The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is going to be my primary smartphone for at least the next few weeks, and I’m coming to it from the OnePlus 13. I first put my SIM card in the OnePlus 13 three months ago, and no one has been able to wrestle it from my hands since. For me, this is an astonishingly long time to use an Android phone, and it speaks volumes about what a superb phone it is.
I’ll be using the Galaxy S25 Ultra for the next few weeks, but I’m going to miss the OnePlus 13. Here’s why.
Why so long?
Twelve weeks of use may not sound like much to you, but it’s probably the longest continuous period of time I’ve used a single Android phone for in quite some time. My job involves me swapping Android phones very regularly, but various things aligned to mean I didn’t need to swap over the festive period. Often, when these situations have arisen in the past, I’ve put my SIM into another phone just to revisit it, or because I really liked it.
It didn’t even cross my mind this time. I even remember saying, during a planning session for future articles, that I wasn’t done with the OnePlus 13, even though my review and other coverage was complete. For me to want to continue using the OnePlus 13, even though various other phones I’ve really liked were waiting for me, meant it wasn’t doing anything badly at all, and perhaps best of all, it wasn’t doing anything to annoy me.
I’ve had a love/hate affair with OxygenOS since much of what I didn’t like about Oppo’s ColorOS began to creep into the design and interface. These aspects — the seemingly endless system notifications, poor notification support, and overly complex menus, for example — would have seen me reaching for the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold (my other favorite Android phone of last year) in days gone past, but with OxygenOS 15, OnePlus has taken back control and the software is all the better for it. I’m not simply tolerating it. I like it.
Fantastic hardware
I’ve had the OnePlus 13 inside the official Sandstone case since it arrived. Apart from the odd requirement to put a sliver of plastic inside to ensure you get the fastest wireless charging speeds, it’s a very pleasant addition to the phone. The grippy texture isn’t too grippy, so it goes in and out of my pocket without a fight, and it doesn’t add too much bulk to the phone.
When I take the case off, I do feel silly for using it all the time though. The soft, tactile texture of the microfiber vegan leather back panel on my Midnight Ocean model is far more luxurious than the scratchy, sandpaper-like case. The phone’s design is spot-on, and a considerable improvement over the OnePlus 12. Small changes like moving Hasselblad’s “H” logo to the side of the camera module, and adding a polished line beneath it, make it eye-catching and distinctive.
The battery life continued to impress, and with my two-to-three hours of use each day it lasted well into a third day before I really needed to recharge it. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite hasn’t made the phone too hot, and I’ve loved using the camera too. Hasselblad’s work behind the scenes must be paying off, as the tone and colors produced in photos are really attractive, and give the OnePlus 13’s camera an identity of its own. I’ve even discovered a love for the XPan camera mode, which has improved enough for me to no longer consider it a gimmick.
It’s a hard act to follow
The Galaxy S25 Ultra has to follow what I think is one of the very best Android smartphones you can buy. For it to win me over, and encourage me to at the very least want to use it for 12 consecutive weeks, it has to be easy to carry around, look good, have excellent battery life, reliable software, and a camera I love using.
The OnePlus 13 does all this with ease, and I can’t ignore that the 12GB/256GB version costs $400 less than the cheapest Galaxy S25 Ultra model, which actually has the same basic specification. Even if you’ve got $1,299 to spend on a new smartphone, saving that amount of money is the difference between getting a new phone and a smartwatch or smart ring, or just getting a new phone on its own.
Samsung’s latest phones aren’t the OnePlus 13’s only competition, and the Google Pixel 9 Pro presents a strong challenge too, but that brings me on to another OnePlus 13 strong point. It has AI features, but they aren’t being pushed as monumentally transformative or as a reason to buy. I love this, as I don’t feel like I’m paying for features I don’t use, as few so far have been all regularly helpful.
Perhaps that’s also a reason why I’ve loved using the OnePlus 13 for the last 84 days or so: it’s a smartphone, and it absolutely excels at doing smartphone things. I don’t really need much more, and if you’ve been thinking about buying a OnePlus 13, take it from me, someone who is usually happy to swap to a different phone every couple of weeks, you won’t regret getting one.
