What you need to know
- OnePlus just released its newest flagship smartphones, the OnePlus 12 and OnePlus 12R, but early OnePlus 13 leaks are already popping up.
- A leak from Digital Chat Station says that a OnePlus 13 redesign is all but confirmed, deviating from OnePlus' recent flagships.
- The same leak says Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will power the smartphone and an ultrasonic fingerprint reader is on the way.
OnePlus just launched the OnePlus 12 series, and although the smartphones brought highly-anticipated features, they aren't too different from their predecessors in terms of design. That might be changing with the next iteration of OnePlus' slab-style flagship, as a new leak suggests that a redesign is incoming on the OnePlus 13.
The rumor comes from Digital Chat Station, a reliable source for leaks, in a Weibo thread (via 9to5Google). Due to the source text being written in Chinese, there are some translation errors that prevent us from knowing exactly what Digital Chat Station predicts for the OnePlus 13. However, it's clear that the leak indicates an impending hardware redesign.
"[OnePlus] 13 is basically confirmed to change the design, and the family hinge has been removed," the translated post says. In the first part of the text, it is clear that Digital Chat Station expects the OnePlus 13 to ship with fresh looks. However, the second part is a bit more perplexing. There's obviously no physical hinge on OnePlus' traditional smartphones, but there are other things that Digital Chat Station could be referring to.
The most likely part of the OnePlus 12 that could be referred to as a "hinge" is the large rear camera housing. It's off-center on the OnePlus 12, and a raised metal portion of the phone's body flows into the side rails. That makes the OnePlus 12's rear camera system look like it's connected to the smartphone's sides, creating sort of a waterfall effect. Perhaps this is the "hinge" referenced in the translated text, signaling that the OnePlus 13 will feature a new rear camera design.
Changing up the rear camera system can be an easy way for smartphone manufacturers to freshen up their designs. While OnePlus and Samsung have retained similar camera housings for a few generations, Apple and Google have frequently made slight changes to their housings to make each generation unique. The OnePlus 13 could be following in the OnePlus Open's footsteps, which shipped with a centered — but still circular — rear camera system.
Expectedly, the same post says that the OnePlus 13 will be powered by Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 system-on-a-chip. Under the hood, a separate Weibo post predicts an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is coming to the OnePlus 13.
It's still early, so there's plenty of time for these rumors and predictions to change before an official launch. We don't know a ton about the OnePlus 13 yet, and these supposed details are far from confirmed.
