OnePlus 13s review: Mini marvel

Good get deceived by the miniature looks. It may appear small in the hands, but the OnePlus 13s is a powerful Android premium phone.

Last weekend, OnePlus unveiled the company's brand new flagship Android phone OnePlus 13s in India.

It is slated to hit stores later this week on June 12. OnePlus 13s comes in two variants-- 12GB RAM + 256GB storage and 16GB RAM + 512GB storage-- with prices starting at Rs 54,999.

I have been using the OnePlus 13s for a week and here are my thoughts on the latest premium phone.

Design, build quality and display

OnePlus 13s is very different from the original OnePlus 13 launched earlier this year. The new phone is compact and comes with a curvaceous design.

The device comes in three colours-- green silk, pink satin and black velvet. Our review unit is the latter. It looks great in the sunlight.

It flaunts a smooth frosted glass back with a matte finish, which does a fantastic job of repelling sweaty fingerprint smudges. Also, offers a good grip for the hands to hold onto the device. The flat curved frames around the edges also assist the fingers to have a firmer grip on the phone.

OnePlus 13s.

It has a visually appealing camera module with rounded corners. It has dual sensors with one LED flash and an InfraRed sensor. Usually, OnePlus place the IR blaster in the frame at the top, so that it can be used to operate any compatible smart TV just a like remote controller.

However, with this change of place, the user has to keep the phone in a vertical alignment so the sensor is in direct line of sight with the TV panel. It is kind of an odd angle to operate the TV. This is the only drawback of the compact phone's design.

Another distinct and more important aspect of the OnePlus 13s is the Plus Key button, which replaces the trademark alert slider we have seen in almost all OnePlus phones for a decade.

Plus Key feature debuts with OnePlus 13s.

Unlike the alert slider, which allows the user to switch between ring, silence and vibration modes, the Plus Key can be programmable to do multiple functions such as turn on silent/night mode, do not disturb, camera, shortcut to take screenshots, take voice memo, torch, and Mind Space, a new AI feature, which debuts with OnePlus 13s (more on this in the performance section).

On the front, the OnePlus 13s sports a gorgeous display with a slim uniform bezel around the edges. It has a small camera at the top and the rest is a functional display area with a 90.6 per cent screen-to-body ratio.

OnePlus 13s.

It has a 6.32-inch 1.5K (2640x1216p) LTPO AMOLED display with, supports a 1-120Hz refresh rate, pixel density of 460 pixels per inch (ppi) and offers up to 1,600 nits peak.

It is perfect for single-handed usage such as replying to messages with less hassle, and doom scroll on Instagram.

OnePlus 13s.

Also, the display quality with full brightness is great for watching short videos on social media platforms and multimedia content for hours without any discomfort indoors and outdoors under shade.

However, under direct sunlight, people will face reflection issues with the OnePlus 13s display and have to take the phones a little closer to the face to view content.

OnePlus 13s.

The phone is well protected against daily wear and tear. The company offers a free silicone cover case with the retail box.

The display also comes pre-fitted with a screen guard, in addition to Oppo’s propriety Crystal Shield Glass shield. It also comes with an IP65 dust-and-water-splash-resistant rating, meaning it can survive accidental water splashing as well.

OnePlus 13s comes with free silicone cover case.

OnePlus has covered almost all bases to ensure the device can serve the customer for several years.

OnePlus 13s also features dual SIM slots (nano + nano), a type-C USB port and an in-display optical fingerprint sensor. The latter does a fine job of recognising the finger impression and unlocking the home screen with less false rejection rate.

Performance

Whatever the tasks may be, the device is fully equipped to run smoothly.

Under the hood, the OnePlus 13s houses a powerful 4nm class 4.32Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite octa-core with 900MHz Adreno 830 GPU, and as noted earlier, is available in two configurations -- 12GB LPDDR5X RAM + 256GB storage (UFS 4.0) and 12GB LPDDR5X RAM with 512GB storage (UFS 4.0). Our review unit is the latter.

Even when doing heavy-duty tasks such as playing games or operating a camera to record high-resolution 4K videos, it doesn't overheat much.

OnePlus 13s Cover Photos Selected CPU and GPU performance on Geekbench 6.0 app.

It has a big 4400mm² vapour chamber and most of the components are placed in a s-structure design for efficient heat dissipation.

On the frame too, the cellular bands are placed in s-formation to deliver a stable network signal for smooth calling and internet connectivity. It also houses a standalone G1 Wi-Fi chipset for smooth internet connectivity indoors. During the review period, the phone did not show any sign of sluggishness ness any particular aspect.

OnePlus 13s supports several generative Artificial Intelligence (gen AI) features including Gemini Live AI, circle to search, summarise written content, translate languages and audio transcription in addition to photography tools such as object eraser, and more.

Mind Space feature.

Also, the OnePlus propreitary AI feature 'Mind Space' is a good first attempt to improve the user experience on the OnePlus phones.

OnePlus AI app can help users record on-screen information, which can recalled to work on a project. It can scan what's appearing on the phone's screen, to offer insights and if required, be able to add them to a to-do list.

For instance, if you are looking at an email with an invitation to an event, he/she can just trigger Plus Key to summon the Mind Space app and the latter will automatically read the email and add a reminder to the calendar.

For now, the utilities of Mind Space are kind of limited, but with future updates, it has a lot of potential to enhance the user experience on the phone.

OnePlus 13s runs Android 15-based ColorOS 15. It is clean and very easy navigate through the settings. The device is guaranteed to get four years of Android OS update (up to 2029) and six years of software security updates for up to six years (up to 2031).

Battery Life

Though it has a compact form factor, the company has managed to incorporate a large single-cell graphite battery with a 5,850mAh capacity. It can deliver a full day's battery life under normal usage with Wi-Fi connectivity at the home and the office. If you are fully dependent on the cellular network for the Internet all day, it can last till evening.

However, thanks to 80W SuperVOOC technology, it can fully charge from zero to 100 per cent in under one hour.

OnePlus 13s.

Photography

OnePlus 13s sports a dual-camera module— main 50MP (with 1/1.56-inch IMX906 sensor, f/1.8 aperture, OIS: Optical Image Stabilisation) with a 50MP 2x telephoto camera (with f/2.0, OIS) with LED flash.

OnePlus 13s camera sample.

It takes stunning pictures in the sunlight. The photos capture minute details of the subjects very clearly. Flowers appear more vibrant and lively in the images.

OnePlus 13s camera sample.

In the evening time too, the picture quality is amazingly good.

OnePlus 13s camera sample.

At night, OnePlus 13s takes really good pictures with less noise.

OnePlus 13s camera sample.

It also supports portrait mode. OnePlus 13s does a fine job with a sharp focus on the subject and artfully blurs the background to deliver that perfect bokeh effect.

OnePlus 13s camera sample.

OnePlus 13s camera sample.

Photos captured at close-up range too, appear good with the all-minute details.

OnePlus 13s camera sample.

OnePlus 13s camera sample.

It supports 2X optical zoom and can digitally zoom up to 20X.

OnePlus 13s' 4X zoom photo sample.

It can record videos up to 4K at 60 frames per second. The videos are stable even with shaky hands.

OnePlus 13s camera sample.

It also boasts of 16MP front camera (ƒ/2.4). It captures good selfies in the daylight with bright sun in the sky. However, indoors, the quality takes a slight hit. That said. The picture quality is on par with other phones in its class.

OnePlus 13s camera sample.

The front camera record up to 1080p full HD 30 fps. The video is quality is decent.

OnePlus 13s camera sample.

Final thoughts

OnePlus 13s is a worthy investment.

It may appear small in the hands, but the OnePlus 13s is a powerful Android premium phone. It excels with build quality, super smooth performance, amazing camera hardware and delivers good on long battery life.

Also, the gen AI features are promising and with future updates, the OnePlus 13s will only get better over time.

In India, OnePlus 13s is be available in two configurations-- 12GB RAM + 256GB storage and 16GB RAM + 512GB storage-- for Rs 54,999 and Rs 59,999, respectively

OnePlus logo on OnePlus 13s.

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