iPhone 16e vs. OnePlus 13R: Quantity versus quality

The iPhone vs. Android debate is as old as time but sometimes, the decision is not that simple. In the case of the iPhone 16e vs. OnePlus 13R, those coming from an older number series iPhone might hesitate to get a new iPhone with just one camera and an older design. That's where the OnePlus 13R poses a real threat as it's a pretty compelling alternative to the 16e at the same price.

The biggest strength of the iPhone 16e is that it uses (nearly) the same chipset as the latest 16 series and it supports Apple Intelligence. It's compact, has great battery life, and supports wireless charging (although, no MagSafe). The OnePlus 13R is one of the best cheap phones to buy. It has proper flagship specs that give the 16e a run for its money, on paper. But it's not the easiest to get a hold of in all countries and not everyone wants to carry around a massive slab of metal and glass in their pockets.

Putting aside the whole iOS vs. Android preference for a second, let's see if the 16e makes a strong enough case against the 13R.

iPhone 16e vs. OnePlus 13R: Design

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The iPhone 16e is the spiritual successor of the iPhone SE but thankfully, Apple has finally done away with Touch ID and the thick bezels of that series. Instead, the 16e looks very much like the iPhone 14 with flat sides, front, and back. The bezels around the display are thicker than the iPhone 16 but that was to be expected. The phone sports Face ID in the old-style Apple notch and the mute switch has been replaced by the Action Button. You don't get the Camera Control button from the 16, which is fine.

The 16e gets a glass back, a USB-C port, and only eSIM support in U.S. models. Sadly, there are only two colors to choose from, white or black. My guess is Apple sort of knew that the 16e would not be that popular at launch, given the reduction in features and higher price than the SE, but we could see more colors added later in the year or with next year's revision based on how well it sells.

What you'll love with the iPhone 16e is the amazingly compact size and low weight. Compared to the 13R, the 16e is just 167 grams and measures only 7.8mm in thickness. That's a pretty slim and light phone, something that we don't see too many of in the Android world. The 16e is also IP68 rated which again trumps the IP65 rating of the 13R.

The OnePlus 13R is a massive phone compared to the 16e in dimensions and weight, but manages to be nearly as slim. It is built well with aluminum and glass all around and it looks like a typical Android flagship. You only get two colors here, Nebula Noir and Astral Trail, similar to the 16e. The 13R bears a lot of resemblance to the flagship OnePlus 13, just without the Hasselblad branding.

The 13R features the signature OnePlus slider for quickly changing alert modes, which is something the 16e's Action button can also be configured to do. There's USB-C with 80W fast charging, an IP65 rating, but no wireless charging.

iPhone 16e vs. OnePlus 13R: Display

The iPhone 16e has a pretty good display for a budget iPhone. It's a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED panel with a greater than Full-HD resolution, P3-color gamut support, and 1,200 nits of peak brightness for HDR content. Sadly, all non-Pro iPhones are still stuck with a 60Hz refresh rate and no always-on mode despite being an OLED screen. I guess it's going to take a lot more courage to add this than it did to remove the headphone jack. Thankfully, the display works just as well indoors as it does under direct sunlight, and we were quite happy with its performance when we tested it.

The OnePlus 13R absolutely decimates the 16e's display with top-notch specs. It's a 6.78-inch LTPO AMOLED panel with a higher 2,780 x 1,264 resolution, and a refresh rate that can vary from 1Hz to 120Hz. For scratch protection, there's Gorilla Glass 7i, and it has a rated peak brightness of 4,500 nits. The sheer size of the display makes viewing any sort of content infinitely better. The cutout for the selfie camera is also unobtrusive, unlike the 16e's notch.

iPhone 16e vs. OnePlus 13R: Hardware and battery

The iPhone 16e starts at $599 for 128GB of storage, $699 for 256GB, and $899 for 512GB. All variants feature 8GB of RAM since that's the minimum needed for Apple Intelligence. The base model is probably something most buyers would consider as paying anything more doesn't make sense for such compromised specs. The good thing is that you can easily get this via your carrier in the U.S. for a small monthly fee.

The iPhone 16e has the same A18 SoC found in the iPhone 16, but with one GPU core disabled. As a result, benchmark numbers are a bit lower but you'll barely notice any performance hit in real-world usage. All games run well and multitasking is a cakewalk for the 16e.

Battery life is also one of the big highlights here as the new in-house Apple C1 5G modem proves to be more power-efficient than any of the Qualcomm ones in other iPhone models. Coupled with a fairly large 3,961mAh capacity, you should easily get a full day's worth of usage out of it, or even more. There's fast charging but it's only 20W, which isn't really considered fast in 2025. The 16e does support wireless charging at 7.5W but nothing higher like you get with other iPhones with MagSafe charging.

The OnePlus 13R is available as a single variant with 12GB of RAM and 256GB storage for $599.99, in the U.S.. It's not widely available from online retailers as of this writing, so your only option may be OnePlus.com. You'll also have to buy this unlocked only in the U.S., as none of the carriers offer any subsidies on it.

The OnePlus 13R uses the powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 from Qualcomm, which can easily handle the most stressful apps and games without breaking a sweat. Unfortunately, eSIM is one feature we found missing from the 13R, but the SIM slot can accept two SIM cards.

Battery life is on another level thanks to the beastly 6,000mAh capacity. In our testing, the OnePlus 13R easily lasted two full days on one charge, which is pretty insane. That's almost twice as long as the 16e lasted. It misses out on wireless charging, but I don't think anyone will miss it since there's support for 80W charging. Plus, you get the compatible charger in the box, which is not the case with the 16e.

iPhone 16e vs. OnePlus 13R: Cameras

It's hard to believe it but the iPhone 16e has just a single camera on the back. Apple calls it a "2-in-1" camera system where the 2x zoom mode crops in on the sensor for a zoomed-in view, without having to use digital zoom. It's a trick Apple has been using on its iPhones for a while. Zooming in any further though reveals visible noise in photos, as we found out in our review. Despite its budget stature, the 16e can still record Dolby Vision videos at 4K 60fps. The front 12MP camera is similar to the iPhone 16. The 16e misses out on some camera features like Action mode and Cinematic mode, which are present on the 16.

The OnePlus 13R has an upgraded 50MP main sensor, which does a superb job of capturing fine details in still photos. Unlike the 16e, you get an ultrawide and telephoto camera on the back. We didn't find the secondary cameras to be too impressive, though. The telephoto, while nice to have, can only do 2x optical zoom, so anything beyond that is still digital. The 16MP selfie camera is also strictly okay.

iPhone 16e vs. OnePlus 13R: Software

The iPhone 16e is primed to get several major iOS versions for at least the next four years. Not to mention, you'll always get a new update along with every other iPhone on day one. The 16e is majorly about getting Apple Intelligence into the hands of more users and while many of the AI features are still in beta, we found some useful ones when we tested it. Visual Intelligence for instance works similar to Google Lens, and is able to look up locations and objects easily by simply pointing the camera at it.

The OnePlus 13R ships with OxygenOS 15, which is based on Android 15. OnePlus has pledged four years of OS upgrades which is decently long, but not great. The redesigned interface is slick and there are plenty of options to customize the look and feel to your liking. OnePlus isn't selling its AI features as aggressively as others, but there are a few useful ones baked in like AI Unblur and Reflection Eraser.

iPhone 16e vs. OnePlus 13R: Which should you pick?

The OnePlus 13R is the more powerful and feature-rich phone of the two, and is the one I'd recommend to most buyers. Even in the U.S., if you don't mind putting down $600 in one go, you should get the 13R over the iPhone 16e. It has a vastly better and bigger display, a great set of cameras, excellent performance, superb battery life, and slick software. The lack of wireless charging and the lower IP rating is not that big of a blow if you ask me.

The iPhone 16e is a great starter iPhone for Apple Intelligence once the price drops closer to $500. At full price, you might as well look for a good deal on the iPhone 15 instead which has an ultrawide camera and MagSafe charging. The Pixel 9a also makes for a good alternative and is worth checking out. If you're coming from a really old iPhone like the last SE or the Xr, then the 16e is a good upgrade, but only during sales.