The Sleek, White OnePlus 13 Is Great for Gamers, but Its Battery Disappoints
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1 of 20Andrew Rankson/CNET
OnePlus 13 is the company’s first flagship phone of 2025. It is built with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, which is absolutely powerful and perfect for mobile gamers. That said, its camera and battery performance are both disappointing. Read our full review to learn more.
The phone goes on sale this week for $900.
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2 of 20Andrew Rankson/CNET
I like the Arctic White color of my review model. With the chrome accents, it looks smart and stylish.
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3 of 20Andrew Rankson/CNET
Apart from the color, it’s very similar to last year’s OnePlus 12.
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4 of 20Andrew Rankson/CNET
OnePlus beats the competition from the iPhone 16 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro.
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5 of 20Andrew Rankson/CNET
The phone has an IP69 waterproof rating, so you don’t have to worry about dropping it in water.
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6 out of 20Andrew Rankson/CNET
The Snapdragon 8 Elite processor achieved some of the best benchmark results I’ve ever seen on a phone.
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7 of 20Andrew Rankson/CNET
The result is a phone that feels snappy and responsive in everyday use.
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8 out of 20Andrew Rankson/CNET
The 6.8-inch display is bright and vibrant, and you can adjust the tint to suit your taste.
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9 of 20Andrew Rankson/CNET
The camera is one of the major drawbacks here.
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10 out of 20Andrew Rankson/CNET
While the phone can capture decent images, it relies on tedious image processing that adds too much digital sharpness to photos. Shooting in main mode produces more natural results than shooting in default photo mode.
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11 of 20Andrew Rankson/CNET
I also found that even though the phone has a large 6,000 mAh battery, the battery life isn’t very long.
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12 of 20Andrew Rankson/CNET
While you probably won’t be too strenuous to get through a full day of mixed use, you’ll probably want to charge it every night.
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13 out of 20Andrew Rankson/CNET
The phone does support 100W fast charging, though, allowing you to charge it from full to full in about 36 minutes.
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14 of 20Andrew Rankson/CNET
It may look nice and clean, but you don’t have to use cotton gloves to handle it.
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15 out of 20Andrew Rankson/CNET
The phone comes with a variety of AI tools, including Google’s Gemini and Gemini Advanced, Circle to Search, and imaging tools including AI blurring.
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16 out of 20Andrew Rankson/CNET
AI Unblur actually works well, but it can make images look a bit digital and artificial, especially if you run the tool multiple times on the same image.
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17 out of 20Andrew Rankson/CNET
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18 out of 20Andrew Rankson/CNET
The display has wet touch functionality and remains responsive even with water droplets.
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19 out of 20Andrew Rankson/CNET
The phone runs Android 15 at its core.
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20 out of 20Andrew Rankson/CNET
While the OnePlus 13 is $100 cheaper than the competition, if you enjoy photography, it’s worth spending the money on a better camera.