OnePlus 13 renders tease some subtle design tweaks for next flagship launch

October is shaping up to be a big month for OnePlus. We just saw the company share its plans for the launch of Oxygen OS 15, and on the hardware side the OnePlus 13 should be right around the corner. While we’re anticipating the phone to its debut shortly (at least in China), we’ve still got plenty of questions about how it will come together. Today we get a little preview of how the company’s next flagship might arrive, as we check out some possible OnePlus 13 imagery.

We’re looking at a couple different sources here, with the pictures in question originating on Chinese social media. Prominent leaker Digital Chat Station shared this imagery on Weibo earlier today, although that post has since been edited to remove the pics — whether that’s to protect a source, or out of concern that what they show may be misleading, we can’t say (via Digital Trends). As a result, we’d take all this with an appropriate dose of skepticism until something more concrete arrives.

First there’s this apparent real-life photo, showing off what seems to be an OPPO Find X8, as well this previously unknown OnePlus handset that’s supposed to be the OnePlus 13. The camera arrangement is certainly reminiscent of the layout on the OnePlus 12, but here we see some changes to the flash, the removal of that border extending from the cameras over to the phone’s edge, and sliding over the Hasselblad H to give it a little more prominence.

While that could be an important find, the other two images here are a little more impressive looking, depicting OnePlus 13 hardware in high-quality renders. Based on how these arrived, it’s unclear if they represent actual leaks, or perhaps some well-executed mock-ups based on photos like the one just above. They certainly do look the part, at least.

In addition to the angle shot you saw all the way at the top of this post, we’ve also got this close-up on the back panel. That textured finish looks grippy as hell, but the quality of the materials used could still have a huge impact on just how nice that ends up feeling. We’re especially thinking about the in-hand feel of this phone as we check out those flat metal edges — almost OnePlus X-like, and a pronounced departure from the company’s recent models.

Based on claims we’ve heard from OnePlus executives, it’s looking like this hardware will arrive running the very capable Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chip, but maybe the most interesting thing we’ve heard about this phone to date concerns its display. The company has already started talking about a panel that supports local high refresh rates, letting active parts of the screen update more frequently than static ones.

For now, we’re mainly curious if OnePlus will live up to expectations for launching the OnePlus 13 in China by the end of the month. We’ll still be quite a ways off from getting the phone in the US, but at least some confirmation of the design and hardware specs will be nice.