Four months after its release, the OnePlus 12 remains one of the best smartphones you can buy in 2024. It looks great, offers incredible specifications, and has an excellent price. One of the first OnePlus 13 leaks was just shared online, and if it’s true, it could make one of this year’s best phones even better … with a catch.
According to leaker Digital Chat Station, the OnePlus 13 will feature two big upgrades over the OnePlus 12. The first is its screen. Unlike the OnePlus 12 and OnePlus 12R, which both have curved displays, the OnePlus 13 will reportedly have a “straight screen.” The translation from the Chinese post on Weibo to English isn’t perfect, but it certainly sounds like the OnePlus 13 is ditching the curved screen of its predecessor in favor of a flat one.
Although not a deal-breaker on the OnePlus 12 and 12R, and largely a matter of personal preference, I’m all for this change. While curved displays can be nice eye candy, they also almost always cause ergonomic issues — whether that’s your palm accidentally touching something on the display, your hand covering part of it, etc. If the OnePlus 13 really is switching to a flat screen, that’s music to my ears.
The other big upgrade is that the phone will apparently have a 6,000mAh battery — an increase over the 5,400mAh battery inside the OnePlus 12. The OnePlus 12 already delivers excellent battery life (two days in our testing), so the prospect of even better endurance is pretty exciting. Could this be a phone that lasts two and a half days per charge? Maybe even three? With a battery that big — and improved efficiency with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chip we expect to power the phone — it very well could.
Unfortunately, this potentially legendary battery life may come at a cost. Digital Chat Station further claims that the OnePlus 13 will not have wireless charging. Why? We can’t say for certain, but it’s likely that the larger battery may have something to do with it. OnePlus didn’t include wireless charging on the OnePlus 11, which, unsurprisingly, caused quite a stir. OnePlus got a lot of good press when it brought back wireless charging to the OnePlus 12, so removing it again from the OnePlus 13 would be an interesting chain of events.
Although not 100% ideal, I don’t totally hate this. Would it be a bummer to lose wireless charging? Absolutely. But if OnePlus really does cram a 6,000mAh battery inside the phone — and pairs it with 100W wired charging, as Digital Chat Station reports — that’s difficult to be mad about. The OnePlus 12’s battery life is already one of its greatest strengths, so the possibility of that significantly improving is pretty cool to think about.
We expect the OnePlus 13 to be released in either December 2024 or January 2025, so we still have some time before its public reveal. Assuming the flat screen and larger battery reports are true, this is a phone to start getting excited about if you aren’t already.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.
Apple's next cheaper iPhone could get a brand-new processor while keeping its most stubborn display compromise. Digital Chat Station tips the iPhone 18e for a 2027 release with a 2nm A20 chip and a 6.12-inch OLED screen still limited to 60Hz.
The rumored camera setup includes a single 48MP rear camera and a possible 24MP selfie camera. There's new hardware to consider, but buyers hoping Apple would extend that upgrade generosity to smoother scrolling could be disappointed.