When it comes to flagship smartphones, Apple, Samsung, and Google are probably the first brands that come to mind.
But ignore OnePlus at your peril. The Chinese company is excellent at making premium phones, as evidenced by the excellent OnePlus 12. It offers everything most people want in an Android phone, at a lower price than many competitors.
So, what can we expect from his successor. Although it’s unlikely to arrive in Europe before 2025, we already have an idea of what OnePlus is planning. Here’s everything you need to know at this point.
When will the OnePlus 13 be released?
In recent years, OnePlus has set a very consistent release schedule for its flagship phones in Europe and North America:
With this in mind, it seems very likely that the OnePlus 13 will arrive February or March 2025.
However, leaker Smart Pikachu posted on Weibo (as reported by 91 Mobiles) that OnePlus wants the 13 to be the first smartphone to launch with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, Qualcomm’s next high-end smartphone chip.
If true, its launch would almost certainly be brought forward, at least in China – the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 would launch as early as September 2024. Indeed, OnePlus Club said in an article on that the OnePlus 13 will be launched in October 2024.
It remains to be seen how accurate this will be, or whether OnePlus will continue its strategy of the OnePlus 12, initially launched in China before a global release a few weeks later.
How much will the OnePlus 13 cost?
Nothing has been revealed regarding the price of the OnePlus 13 at this point. However, previous models give us a rough idea of what to expect:
- OnePlus 12 – from £849/$799
- OnePlus 12R – from £649/$599
- OnePlus 11 – from £729/$699
- OnePlus 10 Pro – from £799/$899
- OnePlus 9 – from £629/$729
- OnePlus 9 Pro – from £829/$1,069
The OnePlus 12 saw a significant price hike over the 11, but we don’t expect that to happen again on the next generation. As technology in general becomes more and more expensive, OnePlus will always want to undercut the prices of flagships from Apple, Samsung and Google.
What specs and features will the OnePlus 13 have?
The OnePlus 13 likely won’t arrive in Europe and North America until early 2025, but there are already some key rumors surrounding the phone.
Design
It appears that OnePlus is reworking the design of the OnePlus 12’s rear camera module. Tech tipster Digital Chat Station recently posted on Chinese social media site Weibo that the “family-style hinge” that sits at Left of the rear camera module would be removed.
The same OnePlus Club release on X which mentioned the October launch date also revealed what it says is a new design for the rear cameras. It shows a new vertical camera module that would replace the circular one on the OnePlus 12:
The responses pointed out that the rear module looks remarkably similar to that of the Sony Xperia PRO-I, so it could be a Photoshop image combining the two. We’ll have to wait and see if any more leaks appear before we’re sure the new design is truly authentic.
Display
No rumors emerged regarding the OnePlus 13’s screen, although the 12’s was already excellent.
Until we hear otherwise, you should still expect a 6.82-inch AMOLED display with QHD+ (3168×144) resolution and an adaptive 1-120Hz refresh rate.
However, on the display, there are rumors that OnePlus might upgrade the fingerprint sensor. According to Smart Pikachu on Weibo, the OnePlus 13 could include an ultrasonic scanner instead of the current optical scanner.
In general, ultrasonic sensors are more reliable and unlock better when your fingers are wet, so this would be a good upgrade.
Performance
Smart Pikachu on Weibo and Club OnePlus on X both believe the OnePlus 13 will be powered by Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset.
This would make sense, given that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is in the OnePlus 12 and the company generally aims to pack the latest and greatest chips into its flagship phone.
Hannah Cowton / Foundry
Cameras
The cameras will likely be the center of attention on the OnePlus 13, but there are no details on how they might be improved aside from the layout change noted above.
If true, OnePlus will stick with three lenses on the back. It remains to be seen whether the current 50MP main telephoto, 48MP ultra-wide and 64MP 3x will be upgraded. It’s also unclear whether the 16Mp selfie lens will be improved.
Battery and charging
The OnePlus 12 already has a great battery and charging combination, with a 5,400mAh cell and supports 100W wired charging, 50W wireless charging and 10W reverse wireless charging .
It would be a surprise to see further improvements on the 13, although we could see a move towards the Qi2 wireless charging standard.
Software
Android 15 will likely be available around the time the OnePlus 13 releases, so it’s likely it will run the next major version of Google’s software.
It will likely be bundled with OnePlus’ OxygenOS 15 skin, although it generally won’t bring many changes to the core Android user experience.
Hannah Cowton / Foundry
It will be interesting to see if OnePlus matches Google and Samsung in offering seven years of software updates. However, the current four years of operating system updates and five years of security patches are already pretty good.
Related Articles
Table of Contents
