Summary
- The OnePlus 13 is making its North American market debut in January.
- The flagship handset is jam-packed with high-end parts and specs.
- The OnePlus 13 is shaping as a lot as be an outstanding machine, nevertheless I can’t help nevertheless need there was a smaller variant obtainable for purchase.
OnePlus is presently throughout the technique of unleashing its latest and greatest flagship smartphone, the OnePlus 13onto the world stage. The handset is already obtainable contained in the agency’s residence market of China, with a world roll-out confirmed for January. In numerous phrases, North American OnePlus followers need solely wait only a few additional weeks for the product to land on retailer cupboards.
By all accounts, the OnePlus 13 is shaping as a lot as be a compelling piece of kit jammed stuffed with high-tech {{hardware}}. The company is talking a large recreation with this 12 months’s OxygenOS 15, as successfully, which is the Android 15-based software program program pores and pores and skin that the product will ship inside Western markets. Smoother animations, new AI devices, and a singular Open Canvas sort out multitasking are excessive billing within the case of OnePlus’ latest sort out the cell software program program experience.
Sadly for compact phone aficionados like myself, OnePlus doesn’t provide a non-XL sized model to fall once more on.
Up to now, I like almost each factor I’m seeing, save for one gripe notably: the phone is solely obtainable in a single, unwieldy 6.82-inch dimension class. For followers of large-screen smartphones, that’s perhaps a wonderful type challenge. Sadly for compact phone aficionados like myself, OnePlus doesn’t provide a non-XL sized model to fall once more on. That’s hardly a OnePlus-specific topic contained in the enterprise, actually. Nevertheless throughout the wake of the additional compact-sized Google Pixel 9 Skilled, I can’t help nevertheless need for a equally shrunken-down OnePlus 13 to call my very personal.

Related
The OnePlus 13 is formally set to makes its world debut in January
OnePlus has confirmed the OnePlus 13 will make its world debut in January.
Smartphones are getting bigger, nevertheless my fingers really aren’t
One factor feels ‘good’ as soon as I am using a compact handset
OnePlus
Over the earlier a variety of years, smartphones have grown in dimension at a staggering cost. At launch, the distinctive 3.5-inch iPhone was thought-about a large-screen machine, and the distinctive 5.2-inch Galaxy Discover was dismissed as too large to achieve mainstream attraction. In hindsight, we’ll see a clear shopper alternative for spacious present panels. Nonetheless, I firmly think about that once we surpassed the 6-inch threshold, we successfully and actually entered into unwieldy territory.
In hindsight, we’ll see a clear shopper alternative for spacious present panels.
In my non-public experience, I uncover the 6-to-6.2-inch dimension class to strike the best steadiness between comfortability and a present large adequate to eat content material materials on recurrently. I wrestle with the perennial topic of falling in love with any number of new high-end 6.8-inch telephones, solely to succumb to frustration as soon as I inevitably start performing finger gymnastics.
With the present launch of the Pixel 9 lineup of handsets, Google went out of its possibility to provide the full-blown Skilled experience in every regular and XL type parts. Equally, Apple provides a non-Max iPhone Skilled model, which satisfies my itch for high-end experience in a additional compact class. These models are nonetheless comparatively large when as compared with flagship telephones from only a few years prior to now, nevertheless I’ll take what I can get. I carry these competing handsets up as they provide OnePlus with a template to draw inspiration for a theoretical next-generation handset.

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OnePlus 12 vs OnePlus 13: What’s the distinction?
The OnePlus 13 has formally launched in China, with a worldwide launch throughout the works — how does the handset study with the OnePlus 12?
Unsurprisingly, the OnePlus 13 is an absolute unit
The phone’s 6.82-inch present is expansive, and its 6,000mAh battery cell is downright gargantuan
In spite of everything, there are deserves to move a smartphone the dimensions of the OnePlus 13. Apart from providing a quite a bit greater canvas for having enjoyable with content material materials, there’s no denying the physics of the state of affairs. Flagship smartphones have ballooned in footprint to accommodate additional superior optics, greater battery packs, and additional thermally demanding chipsets.
There’s a trigger why Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Extraordinarily, Google’s Pixel 9 Skilled XLand Apple’s iPhone 16 Skilled Max are all equally gargantuan handsets. Furthermore, as greater cell reveals flip into additional frequent, it turns into dearer to provide smaller panels of equal flagship prime quality.
With the OnePlus 13, the company is actually leveraging the internal precise property provided by an XL-sized chassis.
With the OnePlus 13, the company is leveraging the internal precise property provided by an XL-sized chassis. The phone’s 6,000 mAh battery is downright big, and it runs the extremely efficient Snapdragon 8 Elite processor from Qualcomm. The 6.82-inch OLED present is top-of-the-line as successfully, with a sharp 3168 x 1440 pixel resolution and a 120Hz adaptive refresh cost.
The phone’s battery dimension should be lowered as a solution to squeeze proper right into a smaller physique, and its high-end SOC would thermally throttle as a consequence of getting a lot much less room to breathe. Competing {{hardware}} producers provide non-XL flagships with this trade-off in ideas, and they also accomplish that to provide an alternative that satisfies small-phone fanatics like myself.
I’ll as quickly as as soon as extra (begrudgingly) accept the trade-off of a phone I can barely match into my pocket, nonetheless it is a shame that I’ve to take motion.
Normal, I’m extraordinarily impressed with the OnePlus 13 to date. With regard to {{hardware}} specs, OnePlus has left no stone unturned. I’m moreover notably eager on the company’s decision to prioritize particular person interface fluidity on this 12 months’s accompanying software program program package deal deal.
I’ll as quickly as as soon as extra (begrudgingly) accept the trade-off of a phone I can barely match into my pocket, nonetheless it is a shame that I’ve to take motion. Every Google and Apple have confirmed {{that a}} full-fledged flagship handset might be match proper right into a additional compact package deal deal, and so I anxiously await the day OnePlus decides to as quickly as as soon as extra on no account settle.

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The OnePlus 13 will get a model new digicam operate sooner than it even launches throughout the U.S.
The OnePlus 13 has added a macro operate to its digicam ahead of its world launch that’s anticipated rapidly.