OnePlus has officially unveiled its much-anticipated OnePlus 13s smartphone in India today, June 5. With an expected price tag hovering near Rs 55,000, the device positions itself as a compact yet high-performing flagship—a relatively rare breed in a market largely dominated by larger handsets.
Interestingly, a lot of the key specs were prematurely revealed through an Amazon listing that went live just ahead of the official launch. For tech watchers and enthusiasts, it offered a sneak peek into what OnePlus calls a “compact monster”—essentially a device that tries to bridge raw power with a more manageable form factor.
Price and Market Positioning
With a projected price of around Rs 55,000, the OnePlus 13s sits strategically between its siblings: the premium OnePlus 13, which starts at Rs 69,999, and the more accessible OnePlus 13R, priced at roughly Rs 42,999. This middle ground could be appealing for users who want flagship-level features without going all in on cost.
Buyers can find it on Amazon India and the official OnePlus website. There are three color options on offer: Black Velvet, Pink Satin, and a Green Silk variant exclusive to India. Notably, the Pink Satin and Green Silk versions come with a Velvet Glass back, adding a soft-touch texture that might actually feel refreshing compared to the usual glass slabs we see.
Performance and Core Hardware
Powering the OnePlus 13s is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, a 3nm processor that’s expected to offer substantial boosts in speed and efficiency. This should, in theory, make it capable of handling everything from gaming marathons to heavy multitasking.
Adding to its credentials is an independent G1 Wi-Fi chipset aimed at stabilizing connectivity. Plus, the 13s supports 5.5G in India, which—while a bit of a mouthful—basically means you’re covered for the foreseeable future in terms of mobile network capabilities.
Memory-wise, the phone starts at 12GB of RAM and goes up to 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage. That’s flagship-grade, no doubt, and should easily accommodate power users.
Display and Design Elements
The phone sports a 6.32-inch screen, which, by today’s standards, actually feels compact. According to the Amazon listing, it’s a full-HD+ (1264×2640 pixels) display. There were earlier whispers about it being an OLED LTPO panel with a 1.5K resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, and up to 1600 nits of peak brightness—which, if accurate, would make for crisp visuals and smooth interactions.
One of the more curious design choices is the replacement of the familiar Alert Slider with a new “Plus Key.” This button can be customized to do a bunch of things—switch profiles, launch AI tools, or open user-defined shortcuts. It also serves as an entry point into OnePlus’s growing AI ecosystem via the AI Plus Mind feature. This lets users interact with on-screen content in clever ways, like turning a screenshot of an event into a calendar reminder.
Physically, the phone tips the scales at about 185g and measures 8.15mm thick. It features curved 2.5D glass on both front and back, which should give it a sleeker profile.
Camera Capabilities
According to the Amazon reveal, the OnePlus 13s comes with a dual-camera setup on the rear. The main shooter is a 50-megapixel wide camera with autofocus, paired with another 50-megapixel telephoto lens that supports up to 2x optical zoom. There’s mention of AI features like AI Detail Boost and AI Unblur, which suggests the software is doing a fair bit of heavy lifting.
On the front, there’s a 32-megapixel selfie camera with autofocus—a notable step up from the 16MP front cam seen in the Chinese version of what’s believed to be the rebranded OnePlus 13T.
Battery Life and Charging
Battery specs are impressive. The 13s houses a 5,850mAh battery, which, considering the phone’s size, is no small feat. OnePlus claims you can get up to 20 hours of talk time or video playback, and about 10 hours of video calling on a single charge.
Charging speeds are expected to be fast—possibly 80W wired charging—though OnePlus hasn’t fully confirmed this. Wireless charging support seems likely too, based on various reports. The company noted that over 355 internal components were shrunk to make room for the battery, and it even includes a 4,400mm² vapor chamber for thermal management. That level of engineering detail is hard to ignore.
Software and AI Features
The OnePlus 13s runs on OxygenOS 15, based on Android 15. AI is a major focus here. Besides the AI Plus Mind integration via the Plus Key, the phone also supports Gemini and a host of AI-driven tools: AI Voice Scribe, AI Translation, AI Search, AI Reframe, and AI Best Face 2.0, to name a few.
These features aim to offer smarter interactions and content creation capabilities that go beyond what most users might be accustomed to.
So, does the OnePlus 13s redefine what a compact flagship can be? Maybe. It certainly checks a lot of boxes: powerful hardware, thoughtful design, a beefy battery, and a good chunk of AI smarts. For those who’ve been waiting for something smaller without compromising on features, this might just be the phone they’ve been hoping for—though of course, real-world use will tell the full story.
