OnePlus 13R review: still the best phone for $500
OnePlus continues to set the bar for midrange phones.
🏆 Review score: 4/5
Pros
📱 Incredible display
🏎️ Blazing fast performance
🔋 Two-day battery life with <1hr charging
✨ Solid design at an affordable price
🫧 Clean software
Cons
📸 Improved, but still weak camera
❌ No wireless charging
🤖 Four years of Android updates
🛍️ Limited accessories
The Shortcut review
Last year, we called the OnePlus 12R “crazy good” for its combination of powerful hardware, a gorgeous display, and insane battery life.
OnePlus clearly knowns not to fix things that aren’t broken as the OnePlus 13R is arguably the best phone I’ve ever used. For $500 (with guaranteed $100 trade-in), you get 90% of the same experience on the OnePlus 13, without any deal-breaking compromises.
It's not perfect of course, nothing is, but it’s really hard to ignore just how good the 13R is. OnePlus has almost shot themselves in the foot because I might even recommend the OnePlus 13R over the OnePlus 13. Let’s find out why.
Quick hits
📱 Class leading display. I’ll just say it: this is the best display you will find on a $500 phone, period. Not only does it get crazy bright at 4,500 nits of brightness (when watching compatible HDR content), but it dynamically refreshes at 120Hz. Even the iPhone 16 Pro doesn’t go as low as 1Hz, and there’s even a lot of evidence to show it rarely gets about 80Hz. And that phone is twice the price.
🏎️ Performance that lasts for days. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who could tell the processor in the 13R is a year old. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 was fantastic last year, and it’s still crazy good this year. Not only that, the 6,000 mAh battery will easily last you two days of moderate use. And it will recharge in less than an hour.
✨ Premium design at an affordable price. While the design of the OnePlus 13R is a bit boring, to be honest, that doesn’t mean it’s bad. It’s very solid with aluminum sides and glass on the front and back. It’s much better than most every other phone in this price range.
Price and availability
You can pre-order the OnePlus 13R now from OnePlus and Best Buy, and from Amazon later this year. In a first for the mid-range series, you’ll also be able to get the Nebula Noir version in person from Best Buy, while the Astral Trail is online only.
Although the full retail price has gone up a bit to $599, OnePlus is offering its fantastic trade-in deal. You can send in literally any phone in any condition and get $100 off guaranteed. Even landlines or old flip phones your parents might have stuffed in a drawer. If you have a newer phone in good condition, you might even get it for free.
You won’t be able to get it from any carriers, but it works with all the major ones and most MVNOs like Mint Mobile and Visible – I used mine on Mint Mobile for the entirety of this review with no issues.
Specs
📆 Release date: January 10, 2024
💰 Price: $599 ($499 with trade-in of any phone)
📺 Screen size: 6.78 inches
🖥️ Resolution: 2780x1264
🏃♂️ Refresh rate: 120Hz adaptive
💡 Brightness: 4,500 nits (peak with HDR)
📸 Main camera: 50MP
🔭 Telephoto camera: 50MP
👐 Ultra-wide camera: 8MP w/ 112-degree field of view
🤳 Selfie camera: 16MP
⚙️ Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
🐏 RAM: 12GB
🗄️ Storage: 256GB UFS 4.0
🔋 Battery: 6,000mAh
🔌 Wired charging: 55W SuperVOOC (charger included in box)
⚡ Wireless charging: None
🔈 Speakers: Stereo (two drivers)
📶 Connectivity: sub-6GHz 5G, Wi-Fi 7, 6, 6E, Bluetooth 5.4
👇 Fingerprint scanner: In-display
🔘 Alert slider: Yeah buddy!!
🤖 OS: Android 15 (four OS upgrades, six years of security patches)
📐 Dimensions: 6.37 in x 2.98 in x 0.32 in
⚖️ Weight: 206 g (7.30 oz)
🎨 Colors: Nebular Noir, Astral Trail
🪨 Durability: Gorilla Glass GG7i on front, aluminum rails, glass on back
💦 Water resistance: IP65
OnePlus 13R full review
Design
👀 Feels great, looks boring. Sadly, in the mid-range market, you have to offer either flashy looks or solid build quality, not both. Personally, I’d rather have the latter and thankfully OnePlus delivered on the 13R. It’s not going to turn any heads, but it’s well built and feels premium for a good price.
💡 See all the things. OnePlus surprised most reviewers with the insane brightness capabilities on the 12R last year and the kept the same display this time around as well. In normal usage, it will reach 1,600 nits which is more than enough for even the sunniest days. If you’re watching compatible HDR content, it can even hit 4,500 which is just nuts.
🖥️ Gorgeous and smooth display. It’s hard to overstate just how good the display is on the OnePlus 13R. The 6.78-inch AMOLED screen delivers vibrant colors and the razer-sharp 2,780x1,264 resolution means you’ll be hard pressed to find any pixels. Best of all, the 120Hz refresh rate is powered by LTPO 4.1 which refreshes dynamically between 1 and 120Hz for an incredibly smooth experience. For those keeping score, the same size iPhone 16 costs $300 more, is stuck with a 60Hz, non-dynamically-refreshing display.
🔘 Alert slider still kickin’. OnePlus was one of the first, and only manufacturers to put a physical must switch on its phones. Apple did it first, but OnePlus did it better with a three-position switch that toggles between ring, vibrate, and silent with the flick of a thumb. It’s so popular on OnePlus phones, that the company got a ton of flack from the community when they tried to remove it, and it’s stuck around ever since. Personally, it may seem like a small detail, but it’s one of my favorite features of OnePlus phones.
🫗 Go ahead, spill your drink. The OnePlus 13R comes with IP65 water resistance, which isn’t the full protection offered on the OnePlus 13, but it’s better than that IP64 rating on the 12R. That means the 13R is safe from rain, splashes, and spilled drinks – which anyone with two young kids is quite grateful for.
📷 Camera ba-dump-a-bump. I doubt there’s any camera bump design that wouldn’t cause at least some controversy. The circular one OnePlus introduced with the OnePlus 11 seems to be just as hit or miss as most, but personally I think it’s the most seamless looking of them all. It makes a statement without being too crazy. To me, Apple’s is ugly, Samsung’s is boring, and all the others look like an afterthought. Love it or hate it, OnePlus’ at least looks intentional.
🌈 Give me more color. Until OnePlus has the resources of Apple or Samsung, it likely won’t be able to offer more than just two basic colors for the R series. The black and white colors don’t look bad, they’re just a bit boring. Get the white one if you want at least a little color.
Performance
💪 Plenty of power for the price. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in the OnePlus 13R was insanely fast when we reviewed in the OnePlus 12 last year, and it still more than holds its own less than a year later. I personally don’t know of any other phone you can guy right now for $500 that is rocking this chip. No matter what you need to do on the 13R, it will handle it with flying colors. And even though you can’t get 16GB of RAM this year, I did not notice a difference with 12GB.
📦 Only one storage option. There’s only storage option on the 13R this year, at 256GB. Thankfully, it uses the faster UFS 4.0 storage which means open apps, files, and photos on the 13R will be blazing fast. But that also means you can’t save a bit by opting for less storage.
🎮 Great, but not top-tier gaming. I played a bevy of games on the OnePlus 13R, and never once had an issue with any game I played. From CODM, to Genshin Impact, and most every other top-tier game, I was able to run it at nearly the highest settings with no issues. Sure, it won’t be quite as powerful as a phone with the Snapdragon Elite processor, especially one like the RedMagic 10 Pro, but I challenge you to tell a difference.
Camera
🏅 Most improved award. The OnePlus 13 camera takes home the trophy for most improved this year. Blissfully gone is the useless 2MP macro camera, replaced by a full 50MP telephoto camera with proper 2x optical zoom. Even the main camera is improved with Sony’s capable LYT-700 sensor. The camera setup certainly won’t rival the flagship setups, but it’s more than capable of taking solid pictures.
🌙 Still struggles in non-ideal conditions. While the camera system has improved, it still struggles a bit when you don’t have perfect lighting – so like, almost all the time. The 8MP ultrawide camera is still nice for capturing larger scenes, but it skimps on the details. Even the main and telephoto cameras get grainy and start skewing colors in dim lighting. The worst part is the inconsistency. You honestly never know what kind of image you’ll get when you click the shutter. You can literally see a difference when switching between lenses, so with enough tweaking and setup, you can get pretty great pictures, but that’s a lot of work.
🤳 Selfies when you need it. I’ve never been a big selfie-taker, and if you are, the OnePlus 13R isn’t for you. The 16MP selfie camera isn’t bad, but it’s not great either. It’s fine when you need it, but if you rely on selfies for social media or video calls, you’re best bet is the iPhone 16 Pro.
Software
💨 Fast and smooth. OxygenOS 15 began rolling out late last year, and while the OnePlus OS is still a far cry from what it was in its heyday, it’s still much cleaner and smoother than most other mid-range Android builds. I’ll admit it’s just a rebranded version of Oppo’s ColorOS, but my hot take is: I don’t care. I personally don’t mind it, and actually prefer it over OneUI. The Pixel 8a still sets the standard, but I’d argue OxygenOS 15 is still quite useable.
🖱️ Mid-term support for a mid-range phone. Speaking of the Pixel 8a, it also beats out the OnePlus 13R in software support, the latter of which is only promised four years of Android updates and six years of security updates. To be fair, that’s still better than most other midrange phones – Pixel 8a excluded – and it’s better than the three years on the 12R. Still, if you plan keep or pass down your phone, there’s no long-term support.
Battery and charging
🔋 Go ahead, kill the battery. I dare you. The OnePlus 13R just does not quit. Over my month with this phone, I could not kill it in a day. Even with gaming and streaming, it just refused to die. There were some days when it dropped to 30 or 40% before bedtime, but those days were few and far between. In complete honesty, I regularly used it for two full days before charging it at night. It’s nuts.
⚡ And it charges crazy fast. Oddly, OnePlus dropped the charging speeds on the 13R from 80W on the 12R to 55W on the 13R. Don’t be too upset though cuz you can still fully charge it in less than an hour. And best of all, you get a fast charger included. Take that Pixel 8a.
⛓️ But you’re still tethered. Fast charging is great, but you’ve still got to plug it in. There’s no wireless charging here, which is a bummer, but certainly not a deal breaker in my opinion. The OnePlus 13 retains the company’s fast 50W wireless charging if you need it, but nothing doing on the 13R.
Should I buy the OnePlus 13R?
Yes, if…
✅ You want class-leading performance for $500
✅ You want an incredible display
✅ You want multi-day battery
No, if…
❌ You want flagship cameras (get the OnePlus 13)
❌ You want wireless charging (get the OnePlus 13)