The OnePlus 13s Camera Review: Better Than You Think?

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OnePlus 13s is an excellent compact flagship. It features many interesting aspects, including the Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC, a 5850mAh single-cell graphene battery, and more. However, the cameras are its most controversial aspect.

The OnePlus 13s packs a dual-rear camera system with a 50-megapixel primary lens and a 50-megapixel 2X optical zoom telephoto. Yes, it is probably the only flagship to miss out on the ultra-wide lens. For the selfies, it gets a powerful 32-megapixel auto-focus supported front camera.

The rear camera system is similar to the OnePlus 13R. The primary camera uses the Sony LYT-700 lens with a sensor size of 1/1.56″ and an aperture of f/1.8. The equivalent focal length is 23mm, and the FOV is 84 degrees. The telephoto lens uses the Samsung JN5 sensor with a 1/2.75″ sensor size and f/2.0 aperture. Only the primary camera gets the support of Optical Image Stabilization.

Now this is a bit of an off situation. The lack of an ultra-wide lens on OnePlus 13s can be somewhat justified to an extent, but the lack of OIS on the telephoto camera cannot be. Moreover, the optical zoom range is also fixed to 2X or 49mm. We usually get 3X or even more optical zoom supported telephoto in this range. But anyway, let us have a look at the overall camera quality and performance.

OnePlus 13s Camera Performance Review

Image Performance – Main & Telephoto

Both the main and telephoto lenses are color matched to some extent. However, you do end up getting a bit warmer tone on the telephoto lens. The light intake on the secondary lens is also not as good, primarily because of the smaller sensor size and f/2.0 aperture.

The overall image processing is good with an ample amount of details and colors. Dynamic range is also managed well in most cases. However, the default exposure tends to be slightly on the higher side. The natural depth you get with the main lens is also amazing. A telephoto camera performs equally good in daylight conditions.

The low-light performance of the OnePlus 13s is average at best. The main camera performs decently well. And as said earlier, because of the small sensor size and aperture, the telephoto performs subpar in low-light scenarios. Also, since the telephoto doesn’t have any sort of OIS support, you end up getting softer or sometimes, blurry images, if your hands are not stable enough.

Coming down to the zoom performance of the telephoto, it’s surprisingly good. The sensor captures nice details and colors at even 4X or 5X zoom. You can zoom up to 20X, and of course, it is digital zoom. If you want to read a text or banner that’s located far away, the telephoto lens won’t disappoint. However, your hands should be stable enough, at least for a second, to capture a good-looking image.

6X Zoom and 10X

20X

Since there is no dedicated ultra-wide, the macro performance of the camera is not good enough. The focusing distance of the telephoto is also high, which means that macro mode is nothing but your main lens being digitally zoomed to 2X.

Portraits

This is again a very confusing part of the OnePlus 13s. The portrait mode is very limited, and you do not get the option of different focal lengths. You can only capture the portraits at 2X. This is a weird restriction by the brand. But regardless, the portraits are amazing. The details are managed well, the background blur looks nice, and the edge detection is on point. The only complaint I have for the portrait mode is the lack of different focal length options; otherwise, it’s all good.

Selfies

The OnePlus 13s packs a 32-megapixel 1/3.1″ selfie snapper with f/2.0 aperture and 90 degrees FOV. It is an auto-focus supported lens, which is quite rare in the segment. I will personally rate the selfie camera a strong 9 out of 10. It does a very nice job. The colors, skin tone, and details are all managed well. The larger FOV and auto-focus make it a nice combination for group selfies. The portrait mode is decent as well. However, the night performance is decent at best.

Videos

The OnePlus 13s does a fantastic job here. It can shoot up to 4K 60FPS videos from both the main camera and the telephoto lens. You do get the support of Dolby Vision HDR video recording as well. The videos are nice, stable enough, with a good amount of details and color reproduction. The voice pickup is also very good; it’s one of the best I have seen on my limited number of devices.

Lens switching and zoom performance are good as well. You can zoom up to 10X in the videos. You also get the “Seamless zoom”, which basically adds a smoother transition when you are zooming in on the videos. This was previously a thing with iPhones, and now, a few Android devices, including the OnePlus 13s, have it too.

The front camera can also record in 4K, but up to 30FPS. The video performance of the front camera is also decent. You will have complaints with the current setup.

Final Verdict

The OnePlus 13s targets a very different audience; however, that should not translate to a compromise in the cameras. OnePlus says that they opted for the telephoto lens instead of the ultra-wide because a lot of people do not even use the ultra-wide lens, which is fair enough. I will personally pick telephoto over ultrawide, but when we are talking about the price range going as high as Rs 60,000, it’s hard to justify it.

The telephoto camera, while it does a decent job, still feels like a forced addition. It does not have OIS, and the optical zoom range is also not the best. The company should have added a 3X lens with the support of OIS. That would have been a far better choice. But here we are.

As for the main lens, selfie camera or image processing in general, I do not have any major complaints with it.

So, who does it target?

The OnePlus 13s is a compact flagship. And the options are very limited in this segment. The Xiaomi 15 is there, but it’s almost Rs 10,000 costlier and has its own set of cons. The upcoming Vivo X200 FE can be a good competitor of the device, but again, it has a 3X W-style periscope lens, which means an absurd minimum focusing distance. The ultrawide is also 8-megapixel, and let us not talk about the compromises you are going to deal with, software and overall user experience.

So basically, if you are looking for a compact flagship with the best possible user experience but are fine with a few compromises with the camera, the OnePlus 13s is for you. If you love taking a lot of pictures with the selfie camera or the main lens, this device is not going to disappoint you.