charging, or 50W via wireless charging – which OnePlus says should get you to 50% in just 13 minutes, and a full 100% in 36 minutes.
Worldwide availability
Currently, as is OnePlus' tradition, the latest OnePlus 13 has been announced only in China right now – although a worldwide launch will be coming soon, and if past precedent is anything to go by, then we can expect a global launch of the phone in a couple of months.
While the major specs for the phone are unlikely to be too different, the international version will come with software optimizations, network band/connectivity, and photo algorithms all fine-tuned for different regions – the OnePlus 13 will also likely come with a global version of OxygenOS 15 – OnePlus' take on the Android experience.
The OnePlus 13 has been announced in three ludicrously named colors – 'White Dew Dawn', which has a silky glass back, 'Blues Hour' with a faux leather textured back, and 'Obsidian Secret Realm' with a black wood grain effect. It is not currently clear if all these will make it to the global version of the phone... or if they might be renamed.
For more on mobile photography – check out our guide to the best camera phones (where you might spot a new OnePlus models).
