OnePlus 13s is a decisive take on an idea of a powerful, compact Android phone

OnePlus 13s is a decisive take on an idea of a powerful, compact Android phone

OnePlus 13s is a decisive take on an idea of a powerful, compact Android phone ByVishal Mathur Jun 05, 2025 01:23 PM IST Read this news in brief form Share Via Copy Link The OnePlus 13s puts forward a 6.32-inch screen size proposition, rare in this era, and finds its only competition in a very capable Xiaomi 15 flagship.

There is a definite dearth of compact, flagship-grade Android smartphones in the market. Compact, as a definer too, has evolved over the years, and now a 6.3-inch or thereabouts screen is considered so. Far cry from a time when a 6.5-inch display real estate was considered a ‘phablet’. Almost a tablet. The OnePlus 13s, which now makes it a flagship troika with the OnePlus 13 and the OnePlus 13R, puts forward a 6.32-inch screen size proposition, with everything around it as you’d expect in a premium priced phone. The Xiaomi 15, which has a 6.36-inch screen, is the only other compact phone that has the credentials to be considered a flagship Android phone. Or the Xiaomi 14, if you’re okay with a generation earlier.

The new OnePlus 13s smartphone. (Vishal Mathur/ HT Photo)

Speaking of pricing, the OnePlus 13s is priced ₹54,999 onwards, though expect some discounts for the time-being. In comparison, the Xiaomi 15 is priced at ₹64,999 for the uncomplicated portfolio of 12GB memory and 512GB storage. There is considerable parity in some core specs, such as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform as the beating heart, 12GB memory and lots of artificial intelligence (AI) overlayed. Xiaomi perhaps didn’t have the window of time to respond to Apple’s button approach, but OnePlus has rather neatly implemented something called the Plus Key (this replaces the much-loved Alert Slider), for a future it seems with the OnePlus AI. Some of OnePlus’ AI propositions arrive now, much of it is still ‘coming soon’.

Of course Google and Gemini play a big role, with circle to search, the Gemini assistant and Gemini Live finding close integration. OnePlus says that with some updates rolling out soon, Gemini will work across OxygenOS apps, such as OnePlus Notes and Clock. For instance, transcription of audio recordings from meetings (the first thing to be checked, as a professional hazard), are almost 90% accurate — I believe the Gemini Nano model is working for this, and a lot of that accuracy is dependent on clarity of audio recorded as well as accents of participants.

There is utility to be found with AI VoiceScribe for instance, which can summarise and translate voice calls not just on the network, but also apps such as Zoom and WhatsApp. There may be some overlap with the India-exclusive AI Call Assistant wherein the OnePlus Dialler will offer options for automatic Call Summaries or real-time Call Translation during calls. Search on the device and the web, photo reframing as an edit option and audio translation, all see an AI layer to boost utility. Their relevance, as always, is subjective to every individual using the phone. AI Best Face 2.0, as it is called, arrives in a few weeks as part of a software update. How well that will work, difficult to judge at this point.

This may well be the most compact OnePlus in a long time, though the original OnePlus One (albeit with a much smaller 5.5-inch screen and much thicker bezels) may have something to say with similar dimensions. That comparison would be immaterial for the new generation smartphone buyers, but puts into perspective how far along we’ve come, before rediscovering the charm of compact phones. There are three colour and finish options for the OnePlus 13s, and it is clear OnePlus hasn’t left things incomplete on this front — a black colour with a matte look, green with a silky to touch finish (this colourway is an India exclusive) and a pink with microscopic texturing.

There is no shortage of power or performance, and beyond the first couple of days post setup, and the OnePlus 13s didn’t betray any signs of struggling to keep the innards cool. It responds purposefully and quickly to a demand to open a new app or switch between apps, even when you’re straining it already with multi-tasking. The same goes for gaming, as it holds the frames and performance rather well even after 45 minutes. There have been further changes to the cooling architecture, building from the OnePlus 13 and the OnePlus 13R, and that has clearly worked.

The 5,850mAh battery, which is a Silicon Carbon composition, is surprisingly frugal with consumption (for a compact phone with a big battery, a day and a half of usage isn’t out of the question) and supports 80-watt fast charging. To return close to 9 hours of screen time with mixed usage on most days, is not something larger screen size flagships with similar battery capacities can claim to return. That said, there are smarts beyond just these stats. First, it is this high-capacity that’s been possible because of the cell composition that OnePlus has used. Secondly, there is something called Bypass Charging, which simply powers the phone and doesn’t top-up the battery at the same time — this is relevant if you are gaming or in a long streaming binge session, to prevent the battery from heating up and eventually wearing out.

The dual camera setup is, despite the elimination of an ultra wide sensor, quite powerful in terms of being able to handle a variety of shooting scenarios — there’s a 50-megapixel wide camera, a 50-megapixel telephoto, both providing a solid hardware baseline to build the photography plus AI proposition with. It is clear that OnePlus’ learnings from Hasselblad (though the OnePlus 13s doesn’t carry the Hasselblad branding) do come across clearly with how the image processing has been tuned. Colours are well separated and rich enough, there is good sharpness, and contrast is nicely dialled in as well.

Beyond the OnePlus 13s’ compact size, is a lot of gravitas. A display that can get really bright (1600nits in high-brightness mode), a seamless connection with Windows or Mac computing devices with the O+ Connect solution, and the layering of AI across OnePlus’ own apps, does add to an overall experience. OnePlus now (and before them, Xiaomi) made it clear that compact Android phones don’t need to compromise on the specs or overall value, countering conventional wisdom. The OnePlus 13s revisits the adage “good things come in small packages”, and resoundingly gives an idea of a powerful, compact phone, a refreshingly authoritative meaning.