Great performance, thousands cheaper

Review: Oneplus 13R - Cheaper and just a step below the best

It is a few thousand kronor cheaper than the flagship model, yet it has excellent performance, a bright screen, and capable cameras.

Erik Mörner

Published 6 February 2025 - 16:57

Oneplus used to make only flagship phones in its early days and then set a lower price tag than competitors. That's how they made a name for themselves, but that was a long time ago. Since then, they have changed strategy and now have a range from cheap to expensive and have also ventured into tablets, headsets, watches, and more. This year's real flagship, cheaper than the competitors, is the Oneplus 13, and what we are testing here is its cheaper sister model, the Oneplus 13R.

This is Oneplus

Let's first try to figure out what profile Oneplus and their phones have compared to competitors. The ever-present mantra when it comes to Oneplus is fast and smooth. That is, they want the interface and performance to be top-notch, without delays. They succeed better with this in more expensive phones with top components than in the slightly cheaper ones. Oneplus also has a collaboration with the camera manufacturer Hasselblad and joint investments to develop the mobile camera area, but we see this in the more expensive models, the flagships, not in the Oneplus 13R. Here, Hasselblad is absent.

I wouldn't say that the interface in the Oneplus 13R is exceptionally fast and stands out from the crowd in that way, but it is fast enough, and our performance tests show that it holds flagship class. The explanation is that under the hood, it simply has last year's top chip, and development hasn't progressed so quickly that it has become obsolete yet.

High class

The screen also maintains a high class, is flat without curved edges, and provides good brightness and fast refresh as it should. It can also be used with wet fingers and in the rain and can display information such as time, notifications, music playing, and weather even in standby mode with always on display. In fact, the screen can also be used with gloves as long as they are thin cotton or leather gloves and not thick mittens.

The cameras in the Oneplus 13R do not deliver any direct special features like the more expensive sister model does, but still maintain a high and consistent quality. The Oneplus 13R has inherited the algorithm that handles dual exposures and is supposed to ensure you always get sharp images even of subjects that move quickly. It worked well in the Oneplus 13, but here in the Oneplus 13R, it doesn't keep up at all. I do get sharp images, but the effect is that I completely miss the moment and get a picture of an empty street where the fast car has already moved out of the frame. I also try taking pictures of a person playing ball more stationary, and sure, I get sharp images, but it takes a long time between the shutter press and the captured image, as well as between each picture I can take. Not particularly useful, that is.

Oneplus's own interface is called Oxygen OS, and the phone comes with the latest Android 15. With Oxygen OS, a couple of proprietary apps are included, and of course, the obligatory AI services today. No translation services, but rather some image editing functions. I've played quite a bit with the ability to remove reflections when, for example, taking pictures of something in a glass display at a museum, and it has worked impressively well. In the interface, I also notice that Oneplus has added a new feature. When I connect the charger or start playing music on Spotify, this is shown as an expansion of the selfie camera's black hole on the screen. Oneplus has thus taken a cue from what Apple has done with the iPhone's dynamic island. This works in much the same way. However, support is limited, but I can get information from Spotify, voice recording, charging, and timer. However, not, for example, Google Maps during navigation. With the information gathered here, I can expand it further with a click to get more information, which works quite smoothly and makes it easier to handle multiple things at once on the phone, even though app support is not complete.

Overall, the Oneplus 13R is an attractive product, positioned interestingly just below the true flagships.

Questions and Answers

What do you say about the battery life?

The capacity is generous, 6000 mAh, but in battery tests and during regular use throughout the test period, we still don't get exceptional battery life from the phone.

Does the phone have a physical switch for silent mode?

Yes, the button with a slider is on the side, a classic Oneplus gimmick that has made a comeback.

Surely it also has an IR transmitter to act as a remote control?

A bit unexpected, but yes, it has it.

An alternative

The step up to Oneplus 13 with better cameras is not too big, and if you want to save some money instead, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 series is close at hand.

Camera example

In Oneplus 13R, the camera functions are not as impressive as in the flagship Oneplus 13. This is evident as I easily get blur in the dark and miss some of the prestige features from more expensive phones, but most pictures taken with Oneplus 13R are still clearly acceptable.