OnePlus is an excellent brand that offers powerful flagship phones at a great value compared to some of its competitors. As the year 2025 approaches quickly, OnePlus is supposed to release the OnePlus 13 soon enough.
What will the design be like? What specifications can we expect? Here’s everything we know so far about the OnePlus 13.
OnePlus 13: Possible Release Date
OnePlus has an interesting release schedule. Since it is a China-based company, it usually releases phones in China first before going global in other regions. Here’s the typical timeline for OnePlus’ past three releases:
- OnePlus 10 Pro: January 11, 2022 (China) / March 31, 2022 (Global)
- OnePlus 11: January 9, 2023 (China) / February 7, 2023 (Global)
- OnePlus 12: December 5, 2023 (China) / January 23, 2024 (Global)
As you can see, China always gets OnePlus releases first, which makes sense as it is a Chinese company. Looking at those dates, you’ll see that OnePlus releases it earlier each year.
While there are no specific details yet, a post on Weibo from a reliable source named Digital Chat Station suggests that OnePlus may unveil the OnePlus 13 before the Chinese Singles’ Day festival on November 11. Singles’ Day is one of the biggest shopping events in China, so launching the OnePlus 13 before that would be a good strategy to maximize sales.
Since OnePlus uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips, OnePlus may also wait until after Qualcomm’s Snapdragon summit in October to unveil the OnePlus 13. In fact, OnePlus China CEO Li Jie Louis confirmed on Weibo that the next flagship OnePlus phone will be announced in October.
If the OnePlus 13 is launched in October or November in China, the global release is likely to be in December 2024 or January 2025. This would be much earlier than expected, but it would make sense to follow the prevailing trend in recent years.
OnePlus 13: Possible Price
When it comes to flagship phones, OnePlus always offers one of the best values in the market. However, this may change with the OnePlus 13.
Let’s look at OnePlus’ previous flagship phone pricing record. The OnePlus 11 was launched at $700, and the price of the OnePlus 12 was $800.
However, the recent report on the price of the OnePlus 13 may not be the news you are hoping for. A leaker on Weibo suggests that the OnePlus 13 with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage, which could be the top-tier option, could cost around $738 in China. This is a significant increase from the similarly configured OnePlus 12, which was priced at $677 upon launch in China and ended up selling for around $800 in the US.
If this price increase is true, the OnePlus 13’s starting price could be $900 in the US. However, with most top-tier phones from competitors starting at $1000 or more, the OnePlus 13 price may still be slightly lower. But it seems that this price gap is narrowing every year.
OnePlus 13: Design and Display
OnePlus seems ready to make some nice changes to the overall design of the OnePlus 13 to distinguish it from its predecessors.
Firstly, the Digital Chat Station (the same leaker who provided the possible release date) says that the OnePlus 13 will have a hot ceramic body. This means real ceramic, not ceramic-like glass. It will be interesting to see how this affects the overall look and texture of the phone.
The latest leaked image also shows the OnePlus 13 with flat metal edges, a trend now seen across the smartphone market. The texture of the back cover is also interesting, looking like it’s inspired by rocks or metals, and also seems to have a matte finish.
The design of the camera module has also been changed. OnePlus has been using the same toilet-bowl-like module (circle within a half-bean shape) since the OnePlus 11. But it seems OnePlus is getting rid of the extra half-bean housing and only dealing with the circle containing the three cameras and LED flash. A thin metal strip also extends from the middle-right of the camera module to the frame. There is also an « H » above the line, implying that the OnePlus 13 will continue its partnership with Hasselblad for camera tuning.
It’s reminiscent of what you have on OnePlus Open, but in a square shape instead of a diamond shape with one side missing. This is a small and subtle change, but a welcomed one.
The same leaker also hints that the OnePlus 13 could feature a « flat screen » with a « slightly curved glass back design ». In short, it will be flat but with curved glass on all four sides, resulting in something that looks symmetrical without edges. It seems to be a 6.82-inch BOE X2 display with a 2K resolution.
Another interesting feature for this new screen is that it may allow users to adjust the refresh rate for local parts of the screen. For example, you could have a higher refresh rate on the screen for something like YouTube while having a lower refresh rate for another part containing text. This feature theoretically leads to a smoother overall experience and better power efficiency.
There are also rumors that the OnePlus 13 will have a « sunlight display », a screen that is more visible in direct sunlight. This type of display would reduce the brightness required to make your screen visible outdoors.
In terms of durability, the OnePlus 13 is also expected to outperform the competition. The Digital Chat Station suggests that the OnePlus 13 will feature IP69 water and dust resistance. Most flagship phones now have an IP68 rating, so this would be a good improvement.
OnePlus 13: Performance and Software
OnePlus is also expected to use the latest flagship processor from Qualcomm in the OnePlus 13.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit will be held from October 21 to 23, 2024, where the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipsets will be announced. Considering that the OnePlus 13 may be released in China in October or November 2024, it’s safe to say that we should see the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 in the OnePlus 13.
As for RAM, we don’t know what the base RAM will look like, but the top-tier model is likely to feature 16GB of RAM and 512GB storage. However, the OnePlus 12 started with 12GB of RAM, so it’s possible that the OnePlus 13 could start with that.
Android 15 is beginning to roll out, so we are confident that the OnePlus 13 will ship with Android 15 and OxygenOS 15 out of the box. OnePlus has also committed to four years of OS upgrades and major security updates, so the OnePlus 13 should be relatively well supported in the years to come.
Google will also be adding some AI-powered tools that run on the Gemini system to Oppo and OnePlus phones next year, including the OnePlus 13.
OnePlus 13: Cameras
Thanks to the partnership with Hasselblad, OnePlus phones have had very impressive cameras, and it seems this will continue with the OnePlus 13.
The Digital Chat Station claims that the OnePlus 13 will once again feature a triple-lens camera system similar to the OnePlus 12. But this time, the three lenses could each be 50 megapixels instead of the 50-megapixel main camera, the 64-megapixel zoom cameras, and the 48-megapixel ultra-wide cameras like on the OnePlus 12. The optical zoom range will remain at 3x. However, the periscope and ultra-wide cameras are likely to see some improvement.
OnePlus 13: Battery Life
The OnePlus 12 had a massive 5400mAh battery, and the OnePlus 13 may take things to a higher level. It is rumored to have a larger 6000mAh battery, which would surpass the competition by leaps and bounds. However, this battery life may come at a cost, as some reports suggest that the OnePlus 13 may not feature wireless charging. But other leaks indicate otherwise, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens here.
Wireless charging or not, we expect the OnePlus 13 to once again offer wired charging speeds of 100 watts globally and 80 watts in the US.
