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Snapdragon 8 Elite with a performance handicap? Verdict on the OnePlus 13

OnePlus 13 in review. (Image source: Marcus Herbrich)
OnePlus 13 in review. (Image source: Marcus Herbrich)
The OnePlus 13 is a very interesting high-end smartphone. Above all, the very powerful hardware at a comparatively low price is a selling point of the model. The Snapdragon 8 Elite proves to be very powerful in our tests, but also has problems with waste heat.

The successor to the OnePlus 12 still comes with a display size of 6.82 inches, but the screen edges have shrunk slightly compared to its predecessor. This gives the OnePlus 13 a slightly more modern look, which is also reflected in the screen-to-body ratio of almost 91%. A noteworthy aspect is that despite the more compact housing, OnePlus has still managed to increased the battery capacity to a whopping 6,000 mAh. And the smartphone remains pleasantly thin at less than 9 millimeters and also light at 210 grams.

OnePlus' flagship smartphone traditionally comes with the most powerful Qualcomm chipset, so the OnePlus 13 with the new Snapdragon 8 Elite is no exception. In our review, the Qualcomm chipset is extremely powerful with its Oryon performance cores and a peak clock speed of 4.32 GHz. Even an Apple A18 Pro in the iPhone 16 Pro Max cannot keep up with the OnePlus 13 in the Geekbench multi-core benchmark. The integrated Adreno 830 also takes a top position in our graphics processing tests.

However, the enormous performance of the Snapdragon 8 Elite is only available when well cooled. The second-generation Tiangong installed in the OnePlus 13 is able to emit the waste heat of the Snapdragon 8 Elite effectively, as we measured around 46 °C under load, but the chipset throttles heavily in the 3D Mark WildLife stress tests. Here, the heat development leads to a drop in system performance of around 50%. Due to the pronounced SoC throttling, the OnePlus 13 is at times even below the refresh rate of the OnePlus 12.

Readers are advised to take a look our review of the OnePlus 13 for further information, where the strengths and weaknesses of the flagship smartphone are revealed in detail.

OnePlus 13 in review. (Image source: Marcus Herbrich)
OnePlus 13 in review. (Image source: Marcus Herbrich)

Source(s)

Review of the OnePlus 13

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2024 12 > Snapdragon 8 Elite with a performance handicap? Verdict on the OnePlus 13
Marcus Herbrich, 2024-12-18 (Update: 2024-12-18)