It's been hinted and teased for a couple of months that the next OnePlus flagship phone will arrive in October. Finally, we have official confirmation from a OnePlus executive that the OnePlus 13 will launch later in October.
OnePlus China president Li Jie Louis confirmed on Weibo (spotted by Android Authority) that the OnePlus 13 is coming and will feature the "latest Snapdragon flagship chip." Presumably, the processor will be the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, which will debut at the end of October.
Li claims that the OnePlus 13 "made a "big leap" in both performance release and overall smoothness, reaching a height never seen before on Android." A leaked Geekbench score from September that was supposedly tested on the OnePlus 13 showed strong scores that compete with Apple's new A18 chips based on Tom's Guide benchmarking.
He also said the new phone would feature Color OS 15, at least in China. It is not a surprise there since OnePlus features ColorOS in China instead of the internal Oxygen OS, which is based on ColorOS and used elsewhere.
In addition to the new Qualcomm system on chip, he claimed that improved performance can be attributed to the new Tidal and Aurora engine technology. The Tidal engine is supposed to provide better performance, while the Aurora engine should deliver smoother animations.
Li did not provide details on a specific launch date for the OnePlus 13 or if it would only be released in China when they officially reveal the handset.
Qualcomm's annual Snapdragon Summit is taking place on October 21 - 23. Presumably, OnePlus will release the 13 after the summit.
