5 issues I admire concerning the OnePlus 13R, the ...

When OnePlus launched its latest duo of premium smartphones earlier this 12 months, the higher-end 13 mannequin naturally acquired a lot of the eye. When I reviewed the 13, I praised its design, its best-in-class water and mud resistance, and its performant software program bundle. Whereas I proceed to adore the 13, I am unable to assist however really feel that its mid-range sibling, the 13R, deserves some love as nicely.

The 13R prices a full $300 lower than the usual 13, and OnePlus has managed to hit this worth level with out sacrificing the necessities. At a base asking worth of $600, the 13R competes immediately with the Apple iPhone 16e, and it sits $100 above Google’s Pixel 9a , the present finest mid-ranger. After utilizing the OnePlus 13R in the actual world, listed below are 5 features of the telephone that I admire each day.

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1 It would not skimp out on construct high quality

The 13R is machined out of aluminum and tempered glass

Relating to cell devices, I am a fan of a well-executed exterior {hardware} design. Thankfully, regardless of its mid-range price ticket, the OnePlus 13R contains a premium match and end, with a strong aluminum facet rail, and back and front panels product of Gorilla Glass 7i.

In fact, there isn’t any titanium, next-gen Gorilla Glass Armor, or IP69 ingress protection to be discovered on the 13R, however that does not cease the handset from feeling and looking like one million bucks. I am significantly keen on the etched glass end on my astral path (white) unit, which catches the sunshine in all the proper methods once I’m out and about.

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2 It options cutting-edge silicon

The 13R comes with a robust flagship Snapdragon chipset

Relating to transport its smartphones with highly effective processing packages, OnePlus continues to By no means Settle. The 13R comes with the identical bleeding-edge Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset that powered a lot of final 12 months’s finest Android flagships, together with the OnePlus 12 and your entire Samsung Galaxy S24 collection.

Qualcomm has since launched the all-new Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, which supplies yet one more step up in efficiency, however the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 stays a performant workhorse for all however essentially the most demanding of workflows. For nearly everybody on the market — myself included — the 13R presents greater than sufficient efficiency headroom to final a number of years into the long run.

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3 It would not ship with a lame macro digicam

All three rear-facing cameras on the 13R are helpful

With final 12 months’s mid-range 12R, OnePlus opted to complement the rear wide-angle and ultra-wide-angle shooters with a measly 2-megapixel macro lens. We have seen this tactic earlier than: the additional optical sensor permits firms to boast of a ‘triple rear digicam setup,’ regardless of the doubtful utility of a low-res devoted macro shooter.

Sensibly, with this 12 months’s OnePlus 13R, the corporate has elected to kick the unimpressive macro shooter to the curb, in favor of offering a genuinely helpful 2X telephoto lens. This new 50-megapixel f/2.0 sensor would not provide the 3X or 5X optical zoom vary that I’ve come to understand on higher-end smartphones, however it’s greater than serviceable for informal images.

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4 Its battery pack is (comparatively) large

There’s a number of battery packed into the 13R’s comparatively skinny chassis

Regardless of the OnePlus 13R’s moderately svelte 0.31-inch (8 mm) thinness, the telephone manages to squeeze in a reasonably large 6,000mAh battery pack below the hood. In my expertise, this mixture of {hardware} capability and software program optimizations makes for a telephone that at all times lasts me via the day, regardless of taking dozens of pictures, streaming movies, and navigating through GPS.

The 13R tops up faster than many higher-end telephones, too: at 80W, the telephone can cost to half capability in twenty minutes, and it will probably attain most capability in below an hour. By comparability, the iPhone 16e lands at round 29W, and the Pixel 9a clocks in at 23W.

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5 Its OxygenOS 15 software program pores and skin is high notch

I am a fan of the 13R’s fluid and feature-rich Android pores and skin

Earlier this 12 months, OnePlus hyped up its OxygenOS 15 software pores and skin that runs atop of Google’s Android 15 working system. In line with the corporate, one of many foremost focuses of this software program launch was to offer a smoother interface, full with extra responsive gestures and cleaner animations.

In observe, the OnePlus 13R is about as silky easy as some other premium smartphone I’ve ever encountered. All the things is snappy and performant, regardless of the pores and skin’s abundance of baked-in tweaks and customization instruments. In my private expertise, I discover OxygenOS to be higher balanced by way of its feature-to-simplicity ratio than, say, Samsung’s OneUI various.

This machine was offered to Pocket-lint by OnePlus.

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