OnePlus has unveiled its latest gaming-focused smartphone, the OnePlus 13R – but how does it compare to last year’s OnePlus 12R?
While there are undoubtedly plenty of similarities between the phones, including the overall look and feel and a focus on performance, the OnePlus 13R fixes some of our big complaints with last year’s smartphone while also keeping pace with the flagship OnePlus 13 in key areas.
With that said, here are five differences between the OnePlus 13R and the OnePlus 12R.
Pricing and availability
The OnePlus 13R has had a slight price hike in regions including the UK compared to last year’s OnePlus 12R – though not by much, coming in at £679/$599 with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
The OnePlus 12R, on the other hand, retailed for £649/$599, also with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, though you can likely pick it up cheaper as retailers look to get rid of the last remaining stock of the 2023 smartphone with the release of the newer model.
The OnePlus 13R has a more responsive display
You might assume that the OnePlus 13R would have a very similar screen to last year’s OnePlus 12R, and you’d be correct; both phones offer a 6.78-inch AMOLED screen with a buttery smooth 120Hz refresh rate and support for Dolby Vision and HDR10+.
However, there are a few key differences between the two panels; not only does the OnePlus 13R offer upgraded LTPO 4.1 technology in place of the LTPO 4.0 tech of the OnePlus 12R, but it’s also much brighter. In everyday use, it’ll hit 1800 nits, up from 1600nits, while watching compatible HDR content brings it up to a whopping 6000nits, up from 4500nits.
The upgraded LTPO tech may not make as big an impact as the move from the LTPO 3 OnePlus 12 to the LTPO 4.1 OnePlus 13, reducing the time to drop the refresh rate from 120Hz to 60Hz from 3 seconds to less than a second, but it should still translate to a more responsive screen that’s also less demanding in the power department.
The OnePlus 13R has a more powerful chipset
The OnePlus 12R wasn’t exactly a slouch in the performance department, offering a combination of Qualcomm’s 2023 flagship, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, alongside 12GB of RAM that we felt delivered impressive performance for the price point.
While the updated OnePlus 13R doesn’t have the same impressively powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset as the full-fat OnePlus 13, it does sport the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 – the chipset of choice for flagships in 2023, present in the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, Honor Magic 6 Pro and Xiaomi 14 Ultra.
Combined with the same healthy 12GB of RAM, the OnePlus 13R should offer a notable boost to improvement in the CPU and GPU department compared to the older OnePlus 12R, though we’ll confirm this once we’ve reviewed the latest mid-ranger.
The OnePlus 13R has a more versatile camera system
When we reviewed the OnePlus 12R last year, we felt that one of the primary weaknesses of the phone was its camera hardware.
Despite its £649/$599 price tag, the 12R only came with an OIS-enabled 50MP f/1.8 main camera and a rather underwhelming combination of an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide lens and a, let’s be honest, garbage 2MP f/2.4 macro lens, the latter of which was likely only present to boost the perceived number of cameras up a notch.
OnePlus took note of this criticism and has gone some way to fixing that with the OnePlus 13. While the 50MP main and 8MP ultrawide lenses remain unchanged compared to the 12R, the macro lens has been ditched for an entirely more useful 50MP 2x telephoto lens.
The inclusion of a telephoto lens brings the 13R’s camera offering more in line with that of the competition, allowing for better-quality zoom shots than in-sensor zoom, though how well this new snapper performs in real-world use is yet to be seen.
The OnePlus 13R has a larger battery
Both the OnePlus 12R and 13R are framed as OnePlus’ gaming-focused smartphones, so both come with a suitably high battery capacity to power hours of gaming on the go.
The OnePlus 12R had one of the highest capacities around in 2023 with its 5500mAh cell, but the OnePlus 13R has boosted that to a whopping 6000mAh.
What’s more, the OnePlus 13R uses upgraded silicon-carbon battery tech that allows for a denser battery without expanding the size of the phone’s chassis, which is why the size of the 13R hasn’t grown to accommodate a larger battery.
The OnePlus 12R has faster charging
The introduction of high-capacity silicon-carbon battery tech in the OnePlus 13R is a great move, allowing the smartphone to last longer than ever on a single charge without adding to the overall heft, but there is a catch; it doesn’t charge quite as fast.
I discussed this a few weeks ago in my weekly Fast Charge column, but there’s a trend among smartphone manufacturers capping silicon-carbon-powered smartphones at 80W despite there being no inherent cap on charging speed for the tech. That’s very much the case with the OnePlus 13R, and that’s a 20W reduction on the 100W that the OnePlus 12R offers.
When combined with a higher capacity battery, it should translate to notably longer charge times when compared to the OnePlus 12R’s 28 minutes that we witnessed during testing.
Early thoughts
The OnePlus 12R remains a tempting phone if you can find it at a reduced price, but the OnePlus 13R is faster, has a better screen, a larger battery and a more versatile camera setup, making it an easy recommendation for most – except existing OnePlus 12R owners.
There doesn’t seem to be enough of a difference here to merit an upgrade to this year’s model, though that could change once we’ve spent some time with the OnePlus 13R.
