iPhone 13 vs. OnePlus 9: Which phone wins?

(Prototype credit: Tom's Guide)

An iPhone thirteen vs. OnePlus 9 confront-off figures to exist tighter than previous match-ups involving phones from Apple and upstart phone maker OnePlus. While OnePlus phones have traditionally delivered premium features for a lower cost than comparable flagships, they've oft come up short in the camera section, allowing the iPhone to cruise to victory.

The OnePlus ix is different. OnePlus teamed upwards with lens specialist Hasselblad to amend the mobile photography on its smartphones, and you lot can come across the effects in improved colors from the images captured by the OnePlus 9. Add that leap forrad in photography to the other OnePlus features similar fast charging, fast refreshing displays and acme performance amid Android phones, and you've got a very formidable contender for the title of best phone.

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Where OnePlus ranks amidst the best Android phones

But the iPhone 13 is impressive in its own right, especially with its more powerful A15 processor and bigger battery. Apple also looked to amend the cameras across all iPhone 13 models, so it volition be interesting to see if the iPhone 13 can continue to enjoy an edge in mobile photography.

Hither'south how the iPhone 13 and OnePlus 9 compare across the categories that matter to nigh phone shoppers.

iPhone 13 vs. OnePlus 9: Specs

	iPhone 13	OnePlus 9
Screen size	six.1 inches (2532 x 1170)	six.55 inches (2400 x 1080)
Refresh rate	60Hz	120Hz
CPU	A15 Bionic	Snapdragon 88
RAM	Unknown	8GB, 12GB
Storage	128GB, 256GB, 512GB	128GB
Rear cameras	12MP chief (f/1.half dozen); 12MP ultrawide (f/ii.4)	48MP main (f/1.8); 50MP ultrawide (f/2.two); 2MP monochrome
Front camera	12MP (f/2.2)	16MP (f/ii.4)
Battery size	Unknown	4,500 mAh
Battery life (Hrs:Mins)	10:33	10:51
Size	five.8 x two.8 ten 0.iii inches	6.three x 2.9 x 0.32 inches

iPhone 13 vs. OnePlus ix: Cost and availability

The OnePlus ix is the cheaper of the 2 devices, though non by equally much as OnePlus phones used to be when compared to Apple's iPhones. The iPhone xiii debuts at the same $799 starting price as the iPhone 12, only now you lot get 128GB of storage in that base of operations model. Apple tree used to start things off with 64GB and so that'due south a large improvement. You lot can also become 256GB and 512GB versions of the iPhone 13 for $899 and $ane,099 respectively.

At $729, the OnePlus 9 is $lxx cheaper than the iPhone xiii. That price gets you a 128GB phone; a promised 256GB model never materialized in the U.S.

The iPhone 13 is the easier phone to come by in the U.S., as information technology'due south offered by every major carrier, several discount wireless services and Apple itself. The just wireless carrier to offering the OnePlus 9 is T-Mobile, though you can discover the telephone at OnePlus equally well as retailers such as Best Purchase and Amazon. The iPhone's greater availability eats into the OnePlus 9's small cost advantage.

Winner: OnePlus 9

iPhone 13 vs. OnePlus 9: Pattern

On the surface, there'due south not much separating the looks of the iPhone 13 and OnePlus nine. Both phones have glass backs and business firm their rear cameras in the upper left corner — the OnePlus 9 in a vertical line of lenses bundled in a rectangular box, the iPhone 13 with diagonal lenses in a square. Available colors on the iPhone 13 — pinkish, blue, blackness, white and ruddy — look a little brighter than the Astral Blackness and Winter Mist options on the OnePlus 9.

The OnePlus telephone also has a harder time fending off fingerprints, which is surprising, given that the glossy drinking glass/matte black film combo on my Astral Blackness model was designed to resist smudges.

Essentially, though, these phones await the same. Neither one has a headphone jack, and in that location's no microSD slot for expanding storage.

The devil's in the details, however, and the iPhone 13 build is simply a little chip more durable than what the OnePlus 9 has to offering. For starters, the iPhone xiii has a Ceramic Shield brandish that's more resistant to scratches. Its IP68 water resistance rating ways it can survive a plunge into 6 meters of h2o. There's no IP rating at all on the OnePlus 9 — that feature is only found on some Pro models.

Some users will balk at the fact that the iPhone 13 continues to sport a notch, while the OnePlus 9 merely has a dial-pigsty cutout for its front end camera interrupting the flow of the brandish. Even so, the notch on the iPhone 13 is twenty% smaller than before, and if it wasn't a deal-killer previously, yous're unlikely to be bothered by it now.

Winner: iPhone xiii

iPhone xiii vs. OnePlus ix: Displays

Apple tree joined other flagship telephone makers by offering what's rapidly becoming a default feature on meridian-cease phones — a dynamically refreshing brandish. Unfortunately, that'due south only truthful of the iPhone 13 Pro models. The standard iPhone 13 (and the less expensive iPhone 13 mini) nonetheless has a fixed 60Hz refresh charge per unit.

In contrast, the OnePlus nine offers a variable refresh rate that can scale upwardly to 120Hz when needed. That ways smoother scrolling on web pages and less chance of stutter in graphics on games that support fast refresh rates. It certainly makes for a better overall experience, and iPhone 13 users can exist forgiven if they feel a little short-changed.

That said, the iPhone 13'south 6.1-inch display is just a scrap brighter at 795 nits than the 696-nit 6.55-inch panel on the OnePlus ix. Colors expect more vibrant on the iPhone 13, likewise. I watched the Ghostbusters: Afterlife trailer on both phones and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Homo's deceptively fluffy white peel looks but a little bit cleaner on the iPhone 13. The faded Ghostbuster logo however had a more pleasing shade of cerise, even though I was watching the trailer on the OnePlus 9'south Vivid setting.

In general, the iPhone 13's brandish is more pleasing to look at, even if the OnePlus nine offers slightly more infinite. Just the faster refresh charge per unit makes the OnePlus model the telephone to selection in this category.

Winner: OnePlus nine

iPhone 13 vs. OnePlus 9: Cameras

Phone call this the battle of improved camera phones. As noted at the commencement, OnePlus teamed upwards with Hasselblad to improve its camera quality, with the changes in the 9 series of phones focusing on colour scale. it certainly paid off with the OnePlus 9, whose 48MP main and 50MP ultrawide shooters are the best cameras I've seen yet from OnePlus.

Just Apple tree didn't rest on its honor with the best camera phone honors it earned with the iPhone 12. The iPhone 13 uses a larger sensor for its main camera, letting in 47% more light than terminal yr's model. The effect should be better pictures when the lights are low. The ultrawide lens on the iPhone xiii at present captures more of the scene likewise.

I started my face-off with a picture of a fruit basin, and while in that location'southward nothing wrong with the OnePlus ix's effort, the iPhone thirteen clearly takes the meliorate shot. The overall scene, which wasn't very well lit, is brighter in the iPhone's rendition, and that means more than details like the patterns on the apple peel. The lime dark-green bowl is also sharper and more focused in the iPhone's photo.

The OnePlus 9 holds its own when we test out the portrait way on both cameras. The iPhone 13 clearly has the brighter colors and does a meliorate task with the groundwork blur. But I prefer the perspective of the OnePlus 9 photo — it crops in closer for an actual portrait. And the colors aren't too shabby hither, either, as OnePlus manages to capture the different tones and streaks in my daughter's hair color.

Y'all'd also credit the OnePlus ix for taking a decent shot with its Nightscape mode. You tin can see the different colored apples quite conspicuously, and fifty-fifty with the amped up lighting effects, there are still visible shadows on the concrete wall in the groundwork. Nonetheless, Apple's Night way is merely better. Colors are richer and not as washed, and the background details stand out more.

Merely to ramp upwards the difficulty, I turned off the lone overhead light in my lawn, providing the just light on that scene. Shooting in total darkness, the OnePlus 9 struggled to separate the apples from the shadows — no neat shame considering the conditions. But the iPhone withal managed to capture a little bit of color. The photograph'due south not great — information technology's pretty fuzzy and grainy — only everything's visible despite the lack of any artificial calorie-free. It proves to me that when the lights are low, the iPhone xiii camera is the one you want.

Moving to the forepart cameras, I tried out the OnePlus nine'southward 16MP shooter against the 12MP TrueDepth photographic camera on the iPhone 13. There's not a lot of difference betwixt the shots, though I practise think my skin looks a little warmer and more than natural in the iPhone's endeavor. Still, the OnePlus phone produced an acceptable self-portrait.

As much as the OnePlus 9 cameras have improved over past OnePlus phones — and it's not overstating it to emphasize that these are the best cameras OnePlus had ever offered — the iPhone is still the superior pick for people who value mobile photography.

Winner: iPhone 13

iPhone 13 vs. OnePlus 9: Functioning

It'southward not close here. The OnePlus 9 uses Snapdragon's 888 system-on-scrap and produced the all-time results we had seen on an Android telephone when we tested it this past jump. Just processing power is a moving target — the iPhone 13 tops the OnePlus ix with the new A15 Bionic. Snapdragon 888-powered Android phones already struggled to match the performance of A14-powered iPhones on speed tests, and the A15 but widens that gap.

On Geekbench 5, which measures general performance, the iPhone thirteen produced a multicore score of four,129, compared to 3,618 for the OnePlus 9. In our existent world exam, where nosotros have Adobe Premiere Rush transcode a 4K video, the OnePlus 9 completed the task in a little more than 1 minute. It takes the iPhone 13 a fraction less than 26 seconds to handle the aforementioned clip.

The iPhone's walkover includes 5G performance. Apple's phone boasts some of the widest 5G compatibility yous'll detect in a mobile device — certainly U.Southward. customers will have no trouble connecting to the 5G networks of AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon.

The OnePlus 9 works on those networks, too, but there's a caveat in the case of Verizon 5G. You'll only be able to access Verizon's nationwide 5G coverage via the OnePlus 9 and non the much faster Ultra Wideband network that's now available in 87 U.S. cities. If you lot want faster Verizon 5G, you need to pay upwardly for the more expensive OnePlus ix Pro. That's a forced upgrade iPhone xiii users don't have to make.

Winner: iPhone 13

iPhone xiii vs. OnePlus ix: Battery life and charging

Things fifty-fifty up a little for an iPhone xiii vs. OnePlus 9 bombardment comparing, at least when it comes to longevity. To test telephone battery life, we have each handset we review surf the web over cellular until information technology runs out of ability. Information technology'south a demanding task, only both the iPhone 13 and OnePlus nine are up to the task.

Thanks to a larger battery over previous iPhones — Apple hasn't said how much bigger — the iPhone 13 was able to concur for ten hours and 33 minutes, a big improvement over the iPhone 12's time on our test. The OnePlus 9 and its iv,500 mAh battery did even better, though, lasting for 10 hours, and 51 minutes. It as well achieved that result with its screen set to a 120Hz refresh rate, which tends to drain ability faster, and then that'south especially impressive, even if information technology fell short of the 11-hour standard needed to reach our best telephone battery life list.

While the OnePlus 9 finished but ahead of the iPhone 13 in our battery test, the gap widens considerably when it'southward fourth dimension to charge the phones. OnePlus equips its phones with OnePlus WarpCharge 65T engineering science, enabling sustained speedy charging. Subsequently xxx minutes of charging, our fully drained OnePlus 9 was support to 98% of its battery capacity. The iPhone 13, hindered by a more than pedestrian 20W maximum charge speed, simply reached 51% later on half-an-hour.

The phones are on equal ground if you accuse them wirelessly, with both capped at 15W speeds. But otherwise, this is a category the OnePlus 9 dominates.

Winner: OnePlus 9

iPhone xiii vs. OnePlus 9: Software and special features

What yous think of the software for either of these phones depends where you fall on the iOS vs. Android debate. Myself, I'grand more than comfy working with Apple's software, and I happen to sparse the iOS fifteen update that ships on the iPhone 13 delivers some welcome enhancements and app updates. That said, I've e'er appreciated OnePlus' OxygenOS for usually adding worthwhile enhancements to Android. In the instance of the OnePlus 9, that's Android 11.

Where the iPhone gets the edge is with Apple tree's software update policy. The minute updates get available, y'all tin can download them to your iPhone and back up goes for years — a minimum of four years, though there are devices that came out in 2015 that tin can run iOS 15. Android updates roll out eventually to OnePlus phones, and you're only promised two major updates. Android 12, which is just trickling out, will knock off 1 of those.

The end result? If you prefer to agree on to your phone every bit long every bit possible — and these days, more people are — the iPhone is merely better supported.

Winner: iPhone 13

iPhone 13 vs. OnePlus 9: Verdict

In the end, the iPhone thirteen pulls away from the OnePlus 9. While the iPhone thirteen certainly is the meliorate photographic camera phone selection, the improvements in the OnePlus ix keep that phone's cameras in the conversation.

	iPhone 13	OnePlus 9
Price and availability (ten points)	7	8
Blueprint (x points)	8	6
Brandish (15 points)	13	fourteen
Camera (xx points)	20	18
Functioning (20 points)	xx	16
Bombardment life and charging (15 points)	12	14
Software and special features (x points)	9	8
Overall (100 points)	89	84

Instead, the iPhone 13 exerts its dominance in other areas — namely design and performance. Apple's phone is undoubtedly more durable, thanks to its IP68 rating, and there's not messing with the A15 Bionic processor inside the new iPhone. The fact that 5G support is more substantive on the iPhone doesn't hurt either.

The OnePlus' strong battery life and faster charging are certainly valuable features, and you'll get a fast-refreshing display with the OnePlus 9 — something you take to pay upwards for with Apple tree's phones. Overall, though, the iPhone 13 is a more complete device.

Philip Michaels is a senior editor at Tom'south Guide. He has strong opinions virtually Apple, the Oakland Athletics and old movies. Follow him at @PhilipMichaels.