On Monday, October 21, Qualcomm will officially take the wraps off its next gen 8-series mobile platform—and call it the Snapdragon 8 Elite in all probability. At least five OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) are in line to be the first to launch product(s) powered by the chip. The list includes Xiaomi (Xiaomi 15), Oppo (Oppo Find X8), OnePlus (OnePlus 13), Realme (Realme GT 7 Pro) and iQOO (iQOO 13)—all from China.
The one big change we’re seeing—and hoping for—basis of online reports is that all these phones will arrive internationally, at least in India, and not just be limited to China. The OnePlus 13 is the usual suspect given that OnePlus does launch most—if not all—its top-shelf phones in the country without fail. The OnePlus 13 is expected to launch in China within this month, possibly a few days after Qualcomm announces the Snapdragon 8 Elite at the Snapdragon Summit 2024. India launch should happen a bit later, but it should be sooner than the OnePlus 12 and so, chances of the OnePlus 13 coming as soon as this year are big.
OnePlus 13 design
It’s no surprise then that leaks and rumours about it have started to pick up steam. One of the leaks—coming from tipster Digital Chat Station—gives us a first look at what the OnePlus 13 could look like. Three renders doing the rounds of the internet show off the alleged OnePlus 13 in black and a fetching white. The latter in fact is a real-world photo of the phone next to the Oppo Find X8, which is also set to launch soon.
Basis of what’s being tipped, it appears that OnePlus has made some tweaks to the back panel design although the base template essentially is same as the OnePlus 12 or even the OnePlus 11 before it. You still get the Oreo-style camera assembly but like the OnePlus 12R, it is no longer part of the mid-frame. Rather, it’s standalone. It has triple cameras, like the OnePlus 12 with reports suggesting the combination could be made of a 50-megapixel LYT-808 main camera, a 50-megapixel JN5 ultrawide, and another LYT-600 3X telephoto. The Hasselblad logo has also been moved out of the assembly and seated atop a strip of what appears to be metal.
On the front, the OnePlus 13 is confirmed to come with BOE’s flexible OLED flagship second-generation 2K Oriental screen. Watch this space for more updates.