OnePlus president Louis Lee recently took to Weibo (via Android Authority) to post an unexpected update on the successor to the OnePlus 12, one of our favorite phones this year. He announced that the OnePlus 13 will be available later this month. The October release of the latest OnePlus phone is just for China. Currently, there’s no word on when it will hit global markets.
The OnePlus 12 was released in February 2024, which makes this update a fairly quick launch for the next generation of its flagship phone. Lee adds that the OnePlus 13 will sport the latest Snapdragon flagship chip, presumably the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, giving it a “big leap in both performance release and overall smoothness.” He goes as far as to say this phone will reach “a height never seen before on Android.”
While we loved the OnePlus 12 for its camera, bigger battery, and wireless charging capabilities, we weren’t big fans of OxygenOS. The OnePlus 13 will be run on ColorOS15, which is a first for a OnePlus phone. Lee is hopeful the new OS will bring “unprecedented super performance, super performance scheduling, and a super smooth dynamic experience.”
OnePlus is touting the new self-developed Tidal Engine and Aurora Engine on the ColorOS15 as its most important features, which will translate to a “revolutionary smooth experience” for users. It claims that the Tidal Engine can “schedule performance very efficiently” and the Aurora Engine can “completely reconstruct the underlying system, making the system dynamics smooth and agile.”
While the OxygenOS on the OnePlus line used to be one of our favorites, our opinion of it changed when its aesthetics were melded with the ColorOS, resulting in a weird hybrid. We’re hopeful a complete revamp of the OS with the ColorOS15 completely taking over will fix that complaint.
In another Weibo post in September (via Android Authority), Louis Lee lightly teased the display that could be on the OnePlus 13. He announced “the world’s first second-generation Oriental Screen” and added that it will “bring even more outstanding performance, and the effect will be far ahead” compared to the OnePlus 12.
We were very impressed by the beefy 5,400mAh battery on the OnePlus 12, but the upcoming model will upgrade to 6,000mAh. The hope is that it also features wireless charging like its predecessor. According to tipsters, it looks like it will. Yogesh Brar predicts 100W wired and 50W wireless charging speeds on the phone.
We don’t have word on pricing yet, but rumors suggest it will be similar to the OnePlus 12, which launched at $800.
