OnePlus 13 release date predictions and its pricing, features, and specs
The OnePlus 13 is finally official, the company announced the flagship at a special event in China on October 31. This phone is the follow-up of the last-gen OnePlus 12, which was released in December of 2023.
The previous OnePlus 11 and OnePlus 12 were very similar externally, and the OnePlus 13 doesn't stray too far off in that regard. This exciting new phone is also powered by the latest and greatest Qualcomm silicon - the Snapdragon 8 Elite - which is already stunning the world in synthetic benchmarks and sending a chill down Apple's spine.
The specs sheet is really impressive and the OnePlus 13 is shaping out to be the Android phone to beat this year, so without further ado, here's everything you need to know about the OnePlus 13.
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OnePlus 13 release date
OnePlus' flagship release schedule is normally set for the early months of each year. The OnePlus 12 launched in China in December, but was released globally in January. The more affordable sibling — the OnePlus 12R — followed shortly, with a February release date.
This year, though, OnePlus has opted for an earlier launch date locally, and subsequent global announcement. The phone was officially announced in China on October 31 date and 4 pm (local) time with the global release date expected early next year. Most industry insiders think that we're gonna get a global announcement in January (there's a BIS listing showing that the phone is nearing a global launch).
The latest leak corroborates the above. According to famous tipster Yogesh Brar, the OnePlus 13 will make its global debut in January, alongside the Galaxy S25 series. A OnePlus 13R, which is the barebone budget version of the flagship, should also be making an appearance along with the main star of the event.
| Device | Announcement | Global release |
|---|---|---|
| OnePlus 10 Pro | January 4, 2022 | April 14, 2022 |
| OnePlus 11 | January 4, 2023 | February 7, 2023 |
| OnePlus 12 | December 4, 2023 | February 6, 2024 |
| OnePlus 13 | October 31, 2024 | January, 2025* |
OnePlus 13 price
The price of OnePlus phones has been fluctuating quite a bit recently. The company tried to shoot for the stars with the OnePlus 10 Pro priced at $900, but it seems the market didn't respond well to that, and the OnePlus 11 quickly dropped in price by a whopping $200. Then, with the OnePlus 12, the company kind of increased the base price again. Only kind of — OnePlus simply removed the cheapest, 128 GB memory entry level. So, even though they are now a bit more expensive, you still get actual value for the "increased" price.
The pricing in China is already official, and even though we can't simply convert these to US dollars, we have a general idea of the price we should expect when the global release happens. The base 12/256GB version starts at 4499 yuan (around $600 after conversion), and the top 24GB/1TB model costs 5999 yuan ($844).
There's also the situation with carriers, most of the time when a device launches, there are good deals to be had. Of course, we can't say which carriers will offer the OnePlus 13 but we can again extrapolate from the OnePlus 12 situation. Sadly, carriers such as Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T normally don't stock OnePlus devices, and most likely the situation will stay the same. Your best bet is to hunt for deals on OnePlus' official site and retailers such as Amazon and BestBuy.
| Base variant | Starting price |
|---|---|
| OnePlus 10 Pro 8 GB / 128 GB | $899 |
| OnePlus 11 8 GB / 128 GB | $699 |
| OnePlus 12 12 GB / 256 GB | $799 |
| OnePlus 13 12 GB / 256 GB | 4499 yuan in China (around $600 after conversion) |
OnePlus 13 camera
OnePlus continues its collaboration with Hasselblad, and the OnePlus 13 comes with a triple camera system tuned by the photography experts. The main camera is a 1/1.4" 50MP Sony LYT-808 sensor under an f/1.6 lens with focal length equivalent of 23mm. There's a 50MP ultrawide which uses a Samsung JN5 sensor under an f/2.0 lens with focal length 15mm. Finally, there's a periscope zoom lens with 3x optical zoom equivalent or 73mm if we multiply by the main camera. It uses a 1/1.95" 50MP Sony LYT-600 sensor.
- Main wide-angle camera - 50 MP
- Ultra-wide camera - 50 MP
- 3x telephoto camera - 50 MP
Last but not least, the OnePlus 13 use Oppo's image processing algorithms, namely the Hasselblad Master processing from the Oppo Find X8 series. The latest info from China is that the OnePlus 13 has received a software update, allowing the ultrawide camera to take macro photos.
OnePlus 13 storage
The OnePlus 13 comes in a wide array of memory configurations, at least in China. They are as follow:
OnePlus 13 memory variants:
- 12GB/256 GB UFS 4.0
- 12GB/512 GB UFS 4.0
- 16GB/512 GB UFS 4.0
- 24GB/1TB UFS 4.0 (China only)
Sadly, we have information that the 24GB/1TB configuration won't be coming out of China. According to a recent leak, the global version of the OnePlus 13 will only get the base 12GB/256GB option, plus the 16GB/512GB variant.
OnePlus 13 design
The OnePlus 13 follows the same design philosophy as its predecessors. The signature circular camera housing with Hasselblad branding is still present, slightly offset to the left. The screen is now almost flat with 2.5D curves all around (technically it's called a full depth soft edge straight screen).
The overall design is our "favorite" glass and metal sandwich, but fair play to OnePlus, there's a faux leather option in blue, and it looks very cool. The other two colors available in China are white and black, featuring frosted glass.
OnePlus available colors:
- Black Eclipse (12GB/256GB)
- Midnight Ocean
- Arctic Dawn
One thing worth mentioning is that the base 12GB/256GB model will be available only in Black Eclipse globally, or at least that's what the latest leaks say.
One final design element that's kind of a trademark is the mute slider, it is present on the OnePlus 13 and comes with a textured brushed metal design. There's also some high level water and dust protection. We're talking about an IP69 rating in addition to the more common IP68. Here the "9" stands for high-pressure hot water jets, emphasis on hot. It's an improved rating but we don't recommend boiling the OnePlus 13.
OnePlus 13 display
OnePlus has been using excellent OLED panels from Samsung for years now, but this year the company has decided to give BOE panels a shot. The OnePlus 13 comes with a 6.82-inch AMOLED panel made by the Chinese manufacturer. It's a LTPO capable of doing 1-120Hz refresh rates dynamically, it also supports 10 bit colors, comes with a 2K resolution (3168×1440), and has a pixel density of 510 PPI.
OnePlus boasted an A++ rating from DisplayMate during the official unveiling event, and also shared a long list of 21 records tied with the display of the OnePlus 13. The listed peak brightness is 4,500 nits, and there's a special Crystal Shield glass to protect the display (with some ceramic fused in it). There are some eye-protection features baked in as well, such as bright eyes and low flicker, full brightness DC dimming, sun display, and sleep mode.
OnePlus 13 battery
OnePlus has managed to cram in a rather big 6,000 mAh battery inside the OnePlus 13. The company calls this battery Glacier Battery and we're pretty sure it uses a hybrid silicon-carbon technology, where there's silicon fused into the carbon anode of the battery to improve the overall capacity. Honor was the first brand to commercialize the technology in its Magic 6 Pro series (outside China), and we're now seeing the tech in other Far East brands such as Vivo and now OnePlus.
In terms of charging, the SuperVooc fast charging tech is onboard the OnePlus 13 and strong as ever, offering 100W of wired charging support, and 50W through the proprietary air-cooled wireless charger of the company.
OnePlus 13 features and software
OnePlus equips its phones with Oxygen OS (ColorOS in China) — a light reskin of Android, which adds some quality of life features and some customization options, but not much. Very practical one-hand use gestures that allow you to reach all the icons on your home screen with a single swipe, custom Always On Display animations, a Zen Mode that lets you take a break or turn your screen black and white.
Otherwise, the interface looks and feels very much "vanilla", which also allows it to be super light and snappy. We've enjoyed the OnePlus software for years now — and the same is true with the OnePlus 13. What the OnePlus software specializes in — and it shares that with Oppo — is extremely intuitive and fast gestures to get around the interface quickly and easily. Enter one-hand mode, or split-screen, or take a screenshot with just a motion. There's plenty of customization on how it looks and it gives you ways to personalize the workflow to an extent.
The Chinese version of the OS comes with its own AI assistant and a bunch of features, which are very familiar. The assistant is called Super Xiaobu Assistant and you can converse with it, ask it questions, there's also a circle to search alternative, AI Voice summary, photo editing features, and more. We're pretty sure these won't be the same on the global version and we'll have to wait and see if we're gonna get Gemini integration or other third-party LLC on the OnePlus 13.
OnePlus 13 hardware and specs
One of the biggest features of the OnePlus 13 is the silicon onboard, the beating heart of the device, the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. This mobile processor has been generating hype in the past couple of months with leaked Geekbench scores, showing performance close to (and sometimes better than) the A18 Pro, the current smartphone champion.
During the official unveiling OnePlus shared some AnTuTu scores (3186834 points) but we'll have to wait and run our own benchmarks to judge the performance of the OnePlus 13. There's a redesigned vapor chamber onboard (9925mm²) to deal with all the heat from that 4.1GHz performance core, and there's also a new vibration motor (Bionic Vibration Motor Turbo), one that uses an N54 neodymium magnet and has a total volume of 603 mm3 to offer tight and strong vibration.
Last but not least, there's a 24GB RAM variant, it's the fast LLPDDR5X variant to cope with heavy applications, AI and LLM, and everything you can throw at the device. The base RAM configuration starts at 12GB which is also pretty decent. You can spec the OnePlus with up to 1TB of storage as well.
Should I wait for OnePlus 13?
The OnePlus 13 made a serious bid to take the Android crown. The phone comes with top specs all around, from the excellent BOE display, the huge battery, fast charging, ample chipset, to the Hasselblad-infused camera system, this phone shapes out to be the Android flagship to beat.
- You should wait for OnePlus 13 if you have a OnePlus 11 or even a OnePlus 9 Pro that's still serving you well. If you also come from older Android flagship such as a Galaxy S22, or an iPhone 12, a potential switch to the OnePlus 13 could bring much to your smartphone table.
- You should not wait for OnePlus 13 if you've already pulled the trigger on a 2024 flagship such as the iPhone 16 series, or a Galaxy S24. Alternatively, if you own a OnePlus 12 the upgrades might not be substantial enough to justify the switch.
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