Nothing Phone (3) vs OnePlus 13

Phone Arena

a day ago

Carl Pei-led Nothing has been on a roll lately, and the latest fruit of the company's labors is the Nothing Phone (3). This new and intriguing device is the closest we've got to a proper flagship phone, but it has some big shoes to fill in. With a revised Glyph interface at the back and a one-of-a-kind design language, this one has the potential to steal more than a few stares.
But is design everything? None other than Carl Pei 's former company, OnePlus, has the OnePlus 13 on the shelves. This formidable Android device offers a steady opposition to just about any other Android rival and id not done taking names––the Nothing Phone (3) could very well be next in line to get dominated by the never-settling flagship.
So, how does the cool new Nothing Phone (3) stack up against the absolute powerhouse that the OnePlus 13 is?
Nothing's latest high-class phone is available at Amazon. Right now, the 16/512GB variant is up for pre-order, with shipping set to begin on July 15. The device boasts a unique design, 6.77-inch AMOLED display, and a Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chip. Pre-order yours now and save $100! Pre-order at Amazon
$200 off (20%) Get the impressive OnePlus 13 for $100 off by trading in any device in any condition. There's an extra $100 discount on the 16/512GB variant with promo code "JULY25". You also get a free case worth up to $39.99 Buy at OnePlus
Nothing Phone (3) vs OnePlus 13 differences explained:
Table of Contents:
Design and Display
Performance and Software
Camera
Battery
Audio
Specs
Conclusion
The Nothing Phone (3) comes with a pretty distinct design language that counts on transparency to make for a head-turning impression. It marries a matte aluminum frame with a clear Gorilla Glass backplate, with various hardware components of the phone hinted. And yes, because of the transparent glass, you can get smudgy fingerprints here. The corners are slightly rounded, just like on the latest Galaxies, and the cameras are scattered as if your grandma threw beans on the carpet.
New here is the removal of the Glyph interface of old and Nothing's decision to go with a round monochrome display in the top right at the rear of the phone. It can display different types of data, including your battery level and funny GIFs, and even alert you of incoming notifications. You can manually activate it by pressing a designated capacitive button on the rear of the phone when it's lying face down.
I can't really comprehend how we lost the glyph interface for that.
Meanwhile, the OnePlus 13 is a more traditional candybar phone, with an aluminum frame and standard glass back, although a faux leather version is also available. It doesn't have anything particular that could turn heads, but then again, it doesn't need to, as the OnePlus 13 is quietly brilliant in terms of its understated design.
A key difference between the two phones is the durability. While the Nothing Phone boasts the standard IP68 water and dust resistance, the OnePlus 13 improves on that with an IP69 rating, which ensures protection against water jets and longer submersion in freshwater.
There's an extra button here, called Essential Key, which is used to take a screenshot of your screen, record a voice note, or use AI to extract the key info and remind you about it in the future. Meanwhile, the OnePlus 13 has the signature three-way ring switcher on the left-hand side of the phone, one of our favorite OnePlus features. Judging from what peer company Oppo is doing, we might see the end of this signature hardware feature in the near future, which would be a shame.
In terms of screens, we have a 6.7-inch screen on the Nothing Phone (3) and a slightly larger 6.8-inch display on the OnePlus 13 . Both are OLED ones, so they deliver excellent contrast and lovely colors. Both also refresh at up to 120Hz for the smoothest experience.
However, as per our own in-house tests, the OnePlus 13 has a much better screen, with significantly higher peak brightness, better minimum brightness, and significantly better color accuracy.
In terms of biometrics, there's a significant difference between the two devices, with the Nothing Phone (3) scoring an optical and the OnePlus 13 boasting a ultrasonic one. Generally, we rate ultrasonic fingerprint scanners higher, so the OnePlus has the advantage here.
With the OnePlus 13 , we get the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, the fastest one around available to Android phones. A proper powerhouse, this one is the best performer with the best efficiency around. Meanwhile, the Nothing Phone (3) relies on the 4nm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chip, which is a more affordable chipset that's a tier lower than proper flagship ones.
The Nothing Phone is available in two versions, an entry-level one with 12GB RAM and 256GB of storage and another more premium one with 16GB RAM and 512GB of storage. The same applies to the OnePlus 13 , too. But what's the performance delta here, and is the Nothing Phone (3) too far behind? While in real life both feel very fast, synthetic benchmarks reveal a fuller picture.
Well, it appears that way. In our in-house Geekbench 6 benchmarks, the Nothing Phone (3) achieves significantly lower results than the OnePlus 13 in both the single- and multi-core tests, revealing its much humbler performance offering.
The same applies to the graphics-tasking 3DMark Extreme stress test, in which the OnePlus 13 sweeps the floor clean with its Nothing rival.
In terms of software support, things are more evened out. The OnePlus 13 gets four years of software support and six years of security updates, while the Nothing Phone (3) gets five years of major Android updates and seven years of security patches.
Both phones come with triple 50MP cameras at the rear, but this is where most similarities end. Spoiler alert, it's the OnePlus 13 that performs better in terms of image quality despite the slightly smaller main camera sensors.
In our dedicated camera test, the OnePlus trumps the Nothing Phone with a significantly higher result in both the still photo and video tests, with the advantage being all in the never-settling device's court.
With the OnePlus 13 , we get cleaner details, better dynamics, and slightly more appealing colors with the main camera. The Nothing Phone (3) isn't too bad, but can't really hold a candle to the OnePlus 13 .
The same applies to zoom: the phone is just better in all zoom levels, delivering cleaner details and overall better photos.
Even portraits are significantly better with the OnePlus 13 .
Ultrawide shots are slightly better on the OnePlus 13 , but the Nothing Phone 3 isn't too far behind, it seems.
The OnePlus 13 takes better selfies with livelier colors and more flattering facial features.
Videos are good on the Nothing Phone (3) , but again, the OnePlus 13 beats it by a slight margin. For example, we see that dynamics are a little better on the OnePlus 13 , and the colors are more balanced there as well.
Okay, so the Nothing Phone (3) has so far failed to offer a decent challenge to the OnePlus 13 , maybe things could get intriguing in terms of battery life? With a 5,150mAh battery, the new Nothing Phone has a hard task ahead of itself, as the OnePlus 13 packs a larger 6,000mAh unit, which ultimately helps it score a win.
It's our web browsing test that helps the OnePlus 13 achieve this windfall, with a result of 21 and a half hours, while the Nothing Phone disappoints with 14 and a half hours in the same test.
The latter, however, proves to be more efficient in our video streaming and 3D gaming tests, where it beats the OnePlus 13 by an hour in both tests. All of those were conducted with the screens set at 200 nits to ensure an equal playing field.
Overall, our battery life estimate for the OnePlus 13 is seven hours and a half, while the Nothing Phone (3) achieves just six hours and 45 minutes. Charging is another win for the OnePlus 13 , which comes with fast 100W wired and 50W wireless charging. It takes 43 minutes for a full charge, while the Nothing Phone (3) takes 61 minutes.
The Nothing Phone (3) fails to impress in terms of audio quality, too. While it does get loud, the mids are dominating here, making this one not particularly fit for enjoying music but talking heads videos, Instagram reels, and TikToks.
The OnePlus 13 isn't much better itself either, but at least the bass is slightly more pronounced there and the highs are slightly more enjoyable.
Still, neither would wow even the greenest of audiophiles.
Haptics are pleasant on both phones. Here's how the Nothing Phone (3) vs OnePlus 13 specs compare:
Okay, the OnePlus 13 might be slightly pricier, but it's definitely a better phone in comparison with the Nothing Phone (3) .
While the design language can be debatable, arguably a win could be given to the Nothing Phone (3) for the novelty of it, but in any other area it's the OnePlus 13 that dominates.
Display quality, performance, overall battery life, camera image quality, and charging speeds are all simply better on the OnePlus 13 , so the $30 difference in price is absolutely worth it.
At the same time, the Nothing Phone (3) is not a bad phone; it's just not good enough to shift the paradigm right now.