The Sleek, White OnePlus 13 Is Great for Gamers, but Its Battery Disappoints

The OnePlus 13 is the company's first flagship phone of 2025. With the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chip inside it's an absolute powerhouse making it well suited for mobile gamers. That said, its camera and battery performance have both disappointed. Read more in our full review.

The phone goes on sale this week for $900. 

I like the Arctic white color that my review model came in. With the chrome accents, it looks smart and stylish. 

Color aside, there's a strong family resemblance to last year's OnePlus 12. 

The OnePlus stands out against the iPhone 16 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro.

The phone is IP69 rated for water-resistance so you don't need to worry as much about dropping it in water. 

The Snapdragon 8 Elite processor put in some of the best benchmark results I've ever seen from a phone. 

The result is a phone that feels swift and responsive in everyday use. 

The 6.8-inch display is bright and vibrant and you can adjust the color tones to suit your tastes should you want to. 

The cameras are one of the main letdowns here.

While the phone can take decent images, it relies on heavy-handed image processing that adds too much digital clarity to photos. Shooting in the Master mode delivered more natural results than the default Photo mode. 

I also found that battery life isn't great, despite the phone being packed with a huge 6,000-mAh cell. 

While you probably won't struggle too much to get through a full day of mixed use, you'll likely want to give it a charge every night. 

The phone does support 100-watt fast charging though, letting you charge it from empty to full in around 36 minutes. 

It might look fancy and clean, but you don't have to handle it using cotton gloves. 

The phone packs a variety of AI tools, including Google's Gemini and Gemini Advanced, Circle to Search and imaging tools including an AI unblur function. 

AI Unblur actually works quite well, but it can leave images looking a little digital and fake, especially if you run the tool multiple times on the same image. 

Nice and icy. 

The display has a wet touch function that helps it stay responsive even with droplets of water on it. 

The phone runs Android 15 at its core.

While the OnePlus 13 is $100 less than its competitors, if you're into your photography then it's worth spending that money to get a better camera.