OnePlus has announced a new smartphone recently, and by OnePlus’ standards, it’s a rather odd one. The phone’s name is the OnePlus 13T, and it’s a compact flagship, basically. We’re not used to seeing OnePlus announce powerful compact smartphones, not at all. OnePlus has always been about rather large smartphones that offer the very best specs for an acceptable price. The company was well-known for its ‘Never Settle’ mantra, which is no longer there, technically, but one can argue that OnePlus still offers the best bang for the buck. Well, if you’re looking to get a high-end smartphone.
The OnePlus 13T is definitely a step away from its usual way of doing things. This phone is not only interesting because it’s a more compact flagship, basically. There are some other parts of it that stand out. When the rumors first started, I have to admit I was quite skeptical. Skeptical as in I didn’t even think the device was real. Luckily, however, OnePlus actually made it. The company apparently wants to compete with other smartphone OEMs that offer powerful compact phones. There are quite a few of these days, which is a breath of fresh air. We have the Pixel 9 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro, Xiaomi 15, Vivo X200 Pro mini, OPPO Find X8s, and Galaxy S25, first and foremost. HONOR is rumored to come up with one such phone too, though.
Considering that compact high-end phones were a true rarity just a couple of years ago, this is great to see. Not everyone who is purchasing a powerful device wants to deal with a huge phone. True, some of these devices are not exactly on the same level as their larger siblings. It’s mostly due to their cameras. Some of them are, though. With that being said, in this article, we’ll focus on the OnePlus 13T and what makes it special. We’ll go over the phone’s best characteristics aka most notable features, basically. One by one. In addition to that, we’ll see how it compares to its larger sibling in some of these categories, and highlight some features that put it behind that phone, the OnePlus 13.
Size and weight
This phone’s size is one of its main selling points. Compact smartphones are kind of popular again, and this 6.3-inch size seems to be the sweet spot for many companies. That display size is considered to be large enough for pleasant use, without making the phone too big. That is especially true when the bezels are as thin as they are on this smartphone. The OnePlus 13T has a screen-to-body ratio of around 90%, and its bezels are uniform.
The phone is 150.8mm tall, 71.7mm wide, and 8.15mm thick. Despite the fact it has a larger battery than its larger sibling, it still manages to be slightly thinner. The OnePlus 13 is 8.5mm thick at its thinnest point. The OnePlus 13T also weighs 185 grams, which means it’s about 25 grams lighter than the OnePlus 13. It’s a compact and rather light smartphone, considering what we’re getting today.
Same power as OnePlus 13
Despite the fact that it’s smaller than the OnePlus 13, it’s basically just as powerful, from the performance standpoint. The OnePlus 13T is fueled by the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, Qualcomm’s most powerful chip. In addition to that, the phone is equipped with up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and it comes with UFS 4.0 flash storage. Granted, the OnePlus 13 does come with up to 24GB of RAM in China. Still, in most markets, it’s capped at 16GB.
These are great specifications, needless to say. It’s basically as powerful as it can be. Based on those specs, we can expect it to offer the same performance as the OnePlus 13, as its software will be similar too. Those are great news, as the OnePlus 13 is one of the best-performing smartphones we’ve ever used. It’s extremely smooth and can handle basically everything you throw at it.
Ginormous battery
In addition to the phone’s overall size, its battery prowess is a main selling point. This compact smartphone has a 6,260mAh battery on the inside. It beats basically all of the competitors listed in the second paragraph of this article. That battery size is enormous, which goes even for a large-format flagship, let alone a compact one.
The OnePlus 13T includes a larger battery than its larger sibling, the OnePlus 13. The OnePlus 13 comes with a 6,000mAh battery, despite the fact it has a much larger display. As a reminder, OnePlus’ large-format flagship has a 6.82-inch display, which is also a bit sharper than the one on the OnePlus 13T. That phone offers outstanding battery life, so you can imagine what the OnePlus 13T will deliver.
Super fast charging
OnePlus wanted to make sure you can recharge this smartphone really fast, despite the fact it includes a large battery on the inside. The phone supports 80W SuperVOOC fast wired charging. That’s plenty of power to get the phone from 0 to 100% really, really fast. And yes, a charger is included in the retail box. OnePlus did sacrifice (fast) wireless charging on this phone, however.
Unbeatable price tag
The OnePlus 13T did not launch globally, at least not yet. It launched in China only, and its entry-level model in China has a fantastic price tag, to say the least. It’s priced at CNY3,399, which is the equivalent of $446. That’s the model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The variant with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage is the most powerful one, and it’s priced at CNY4,499, which is the equivalent of $617.
That is an outstanding price, no matter what way you cut it. The thing is, if this phone ends up being released in markets outside of China, its price tag will likely be a lot higher. We don’t see it being anywhere close to what we’re seeing here. Other markets may also not get the 12GB RAM model at all, we’ll see.
Inferior IP certification, but still good
I wouldn’t exactly call this a negative by any means. The OnePlus 13T comes with an IP65 certification for water and dust resistance. That’ll be plenty for pretty much everyone. However, the phone is not on the same playing field as the OnePlus 13. The OnePlus 13 is IP68 and IP69 certified. While the OnePlus 13T can handle low-pressure jet blasts, in terms of water, the OnePlus 13 can handle high-pressure water jets. It’s also immersible for up to 30 minutes in up to 1.5m of water.
The OnePlus 13 has superior camera hardware
While the OnePlus 13T has a solid pair of cameras, they’re not on the same level as the ones on the OnePlus 13. The OnePlus 13 has a 50-megapixel main camera (1/1.43-inch sensor), a 50-megapixel ultrawide camera (1/2.75-inch sensor), and a 50-megapixel periscope telephoto camera (1/1.95-inch sensor, 3x optical zoom).
The OnePlus 13T, on the other hand, has only two cameras on the back: a 50-megapixel main camera (1/1.56-inch sensor) and a 50-megapixel telephoto unit (1/2.76-inch sensor, 2x optical zoom). In addition to having a smaller camera sensor in its main camera, it also has a smaller sensor in the telephoto camera, not to mention that this is a regular telephoto camera, not a periscope telephoto camera.
We believe that the cameras on the OnePlus 13T will offer good performance, but not to the level of the OnePlus 13. It’s obviously not on the same playing field, and you can expect inferior low-light performance in comparison with the larger sibling.
No wireless charging at all
The OnePlus 13T does not include wireless charging at all. OnePlus decided to sacrifice it completely, we’re guessing in order to keep the phone as thin as possible. The company opted for a large silicon-carbon battery here, so that’s probably one of the reasons wireless charging had to go. Cutting costs could also have something to do with it, as OnePlus wanted to keep the OnePlus 13T as affordable as possible, while still keeping it high-end.
Available only in China… for now
This is a minus, for now. Why? Well, because the OnePlus 13T only launched in China. The phone’s initial launch took place yesterday at this point. It could arrive to more markets moving forward, at which point this will become (less) of a minus, of course. It remains to be seen. The OnePlus 13T would be great to see it in the US and Europe, that’s for sure.
