Verdict
The OnePlus 13R is an exceptionally capable device that offers heaps of power, superb battery life and very fast charging. There’s a brilliant display too, an improved design and software experience, and you’ll get solid results from the main camera, making this phone a decent all-rounder.
The Alert Slider could do more, the software update commitment needs to be longer and not all the camera sensors are as strong as the main sensor. Those qualms aside, the OnePlus 13R is a super sub-flagship device and one of the best phones of 2025 so far.
Pros
- Excellent for gaming
- Brilliant battery life
- Improved design
Cons
- Ultrawide camera is weak
- No wireless charging
- Alert slider could do more
Buy the OnePlus 13R
Order the OnePlus 13R from the official store
-
Great displayThe OnePlus 13R has a huge display with a brilliant OLED panel that offers punchy colours and good detail. -
Decent performanceThe OnePlus 13R runs on Qualcomm’s 2024 flagship mobile platform and that delivers great performance, especially when it comes to gaming. -
Long battery lifeThere’s a huge battery under the hood of the OnePlus 13R and that translates to all day and all night use, with some likely to get close to two days.
Introduction
OnePlus has kicked off 2025’s flagship smartphone line-up with the OnePlus 13 series, which includes both the OnePlus 13 and the OnePlus 13R.
The OnePlus 13 sits at the top of the company’s offering, while the OnePlus 13R makes a couple of compromises to come in at a more affordable price of £679.
While the OnePlus 13 was the first device to launch on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, the OnePlus 13R sticks with last year’s flagship Snapdragon chipset. Don’t let that put you off though, because if gaming and battery life are top of your wish list for a smartphone, the OnePlus 13R is a seriously strong contender.
Design
- Two colour options
- Flat edge design with flat front and rear
- IP65 water and dust resistance
We weren’t huge fans of the OnePlus 12R’s design when we reviewed it last year. The colour options were boring, the curved style felt dated, and the slippery finish wasn’t one we got on well with. Things have changed for the OnePlus 13R however.
Following in the steps of what is now seemingly the new norm for smartphone design, is a flat rear and front, coupled with flat edges. Put it next to the Samsung Galaxy S24 and you’d struggle to tell the difference until you flipped them over, but that’s by no means a bad thing.
The flat edges of the aluminium frame make the OnePlus 13R comfortable to hold, the textured glass finish on the rear is a significant improvement on the slipperiness of the OnePlus 12R, and the huge circular camera module on the rear looks good as a solo island without the extra detailing around it that we saw on the OnePlus 12R.
I think the camera module would have looked better centralised rather than offset to the left, especially given the etched rings within the glass panel on the Astral Trail model use the camera module as a guide, but overall, the design is premium and it works well.
OnePlus fans will no doubt be pleased to know the Alert Slider remains for this model too, allowing for quick switching between silent, vibrate and loud, as well as boosting signal performance when gaming in landscape mode. It still can’t be changed to do anything else though, and that feels like a wasted opportunity.
As someone who hasn’t had my phone on anything but silent for the last decade, I’d like the Alert Slider to be customisable like the Action Button on the iPhone 16 models, perhaps enabling a switch between the camera lenses, or launching an app when pushed up or down.
There are two colour options for the OnePlus 13R – Astral Trail and Nebula Noir. The one pictured in this review is the Astral Trail model, though if I were to choose, I would pick the Nebula Noir as I prefer the matte finish to the concentric ring detail. Both are IP65 rated for water and dust resistance, which is a slight improvement on the OnePlus 12R but still below many flagship phones.
Screen
- Great OLED display
- Glove Mode
- 1-120Hz refresh rate
The OnePlus 13R has a 6.78-inch display and it’s excellent. I compared it side-by-side with the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max, which is twice the price of the OnePlus 13R, and that’s not something you would have been able to tell based on the screen alone.
Colours on the OnePlus 13R’s screen look great with plenty of pop, detail is good from the 2780 x 1264 resolution that delivers a pixel density of 450ppi, and viewing angles are decent too.
They are better on the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max, with the whites remaining whiter as you tip the phone, but as I said, that phone is double the price and the OnePlus 13R really does hold its own in this department.
There’s superb brightness too, with a peak brightness of 4,500 nits like the previous OnePlus 12R making it great for HDR content, and while that is peak brightness, you still get a decent standard brightness of 1,600 nits too.
A feature called RadiantView means the OnePlus 13R doesn’t just boost overall brightness when the sun is out either, but identifies the greyscale value of what is on the display and dynamically boosts brightness accordingly.
The ProXDR Display with LTPO 4.1 covered in Gorilla Glass 7i, also adapts between 1Hz and 120Hz based on what you are doing, allowing for smooth scrolling and gameplay, while extra features like Aqua Touch 2.0 make for a better user experience.
The Aqua Touch 2.0 tech means the OnePlus 13R’s display still responds to your touch even if it is wet, or you have oily hands, and there’s a Glove Mode for use when wearing woollen or sheepskin gloves up to 0.5cm thick, though the screen’s responsiveness is definitely reduced when using gloves.
Cameras
- Consistent results
- Simple camera app
- Main camera is great
At the top of the OnePlus 13R’s display is a 16-megapixel selfie camera, which offers decent enough shots in good lighting conditions. On the rear you’ll find a triple-sensor setup, like the OnePlus 12R, but there are a couple of notable changes.
The main sensor is Sony’s latest LYT-700, offering a 50-megapixel resolution, f/1.8 aperture and a decent-sized 1/1.56″ sensor. OnePlus has said the sensor offers a higher Full Well Capacity, or FWC, than the IMX-890 found in the OnePlus 12R, which is said to translate to brighter, clearer, and sharper images.
Meanwhile, I’m pleased to say the utterly pointless macro sensor from the OnePlus 12R has been replaced with a 50-megapixel telephoto lens on the OnePlus 13R, offering an f/2.0 aperture, 47mm focal length and 2x optical zoom. It doesn’t have OIS, but focus is speedy and it does a decent job at capturing photos of those things a little further away, as well as portrait shots.
The ultra-wide sensor is the only one of the three sensors that hasn’t changed from the OnePlus 12R, and while it’s not too bad in good lighting conditions, it doesn’t have the same capabilities as the main sensor. There’s an 8-megapixel resolution, 1/4″ sensor size, and there is no autofocus so it has limitations and lacks detail.
Despite the ultra-wide sensor being the weakest link in the OnePlus 13R’s camera setup however, the overall offering does an excellent job. You miss out on the Hasselblad collaboration that you’ll find on the OnePlus 13 and Oppo Find X8 Pro, which might be a reason to upgrade, but the tuning and processing still results in generally consistent shots with good detail and decent colour accuracy.
I’d recommend sticking with the main sensor where you can, especially for more challenging shots, but the ultra-wide sensor and telephoto sensor can deliver in well-lit scenarios. For low-light shots, there’s an automatic night mode that works well, and it’s reasonably quick too with some nice results (again from the main sensor), though it’s not as good as the Pixel 9.
The camera app is well laid out and easy to use, with most features like the new Livephoto mode easily accessible. And no, I haven’t made a typo, there’s no space between those words, but it’s the same principle as Apple’s Live Photo and turned on and off in the same way. There’s also a Pro mode that offers RAW capture on the OnePlus 13R, and a 50-megapixel mode for the times you might want massive images.
For video, the OnePlus 13R can record 4K at up to 60fps, but as with photos, I recommend using the main camera where you can. If you do want to zoom for video or go slightly wider, get yourself into a well-lit environment for the best results.
Performance
- Never seems to heat up
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 delivers plenty of power
- Decent RAM and storage
I mentioned the OnePlus 13R runs on last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 platform, and that means it’s not going to sit with the top-tier flagship phones of 2025. If you want the best performing phone OnePlus currently offers, then it’s the OnePlus 13 you’ll want as that runs on the Snapdragon 8 Elite.
That’s not to say the OnePlus 13R isn’t up to the task though, and until a couple of months ago, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 was the best mobile platform around and powers some of the best phones from last year. There’s 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage supporting that chipset here, which is impressive given its price, while a focus on cooling means the 13R doesn’t get too warm no matter what you’re doing.
There’s a Dual Cryo-Velocity Vapor Chamber system on board, like the OnePlus 12R, though it’s 9 percent larger for the OnePlus 13R and there’s also an under-display temperature sensor in the OnePlus 13R, which allows it to monitor its heat levels and reduce heat during gaming.
OnePlus also has a couple of software features to improve performance. The OnePlus CPU Scheduler doesn’t have the catchiest of names, but it’s designed to squeeze out extra performance when playing supported games, like BGMI and Genshin Impact.
OnePlus describes the CPU Scheduler as working with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 to have a separate fast and slow lane for tasks, rather than having fast moving and slow moving in the same lane. The result is said to allow for supported games to run with 10 percent less CPU workload, with Genshin Impact said to have used 3 percent less power in tests.
That’s difficult to test in the real world but while I personally play games very badly, the OnePlus 13R was a dream to play them on. It remained cool enough for the duration of gaming sessions – even the longer ones – and it can handle most games at max settings with no red flags appearing during my review period.
If you want a cheaper gaming phone, you could consider the Poco F6 Pro, but the OnePlus 13R does a sterling job overall, not just for gaming but general use too.
We did our usual set of benchmarking tests on the OnePlus 13R and it performs on par or better than other Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 phones, including some of the best flagships from 2024. You can see how the OnePlus 13R compares in the graphs below.
Software and AI
- Only four OS updates
- Some good AI features
- Clean and customisable OS
The OnePlus 13R runs on Android 15 with the company’s OxygenOS over the top but while there is some bloat and a few pre-installed OnePlus apps, it’s a generally clean and nicely customisable experience.
There’s a redesigned interface for OxygenOS 15, which includes an updated Shelf, redesigned widgets and new features like Share with iPhone. The latter allows files to be shared quickly to iPhone users, which worked pretty well in my experience, even if a little faffy to setup initially.
The Open Canvas multi-tasking software that OnePlus offers on its OpenPlus Open foldable and the OnePlus Pad 2 is also available on the OnePlus 13R to enhance productivity, and the general interface is nice.
When it comes to AI features, most of them are nicely built into the operating system and apps. Google Gemini sits on the lock screen for easy access, while camera features including AI Eraser, AI Unblur, AI Detail Boost and AI Reflection Eraser can all be found within the camera edit settings.
I used AI Unblur a few times and that was good, while AI Eraser worked OK too. I didn’t see much difference when using AI Detail Boost, but that could have been because I was using decent shots to test it with rather than low resolution shots.
There’s no Image Playground or Sketch to Image like Apple and Samsung offer respectively in order to generate images from prompts, but OnePlus does have Circle to Search for finding relevant search results, and it offers PassScan for adding your next flight’s boarding pass in Google Wallet.
Elsewhere, there is AI Notes for summarising and formatting words, while Magic Compose lets you rewrite texts and Intelligent Search lets you search inside all your files at once using natural language.
Some of the AI features feel a little like AI for AI sake, but the biggest issue on the software front is the lack of guaranteed updates. You get four years of software updates and six years of security updates but with Samsung and Google both committing to seven years of OS updates, four is well below average.
Battery life
- Huge battery for all day and all night use
- Charges quickly
- No wireless charging
When it comes to battery life, the OnePlus 13R absolutely nails it. And when I say it nails it, I really mean it – it is superb. There’s a huge 6,000mAh battery powering this device and watching Netflix or playing games barely make a dent – we’re talking single-figure percentage drops in an hour for each.
You’ll easily get a day out of it, and depending on what you do, I’d go as far as to say you could get two days. After spending days testing the camera, playing games, watching Netflix and doing day-to-day tasks like emails, WhatsApp and messages, I finished most days at over 40 percent.
There’s fast charging too, with OnePlus claiming you can charge it from 1-100% in 52 minutes when in smart rapid charging mode thanks to support for 80W SuperVOOC. The problem here is that you will need a compatible OnePlus or Oppo adapter in order to get those speeds and one doesn’t come in the box, so factor that into the cost of this device if you don’t have one and want to buy one separately.
I also didn’t hit 52 minutes – the fastest I managed was 90 minutes but that was with a non-OnePlus 96W charger as that was the largest adapter I had at home. That said, that’s still fast and the OnePlus 13R didn’t get the slightest bit warm during charging either.
There is also no wireless charging available here, which isn’t a deal breaker but it is something to consider. If you want a device with wireless charging and similar performance, you could consider the Xiaomi 14T Pro.
Latest deals
Buy the OnePlus 13R
Order the OnePlus 13R from the official store
Should you buy it?
Buy it if you want decent specs at a reasonable price
The OnePlus 13R has some excellent specs for its price, from a great screen and solid performance, to a big battery that lasts all day and night.
Don’t buy it if you want the best camera experience
If you’re after the best camera experience from OnePlus, or even the best camera experience at this price, then the OnePlus 13R isn’t that, even if it does have a decent main camera.
Final Thoughts
The OnePlus 13R might not have the latest mobile platform under its hood, but it’s still an exceptionally capable device that offers heaps of power, superb battery life and very fast charging.
There’s a brilliant display too, an improved design and software experience, and you’ll get solid results from the main camera as well, making this phone a great all-rounder. I’d like the Alert Slider to do more, the OS update commitment needs to be longer, and not all the camera sensors are as strong as the main sensor, but they are minor qualms overall.
The OnePlus 13R is a super sub-flagship device that’s excellent for gaming, performance, and battery life, whilst also featuring a brilliant screen and a mix of other features to make it one of the best phones of 2025 so far.
How we test
We test every mobile phone we review thoroughly. We use industry-standard tests to compare features properly and we use the phone as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as a main phone for over a week
Thorough camera testing in a variety of conditions
Tested and benchmarked using respected industry tests and real-world data
FAQs
No, the OnePlus 13R doesn’t come with a fast charger in the box, which is a shame as the OnePlus 12R came with a 100W SuperVOOC USB-A to USB-C charger in the box.
Yes, the OnePlus 13R is water-resistant. It has an IP rating of IP65, though that does make it slightly less dust resistant than other flagships.
No, the OnePlus 13R doesn’t support wireless charging.
Trusted Reviews test data
Verdict
The OnePlus 13R is an exceptionally capable device that offers heaps of power, superb battery life and very fast charging. There’s a brilliant display too, an improved design and software experience, and you’ll get solid results from the main camera, making this phone a decent all-rounder.
The Alert Slider could do more, the software update commitment needs to be longer and not all the camera sensors are as strong as the main sensor. Those qualms aside, the OnePlus 13R is a super sub-flagship device and one of the best phones of 2025 so far.
Pros
- Excellent for gaming
- Brilliant battery life
- Improved design
Cons
- Ultrawide camera is weak
- No wireless charging
- Alert slider could do more
Buy the OnePlus 13R
Order the OnePlus 13R from the official store
-
Great displayThe OnePlus 13R has a huge display with a brilliant OLED panel that offers punchy colours and good detail. -
Decent performanceThe OnePlus 13R runs on Qualcomm’s 2024 flagship mobile platform and that delivers great performance, especially when it comes to gaming. -
Long battery lifeThere’s a huge battery under the hood of the OnePlus 13R and that translates to all day and all night use, with some likely to get close to two days.
Introduction
OnePlus has kicked off 2025’s flagship smartphone line-up with the OnePlus 13 series, which includes both the OnePlus 13 and the OnePlus 13R.
The OnePlus 13 sits at the top of the company’s offering, while the OnePlus 13R makes a couple of compromises to come in at a more affordable price of £679.
While the OnePlus 13 was the first device to launch on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, the OnePlus 13R sticks with last year’s flagship Snapdragon chipset. Don’t let that put you off though, because if gaming and battery life are top of your wish list for a smartphone, the OnePlus 13R is a seriously strong contender.
Design
- Two colour options
- Flat edge design with flat front and rear
- IP65 water and dust resistance
We weren’t huge fans of the OnePlus 12R’s design when we reviewed it last year. The colour options were boring, the curved style felt dated, and the slippery finish wasn’t one we got on well with. Things have changed for the OnePlus 13R however.
Following in the steps of what is now seemingly the new norm for smartphone design, is a flat rear and front, coupled with flat edges. Put it next to the Samsung Galaxy S24 and you’d struggle to tell the difference until you flipped them over, but that’s by no means a bad thing.
The flat edges of the aluminium frame make the OnePlus 13R comfortable to hold, the textured glass finish on the rear is a significant improvement on the slipperiness of the OnePlus 12R, and the huge circular camera module on the rear looks good as a solo island without the extra detailing around it that we saw on the OnePlus 12R.
I think the camera module would have looked better centralised rather than offset to the left, especially given the etched rings within the glass panel on the Astral Trail model use the camera module as a guide, but overall, the design is premium and it works well.
OnePlus fans will no doubt be pleased to know the Alert Slider remains for this model too, allowing for quick switching between silent, vibrate and loud, as well as boosting signal performance when gaming in landscape mode. It still can’t be changed to do anything else though, and that feels like a wasted opportunity.
As someone who hasn’t had my phone on anything but silent for the last decade, I’d like the Alert Slider to be customisable like the Action Button on the iPhone 16 models, perhaps enabling a switch between the camera lenses, or launching an app when pushed up or down.
There are two colour options for the OnePlus 13R – Astral Trail and Nebula Noir. The one pictured in this review is the Astral Trail model, though if I were to choose, I would pick the Nebula Noir as I prefer the matte finish to the concentric ring detail. Both are IP65 rated for water and dust resistance, which is a slight improvement on the OnePlus 12R but still below many flagship phones.
Screen
- Great OLED display
- Glove Mode
- 1-120Hz refresh rate
The OnePlus 13R has a 6.78-inch display and it’s excellent. I compared it side-by-side with the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max, which is twice the price of the OnePlus 13R, and that’s not something you would have been able to tell based on the screen alone.
Colours on the OnePlus 13R’s screen look great with plenty of pop, detail is good from the 2780 x 1264 resolution that delivers a pixel density of 450ppi, and viewing angles are decent too.
They are better on the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max, with the whites remaining whiter as you tip the phone, but as I said, that phone is double the price and the OnePlus 13R really does hold its own in this department.
There’s superb brightness too, with a peak brightness of 4,500 nits like the previous OnePlus 12R making it great for HDR content, and while that is peak brightness, you still get a decent standard brightness of 1,600 nits too.
A feature called RadiantView means the OnePlus 13R doesn’t just boost overall brightness when the sun is out either, but identifies the greyscale value of what is on the display and dynamically boosts brightness accordingly.
The ProXDR Display with LTPO 4.1 covered in Gorilla Glass 7i, also adapts between 1Hz and 120Hz based on what you are doing, allowing for smooth scrolling and gameplay, while extra features like Aqua Touch 2.0 make for a better user experience.
The Aqua Touch 2.0 tech means the OnePlus 13R’s display still responds to your touch even if it is wet, or you have oily hands, and there’s a Glove Mode for use when wearing woollen or sheepskin gloves up to 0.5cm thick, though the screen’s responsiveness is definitely reduced when using gloves.
Cameras
- Consistent results
- Simple camera app
- Main camera is great
At the top of the OnePlus 13R’s display is a 16-megapixel selfie camera, which offers decent enough shots in good lighting conditions. On the rear you’ll find a triple-sensor setup, like the OnePlus 12R, but there are a couple of notable changes.
The main sensor is Sony’s latest LYT-700, offering a 50-megapixel resolution, f/1.8 aperture and a decent-sized 1/1.56″ sensor. OnePlus has said the sensor offers a higher Full Well Capacity, or FWC, than the IMX-890 found in the OnePlus 12R, which is said to translate to brighter, clearer, and sharper images.
Meanwhile, I’m pleased to say the utterly pointless macro sensor from the OnePlus 12R has been replaced with a 50-megapixel telephoto lens on the OnePlus 13R, offering an f/2.0 aperture, 47mm focal length and 2x optical zoom. It doesn’t have OIS, but focus is speedy and it does a decent job at capturing photos of those things a little further away, as well as portrait shots.
The ultra-wide sensor is the only one of the three sensors that hasn’t changed from the OnePlus 12R, and while it’s not too bad in good lighting conditions, it doesn’t have the same capabilities as the main sensor. There’s an 8-megapixel resolution, 1/4″ sensor size, and there is no autofocus so it has limitations and lacks detail.
Despite the ultra-wide sensor being the weakest link in the OnePlus 13R’s camera setup however, the overall offering does an excellent job. You miss out on the Hasselblad collaboration that you’ll find on the OnePlus 13 and Oppo Find X8 Pro, which might be a reason to upgrade, but the tuning and processing still results in generally consistent shots with good detail and decent colour accuracy.
I’d recommend sticking with the main sensor where you can, especially for more challenging shots, but the ultra-wide sensor and telephoto sensor can deliver in well-lit scenarios. For low-light shots, there’s an automatic night mode that works well, and it’s reasonably quick too with some nice results (again from the main sensor), though it’s not as good as the Pixel 9.
The camera app is well laid out and easy to use, with most features like the new Livephoto mode easily accessible. And no, I haven’t made a typo, there’s no space between those words, but it’s the same principle as Apple’s Live Photo and turned on and off in the same way. There’s also a Pro mode that offers RAW capture on the OnePlus 13R, and a 50-megapixel mode for the times you might want massive images.
For video, the OnePlus 13R can record 4K at up to 60fps, but as with photos, I recommend using the main camera where you can. If you do want to zoom for video or go slightly wider, get yourself into a well-lit environment for the best results.
Performance
- Never seems to heat up
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 delivers plenty of power
- Decent RAM and storage
I mentioned the OnePlus 13R runs on last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 platform, and that means it’s not going to sit with the top-tier flagship phones of 2025. If you want the best performing phone OnePlus currently offers, then it’s the OnePlus 13 you’ll want as that runs on the Snapdragon 8 Elite.
That’s not to say the OnePlus 13R isn’t up to the task though, and until a couple of months ago, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 was the best mobile platform around and powers some of the best phones from last year. There’s 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage supporting that chipset here, which is impressive given its price, while a focus on cooling means the 13R doesn’t get too warm no matter what you’re doing.
There’s a Dual Cryo-Velocity Vapor Chamber system on board, like the OnePlus 12R, though it’s 9 percent larger for the OnePlus 13R and there’s also an under-display temperature sensor in the OnePlus 13R, which allows it to monitor its heat levels and reduce heat during gaming.
OnePlus also has a couple of software features to improve performance. The OnePlus CPU Scheduler doesn’t have the catchiest of names, but it’s designed to squeeze out extra performance when playing supported games, like BGMI and Genshin Impact.
OnePlus describes the CPU Scheduler as working with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 to have a separate fast and slow lane for tasks, rather than having fast moving and slow moving in the same lane. The result is said to allow for supported games to run with 10 percent less CPU workload, with Genshin Impact said to have used 3 percent less power in tests.
That’s difficult to test in the real world but while I personally play games very badly, the OnePlus 13R was a dream to play them on. It remained cool enough for the duration of gaming sessions – even the longer ones – and it can handle most games at max settings with no red flags appearing during my review period.
If you want a cheaper gaming phone, you could consider the Poco F6 Pro, but the OnePlus 13R does a sterling job overall, not just for gaming but general use too.
We did our usual set of benchmarking tests on the OnePlus 13R and it performs on par or better than other Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 phones, including some of the best flagships from 2024. You can see how the OnePlus 13R compares in the graphs below.
Software and AI
- Only four OS updates
- Some good AI features
- Clean and customisable OS
The OnePlus 13R runs on Android 15 with the company’s OxygenOS over the top but while there is some bloat and a few pre-installed OnePlus apps, it’s a generally clean and nicely customisable experience.
There’s a redesigned interface for OxygenOS 15, which includes an updated Shelf, redesigned widgets and new features like Share with iPhone. The latter allows files to be shared quickly to iPhone users, which worked pretty well in my experience, even if a little faffy to setup initially.
The Open Canvas multi-tasking software that OnePlus offers on its OpenPlus Open foldable and the OnePlus Pad 2 is also available on the OnePlus 13R to enhance productivity, and the general interface is nice.
When it comes to AI features, most of them are nicely built into the operating system and apps. Google Gemini sits on the lock screen for easy access, while camera features including AI Eraser, AI Unblur, AI Detail Boost and AI Reflection Eraser can all be found within the camera edit settings.
I used AI Unblur a few times and that was good, while AI Eraser worked OK too. I didn’t see much difference when using AI Detail Boost, but that could have been because I was using decent shots to test it with rather than low resolution shots.
There’s no Image Playground or Sketch to Image like Apple and Samsung offer respectively in order to generate images from prompts, but OnePlus does have Circle to Search for finding relevant search results, and it offers PassScan for adding your next flight’s boarding pass in Google Wallet.
Elsewhere, there is AI Notes for summarising and formatting words, while Magic Compose lets you rewrite texts and Intelligent Search lets you search inside all your files at once using natural language.
Some of the AI features feel a little like AI for AI sake, but the biggest issue on the software front is the lack of guaranteed updates. You get four years of software updates and six years of security updates but with Samsung and Google both committing to seven years of OS updates, four is well below average.
Battery life
- Huge battery for all day and all night use
- Charges quickly
- No wireless charging
When it comes to battery life, the OnePlus 13R absolutely nails it. And when I say it nails it, I really mean it – it is superb. There’s a huge 6,000mAh battery powering this device and watching Netflix or playing games barely make a dent – we’re talking single-figure percentage drops in an hour for each.
You’ll easily get a day out of it, and depending on what you do, I’d go as far as to say you could get two days. After spending days testing the camera, playing games, watching Netflix and doing day-to-day tasks like emails, WhatsApp and messages, I finished most days at over 40 percent.
There’s fast charging too, with OnePlus claiming you can charge it from 1-100% in 52 minutes when in smart rapid charging mode thanks to support for 80W SuperVOOC. The problem here is that you will need a compatible OnePlus or Oppo adapter in order to get those speeds and one doesn’t come in the box, so factor that into the cost of this device if you don’t have one and want to buy one separately.
I also didn’t hit 52 minutes – the fastest I managed was 90 minutes but that was with a non-OnePlus 96W charger as that was the largest adapter I had at home. That said, that’s still fast and the OnePlus 13R didn’t get the slightest bit warm during charging either.
There is also no wireless charging available here, which isn’t a deal breaker but it is something to consider. If you want a device with wireless charging and similar performance, you could consider the Xiaomi 14T Pro.
Latest deals
Buy the OnePlus 13R
Order the OnePlus 13R from the official store
Should you buy it?
Buy it if you want decent specs at a reasonable price
The OnePlus 13R has some excellent specs for its price, from a great screen and solid performance, to a big battery that lasts all day and night.
Don’t buy it if you want the best camera experience
If you’re after the best camera experience from OnePlus, or even the best camera experience at this price, then the OnePlus 13R isn’t that, even if it does have a decent main camera.
Final Thoughts
The OnePlus 13R might not have the latest mobile platform under its hood, but it’s still an exceptionally capable device that offers heaps of power, superb battery life and very fast charging.
There’s a brilliant display too, an improved design and software experience, and you’ll get solid results from the main camera as well, making this phone a great all-rounder. I’d like the Alert Slider to do more, the OS update commitment needs to be longer, and not all the camera sensors are as strong as the main sensor, but they are minor qualms overall.
The OnePlus 13R is a super sub-flagship device that’s excellent for gaming, performance, and battery life, whilst also featuring a brilliant screen and a mix of other features to make it one of the best phones of 2025 so far.
How we test
We test every mobile phone we review thoroughly. We use industry-standard tests to compare features properly and we use the phone as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as a main phone for over a week
Thorough camera testing in a variety of conditions
Tested and benchmarked using respected industry tests and real-world data
FAQs
No, the OnePlus 13R doesn’t come with a fast charger in the box, which is a shame as the OnePlus 12R came with a 100W SuperVOOC USB-A to USB-C charger in the box.
Yes, the OnePlus 13R is water-resistant. It has an IP rating of IP65, though that does make it slightly less dust resistant than other flagships.
No, the OnePlus 13R doesn’t support wireless charging.
