A price-for-money powerhouse

Pros:

Sturdy construct with IP65 ingress safety

Newer design feels slimmer

Powerful processing {hardware}

Even the bottom variant comes with sooner 256 GB storage

Sharp and shiny AMOLED show

Good digicam efficiency, one secondary digicam lastly will get an improve

Impressive battery backup

Latest Android, fluid UI, 4 years of OS updates

Cons:

Colours will be iffy in photographs captured in low gentle

Suboptimal placement of fingerprint scanner

Fast charging not quick sufficient for OnePlus requirements

Rating: 4/5

Price: Rs 42,999 onwards

OnePlus telephones with the R suffix have been fairly formulaic over the previous few generations. Borrow the design from their present flagship cellphone, use the processor of the earlier technology flagship, stick the 50MP + 8MP + 2MP digicam trio on the again and you’ve got the brand new OnePlus R cellphone. The OnePlus 13R lastly bucks that development to an extent. But one factor the 13R hasn’t tampered with is the worth this collection gives. What’s new right here, what’s good about it, what’s not? Let’s discover out.

OnePlus 13R Design: A special design that makes the cellphone slimmer but sturdy

Barring the round digicam island on the again, the OnePlus 13R has a really distinct design as in comparison with the OnePlus 13 in addition to the 11R and 12R. The rounded aluminium body is now changed by a flat one and the identical goes for the show edges. If something, it borrows design queues from sure Nord telephones, not in a nasty manner. It makes the cellphone really feel a tad slimmer, and it’s, with out compromising on the durability. The weight nonetheless exceeds 200 grams by a small margin however the weight distribution is even. The cellphone will get an IP65 rated ingress safety, making it mud and splash resistant.

The all matte end on the body in addition to the glass again retains the physique largely freed from fingerprints and smudge marks and makes the cellphone look elegant. The 13R is available in two color choices – Astral Trail (laborious to explain) and Nebula Noir (very darkish grey) and each look good; we bought the latter for assessment.

The proper edge has the quantity rocker and the facility button, whereas the left edge hosts the alert slider.

The button accessibility is ok, however I wouldn’t say the identical concerning the in-display fingerprint scanner, which is inexplicably positioned too near the underside edge.

OnePlus has been getting the location of the scanner spot on (an inch and a half above the underside edge) for generations, which made it ergonomic. Here, it’s worthwhile to stretch your thumb to entry it when utilizing the cellphone one-handed. This was a very pointless change. The ultrasonic scanner on the OnePlus 13 makes manner for a less expensive optical scanner on the 13R; it’s fairly responsive although. A SIM tray, speaker and a USB-C port will be discovered alongside the underside edge. An IR-blaster is current on the highest edge to make use of the cellphone as an IR distant management with sure TVs and gadgets.

OnePlus 13R Display: Excellent show for the phase with HDR assist

The OnePlus 13R has the same sized 6.78-inch show as its predecessor, however not like the 12R, the show right here is totally flat and doesn’t curve close to the perimeters. The decision continues to be the identical with 2780 x 1264 pixels and is now protected by a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 7i. The LTPO4 show has a variable refresh fee ranging between 1 Hz to 120 Hz for a flicker-free expertise and higher energy effectivity. It mechanically adjusts the refresh fee relying on the content material kind so long as you set it to Auto or High. Standard setting limits it to 60 Hz, whereas High allows you to modify app-specific refresh fee and override the system default.

The show has a peak brightness of 4500 nits and is sufficiently shiny even open air and for consuming HDR content material. Speaking of HDR, the 10-bit show is compliant with HDR10+ in addition to Dolby Vision, with Ultra HDR picture assist. Watching HDR movies from Netflix and Prime Video on the OnePlus 13R display is very pleasurable. The color accuracy is kind of good too. You get three display color modes – Natural, Vivid and Pro, together with color temperature changes.

While the Natural mode is basically color correct and straightforward on the eyes, some could discover it a bit uninteresting. In that case, it’s possible you’ll attempt one of many Pro modes – Cinematic or Brilliant, particularly the previous. Vivid mode isn’t dangerous both however has barely boosted colors if you happen to favor it that manner. When utilizing Vivid, use a hotter color temperature choice for higher outcomes. There are extra show tweaks to mess around with if you’re sport for it. All in all, the 13R show is kind of spectacular and customisable.

OnePlus 13R Performance: Powerful processing {hardware}, ample quick storage

Staying true to custom, OnePlus has opted for Qualcomm’s final technology flagship, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. No complaints there as it’s nonetheless amply highly effective for nearly any activity you throw at it. You get two variants of the OnePlus 13R, one with 12 GB LPDDR5X RAM and 256 GB inside storage, whereas the opposite gives 16 GB RAM and 512 GB storage (our assessment unit). Both variants have UFS 4.0 storage, which I favored, not like prior to now the place the bottom variant (128 GB) had slower UFS 3.1 storage.

There’s nothing new to report concerning the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. It has been round for a yr and now solely surpassed in uncooked efficiency by its successor, the Snapdragon 8 Elite and Mediatek’s flagship Dimensity 9400 chips on Android telephones. We ran just a few artificial benchmarks to gauge its efficiency, and see the way it compares with its predecessor. In Geekbench 6, the OnePlus 13R scored 2195 and 6532 within the single-core and multi-core exams respectively, just like the the OnePlus 12 with the identical SoC. The OnePlus 12R with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip may go as excessive as 1470 and 4355 respectively.

The PCMark Work 3.0 benchmark rating was once more increased at 12437 with the 12R scoring 10847. To check the gaming capabilities, we ran the Wild Life Extreme and Solar Bay exams from the 3DMark suite. In the previous, the 13R scored 5013 with 30 FPS common, whereas the OnePlus 12R may get to 3633 with 22 FPS. In the Solar Bay benchmark the 13R managed a rating of 8707 with 33.11 common FPS, which is even increased than that of the OnePlus 12, 8255 with 31.39 common FPS. The actual world gaming efficiency of the 13R was additionally among the best round, with even the newest of video games operating and not using a stutter at excessive settings.

The cellphone didn’t warmth up an excessive amount of both after half-hour of gaming. There was completely no lag in everyday operations with a number of apps open concurrently; no surprises there. This cellphone has two audio system, one behind the earpiece and the opposite on the base of the cellphone. Collectively they produce a surprisingly loud and punchy sound output with good stereo separation. The cellphone is Bluetooth 5.4 compliant and has dual-band WiFi with assist for a/b/g/n/ac/6/7 requirements. The name high quality and reception had been completely tremendous throughout the course of our testing and the cellphone helps eSIM.

OnePlus 13R Battery efficiency: Solid battery backup however charging may have been sooner

The battery capability has seen a big soar from 5500 mAh on the 12R to 6000 mAh right here with none important increment in weight or thickness of the cellphone (in truth the 13R is slimmer). This will be attributed to the brand new Silicon Carbon cell used on this cellphone. It helps 80W quick charging and the corporate bundles an 80W SuperVOOC charger alongside. Given the upper capability battery right here, we did anticipate the charging instances to be increased however not as excessive as we recorded.

Even after enabling Smart Rapid Charging from the Battery part below Settings, it took the bundled charger and cable 70 minutes to take the cellphone from 1% to 100%. If you disable it, it takes 5 further minutes, so would possibly as nicely go away it on. I additionally tried utilizing an older 80W OnePlus charger with this cellphone, and the charging instances had been fairly related. The firm states a determine of 52 minutes for a full cost, and whereas 70 is certainly not a deal breaker given the big capability battery, below an hour could be good to see. Probably a future software program replace can repair that.

The charging instances could also be a tad gradual for OnePlus requirements, however the battery lifetime of the OnePlus 13R gave us no motive to complain. It lasts between a day and a half to 2 of reasonable use with minimal gaming. We already know that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip is as energy environment friendly as it’s highly effective. So these numbers didn’t shock us. Of course, prolonged gaming periods will drain the battery sooner, however it can nonetheless last more than most telephones.

OnePlus 13R Camera efficiency: Good cameras for the phase however there’s scope for enchancment in low gentle

As I discussed at the beginning, the final three generations of OnePlus R collection telephones had a 50MP major + 8MP ultra-wide + 2MP macro digicam mixture. Camera division on the OnePlus 13R sees a noticeable improve within the type of a 50MP telephoto digicam with an ISOCELL JN5 sensor instead of the lengthy redundant 2MP macro shooter. Though modest, the 2X optical zoom it gives is helpful and helps in portrait pictures too.

The 50MP major digicam on the 13R has a Sony LYT-700 sensor with OIS (optical picture stabilisation). The 8MP ultra-wide digicam from earlier than has been retained and so is the 16MP selfie digicam; neither have auto-focus. Similar to its predecessors, the 13R isn’t blessed with Hasselblad’s color tuning or portrait pictures tips. Let’s have a look at how good the cameras really are.

The major digicam clicks some glorious photographs with spectacular dynamic vary in good lighting. Colours are near pure and pictures exhibit a very good quantity of element. The essential digicam does a greater than first rate job in low gentle pictures too. While the small print are fairly good and noise is stored in test, sure color shades like yellow aren’t at all times reproduced precisely in low gentle even with Night Mode enabled. Mind you, the picture doesn’t look dangerous in any respect so long as one doesn’t evaluate it to the precise topic or lighting.

Interestingly, the colors captured by the ultra-wide digicam are much more correct in low gentle. However, the 8MP sensor can’t seize as a lot element as the opposite two cameras. Same is the case in nicely lit situations too. The age of 8MP cameras is behind us, and about time OnePlus seems to improve them on a few of their tier 2 telephones not less than if not the extra reasonably priced ones. The ultra-wide digicam lacks auto-focus and can’t be used for macro pictures. However, the telephoto digicam will be.

The telephoto digicam right here is kind of versatile. Though the optical zoom is modest at 2X, it may be used to seize some good portrait photographs, some first rate macros and is kind of helpful in low gentle too. The portrait photographs have good foreground and background separation, particularly with human topics, and likewise works fairly nicely with different topics like flowers. The macro photographs may have carried out with a bit extra sharpness however they’re very a lot usable and definitely higher than what the 2MP cameras on its predecessors may ship. The selfie digicam is serviceable at greatest.

Moving on to movies, the 2 50MP cameras can file movies in 4K decision at 30 or 60 FPS. The different two cameras go as excessive as 1080p at 30 FPS. The OnePlus 13R doesn’t assist 8K video recording. Super slo-mo 1080p and 720p movies will be captured at as much as 240 and 480 FPS respectively. You get OIS and EIS assist to compensate for shaky fingers solely on the principle digicam. Captured 4K footage seems first rate and could be very a lot usable however lacks the distinction and vibrance of extra excessive finish telephones.

OS and person interface: Latest Android with fluid person interface, with many extra updates promised

The OnePlus 13R runs the most recent Android 15 with OxygenOS 15 out of the field. OxygenOS is just about ColorOS now with a few minor OnePlus extras thrown in like fonts and themes. Having mentioned that, it’s fluid, freed from adverts or extra bloatware and stays among the best Android UIs round with a handful of tweaks to customize it additional. The UI is clean, lag-free and straightforward to grasp even if you happen to haven’t used a OnePlus, Realme or Oppo smartphone earlier than.

You now get a bunch of AI instruments built-in like ‘circle to search’ and some picture modifying choices like AI Eraser, just like Magic Eraser discovered on Google Pixel gadgets. One can anticipate additional additions and enhancements as the corporate has promised 4 years of Android updates and a pair extra years of safety updates for the 13R from the date of launch to maintain it safe and related for lengthy. Samsung and Google commit 7 years for his or her flagship telephones, however 4 main Android updates isn’t dangerous in any respect for a cellphone promoting for about half their value.

Final phrases:

The OnePlus 13R is priced at Rs 42,999 for the 256 GB storage variant and Rs 47,999 for its 512 GB variant, with a one yr guarantee on the gadget and lifelong guarantee on the show in case you get the inexperienced strains difficulty. We favored the truth that the bottom variant of this cellphone has 256 GB storage, and that too UFS 4.0. In addition, you get flagship-grade processing {hardware}, a smooth design, sharp show, competent cameras, glorious battery backup and not less than 4 main Android updates, making the 13R a very good funding for years to return and a straightforward suggestion for its aggressive price ticket.

For OnePlus 13R alternate options, it’s possible you’ll test our
prime smartphone picks below Rs 50,000.