OnePlus 13R Review: Monolith of Power

Price When Reviewed

$599.99

Best Prices Today: OnePlus 13R

$599

OnePlus is kicking off 2025 with a bang, bringing its latest flagship – the OnePlus 13 – to international audiences. The 13 wasn’t alone on stage, however, with the more modest (but still highly-specced) OnePlus 13R serving up performance hardware and software at an even more competitive price than its sibling.

2024 saw OnePlus’ R series go international, after having previously been an India exclusive. The OnePlus 12R left us impressed, thanks to its exceptional display, battery and value.

The OnePlus 13R looks as though it’s following a similar blueprint, toting like-minded display and AI-based software upgrades to the OnePlus 13, along with the biggest battery we’ve seen from the company on an international release.

There are some obvious and expected downgrades compared to the flagship 13, but considering the price point (£679 / $599.99) the OnePlus 13R hits, many will likely find such sacrifices justified; provided what’s promised on paper, matches up with expectations. So, let’s find out together.

Design & Build

• Thinner and lighter than OnePlus 12R
• IP65 rated
• New magnetic accessory ecosystem, compatible with MagSafe

In my OnePlus 13 review, despite offering up an unquestionably premium design, I said that the phone’s aesthetics lacked cohesion; with over-complicated geometry and an overabundance of surface finishes. Not so with the OnePlus 13R.

Following in the footsteps of Apple, Google, and Samsung over the past couple of years, unlike both its launch sibling and its predecessor, the 13R is OnePlus’ most squared phone yet.

Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd

Flat front and back glass sandwich a straight-edged aluminum mid-frame, and the effect is striking. The 13R looks strong and imposing, and yet the designers have added a near-imperceptible rounded edge to the frame to ensure that it’s still comfortable in the hand.

It’s monolithic aesthetic (especially if you pick the phone up in the Nebula Noir colorway, pictured in this review) is broken only by functional elements, like the offset circular rear camera array, and the brand’s signature three-stage alert slider, along the side.

There’s a pleasing symmetry to the loudspeaker and the SIM tray placement along the bottom, and the microphones and integrated IR blaster along the phone’s top face too. Meanwhile, the contrast of the satin-finish back glass and frame, against the glossy display, make for a pleasing contrast; even when the phone sits idle.

Even with its commanding presence, the 13R is actually thinner (8mm, down from 8.8mm) and lighter than its predecessor, in spite of sporting the same-sized display and a larger battery.

Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd

The IP65 rating against dust and water is also an incremental improvement over the IP64-rated 12R, but lags behind the IP68-certification of most flagships, not to mention the OnePlus 13 itself, which is among the few phones that also totes IP69-grade protection (OnePlus even ran a device through a hot dishwasher at the phone’s launch, to show off its newly-improved resilience).

One design feature that the 13R does share with the standard 13, however, is support for a new range of cases, which in turn allow for magnetically detachable accessories, including those that rely on Apple’s circular MagSafe magnetic configuration. The only caveat is that with no wireless charging support to speak of, OnePlus’ new magnetic power bank and wireless charger accessories – which launched alongside the 13 series – do nothing for the 13R.

Screen & Speakers

• 6.78-inch 120Hz LTPO 4.1 OLED ProXDR display
• Gorilla Glass 7i
• RadiantView, Aqua Touch 2.0, Eye Care 4.0, and more

The display was one of the biggest strengths of the OnePlus 12R and the same can be said for the panel found on its successor.

A glance at the specs and it doesn’t immediately look like OnePlus has done anything to improve the viewing experience between generations here. You once again get a familiar 6.78-inch 1.5K dynamic 1 to 120Hz OLED panel, with the same impressive 1600-nit overall brightness output and superb 4500-nit peak brightness too. Beyond that though, it benefits from the same upgrades as the full-fat OnePlus 13.

Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd

For starters, the upgrade to LTPO 4.1 tech means that dynamic refresh rate can switch significantly faster, resulting in improved power efficiency. Then there are the wealth of technologies dedicated to ensuring the 13R’s screen is easier to see and use.

RadiantView doesn’t just boost brightness panel-wide when the phone detects you’re in bright surroundings, it can adjust different areas of the panel, relative to what’s on-screen, to create better contrast and definition. Taking a leaf out of Honor’s book, new 2160Hz PWM (pulse width modulation) dimming helps support existing eye comfort tech within the software, to reduce eye strain at lower brightness levels.

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