One Year Later, OnePlus 13R Is Still the Ultimate Value Phone

New consumer technologies and smartphones are always interesting, but as a self-repair aficionado and a full-time smartphone flipper, I rarely buy into the Day 1 hype. Except for my Pixel 10 impulse buy – we don't talk about that. Usually, I live for the thrill of the second-hand market, finding that perfect flagship that has depreciated just enough to be a steal.

With the launch of the brand new OnePlus 15R, I can't help but look back at its predecessor. And honestly, the OnePlus 13R isn't just a good deal right now, but might be a better phone. Between the OnePlus 15R's price hike and some genuinely head-scratching hardware downgrades, here's why the OnePlus 13R is still the ultimate value phone.

OnePlus 13R still offers a top-tier performance

Let's get the main point out of the way. Although the OnePlus 15R's new Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chipset delivers impressive performance, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in the OnePlus 13R offers a similar experience. Chipset performance has plateaued over the years, and you can hardly tell them apart in regular usage.

The OnePlus 13R flies through OxygenOS. App opening is instant, multitasking is effortless, and you get nearly the same experience as the more expensive OnePlus 15R. OnePlus continues to do a phenomenal job with its OxygenOS, which breathes new life and makes even its older phones feel brand new after each update. The new set of OxygenOS 16 features is a prime example of the same.

Regarding GPU performance, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 produce almost identical performance numbers, which are very well within the margin of error. The bottom line is, performance is far from a valid reason to consider the OnePlus 15R over the OnePlus 13R.

Zooming in on the weird decisions

The head-scratching part that we talked about? The OnePlus 15R ditches the 2x Telephoto and a third camera entirely and settles (pun intended) for a dual-camera setup. The OnePlus 13R, on the other hand, has a triple camera setup consisting of two 50 MP sensors, one of them being a 2x Telephoto and an 8 MP ultrawide lens. 

And as we noted in our OnePlus 13R review, the phone still delivers sharp images with good detail and natural colours. It hits the sweet spot with a more versatile setup than the OnePlus 15R, making it the better choice cameras-wise. Sure, the OnePlus 15R uses a larger IM906 sensor, but the Telephoto tradeoff is far too big to justify the main camera upgrade.

The LTPO advantage is very real

OnePlus 15R offers a higher refresh rate display and a much larger battery, but the display isn't LTPO, meaning it won't dial itself down to 1 Hz to save power, unlike the OnePlus 13R or even the OnePlus 12R. And we could argue that the 7,400mAh battery might be enough to counter this, but if you're someone who uses Always-on Display and slightly seamless refresh rate switching, LTPO beats high refresh rate any day.

Not to mention, both the OnePlus 13R and 15R come with 80W charging, so if the 13R hypothetically does end up giving you less battery backup, you can easily charge it to 100% in less than an hour. Besides, the lower 6,000mAh capacity means it will charge faster than the OnePlus 15, on paper at least.

While 165 Hz may seem very sweet, besides a handful of games supporting native 165 FPS, most games will depend on frame interpolation via OnePlus' OP Gaming Core and Hyper Frame Rate. 165 Hz is purely a stat-sheet victory, not a real-world one. The 13R's LTPO panel offers better efficiency, which impacts your daily usage far more than 45 extra frames in a menu.

The skyrocketing value of components

The smartphone market is headed into a ditch, with rising RAM costs making phones expensive. The OnePlus 15R starts at Rs 47,999, which is a steep 20% increase from the current price of the OnePlus 13R on Flipkart (Rs 38,000). This difference, combined with the specification downgrades on the OnePlus 15R, makes the OnePlus 13R a much better value purchase in my opinion.

And if you're like me and love a good bargain, hit up those OnePlus 13R listings on Facebook Marketplace and OLX, and you might just find one for less than Rs 28,000, which is honestly a steal at that price.

While not related to component costs, did we mention the OnePlus 13R is the last R series phone to boast an alert slider? If you're not a fan of the Plus Key, it could be another reason to consider the OnePlus 13R.

All in all, I believe OnePlus went a little too hard with its newly found performance DNA that the brand forgot what the R series really stood for. Which is providing the most value for money flagship killer experience money can buy. The only thing the OnePlus 15R end up killing here is itself.