OnePlus 13 set to challenge Samsung Galaxy S25 series with early global launch

Samsung is expected to launch the Galaxy S25 series on January 22, 2025, but it seems that the OnePlus 13 wants to steal the spotlight. OnePlus has just confirmed that its new Snapdragon 8 Elite flagship will go global on January 7, 2025, before Samsung's next-gen flagship phones.

As the official site shows, all three colors of the OnePlus 13 that were available in China will make their way to the global market. That means, at launch, the phone will be available in Midnight Ocean, Black Eclipse, and Arctic Dawn. Besides that, not much has been revealed on the international website.

There's no mention of the OnePlus 13R, but it's expected to launch alongside its Snapdragon 8 Elite sibling. To fill you in, the 13R will be a budget-friendly sub-flagship and is expected to be a rebrand of the OnePlus Ace 5, which will launch in China later this month.

This soon-to-be OnePlus 13R is confirmed to feature the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, but the company recently teased that the SoC has received some exclusive tuning and will be paired with a large VC cooling setup. The adjustments made to it will reportedly make the affordable sub-flagship offer better performance than the other phones with the same SoC.

Getting back to the OnePlus 13, there's no word on what the starting price may be. However, it's worth noting that the Snapdragon 8 Elite flagship phone did see a slight price bump in the Chinese market. The predecessor launched at $799.99, and with that considered, it's possible that the global pricing of the upcoming device could start at around $849.99 (128 GB Pixel 9 curr. $614.94 on Amazon).