Here is the comparsion between the flagship phones OnePlus 13s Vs Xiaomi 15 with detailed specs. Oneplus 13s vs Xiaomi 15 which is better?
Introduction
There are so many compact flagship phones that already exist in the market. And the OnePlus 13S is entering a crowded space.
It's not doing anything new. It's not reinventing the wheel. And yet it has generated a lot of hype. Why? Just because it is OnePlus's first compact flagship.
So this is going to be a detailed OnePlus 13s review. Along with it, I have a comparison with the Xiaomi 15 for good measure. All right, Let's get started.
Overview of OnePlus 13s compact flagship smartphone
The OnePlus 13s design is kind of impeccable. You get premium materials like a glass back, and an aluminum frame. You've got tight tolerances everywhere, and you get an excellent fit and finish. Plus, the design of the camera module looks like the iPhone 16.
The design of the OnePlus 13S over, even more expensive than the OnePlus 13 and less expensive than the OnePlus 13R. Truly, OnePlus has cooked with the design here. Does the OnePlus 13S resembles an iPhone?
Xiaomi 15 Vs OnePlus 13s Comparison
In comparison, I think that the Xiaomi 15 also looks very good. If not as good as the OnePlus 13s purely. because it's got this entirely black module and you know the silver frame which is disparate elements and not as homogeneous as the OnePlus 13S is.
It also uses premium materials like glass and metal. And if you compare them side by side, both these phones are also equally slim and light. Xiaomi 15 is denser compared to the OnePlus 13S. because a lot of the weight is concentrated at the center portion of the phone itself.
Xiaomi 15 has more elevation compared to the OnePlus 13S. But that's not a problem. Because the camera module packs a lot of hardware.
Xiaomi 15 has more advantages in terms of functionality.
- You get a better IP rating. And Therefore better water and dust resistance.
- You also do get Xiaomi shield glass protection which we've seen scratches a lot but I feel like it'll be more durable compared to Corning Glass 7i used with the OnePlus 13S.
- You get a proper Type-C 3.2 port as opposed to the Type-C 2.0 used on OnePlus.
By the way, both these phones also come with an infrared blaster. And alert slider on the OnePlus 13S has been replaced.
OnePlus 13s Vs Xiaomi 15 Display Comparison
When comes to the display, Xiaomi has a slightly larger display compared to OnePlus. It also has a taller aspect ratio. When you compare the bezels, I like Xiaomi's approach here because what it has is 1.38 mm-sized bezels all around the display. Which means that it's completely symmetrical.
OnePlus goes the other way because what it has are 1.34 mm bezels. Smaller than the Xiaomi 15. But it's only on three sides. At the bottom, the chin is larger. And therefore, Xiaomi has symmetry in its bezels.
You will get very high-quality OLED displays on both these phones. And LTPO Support, which means that they can refresh down to 1 Hz and refresh between 1 Hz to 120 Hz. That is, you will get better power efficiency. The other good thing is both these also support Dolby Vision playback on Netflix.
The other advantage of Xiaomi is that it offers a 12-bit panel. Where you get a wider array of colors. The color gamut is wider compared to the 10-bit panel on the OnePlus 13s.
This 10-bit on the OnePlus 13S is not a big deal breaker.
It's not even remotely a problem to be considered primarily because there's not too much 12-bit content out there for you to enjoy on the Xiaomi 15 display. However, it supports HDR content on YouTube. Which is something that most people will look out for.
OnePlus 13s is doing good. Because the high brightness metric is 1,600 nits as opposed to 1,000 nits on the Xiaomi 15. Therefore under direct sunlight, OnePlus shines brighter.
Now, two other aspects of the display are the in-display fingerprint scanner and the haptic feedback of the motor. Right. Now, the haptic feedback motor on the Xiaomi 15 is tighter. It's also denser.
The OnePlus 13s is average. Because it's got O haptics, but the vibration motor is not as good as the one on the Xiaomi 15. It feels a little more refined.
The other major advantage of Xiaomi 15 is that you get an ultrasonic in-display fingerprint scanner as opposed to an optical in-display fingerprint one on the OnePlus 13s. You do get support for both LSDC and LDAC codecs on both these phones.
OnePlus 13S Vs Xiaomi 15 Performance Comparison
Now the internal specs of both these phones are quite literally the same. Because you get Snapdragon 8 Elite, LPDDR5X RAM type, and UFS 4.0 storage.
Xiaomi 15 is actually available only in one variant which is a 12 RAM/512GB variant. Whereas OnePlus 13s is available in 12 RAM /256GB and 12 RAM /512GB.
In some synthetic benchmarks like Antutu Score and Geekbench, Xiaomi beats OnePlus. But, on the Adrito score, Xiaomi gets much hotter and it loses more battery life.
OnePlus has better CPU stability compared to Xiaomi. The GPU stability is largely similar on both with Xiaomi being slightly better. But again, Xiaomi gets hotter and loses more battery life as well.
For real-world gaming, both are so close to each other in terms of performance, that you can chalk out the differences to the margin of error. If you are interested in longer sessions of gaming, then the OnePlus 13S would be better suited for you as opposed to Xiaomi 15.
Now that I've broken down the performance for you in detail. I prefer the performance of the OnePlus 13S. Because,
- It is very smartly tuned.
- It is very well-balanced.
- It manages thermal efficiency well.
- It gives you good performance at the same time.
The Xiaomi 15 on the other side be a little more conservative to give you better performance and control the heat and not throttle as much. And this directly impacts the battery life, because with the OnePlus 13S what we're getting is definitely better battery life.
The OnePlus 13S has the best battery life. It uses a single-cell graphene battery and the battery charging times vary depending on the temperature of your room. Sometimes, it will charge quickly. But, sometimes it will take longer time.
The Xiaomi 15 on the other side supports 90W charging speeds and you do get the charger as well. And it will take about 53 to 54 minutes for a full charge. Plus you get wireless charging support as well.
OnePlus 13s Vs Xiaomi 15 Camera Specifications Comparison
OnePlus 13S has a different kind of camera setup. So what you get is a 50 MP Sony Litia 700 sensor. You also get a 2x telephoto camera which is a Samsung JN5 sensor and you get a 32 MP selfie camera at the front.
In comparison, the Xiaomi 15 has better specs. You get a proper triple camera setup at the rear which includes a primary Camera, ultra-wide and a telephoto. All of these are 15 megapixel cameras and at the front, you get a 32 MP selfie camera as well.
Xiaomi has ultra-wide, so daylight and low light to have an extra option for a varied perspective whether you want to shoot audio or video. And by the way, video can be recorded at 4K 60 fps using the ultra-wide angle camera on the Xiaomi 50.
Now coming to the primary camera, despite having a smaller sensor, OnePlus captures more details and sharper textures in daylight.
But the larger sensor on the Xiaomi comes in handy in low light shots because it just captures way more details than OnePlus and beats the living daylights out of it.
HDR tuning, on the other hand, is largely identical on both with a little bit of an added contrast with Xiaomi 15.
Skin tones on both are terribly off the mark, honestly. Not anywhere close to neutral or authentic. OnePlus has a warm cast that doesn't look too bad, though, honestly. And Xiaomi on the other hand is completely messed up. Xiaomi's skin tone rendition is so off that it shoots completely different tones in the portrait shots captured at different focal lengths as you can tell.
But just because you get those focal lengths like the different focal lengths with Xiaomi 15. You also get more details that you can see on the face and a good portrait simulation, I'd still pick Xiaomi over the OnePlus 13S.
Now, talking about zoom in daylight. The 2x on the OnePlus is crisper and sharper than Xiaomi's 2x. Now, at 2.6x Xiaomi is better.
On the other hand, OnePlus's selfies are better than Xiaomi's. Especially when you look at the details and sharpness. Plus, the skin tones, although warmer, kind of look better. Even the HDR selfies and portrait selfies of OnePlus are better.
So, whether you're shooting in low light with the primary camera, the ultra-wide, or the selfie camera, Xiaomi beats OnePlus in video recording. Obviously, Xiaomi can do ultra-wide angle video recording. As I said, that gives it an immediate advantage. But Xiaomi's selfie camera can also do 4K 60 fps video recording whereas OnePlus stops out at 4K 30 fps.
Zoom video recording quality is possible at 4K 60 fps on Xiaomi and OnePlus, but I prefer Xiaomi's quality slightly uh over that of OnePlus. So, overall, I'd say that the OnePlus 13S would have probably benefited by adding a 3x telephoto is what I felt. It's got a fairly decent set of cameras, but it's nothing standout for sure.
I mean the Xiaomi 15 is not like incredibly better than the OnePlus 13S or anything but it does have the advantage of having extra hardware and the kind of Leica pictures that you can get and the kind of street shots that you can get with it will be very very good looking too.
So if you are looking for a camera-focused phone you will have to pay extra for the Xiaomi 15.
OnePlus 13s vs Xiaomi 15 Software Features
I would prefer Oxygen OS 15 over Hyper OS 2.0 and I'll tell you why. But before that let me tell you that both these brands also do promise 4 plus 6 years of updates. 4 years of OS updates and 6 years of security updates.
Now before I tell you why exactly OnePlus is better, let me tell you the similarities or similar experiences that I had with both the phones. Both do have very clean installs which is nice and you also do get deep integration for Google services.
For example: You get Google Gemini support, you get the Circle to search, and all of that is here. The new Google Gemini integration where you can actually share your screen live or you can show your video feed and ask it stuff that is also available for both these phones.
Both have fantastic lock screen customization options. You have a bunch of AI features that are common too.
For example: You get an AI eraser and a reflection eraser within the gallery app. You also get AI writing tools and AI translation features. All of these are present on both the phones.
Why the OnePlus software experience or the Oxygen OS 15 software experience is better. Firstly, you get faster and smoother animations with Oxygen OS 15. HyperS 2.0's animation tuning is not bad, but there are certain scenarios where I felt like OnePlus was doing it much, much better.
Oxygen sometimes is smoother compared to Hyper OS. Oxygen OS also looks better with a more refined icon design. You get more modern features like live activities, which are inspired by iOS, but it does come in very handy.
There's also a new AI integration in systemwide search which is fantastic.
For example: You can not only record calls, you can get real-time translations, and recorded calls are stored in the recorder app and you can make summaries of calls from there. Now these summaries were also created in multi-language conversations.
while I was pretty much blown with the AI search and the AI call assistant features, the plus key, and the mind space integration left me wanting more. This is very similar to nothing's essential key.
Essentially when you press it once it will create a memory for you and store that in the mind space and once that memory is created within the mind space it will use AI to create summaries. It will do automatic categorization creating hashtags all of those things and it has added functionalities on top of it.
This minor gripe aside, everything about the software is fantastic and I prefer it over Xiaomi 15's Hyperos experience.
Comparison Table for OnePlus 13s Vs Xiaomi 15
| Features | OnePlus 13s | Xiaomi 15 |
|---|---|---|
| IP Rating | ||
| Glass Protection | ||
| Cooling | ||
| OS | ||
| Overall Perfomance |
Conclusion
OnePlus 13S is a compact OnePlus 13R with an upgraded Snapdragon 8 Elite processor instead of a compact OnePlus 13.
You don't get an IP68 rating. You do not get any wireless charging. It's USB 2.0 Port. And the cameras are, you know, slightly above average at best.
All of which, if you remember, is kind of true about the OnePlus 13R and not true about the OnePlus 13. And these basics are very essential for compact phones.
The design of the phone, which looks fantastic. It actually, like I said, feels more premium than the OnePlus 13. Plus, the performance tuning is very well-balanced. You get leading battery performance and most importantly leading software experience as well.
And I feel like this could be OnePlus's dark horse, at least in terms of capturing mind share, if not market share. What do you guys feel about the OnePlus 13s ? Do let me know in the comment section below.
Thanks for Reading!
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