Nearly a year after the OnePlus 13R launched, it’s still one of the better, affordable phones available today, packed with some of the features that make the OnePlus 13 a favourite of mine.
While the flagship OnePlus 13 is slightly more expensive, for more premium features and specs, the OnePlus 13R is a worthwhile budget phone with a lot of great points. That starts with the build quality, and the processing power, and extends to the photography, battery life, and charging speeds.
Side-by-side, the 13 and 13R are very similar sizes, with a 6.78″ display for the 13R, versus the 6.82″ display of the 13.
However the OnePlus 13R really impressed me with the rounded edges and the flat finish. It’s classy and clean, and if I had a complaint it’s that the OnePlus case for the 13R could also be a little more premium to match the design.
I love how the phone looks and feels next to other phones, and I think it’s a surprisingly great design, especially when you consider that the phone often goes on sale for less than other competition.
The processor is also very impressive, thanks to the Elite Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. When some of the competition are still offer 64 GB and 128 GB of storage, the OnePlus 13R outdoes them all, making for a robust phone whether you’re an amateur photographer, vlogger, or videographer.
Notably as well, the phone offers RAM expansion, just like the OnePlus 13, so you can add up to 12 GB more RAM, for a total of 24 GB of RAM, using some of the phone’s storage space.
I’ve tested the OnePlus 13 and 13R for video editing and gaming, and the flagship phone obviously beats the affordable alternative, but the 13R still beats most of the competition for raw power and speed.
Video editing on the 13R was quick and responsive and I tested in a few memory-hungry apps that all responded very well.
While the 13R doesn’t offer wireless charging, and it’s only IP65 dust and water resistant, it has an industry-leading 6,000 mAh battery that charges to 100% in an hour thanks to SuperVOOC.
Considering how fast it can charge with the wired charger, I’m not sure that I would make a case for wireless charging anyway.
The real surprise to me was the cameras, that actually produce good, crisp, colourful results. The phone has a front 16 MP camera, with rear 50 MP, featuring a Sony LYT-700 sensor, an 8 MP wide-angle sensor, and 50 MP telephoto sensor at 2x optical zoom.
Looking at colour, contrast, depth, and overall quality, I was consistently impressed with the cameras. Even the video quality was quite high, capturing up to 4k/60fps. The phone also has a Pro mode with the option of capturing in RAW, a good portrait mode, and a number of other modes including tilt-shift, night, and pano.
The only drawback is the 2x optical zoom, which can be a little underwhelming, but most phones in this price range don’t offer more than that, so it is expected for the price. The phone does offer up to 20x digital zoom, however, but the quality drops after 10x zoom.
The OnePlus 13R is available in Astral Trail, Nebula Noir and retails for $849.99 in Canada and $599.99 in the U.S.
