OnePlus 13, 13R launch on January 7: 13 must-know details!

At the OnePlus 13 series winter launch event on January 7, 2025, OnePlus will launch the OnePlus 13, OnePlus 13R, and OnePlus Buds Pro 3 Sapphire Blue for global markets, India included. This is the first big launch of 2025, setting stage for what’s expected to be a big year for premium smartphones and accessories.

We will of course be keeping a close eye on every announcement and bring it to you with full in-depth analysis. As we fast approach D-day, anticipation is brewing, as tech enthusiasts await with bated breath, what OnePlus has been cooking. Since there is so much excitement in the air, we thought why not give you—dear readers—a small preview of what’s coming to get you up to speed before the ball drops on January 7.

Here are 13 must-know details about the upcoming OnePlus 13 series winter launch event:

1. The OnePlus 13, as you might have guessed already, is the flagship offering from OnePlus for 2025. It’s a high-end phone with all the bells and whistles of a flagship. The OnePlus 13R is what you might call the flagship killer, designed to bring some of those experiences at a relatively more accessible price.
2. The OnePlus 13 is already a go in China, and it seems, the global and India-bound model is going to retain a lot of that hardware. This may be the first time when OnePlus is launching every colour variant we know of outside of China. The OnePlus 13R is loosely based on the OnePlus Ace 5 from China, at least as far as design and core specs are concerned.
3. The processors powering the two phones is known. The OnePlus 13 has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. The OnePlus 13R meanwhile gets the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
4. The OnePlus 13R is confirmed to come in two colours: Nebula Noir and Astral Trail with a finish which is said to be “reminiscent of star trails.”
5. The OnePlus 13 is set to come in three colours. These are Midnight Ocean, Black Eclipse, and Arctic Dawn. Particularly for the Midnight Ocean variant, OnePlus has used a micro-fibre vegan leather finish, which it says is a first for the company.
6. The OnePlus 13R is made of glass (Gorilla Glass 7i) and metal. The chassis is flat, and OnePlus claims it measures only 8mm in thickness.
7. The OnePlus 13 is the first OnePlus phone to secure both IP68 and IP69 ratings, making it resistant to dust, water, and even high-pressure water jets.
8. The OnePlus 13R is confirmed to have a 6,000mAh battery. Charging speed remains unknown at this point.
9. The OnePlus 13 sold in China a 6.82-inch 1440p BOE LTPO AMOLED panel with 120Hz refresh rate and up to 4,500 nits of peak HDR brightness supporting Dolby Vision. For photography, it has a triple-camera setup with a mix of 50MP LYT-808 main sensor with an f/1.6 optically stabilised lens, another 50MP ultra-wide camera, and a 50MP 3x telephoto camera with OIS. The front camera is a 32MP shooter. Powering the phone is a massive 6,000mAh battery with 100W wired and 50W wireless charging. Biometrics are handled by an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. The global and India-bound OnePlus 13 should have mostly the same specs.
10. The OnePlus 13R has a “versatile” triple camera system on the rear, OnePlus says without specifying the sensors and lens type.
11. Both phones should be running OxygenOS 15 software with Android 15 at the base.
12. The OnePlus 13 and 13R will be joined by a new Sapphire Blue colour edition of the existing OnePlus Buds Pro 3 earbuds.
13. The OnePlus 13 series winter launch event will be available to watch online on the official OnePlus YouTube channel on January 7, 2025, with the keynote kicking off at 9:00 PM in India.

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