Four weeks into the first month of the year, one thing is clear about smartphones in 2025: this is going to be an extremely competitive year. Whereas some phone makers used to wait until February or March to launch their flagships for the first half of the year, the early launch of the Snapdragon 8 Elite last year has seen all companies launch their products early.
Honor launched the Magic 7 Pro two weeks ago, followed by Samsung with the Galaxy S25 series last week. Before both of these, however, was the launch of the OnePlus 13, a phone that I think is setting the standard for smartphones in 2025 in so many ways.
After using the OnePlus 13 for several weeks — including the back end of December and during CES 2025 — here’s why it’s still my favorite Android phone right now, despite a plethora of new devices that have made their way into my pocket.
The OnePlus 13 is close to being a perfect smartphone
It’s worth noting that I’ve only used Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra for a couple of days so this may yet change, but the Galaxy S25 Plus hasn’t converted me away from the OnePlus 13. The reason is fairly straightforward: the OnePlus 13 feels like it has the least compromises of any phone I’ve used over the past few years.
A great display? Check. Outstanding performance? Check. Phenomenal battery life and charging? Check. Superb software, including the excellent Open Canvas multitasking that has made its way from the foldable OnePlus Open to non-folding phones? Check. What about wireless charging, a particular pain point of previous OnePlus phones? Also present, in some way at least.
I’ve used many OnePlus phones in the past, but this is the first non-folding OnePlus phone that has blown through any preconceived notions and delivered everything I’m looking for. It’s not the slimmest or the lightest smartphone on the market, but it doesn’t need to be. The OnePlus 13 more than makes up for anything perceived as missing by offering so much in so many areas.
All the hardware you could wish for
The OnePlus 13 delivers on OnePlus’s decade-long mantra of “Never Settle.” The irony behind this motto has always been that while it’s been ever-present in OnePlus smartphones, even the best OnePlus phones felt like you had to settle in some way. The OnePlus 13 finally proves that that mantra can lead to one of the most polished smartphones you can use right now.
This is most apparent in performance, battery, and charging, three areas that OnePlus has consistently delivered. The base OnePlus 13 features 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM, and there are also options with double the storage, as well as 16GB RAM. If you want to go all out, you can get the 1TB storage model which has 24GB of RAM.
Of course, RAM isn’t everything, but paired with the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor and extremely polished software means you have a fast software experience that has yet to stutter for me. The OnePlus 13 has all the hardware I need in a smartphone, and the OnePlus approach of throwing the kitchen sink at the internals means you have a specs sheet that can challenge the very best smartphones.
Class-leading battery life and charging
It’s not just the internals that OnePlus has excelled on, but the way they manifest themselves into one package. This is most apparent in the battery life and charging, where the OnePlus 13 has class-leading battery life and charging.
The first OnePlus smartphone to adopt silicon carbon battery technology — instead of the lithium-ion technology used for many generations — has allowed OnePlus to increase the density of the battery while making it thinner and lighter. Case in point: the OnePlus 13 is 0.7mm thinner and 10 grams lighter than last year’s OnePlus 12, despite increasing the battery capacity to 6,000 mAh.
Optimizations in software, improvements in efficiency offered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite — despite it also requiring more power — and the larger capacity all mean the OnePlus 13 has delivered excellent battery life as well. During the past six weeks of using it, it’s consistently delivered multi-day battery life, even when used as a hotspot while traveling.
As far as workhorses go, the OnePlus 13 delivers, and even when it’s running a little low, it takes mere minutes to bounce back. In the U.S., you get an 80W charger in the box, and this charges the battery to full in just 39 minutes. That’s a standardized speed of 153 mAh per minute, which is faster than almost any other phone I’ve tried. For context, here’s how it compares to key competitors in the U.S.:
| OnePlus 13 | Galaxy S25 Ultra | Pixel 9 Pro | iPhone 16 Pro | |
| Battery technology | Silicon Carbon | Lithium Ion | Lithium Ion | Lithium Ion |
| Battery capacity | 6,000 mAh | 5,000 mAh | 4,700 mAh | 3,582 mAh |
| Time to full charge | 39 minutes | 67 minutes | 83 minutes | 96 minutes |
| Max charging speed: | 80W (in US) | 45W | 45W | 45W |
| Standardized charging speed: | 153 mAh / min | 75 mAh / min | 57 mAh / min | 37 mAh / min |
These are the key competitors for the OnePlus 13 in the U.S., but what about abroad? Here OnePlus has far more competitors that are on par or beat it, but here’s how the OnePlus 13 stacks up:
| OnePlus 13 | Honor Magic 7 Pro | Oppo Find X8 Pro | |
| Battery technology | Silicon Carbon | Silicon Carbon | Silicon Carbon |
| Battery capacity | 6,000 mAh | 5,850 mAh | 5,910 mAh |
| Time to full charge | 39 minutes | 41 minutes | 53 minutes |
| Max charging speed: | 80W (in US) | 100W | 80W |
| Standardized charging speed: | 153 mAh / min | 143 mAh / min | 112 mAh / min |
Yes, despite the Honor Magic 7 Pro having the same max charging speed — the OnePlus 13 supports 100W charging when connected to a 240V power supply outside the U.S. — and a smaller battery, it charges at a slightly lower standardized charging speed. Similarly, the Oppo Find X8 Pro supports the same charging speeds and has a similar-sized battery, but takes slightly longer than its more affordable cousin.
There’s only one current phone I’ve used that beats the OnePlus 13 in its charging speeds: the Realme GT 7 Pro, which features a 6,500 mAh battery and takes 36 minutes to charge to full with its 120W charger. This leads to a standardized charging speed of 181 mAh per minute, or about 18% faster than the OnePlus 13.
Outstanding cameras that can compete with the best
A true flagship needs more than just great performance, battery life, and display; it also needs excellent cameras, and the OnePlus 13 has delivered for the most part. As I’ve been using it, a series of software updates has considerably improved the camera, and right now, it has a camera that can match any smartphone sold in the US, as well as many sold outside the US.
Despite only having a single telephoto lens that offers 3x zoom — and lacking the secondary 6x periscope lens offered by the Oppo Find X8 Pro — it matches its sibling at most focal lengths and delivers mostly consistent photos. There are points where the cameras don’t quite deliver, but the trade-offs that were present in previous OnePlus cameras have proven to be few and far between with the OnePlus 13.
As I’ve been testing the OnePlus 13 alongside the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Galaxy S25 Plus over the past few days, one thing has become apparent: the OnePlus 13 doesn’t need a secondary telephoto to challenge the Galaxy S25 Ultra, despite the latter costing 30% more. Stay tuned for our full comparison in the coming days!
The OnePlus 13 is the best value-for-money smartphone
Therein lies the true appeal of the OnePlus 13: at $1,000, it offers the best value-for-money experience I’ve used on a smartphone at this price point, bar none. The iPhone 16 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro come close but the OnePlus 13 beats them in most areas I’ve mentioned. Meanwhile, the new Galaxy S25 Plus costs the same, but the OnePlus 13 also has it beat.
When considering which of the best smartphones to buy, several weeks with the OnePlus 13 have helped me realize that there’s little reason not to buy it. Sure, you may prefer Google’s flavor of Android, Samsung’s display, or the iPhone’s ecosystem and apps, but when it comes to being the best pound-for-pound smartphone, the OnePlus 13 is in a class of its own.
