OnePlus 13R review: A true flagship-killer

The brand-new OnePlus 13 is a compelling alternative, providing best-in-class water resistance, a great cam, and top-tier performance. You can review my thorough OnePlus 13 review to find out all about it. Yet probably the extra intriguing release really is available in the kind of the OnePlus 13 R– which supplies a number of the very same features and only a little worse performance, yet at a much reduced cost. Without a doubt, at$599 99, it’s actually the OnePlus 13 R that could truly be the”front runner killer”that OnePlus desires its much more pricey device to be.

Of course, the OnePlus 13 R does still make compromises to hit that low price point– and several of those concessions get on several of the best OnePlus 13 features. So, is the OnePlus 13 R worth buying, or should you look elsewhere?

OnePlus 13 R specifications

An understated yet exceptional style [. **********************************]

The overall style of the OnePlus 13 R is reasonably premium but not always all that one-of-a-kind. Like the higher-end OnePlus 13, it has a huge round camera module on the back. Nevertheless, unlike that phone, you won’t obtain a choice for the faux leather blue shade. Instead, the OnePlus 13 R only is available in white and black, or as OnePlus calls them,”Astral Trail”and” Nebula Noir. “While I absolutely like the OnePlus 13’s blue shade, the white Celestial Trail color that my OnePlus 13 R can be found in looks rather great.

Image source: Christian de Looper for BGR

One adjustment I truly appreciate for this year is the switch back to level display screens and away from rounded edges. I have actually never ever hated bent edges, however the flat screen certainly looks much more modern-day. The display screen on the OnePlus 13 R is also flatter than that on the standard OnePlus 13 That might come with the price of toughness, but it certainly looks nice. Mentioning longevity, the phone is made from a light weight aluminum framework with Gorilla Glass 7 i on the front.

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Every little thing else concerning the phone’s style is essentially to be anticipated. On the ideal side, you’ll locate the power button and quantity rocker, while on the bottom, the USB-C port and SIM tray lie. The left is where you’ll find the ringer button, a function that I’m glad OnePlus has actually stuck to.

Photo resource: Christian de Looper for BGR

The OnePlus 13 R is missing one significant feature provided by the higher-end OnePlus 13: IP 69 water resistance. While the OnePlus 13 can endure a journey in the dish washer, the 13 R sticks to an IP 65 score. This essentially means that while it can withstand low-pressure water, such as being utilized in the rainfall, there’s no warranty of it surviving real submersion. I would certainly have liked a minimum of IP 66 or IP 67 right here, particularly taking into consideration lots of various other phones in this cost range have it.

Still, I such as the overall look and feel of the OnePlus 13 R. It absolutely looks extra pricey than it is.

A dynamic, brilliant screen

The screen on the OnePlus 13 R is 6 78 inches, and it’s an LTPO AMOLED display, meaning that it can range in refresh rate from 1 Hz to 120 Hz. It additionally matches the illumination offered by its much more costly sibling, with a peak brightness of 4500 nits.

Image resource: Christian de Looper for BGR

The important point it does not quite suit is the resolution, sitting at 2780 x 1264 While it’s not as crisp as the OnePlus 13 screen, it’s still extremely comprehensive, and I question several users will certainly have a concern with its resolution.

And, in spite of the reduced resolution, the screen is exceptional. It’s dynamic and bright, and it feels smooth and receptive. It also houses a finger print sensor, which appeared fast and precise in my testing.

In 2015’s best efficiency

The OnePlus 13 has Qualcomm’s latest and greatest mobile platform in the kind of the Snapdragon 8 Elite. The 13 R, on the other hand, swaps it out for in 2015’s front runner chip, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3

Picture source: Christian de Looper for BGR

So what does that mean for actual day-to-day usage? Well, not much. The performance on the phone is still excellent, and it’ll load games quickly and take care of multitasking with ease. The phone is rapid and responsive and should be able to care for anything you can toss at it in 2024 Sure, there’s a slight distinction in benchmark results, and I’m definitely not stating that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 carries out along with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, but a lot of customers likely will not notice much of a distinction, regardless.

Maybe the only difference between the two chips might show towards completion of the phone’s lifespan rather than currently at the start. Having a newer generation chip may allow the OnePlus 13 to stay high-performing for an extra year or 2 after the 13 R has begun to slow down. That said, OnePlus has actually promised that both the OnePlus 13 and 13 R will certainly obtain 4 years of Android os updates and 6 years of protection updates.

Great battery however no cordless billing

Powering it all is a 6, 000 mAh battery, and I discovered that it was able to maintain the phone running conveniently with a full day of also larger use, and most of a 2nd day. Light individuals could most likely extend it to 2 days. Regardless, if you’re good at billing your phone up overnight, for example, you could find that you never ever truly need to fret about battery unless you happen to video game on it all day or something.

Image source: Christian de Looper for BGR

Regrettably, the phone isn’t quite as flexible when it pertains to billing as the OnePlus 13 It does support reasonably quick wired charging at up to 50 watts with the included power adapter, yet that’s the only way it can charge– there’s no cordless billing alternative whatsoever, let alone support for newer requirements like Qi 2 That’s a little unsatisfactory. While Qi 2 would certainly be a good included benefit, some type of wireless charging is pretty much necessary in this cost array in 2024 A lot of mid-range and high-end phones have it.

A versatile triple-camera system

The camera system on the OnePlus 13 R isn’t as outstanding as that of the OnePlus 13, yet it’s still reasonably versatile and produces strong pictures. The primary electronic camera is a 50-megapixel video camera with an f/ 1 8 aperture. In addition to that camera, it also has a 50-megapixel telephoto video camera with 2 x optical zoom and an 8-megapixel ultrawide video camera with a 112-level field of view.

Photo resource: Christian de Looper for BGR

Two times optical zoom is a little restricting however. I already discovered the 3 x optical zoom on the higher-end OnePlus 13 to be a little low-grade, however when integrating that electronic camera with the integrated AI functions, it’s still able to produce very comprehensive zoomed-in shots. 2 x lossless zoom is something that several suppliers can accomplish by chopping the primary sensing unit without the requirement to add a 2nd telephoto cam whatsoever. I think in the future most primary video cameras will be able to chop the sensor for reduced degrees of zoom and rely upon a telephoto lens for a lot greater degrees.

The camera supports up to 20 x zoom, essentially including 10 x electronic zoom, and thankfully, the AI features that enhanced zoomed shots on the OnePlus 13 are present here too. While pictures aren’t that practical, and you can definitely see that the image has digital zoom, they’re far more remarkable than you could assume.

Outside of zoomed shots, the cam is able to catch lively and in-depth images in general. Photos are fairly practical, though the camera did seem to pump up comparison a little. That’s not a negative point though– I quite liked the stylization of the pictures.

The electronic camera also sustains OnePlus ‘brand-new “double exposure algorithm” technology, which essentially combines pictures of 2 exposures for thorough pictures that still use lots of color and vibrancy.

As you would anticipate, there are a lot of AI-based attributes packed right into the cam. Especially, there’s a brand-new AI unblur function that can hone up images– even those not recorded by the phone itself. And, there’s an AI representation elimination device that can remove the reflections you may obtain when you take an image via a window. Both of these functioned quite well, though neither of them looks as natural as if the picture was sharp or really did not have any representations to begin with.

Regardless of just how the electronic camera catches images, they are in-depth and brilliant the substantial bulk of the moment. That consists of in low-light– which is nice to see.

Scaled-back and functional software program

The OnePlus 13 R comes with OnePlus’s very own OxygenOS based on Android 15 Essentially, I quite like OxygenOS. It’s reasonably downsized and easy to navigate, and there aren’t way too many added apps and services loaded right into the software program to make it confusing. If you’ve utilized a OnePlus phone previously, you’ll find it easy to navigate through OxygenOS, however also if you haven’t, you’ll obtain made use of to it extremely swiftly.

Image source: Christian de Looper for BGR

OnePlus claims that the OnePlus 13 R will certainly obtain 4 years of operating system updates, along with 6 years of security updates. This isn’t poor– though competitors are guaranteeing extra. Google’s Pixel phones, according to Google, will obtain seven years of updates, something matched by Samsung for its latest front runner phones. Still, it’s nice to see the general pattern of suppliers offering extra updates, and with any luck, with time, OnePlus will certainly raise the variety of updates its phones obtain.

There are some AI features that you could discover beneficial as well– like a new AI creating device, which can reword message. This is an attribute that I normally don’t discover useful, but you might.

Final thoughts

Once again, OnePlus is providing an excellent phone at a superb rate. The OnePlus 13 gives a flagship experience with functions that you won’t get anywhere else, yet it also comes with what several would take into consideration a front runner phone rate. The OnePlus 13 R, on the various other hand, obtains quite close to that very same experience at a much lower cost.

Certain, you won’t get the IP 69 water resistance, the exact same electronic camera top quality, or fairly the very same efficiency, yet the compromises that the OnePlus 13 R does make are compromises that the majority of individuals will be fine with. Usually, the OnePlus 13 R is a little even worse than the OnePlus 13 in virtually every way, however it still succeeds, especially contrasted to in a similar way valued competitors.

The competition

If you’re trying to find a phone that does like a flagship and has flagship-tier attributes, but at a reduced price, the OnePlus 13 R is the method to go now. The majority of the competition can be found in the type of midrange phones that make much bigger compromises. That stated, if you like the Pixel software application experience, it may be worth thinking about a gadget like the Google Pixel 8 A.

Should I get the OnePlus 13

Yes. It’s not as good as the OnePlus 13 R, yet its concessions are quickly worth the much lower rate.