The OnePlus 13R has a new design with flat sides, and honestly, I’m not a fan of the design. While the OnePlus 13 has subtle bevels to make it easier to hold the device, the 13R is boxy, and it makes holding and using the phone uncomfortable. It has an aluminum mid-frame, and while it is technically thinner than the 12R, that isn’t evident when holding both phones next to one another.
I like the design of the OnePlus 12R better; the dual-curved aesthetic makes the phone a delight to use, and it just feels better. That said, there’s an increased risk of the front or rear panes of glass taking damage should the device take a tumble, and the 13R switched to a boxy design to avoid these issues.
Both devices have the alert slider, and they have fingerprint sensors located awkwardly; the 12R has the module too high up on the panel, and the 13R has one that sits too low. Rounding out the design, the 12R gets IP64 dust and water resistance, with the 13R picking up IP65. I would have liked to see IP67 on the device, but that isn’t the case this time.
Switching over to the panel, both phones use the same 6.78-inch BOE AMOLED 120Hz screen, with identical brightness and color vibrancy. There isn’t any issue with either device in outdoor use, and they do a great job delivering vibrant colors in HDR content and daily use.
The only notable difference is that the 13R has a fully flat panel, so if you’re not a fan of the design of the 12R, you’ll like what the manufacturer is doing this time. Outside of that, the quality of the AMOLED panel itself is unchanged.
The OnePlus 13R has a considerable leg up over the 12R, and that’s because it comes with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. It has outstanding performance in daily use as well as gaming, and I didn’t notice any slowdowns whatsoever. You also get 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage on the base model, and 12GB of RAM as standard this time.
The 12R is still decent enough in this area, but the base model has an 8GB/128GB configuration, and you just get more with the 13R. On that note, the 13R has a bigger 6000mAh battery as well, and is able to last a day and a half with ease. By contrast, the 12R averages a day with heavy use.
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Category
OnePlus 13R
OnePlus 12R
OS
OxygenOS 15 based on Android 15, four Android OS updates and six years of security updates
OxygenOS 15 based on Android 15, three Android OS updates and four years of security updates
