One Plus 13 Review – Camera Improvements Make Me Excited for the Future

The title of this portion of our OnePlus 13 review might be a bit odd, but it has a purpose that hopefully you will see by the end. If you are reading our reviews in order, this should be article #3 you are looking at, although perhaps not. Either way, if you’ve been around GamesReviews for any amount of time you know we don’t get deep into the nitty-gritty of cell phones and what they can do. We answer two basic questions. First, does it do what you want it to do (play games, take pictures, work fast); and second, is the price point worth it? I want to touch base on the cameras, which is a pretty big deal for most people, myself included.

The rear cameras are a 50MP main camera, with a  50MP ultrawide lens and a 50MP 3 times telephoto lens. The front cameras are, as expected, a bit less impressive, sporting a 32MP selfie camera. Those numbers might not mean much to many individuals, but the newbie photo person would tell you this – the higher the number, the better the pictures.

This is true and false, as so much of what makes a good picture in 2025 depends on the software behind the picture. Google, for quite a while now, has been said to be at the forefront of picture enhancing software, and everyone else – including OnePlus, Samsung, and Apple – are all just playing catchup generation to generation. Sure, aspects of cameras on other phones might be more tuned and better than the Pixels, but ultimately, the Pixel is king.

But King to whom? For most cell phone users, having cameras on their phone is to capture unique moments, snap photos of their kids at events, or perhaps even just send a video or picture of a problem to their mechanic or carpenter. The average user is using the cameras for average purposes. But thankfully, we found the OnePlus 13 is more than just that.

Ultimately, everything is just brighter when shot on the OnePlus 13, and while brighter photos generally are more pleasing to most folks – this mimics everyone’s desire to have brighter TVs – brighter photos are not always the best photos. A lot of colour and detail can be lost the brighter a photo becomes, and across the board with almost all lenses, the OnePlus 13 is really pushing out bright photos. This isn’t inherently bad, but it’s not necessarily good either. But since most average people equate brightness with quality, I guess this is going to be fine!

There has been work, however, to bring OnePlus closer to the competition in the camera department, and while I would argue they are not their yet – which means yes, you can get a better camera for less money if that is ALL you care about – OnePlus is making huge strides year over year that their competition simply isn’t. This brings us full circle to my title, in that i’m excited to see what OnePlus does with their next flagship phone, which I fully expect to be on par, if not better than, the competition.

One group of people that might really enjoy what the OnePlus 13 brings to the table in this category is social media influencers. With a ton of different camera modes and some pretty hefty onboard editing options, getting a social post up quickly has never been easier. I don’t use social media a ton, but do love to capture unique shots of my board games on game night. Quick videos or photos can be edited with ease and quickly posted with great onboard features – if you are strictly a social media user, and love to post content daily, there is a LOT to love about the options on the OnePlus 13.

Overall, the OnePlus 13 is doing a better job than before with it’s cameras, and while it’s still not on par with other flagship phones – both cheaper and more expensive phones – when you factor in the other features of the OnePlus 13, it’s still a good value if you want other things out of your phone. If taking pictures and video is strictly what you plan to use your phone for, I’m not entirely sure this is your best option in that space. That being said, does anyone really ONLY use their cell phone for this purpose?