The OnePlus 13 is finally headed to the UK, US and Europe – but how does it compare to one of the most popular phones around, the iPhone 16?
Aside from the obvious differences in the operating systems the two smartphones offer, there are huge differences in the tech on offer. That includes not only performance but key elements like camera performance and even battery life that could sway your vote one way or the other.
With that in mind, here are some of the key differences between the OnePlus 13 and the iPhone 16.
Pricing & availability
When it comes to price, the OnePlus 13 is the pricier of the two flagships – at the entry-level, anyway. It starts at £899 with 256GB of storage, while the top-end 512GB variant comes in at £999.
The iPhone 16, on the other hand, starts at a slightly more affordable £799 with reduced 128GB of storage, though you can go as high as 512GB for £1099 – £100 more than the OnePlus 13 – if you so desire.
The OnePlus 13 has a more powerful processor
This one might come as a surprise given Apple’s A-series silicon has traditionally offered better performance than Android competition, but when comparing the Snapdragon 8 Elite and A18 chipsets, there’s a clear winner – and it isn’t Apple for a change.
Qualcomm’s 2025 flagship chipset boasts incredible year-on-year gains in the CPU, GPU and NPU departments that allow for some impressive performance. In fact, the OnePlus 13 beat the iPhone 16 in the Geekbench 6 multi-core tests, scoring 9494 compared to the iPhone’s 8027, and it’s a similar story in the GPU department too.
That said, there shouldn’t be much of a difference in terms of day-to-day performance; both run smoothly and handle just about anything you can throw at them. It’s just that, when it comes to truly demanding tasks, the OnePlus 13 will handle them better.
The OnePlus 13 has more versatile cameras
The iPhone has a great reputation when it comes to camera performance, but that’s usually truer of the Pro models than the regular models – and it largely comes down to the hardware on offer.
There’s nothing to sniff about when it comes to the performance of Apple’s main 48MP snapper or its matching 48MP ultrawide, delivering impressive results in a variety of environments – the problem is that it lacks a dedicated zoom lens.
That’s even more of an issue when most of the competition, including the OnePlus 13, offers a dedicated telephoto lens, a 50MP 3x sensor in the case of OnePlus’ flagship. That’s coupled with matching high-res 50MP main and 50MP ultrawide sensors that, combined, deliver a more versatile shooting experience than what you’ll get from the iPhone 16.
That’s not the case if you’re eyeing up the iPhone 16 Pro models, sporting upgraded 5x telephoto lenses, but regular iPhone 16 owners are out of luck.
The iPhone 16 has an Action Button and Camera Control
It’s rather ironic really; despite rumours swirling around online suggesting Apple was gearing up for a completely buttonless, portless iPhone, the iPhone 16 sports more physical buttons than ever before.
Alongside the regular power and volume controls, the iPhone 16 sports the Action Button that was previously exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, along with the all-new Camera Control button.
The former is essentially a customisable button that can be programmed to perform actions like toggling the torch as well as running Shortcuts, opening apps and toggling accessibility options, while the latter essentially provides a way to not only activate the Camera app but zoom and switch camera modes thanks to its touch-capacitive surface.
It’s an area where the OnePlus 13 simply can’t compete; while it boasts the popular alert slider, allowing you to quickly set your phone to loud, vibrate or silent, there’s nothing in the way of camera controls or programmable buttons here.
The iPhone 16 has Apple Intelligence support
One of the key reasons to upgrade to the iPhone 16, according to Apple’s marketing, is to get access to Apple Intelligence. It’s Apple’s big play for 2024 and 2025, essentially bringing a plethora of GenAI-powered features to the iOS experience.
The launch was a bit of a headache, first launching in the US with limited features before a wider rollout in December, but it’s finally available for many users around the world – though sadly not the EU just yet.
While the usefulness of the Apple Intelligence features can vary greatly, it allows you to create your own custom emoji, generate images with a description, ask questions via Siri that ChatGPT can respond to, rewrite text messages and much more.
While the OnePlus 13 does come with a long list of AI features, some of which match Apple’s offering quite closely, Apple Intelligence is a more fully-featured suite of tools.
The OnePlus 13 can’t, for example, create custom emojis, utilise ChatGPT integration or even generate images based on text, focusing instead on photo editing, text editing and searching through files on your phone.
The OnePlus 13 has a larger battery and faster charging
While the vast majority of flagship smartphones offer a battery with a capacity somewhere in the region of 5000mAh, Apple has always trailed behind in this regard. Take the iPhone 16 as a prime example; it offers a 3561mAh cell. While that should be enough to get the majority of users through a full day of use, it pales in comparison to what you’ll get from OnePlus’ latest flagship.
That’s because the OnePlus 13 comes with a whopping 6000mAh battery split across two 3000mAh cells.
That not only delivers a solid upgrade in terms of battery longevity compared to Apple’s smartphone, but it also allows for rapid charging at up to 100W if you use OnePlus’ SuperVOOC charging tech. The iPhone 16, on the other hand, caps out somewhere between 25- and 30W.
Apple does have an advantage with its magnetised MagSafe charging tech that can deliver up to 25W via compatible chargers, but OnePlus has an answer to this.
While not a fully Qi 2-enabled phone with a magnetised rear, OnePlus is offering both a magnetic case and magnetic wireless charger akin to Apple’s MagSafe charger for more convenient charging – though you’ll have to invest in both of these accessories separately.
Early Thoughts
The decision between buying the iPhone 16 and OnePlus 13 likely won’t come down to hardware, as Android users are likely to stay on Android while iOS users are usually keen to stay with iPhones – but if you do look beyond the operating system on offer, things get more complicated.
On the one hand, the OnePlus 13 has impressive hardware that beats the iPhone 16 in many regards, from screen tech to performance and even battery life, but Apple Intelligence, the new physical buttons on the iPhone and other niche elements could tempt some towards Apple’s latest flagship.
If you want a solid all-rounder, the iPhone 16 is a great option, but if you want a truly exciting upgrade, it looks like the OnePlus 13 could be the one to go for.
