According to IDC data, China’s smartphone shipments have grown year-over-year for four consecutive quarters, clearly signaling a new replacement cycle. More concretely, October saw over a dozen launch events. While you might remember certain phones for their performance, price, imaging, color, or familiar design, the OnePlus 13 stands out uniquely—once you hold it, your hands will remember that feeling.
This was my first impression of the OnePlus 13.
Good in Hand, Good to Eye
For the past two weeks, I’ve been using the white OnePlus 13 as my main device, primarily because it feels excellent in hand.
Hand feel was OnePlus’s most distinctive feature when it started over a decade ago, and remains a competitive advantage for the OnePlus 13. The white version uses a new generation of silk glass, with a surface treatment that’s both coarse and fine, providing a velvet-like delicacy that’s unique—both rough and smooth, neither sticky nor prone to fingerprints. Both the back panel and screen edges feature subtle curves, ensuring smooth handling while making the frame appear thinner.
The camera DECO design in the upper left has been updated to be more concise than previous generations. The new periscope telephoto module is very thin, significantly reducing the phone’s bulk. Notably, the OnePlus 13’s weight distribution is excellent—despite being a large flagship device, it doesn’t feel heavy in hand, which is quite remarkable.
This gives the OnePlus 13 a favorable impression: elegant, slim, and the camera doesn’t protrude uncomfortably.
Another good impression comes from the display. OnePlus’s second-generation Oriental Screen, developed with BOE, maintains high quality with 2K resolution and 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. The new X2 luminescent material provides pure transparency and delicate colors, supporting HDR10+, HDR vivid, and Dolby Vision formats, with peak brightness reaching 4,500 nits for clear, color-accurate display even in bright light. The screen’s flicker and color settings can be adjusted, which is a significant plus.
This time, the OnePlus 13 adopts an under-display ultrasonic fingerprint unlock solution. Well-positioned and responsive, it works even with wet fingers. For added functionality, the OnePlus 13 supports magnetic ecosystem accessories—just add an Extreme Wood magnetic protective case for compatibility. While the case design is excellent, it does somewhat compromise the phone’s overall slimness.
Overall, for today’s phones, prioritizing hand feel and visual experience over simply increasing benchmark numbers is more important—these are true differentiators, and OnePlus clearly understands this.
Performance Maxed Out, But Can Give More
Performance is the OnePlus 13’s biggest highlight.
Before launch, OnePlus built anticipation with a dedicated phone performance communication meeting. As one of the first flagship phones featuring the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the OnePlus 13 offers configurations up to 24GB RAM + 1TB ROM. My unit is the 16GB RAM + 512GB ROM configuration, scoring around 10,000 points in GeekBench 6 multi-core tests. Of course, real-world performance is more crucial.
The OnePlus 13 with ColorOS 15 runs extremely smoothly with excellent task management. Even with 20-30 apps open, it maintains fluidity and rarely kills background apps.
In gaming, the OnePlus 13’s performance shines even brighter.
Mainstream competitive games like “Honor of Kings” and “PUBG Mobile” run at full frame rates with low power consumption, minimal performance fluctuation, and little heat generation.
More demanding games like “Genshin Impact” and “Honkai: Star Rail” perform impressively, supporting 120fps operation. While this demonstrates raw power, more realistic scenarios focus on power management under high graphics and frame rates—about 10% battery consumption per hour of gaming is remarkably efficient.
The recent “Zero Zone” update provided another testing opportunity. Even with this high-intensity action game, the OnePlus 13 maintains stability, running at full frame rates with maximum graphics, responsive controls, sharp visuals, and super-sampling support.
Performance is maxed out, but the OnePlus 13 offers even more.
Last weekend, I took the OnePlus 13 to an amusement park, where battery life and imaging left deep impressions.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3’s excellent power management and 6000mAh battery provide reassuring endurance, easily lasting a full day as a primary device.
During a full day at Disneyland, from 9 AM to 9 PM, I took 300-400 photos, played games for an hour, and heavily used WeChat and Xiaohongshu, yet still had power when I got home—impressive battery performance.
Additionally, the OnePlus 13 supports 100W wired fast charging and 50W wireless charging, making power replenishment convenient—reaching 50% in just fifteen minutes provides peace of mind.
While battery performance meets expectations, imaging brings pleasant surprises.
The OnePlus 13 features Sony’s LYT-808 as the main camera—a 50MP, 1/1.4-inch CMOS sensor. The ultra-wide is Samsung’s 50MP JN5, and the 3x periscope telephoto uses Sony’s 50MP, 1/1.95-inch IMX882. This mainstream hardware configuration shows slight improvement over the previous generation, with fast capture and stable imaging, but the real highlight lies in software algorithm tuning.
The OnePlus 13 shares algorithms with the OPPO Find X8 series, featuring ColorOS 15’s atmospheric imaging—a clever strategy focusing on aesthetics and experience rather than raw lens specifications.
The built-in AI image assistant is particularly praiseworthy, offering effective AI enhancement, removal, motion blur reduction, and reflection removal features. It covers a wide range of scenarios with high success rates, saving many potentially lost shots.
[Sample photos removed for brevity]
The OnePlus 13’s imaging system strikes a good balance between design, style, and quality. While not a DSLR-level imaging device, it produces attractive photos without an oversized lens—both elegant and timeless.
One is All
Since returning to OPPO in 2021, OnePlus has been continuously adjusting. The OnePlus 13’s release signals the brand finding its rhythm again, or as OnePlus China President Li Jie puts it, “stabilizing.”
From its 2013 startup phase to its 2021 return to OPPO, and now completing new strategic adjustments in 2024, OnePlus’s development represents a brand’s journey from niche to mainstream, from million-level to ten-million-level scale.
This year, OnePlus has been prolific with releases. The Ace 3, Ace 3 Pro, and Ace 3V compete in the intense mid-range market, while the OnePlus 13 represents the brand’s final step into the high-end market—covering price points from 1,899 to 5,999 yuan, with the OnePlus 13 best embodying the brand’s character.
One device encompasses all.
The OnePlus 13’s key features are performance and quality feel. Performance is tangible—gaming smoothness, heat management, high refresh rates, and super-sampling are evident features, and the OnePlus 13 excels in these aspects.
But people choose OnePlus phones for more than just performance—they value quality feel: elegant design, comfortable handling, pleasing display, anxiety-free battery life, and atmospheric imaging. These hard-to-quantify details are what make choosing a OnePlus phone meaningful.
Like a well-designed water glass, the OnePlus 13’s experience is determined by its whole rather than individual features. It requires tremendous attention to detail, from material selection to design, thermal performance, and comfort—aspects we might not fully appreciate until using the device, but which ultimately create an exceptional experience.
That’s the essence of OnePlus phones.