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The OnePlus 13 may have a cool display feature we’ve never seen before

The OnePlus 12's screen.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The OnePlus 13 has been making waves as one of the most anticipated upcoming phones, especially as leak after leak has emerged about its features and design. We take most of those leaks with skepticism, just in case something isn’t totally spot-on, but now we have news straight from OnePlus itself: the OnePlus 13 can adjust the refresh rates for different parts of the screen.

That’s an interesting feature we haven’t seen before, and it has big implications for power efficiency. The OnePlus 13 is also set to have a 6,000mAh battery. That will provide a lot of battery life, but what if even more could be drawn out by making small adjustments on the fly?

A screenshot of a Weibo message from OnePlus.
OnePlus

The primary source of battery consumption on a smartphone is its screen. You probably already know you can save on battery by turning down the screen brightness, but its refresh rate also plays a large role. This new feature would enable one part of the screen, such as a YouTube video, to run at a higher refresh rate than a part of the page containing only text.

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Not only would this produce a much smoother viewing experience overall, but it could also improve battery life, especially if used while running apps in split-screen mode.

There’s another update to the OnePlus 13 that could also indirectly affect battery life. It’s coming with a “sun display,” a type of screen that is more easily visible in direct sunlight and produces more accurate colors. Normally, you would need to turn up your phone’s brightness all the way to use it outside — draining the battery faster in the process — but this feature could reduce how bright you need to make your phone before you can see it.

We expect the OnePlus 13 to be released around December or January, and the more we learn about it, the more it sounds like one of the most exciting upcoming smartphones. Stay tuned for more.

Patrick Hearn
Patrick Hearn writes about smart home technology like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, smart light bulbs, and more. If it's a…
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