A specific type of midrange phone for a specific type of individual is the OnePlus 13R.
It is a scaled-down variant of the OnePlus 13, a well-regarded flagship smartphone. Additionally, the 13R lacks the Google Pixel 9A’s peace-of-mind features, such as complete water resistance and seven-year OS updates, despite sharing a lot of the flagship’s DNA. With an MSRP of $599, it’s also not very inexpensive. However, the 13R makes up for it in two important areas: screen and battery life, although all of that lessens its general appeal. Is the $499 Pixel 9A worth the extra money? It depends on your personality type.
With a large 6.78-inch OLED panel and a customisable refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, the 13R’s 1264 x 2780 resolution is sufficient to maintain sharpness. At least in the US, it’s difficult to find a midrange phone with a screen this large and elegant. It retains its maximum brightness well and is rather bright in direct sunlight. It’s difficult to see the always-on display in the sun without waking the screen, but that’s a little gripe.
The 13R can tolerate some severe splashes and is completely dust resistant thanks to its IP65 classification. Although many contemporary phones in this price range are guaranteed to survive complete submersion in water, this one is not. IP68 water resistance is available on the more expensive OnePlus 13 as well as the iPhone 16E and Pixel 9A. The majority of 13R owners certainly won’t mind, but I find it annoying since all of the main competitors at this price point have higher water resistance.
Performance isn’t one of the tradeoffs OnePlus took to keep the 13R’s price low. It has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, which was the best last year and is still quite popular in 2025. The cheapest model also comes with 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM. Nothing I could throw at it in my daily life caused it any problems, and that’s more than enough power to keep it functioning properly. It barely warmed up throughout a lengthy period of free roam in Pocket City 2, and it never even flinched while I was scrolling and performing my small everyday tasks.
Because I sometimes need to look at a recipe 20 times before I recall how many teaspoons of sesame oil it calls for, I used the phone with the high-performance mode and always-on display turned on, along with a substantial screen time-out setting. Even on days when I went on lengthy bike rides that were logged on Strava and spent a lot of time scrolling through TikTok, my battery never dropped below 50% by the end of the day. Most people can get by on this two-day battery, which is certainly more of a current need than gimmicky AI functions, which are blissfully lacking on the 13R.
Is there anything more that the 9A provides than the 13R? charging wirelessly. With the provided charger, the OnePlus 13R provides quick wired charging up to 55W. That’s useful if you want to charge your phone while taking care of your morning routine or if you need a quick top-off during the day. However, if you drop it on a wireless charger that is placed on your nightstand, as I did, you will receive a zero. I was unable to determine why it wasn’t charging until I realised what was going on. Fast charging can be useful, and wireless charging isn’t important to everyone, but for $599, you should at least have the choice.
Three rear cameras are included with the 13R: an 8-megapixel ultrawide, a 50-megapixel f/2.0 2x telephoto, and a 50-megapixel f/1.8 stabilised main. Overall, the quality of the photos is good, and the 2x telephoto camera is better than the low-resolution macro camera on the previous generation. If you look closely, the fine detail is very crunchy, and the images have a tendency towards a bright style that I sometimes find a bit excessive. But it will do them justice if you have a photogenic subject and adequate lighting.
I’m always attempting to find the answer to the question, “How much does this phone cost?” The solution is as complex as ever in this instance. The 13R’s MSRP is $599, but it’s currently on sale for $499 from OnePlus and Best Buy. This isn’t a temporary offer, but a simple $100 savings. Is that the price for all time? What if tariffs do come into effect? Uncertain!
In all honesty, $499 seems like the correct pricing for this phone, while $599 seems a little excessive for a device that doesn’t have IP68 protection or wireless charging. If you’re looking for a device with a nice screen for its class and a long battery life, the 13R is a good choice. However, I believe the Pixel 9A is a superior choice for everyone else.
