OnePlus 13 PhoneArena Camera Score revealed: Inconsistently running in place

Main Camera

OnePlus 13 wide-angle samples

The main camera has the tendency to crush shadows, and at the same time, underexposes highlights, resulting in images that appear too grim and drab. The contrasts in some scene is a bit extreme, too, and colors are definitely on the overly vivid side. As a result, photos don’t really appear natural and have that over-processed look that doesn’t look appealing. 

There are some over-sharpening issues, but not more than what you’d find on an iPhone or a Galaxy, so nothing out of the ordinary. There are some issues with portrait mode, too.

Zoom Quality

OnePlus 13 3X, 6X, 15X zoom samples 

Zooming in to 3X, which is the native optical zoom of the OnePlus 13, things are certainly looking good. Detail is superb, besting all of its competitors and on equal grounds with the Galaxy S24 Ultra in terms of sharpness. There are, however, some over-sharpening artifacts. 

At 15X, in which the optical zoom is way out of its league, the quality is still mighty usable thanks to the AI upscaling algorithms that OnePlus has reined in. This goes on up until 120X, but results will gradually become less and less usable the further you zoom in until you’re left with an overly oversharpened and AI-processed photo.

Ultra-wide Camera

The OnePlus 13 ultrawide camera is probably the biggest offender when it comes to oversaturated colors and overly rich contrast. Shadows are crushed and highlights can easily get blown out, so dynamic range is definitely not a strong suit of that camera. It’s quite wide, though, which is always nice. 

Front Camera

The front camera of the OnePlus 13 is very sharp and selfies turn out super-detailed, with good dynamic range. The color temperature errs on the side of magenta hues, though. 

Video

Main Camera – Video

Videos made with the main camera look good, exhibiting excellent dynamics and colors (unlike the same camera in still photo mode). Sharpness leaves a lot to be desired, though, trailing behind all of OnePlus 13‘s competitors and including the OnePlus 12 as well. That’s not very inspiring and moderately disappointing. 

Ultrawide camera – Video

At the same time, the ultrawide camera has good detail, and interestingly, little to no oversharpening here. Dynamics, color temperature, and decent exposure are all strengths of the ultrawide snapper. 

Zoom camera – Video

At the 3X native zoom range, videos taken with the OnePlus 13 turn out pretty decent! Sharpness is exceptional here, pretty much beating all of its closest competitors, which is good to see.  

Selfie camera – Video

The front-facing camera delivers clean videos with lots of sharpness, lovely colors and decent dynamics. Overall, a decent surprise that will do great for either selfie videos or the occasional Teams meeting. 

Conclusion