iPhone 17 Pro Max vs OnePlus 13 preview: nobody settles!

So, even though the iPhones are now official, we are still lacking some of the specs that Apple doesn't like to talk about — exact amount of RAM and battery capacity. Which is why we are still going off of rumors or informed speculation.

Apple typically has four-five colors on its Pro models. For 2025, we got a surprise — three colors only! Well, at least one of them is somewhat vibrant and fun, that being the Cosmic Orange. Your other options are Deep Blue, and Silver. No black, not even Space Gray!

OnePlus 13 comes in Black Eclipse, Midnight Ocean, or Acrtic Dawn. What's fun about OnePlus is that you are not picking color — you are also literally picking your finish, as some colors have a matte glass back, others — faux leather.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max has a 6.9-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display with dynamic 1-120 Hz ProMotion, just as before. The OnePlus 13 rivals that with its own 6.8-inch AMOLED panel with 120 Hz. 

But hey, Apple also has a new 7-layer anti-reflection concoction applied on the screen, which has my ears perked. Technically, it should my eyes — I can't wait to see how effective it is. Other than that, the display is cited as hitting 3,000 nits peak brightness, which is nothing to snark at.

The OnePlus 13 does have the impressive-sounding 4,500 nit peak brightness, but that's a momentary measurement for a small section of the screen. It won't be much brighter, in general, than the iPhone (as it's not much brighter than the iPhone 16 Pro Max).

Apple has new A19 Pro chips for the new iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max. Built on a 3 nm process, it'll be faster than last year's model and — hopefully — heat up slower thanks to a new vapor cooling chamber backing it up. It may finally achieve the gamer device status that Apple has been chasing for the past couple of years.

Same goes for the 3 nm Snapdragon 8 Elite inside the OnePlus 13 — it rivals Apple's silicon and, depending on manufacturer and implementation, can even get sustained results. While the OnePlus 13 isn't a gaming phone or anything, it had some pretty impressive thermal management, managing to keep benchmark scores high for longer.

It looks like the iPhone 17 Pro Max might finally break the 12 GB RAM barrier — and honestly, it makes sense. Apple has traditionally been conservative with RAM, relying instead on tight hardware-software integration. But the game is changing. With AI features slowly becoming a staple and Apple Intelligence pushing more on-device processing, the need for more memory is no longer optional—it’s necessary. While Apple doesn't talk about RAM specifically, speculation about 12 GB at least on the Pro models is rampant. And that makes sense, especially considering that iPhones are meant to live and run new features for at least 5 years post release.

The OnePlus 13 already comes with 12 GB RAM at its base 256 GB storage tier, but goes up to 16 GB RAM on the 512 GB model. The iPhone 17 Pro Max starts at 256 GB as before, but now tops out at 2 TB storage for the first time ever. If you have the cash!

The iPhone 17 Pro Max will ship with iOS 26, and the new Liquid Glass aesthetic brings subtle transparency, layering, and animation across the entire OS. If you opt for the new “Clear Look” mode, it becomes even more pronounced — a full-on glassy interface makeover.

There’s more than just eye candy, though. The Music app has been revamped with animated album art. Notifications can now interact with a dynamic wallpaper that shifts with the time of day. The lock screen also gets a fresh animated feel.

Elsewhere, the Camera app has been simplified — you only see the essentials up front, and swipe to access everything else. And there are new functional tools in Phone and Messages, like Call Screening, Spam Message Filtering, and Live Translate — a long-awaited Apple answer to Android’s real-time call interpretation.

You also get small quality-of-life refinements: smarter rerouting in Maps, decluttered Photos layout, and, finally, typing indicators and chat backgrounds in Messages.

Both the iPhone 17 Pro Max and OnePlus 13 have AI features baked in, but Apple’s long-term vision for Apple Intelligence isn’t fully rolling out until 2026. That said, the A19 Pro and supposed 12 GB of RAM are being positioned to power those features down the road. In contrast, OnePlus leans more on Google’s Gemini integration, offering a lighter AI layer on top of Android 15.

The OnePlus 13 is promised four years of Android updates and six years of security patches. Apple, as usual, should support the iPhone 17 Pro Max for five to six years. We are open to being surprised, though?

Apple throws everything at the camera, and it does show — iPhones are very consistent and dependable with photos, easily the best for recording video. The OnePlus 13 costs about $300 less than the current iPhone 16 Pro Max, so it will definitely be more affordable than the 17 Pro Max. But that doesn't mean its cameras are $300 worse — OnePlus has been putting a lot of muscle (and a Hasselblad partnership) behind that, too!

On the back, the iPhone 17 Pro packs not one, not two, but three 48 MP Fusion cameras. “Fusion,” in Apple-speak, basically means sensor crop sorcery. The idea is simple — Apple slices into those big sensors just enough to mimic “lossless” zoom and pretend it’s swapping between different lenses. The result? You can shoot at up to 8x and still get crisp 12 MP shots that feel “optical.” Beyond that, you’re in digital territory — now boosted to a max of 40x. Impressive leap from last year’s 25x, sure… but nowhere near the competition's 100x or even 120x (where OnePlus13 is at).

The front camera also gets a glow-up. All iPhone 17 models now sport a 24 MP selfie shooter. But — plot twist — you never actually use all 24 megapixels. Why? Because the sensor is an oddball, almost square in shape, not your regular 4:3 rectangle. Apple crops into it cleverly to give you a familiar wide selfie look while also sneaking in extra stabilization for FaceTime calls and TikTok runs. And, of course, if you leave Center Stage on, the iPhone will do its “AI director” thing — zooming in when it’s just you, zooming out when friends crash the frame. It’s the most Apple way to say, “Don’t worry, we’ll handle the framing for you.”

The OnePlus 13 feels really nice with its triple cameras, offering a lot of versatility and pretty good quality. It got 145 overall points on our camera benchmark test, which is only 9 points below the iPhone 16 Pro Max. So, unless the iPhone 7 Pro Max makes some major leaps — the OnePlus 13 is still in the game!

Apple's iPhones don't bet a lot on huge batteries — they achieve endurance with hardware and software optimizations. That said, the Pro Max units have felt the pressure from the other top-tier competitors, and every year inch closer and closer to that 5,000 mAh cell, which is now standard in Android line. The iPhone 17 Pro Max is said to have between 4,700 and 5,000 mAh, but we don't ahve the specific numbers right now. What Apple does say is "39 hours of video playback", which is 6 hours more than what the iPhone 16 Pro Max was cited to have. So, take that for what it is.

Meanwhile, OnePlus has already passed that threshold comfortably, offering a pretty enduring OnePlus 13 with its 6,000 mAh cell that also charges quite feast with the proprietary 100 W charger.

The good news is that the iPhone finally gets slightly faster charging. Now taking 40W bricks, it can go from 0% to 50% in 20 minutes, Apple says. Pretty good upgrade! Well, the OnePlus 13 is still faster, but Apple finally took that step forward.

So, here's what we know so far about the iPhone 17 Pro Max vs OnePlus 13 specs:

The iPhone 17 Pro Max looks like a pretty solid upgrade. Apple put a lot of emphasis on the new hardware cooling, the camera upgrades, the battery. It all sounds like a solid improvement on a working formula, even if we don't get crazy new features. And yeah, any AI speak was kept to a minimum. So, we are a bit in the dark about what Apple is cooking, but the iPhone 17 Pro Max looks like it has been built with the intention to handle some pretty serious features down the road, doesn't it? In any case, always buy a product for what it is right now. And, right now, the iPhone 17 Pro Max looks like that solid, dependable workhorse that we are used to getting.