If you ask me about my views on this year's smartphone market, my answer might be one word: intense. In fact, competition in the smartphone market has always been fierce in recent years, but it seems especially severe this year. For instance, flagship phone releases in the second half of this year have been particularly clustered. In terms of specifications, the concept of a flagship has also become blurrier, with all tiers of devices emphasizing sheer power. Take our protagonist today: the OnePlus 13. Despite the absence of 'Pro' in its name, it performs exceptionally well in performance, display, imaging, and battery life, exhibiting a 'Pro' attitude in every aspect. After a period of experiencing it, let's delve into the specific performance of the OnePlus 13.

A Good Look

The design of the OnePlus 13 can be briefly summarized as familiar yet novel. Building upon the previous OnePlus design style, it incorporates some innovative elements. For example, the circular camera module remains familiar, but unlike previous generations, it is not integrated with the frame.

Simultaneously, a horizontal line spans the entire camera module. OnePlus describes it as resembling a horizon running through the entire lens module, making the circular lens array resemble a sun rising from the horizon, which is quite intriguing.

We received the white color variant, officially named 'White Dew Dawn'. At first glance, the back cover may seem unremarkable, but it adopts a matte-like finish, providing a very smooth and comfortable tactile sensation.

The body thickness is about 0.65mm thinner, and the weight is about 10g lighter compared to the previous generation. Coupled with a relatively smaller camera module, the overall hand feel is more balanced, avoiding the issue of top-heavy flagship phones.

Of course, the classic OnePlus three-position slider button remains, allowing users to switch between vibration, silent, and ring modes with a gentle flick, which is very convenient. Other manufacturers are highly recommended to adopt this feature.

Looking at the front of the phone, we know that last year OnePlus collaborated with BOE to create the first-generation Eastern Screen, which performed well in terms of display quality, eye protection, and smoothness. This time, the OnePlus 13 upgrades this screen to the second generation. With an all-equal-depth soft-edged straight screen design, a resolution of 2K, support for true full-brightness DC-like dimming, and the Bright Eyes Low Flicker 2.0 technology, it achieves an excellent level in daily use, eye protection, and display quality.

Moreover, it is the first to introduce Sunlight Display Technology. Simply put, it provides a clear and color-accurate display even in bright outdoor conditions.

In preparation for the upcoming winter, the OnePlus 13, in addition to using ultrasonic fingerprint technology, has also incorporated a new generation of self-developed glove touch technology. Even in cold winters, precise operations can be performed while wearing gloves, enhancing the user experience.

Pro-level Performance with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3

After examining the external aspects of the OnePlus 13, let's delve into its internal performance. The OnePlus 13 is among the first batch of smartphones to be equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. With this chip, its performance speaks for itself. Briefly, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 adopts an all-big-core design, with the CPU utilizing Qualcomm's self-developed Oryon architecture, consisting of 2 super-cores and 6 big cores. The frequencies of the 2 super-cores reach 4.32GHz, and those of the 6 big cores reach 3.53GHz, making it quite powerful.

Using AnTuTu benchmark tests, the score easily reaches 2.86 million, demonstrating the chip's impressive capabilities. But how does it perform in real-world scenarios? Let's take a look at actual measurements.

First up is naturally 'Genshin Impact'. Notably, thanks to OnePlus's deep collaboration with 'Genshin Impact', the OnePlus 13 offers players a native 120 FPS gaming experience. Through a 30-minute run in Sumeru City in 'Genshin Impact', the average frame rate remained at 120.6 FPS, which is quite impressive for a game like 'Genshin Impact'.

Apart from 'Genshin Impact', 'Honkai: Star Rail' also offers a smooth 120 FPS experience. After a 30-minute game session, the average frame rate was 117.5 FPS, slightly lower than 'Genshin Impact' but still an outstanding performance.

With such powerful performance, 'Honor of Kings' becomes akin to a casual game. In a nearly 20-minute 10v10 match, the frame rate remained at 120 FPS throughout without any pressure.

Such outstanding results are not only due to the impressive Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 but also OnePlus's tuning. The OnePlus 13 is equipped with self-developed performance solutions, including the 'Tidal Engine' and the 'Aurora Engine'. The former achieves chip-level performance optimization, providing a more fundamental calling solution for applications, resulting in comprehensive improvements in performance, speed, and energy consumption.

The latter reconstructs the Android rendering framework, resolving issues of animation lag and uneven resource allocation, laying the foundation for smooth animations.

Additionally, the OnePlus 13 is equipped with a self-developed gaming-focused independent display engine, fully utilizing GPU computing power to unleash the full potential of CPU performance, ultimately generating zero-latency native-level smooth images, contributing to the 120 FPS smooth experience in 'Genshin Impact' and 'Honkai: Star Rail'.

While performance has been comprehensively enhanced, what about energy consumption? When the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 was first unveiled, there were concerns about its heating performance. The fear of "Snapdragon rebranding equals heating" loomed over many gamers. However, as we can see, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 not only upgrades performance but also significantly reduces energy consumption.

Actual tests show that during the 'Genshin Impact' experience, the phone's energy consumption was 5.2W (the OnePlus 13 has a dual-cell battery, so the data needs to be doubled).

Similarly, in 'Honor of Kings', the energy consumption for a single game session was only 3W (doubled). This time, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has indeed not only achieved a comprehensive upgrade in performance but also significantly improved energy consumption.

To further mitigate performance degradation due to heating during gaming, the OnePlus 13 is equipped with the newly upgraded second-generation TianGong Cooling System Pro, with a dual VC heat dissipation area of 9925mm² and a total heat dissipation area of up to 43697mm².

After a 30-minute 'Genshin Impact' gaming session, the maximum temperature on both the front and back of the phone was around 40°C, which is quite impressive for a flagship phone.

Besides the obvious optimization of smoothness, the OnePlus 13 has also been upgraded in many details. For example, it optimizes the antenna layout, adopting a dual-gold gaming antenna design to ensure that when playing games in landscape mode, the antennas are not covered by hands, ensuring a stable online connection for players.

Furthermore, the OnePlus 13 is equipped with the Bionic Haptic Motor Turbo. Not only is the motor large enough, but it also supports dual haptic feedback technology, providing players with delicate and rich vibration feedback. For instance, with this hardware and technology, it supports 4D haptic feedback in 'Genshin Impact', allowing players to receive matching vibration feedback when using ultimate abilities or flying, enhancing the gaming experience.

6000mAh Battery, Completely Eliminating Battery Life Anxiety

Before discussing imaging, I want to mention battery life. This year, the improved energy consumption performance of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 not only results in lower heat generation but also brings about an obvious optimization: battery life. In fact, when new smartphones were launched this year, you may have noticed that battery life has become one of the competitive focuses among manufacturers.

First, let's look at the OnePlus 13's configuration. Although we mentioned earlier that the OnePlus 13 has a thinner and lighter body, it still manages to fit a massive 6000mAh Glacier Battery within such dimensions, supporting 100W wired fast charging and 50W wireless fast charging.

How does it perform in real-world scenarios? We conducted a test by continuously playing videos. The test environment was set at around 25°C room temperature, with about 50% volume and screen brightness, connected to WiFi, and streaming Bilibili videos online. The final results showed that after about 18 hours of continuous playback, the battery life dropped from 100% to 2%. Considering various actual usage scenarios, the OnePlus 13 can easily handle a full day's use, which is quite impressive.

Now, about charging, we actually tested the wired charging performance from 1% to 100%. The final results showed that it took about 28 minutes to complete the charging process. Combined with its battery life, it basically achieves a performance of half an hour of charging for a full day's use.

Triple Main Cameras with Full Focal Length Range, Hasselblad Master Imaging

Let's move on to the imaging performance of the OnePlus 13. Starting with the configuration, the OnePlus 13 employs the Sony LYT-808 flagship main camera with a 1/1.4-inch sensor, supporting OIS optical image stabilization. The telephoto end uses the IMX882 sensor paired with a 3x periscope zoom lens, while the ultra-wide-angle camera is equipped with the JN5 sensor and a 50MP lens. In terms of configuration alone, it is still a very powerful flagship-level imaging setup. On top of that, it is equipped with the same imaging algorithm as the Find series, including features like blur-free capture and portrait capture. Let's take a look at the sample photos to see how it performs.

Firstly, in daylight scenarios, whether it's the original 23mm focal length of the main camera or zoomed to 2X, equivalent to 46mm, combined with Hasselblad's Master Color, it can present a very good viewing experience.

Thanks to the originally good optical quality of the periscope telephoto lens with an equivalent focal length of 73mm and appropriate AI intervention, good images can still be obtained after 3X and 6X zoom. This well reflects the current strength of mobile phone imaging: the ability to capture the scene in the first place, which is crucial for people to record casually.

In low-light environments such as night scenes, as a current flagship device, there is actually no need to worry too much about image quality. Avoiding overexposure of highlights and loss of shadows is already a basic requirement, which the OnePlus 13 can also fulfill well.

In addition, the OnePlus 13 also provides good snapshot capabilities this time. For some dynamic scenes, it can first ensure that the clarity of the moment is preserved, which also well guarantees the success rate of photos.

As for portrait mode, the OnePlus 13 also provides a good portrait blurring algorithm this time. Simply put, the blurring will be more natural, better able to present the effect of optical blurring, no longer having the digital feeling of the past, enhancing the viewing experience.

Super Breeno Assistant, Full-Scenario AI Experience

Finally, let's talk about AI, which is also a direction that major manufacturers are focusing on this year. The OnePlus 13 has been upgraded with the Super Breeno Assistant this time, achieving a full-scenario AI user experience.

Firstly, it has become very convenient to activate Breeno Assistant. In any scenario, by long-pressing the power button, you can summon Breeno Assistant. It's not just voice interaction; you can also type to communicate. In some scenarios where voice interaction is inconvenient, this will become more convenient.

In addition, thanks to the improvement of AI capabilities, usage scenarios have become more abundant. During the limited experience, what I felt most deeply should be the AI reflection removal function provided by AI photo editing. We often encounter situations where we take pictures of the outside scenery through glass, but reflections often affect the photo experience. This time, the OnePlus 13 provides an AI reflection removal function, which can effectively solve this problem. Moreover, the actual experience shows that the reflection recognition is very accurate, and the effect is very good.

Summary:

Nowadays, phones like to add suffixes such as Pro, Ultra, Max, etc., to their series names to showcase their power and excellence. OnePlus, however, seems a bit unique. The OnePlus 13 is just that, without any special suffix. But this does not affect its power. Whether it's a flagship-level chip, screen, battery life, or imaging, it has no Pro suffix but is better than many Pro models. We always say not to judge a book by its cover, and the same goes for product names. For users, solid performance and good cost-effectiveness are the most crucial factors. The OnePlus 13 does a great job in this regard. In the current market where phone prices are rising, if you want both performance and cost-effectiveness, the OnePlus 13 is worth a try.