My review of the OnePlus 13 and oxygenos 15

After seeing some disappointing leaks about the S25 ultra this year, I decided I would gift my money to a different brand this year. I'm not willing to give Samsung my money this year when I felt that all that did was curve the corners and add more megapixels to the ultra wide and ai stuff that I will most likely get on my fold. I've had the z flip 5, S23 ultra, S24 ultra, and Z fold 6, Moto razr 2024, Moto edge 2024, Red magic 9 pro, Pixel 8, and iPhone 15 pro max. So as many will guess I enjoy buying phones and really trying them out.

Red magic didn't have good cellular support in my area, I realized I could never use a flip as a main phone, I hate iPhone, 23 ultra is the best ultra ever made, Pixel UI is boring and plain to me though consistency throughout the OS is great, and though I love my fold 6 the camera leaves something to be desired more often than not. I knew I didn't have a lot of options being in the U.S to choose my next flagship device so I started doing research on what I could potentially buy and then I found the OnePlus 13.

Having never used Oxygen os myself before I had to research it before pulling the plug on a new phone because software has to be good enough for me to want to use the hardware. Through research I found that oxygen os is a fluid skin on top of android that does offer customization features not found on a pixel device though not having as much available as what is on One UI with the use of good lock. The fluidity and customization that I've seen in videos was enough for me to want to buy the OnePlus 13. I will admit Flux themes also had a lot to do with it lol.

What I love about oxygen os 15: I love how fluid the software is. I love the customization I do get on here like Flux themes, transitions effects between pages, off screen gestures, left pull down for notifications and right for control panel, smart functions on the side bar, fingerprint animations, seeing app icons for the recent apps I opened in recent apps screen so it's easier for me to get back to what I want to, and I'm probably in the minority here but I do like when I'm in my apps tray and click on app then swipe out of it that I'm still in my apps drawer because I'm definitely going to open up a different app if I wasn't I could just click my power button to shut the screen down. Another thing I like is the AI summary feature which works on Google. Samsung can do it too but you have to use Samsung Internet in order to summarize a page which can be a hassle to do if Samsung Internet is not the default browser and chrome is still enabled.

Things that I miss that are on Samsung and pixel: I prefer the one handed mode offered on Samsung phones because it brings the screen down to a corner which is what I need since I have trouble using big phones with one hand sometimes and just simply bringing the page down is not enough since the phone is so wide. I also miss being able to change the icon pack on the stock launcher like One UI even though that can only be done with the use of Good lock on my Samsung phones. Some icon packs are available on the stock launcher on OnePlus but not my favorite packs like icon pack studio. A couple of other things I miss from pixel is call screening, hold for me, and I forgot what it's called but it would sometimes show me the text of what customer service was saying which wasn't always accurate but I could understand the other person much better. Another thing Samsung, Google, and Motorola was better at was cohesion with the folder and regular app icons. It doesn't bother me a lot that the folder is more squarish than the squircle shape icons that I have set but I'm sure some other people would notice if they're really looking.

Things I like about the OnePlus 13. Battery life is amazing and much better than what my Z fold 6 gives me. The screen is bright and for the first time in a long time I'm using haptic feedback on my phone and I'm enjoying it. Camera processing does feel close to my pixel 8 but sometimes better and sometimes worse on the main camera but low light performance is better than both my pixel 8 and z fold 6 and S24 ultra. The fingerprint sensor is fast and so is the face unlock. Telephoto is of course better on the OnePlus vs my z fold 6 and I kinda like it better than what my S24 ultra had produced though the S23 ultra was good as well. I think the OnePlus is able to process super far zoom more clearly in daylight than what I remember my Ultras producing. I of course really like the charging speeds on this phone over any other phone I've had. The screen doesn't hurt my eyes at all either and I've noticed that it's better than the fold I do still have because when I use the fold my eye starts twitching but stops when I switch to using my OnePlus and no headaches either. I like that the phone is also more responsive when the screen is wet which is very useful when getting out the shower. The IR blaster is also awesome and I've set it up for my home tvs, one gym tv, and the tvs at work.

What can the OnePlus improve on or dislikes: The zoom which I know the hardware isn't as good as the vivo x200 ultra and it doesn't have a 10x zoom like the S23 ultra has but I still feel with better software improvements it could be better. I've seen what the Pixel phones can do despite also lacking the crazy hardware the aforementioned flagship phones have so I do feel like that zoom can be worked on just a bit more. Another thing is the air control gestures. I keep doing the tutorial for it and sometimes it works and then other times it's telling me to have my hand 20-40cm away from the camera when I feel like I just had my hand in that same spot the last time trying it. It's a cool feature but I can't really show it off if it's finicky and barely works.

I would say the OnePlus 13 is a solid 9/10 device and my favorite I've used ever. Work on that air control gestures and improve the zoom quality even more and to me, this phone would be a 10/10 phone. It's a great value for a flagship here in the U.S when $1300 Samsung, $1000 Google phones with 128GB of storage, and $1100 it sometimes just works iPhones are shoved in our faces. I'm happy to have tried something different this year and not feed Samsung my money for another year in a row. I can actually see myself keeping the 13 for more than a year and the only way I would be upgrading my Fold is if they add a better zoom lens, spen capability on the front screen, better battery, and faster charging to it.