TL;DR
- The OnePlus 13T has been confirmed.
- OnePlus announced the phone in a pre-recorded faux “launch” video that is truly bizarre.
- The phone should land this month, but it is still unclear if it will be available outside of China.
Today is April Fool’s Day, so we need to treat anything we see as suspect. Even if a company announces what looks like the next best Android smartphone, we need to hold up our hands and say, “Wait a minute,” before believing it to be true.
That said, we are nearly certain that OnePlus’ April Fool’s Day event actually does include a legitimate announcement. On Weibo, the company posted an over-the-top, incredibly silly video depicting a fake smartphone “launch.” It involves Thor’s hammer, a trip through space and time, the destruction of an entire planet, and a man being shrunk down and almost getting crushed under a shoe. It’s…a lot.
However, in the end, you’re treated with the company’s first confirmation of the existence of the OnePlus 13T. Previously, we had seen plenty of rumors about this phone, which we hear could be smaller than the OnePlus 13 but offer the same Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. OnePlus didn’t say anything about that in the video, though. All it confirmed was the phone’s name and that it would land this month.
Unfortunately, we still don’t know if the OnePlus 13T will land in any country except for China. Given that this teaser is intended explicitly for the Chinese market and OnePlus doesn’t have a similar one for Western countries, this phone may only land in China. We’re still holding out hope.
Even if it only lands in China, the OnePlus 13T will still be notable as it resurrects the “T” branding. OnePlus previously abandoned the “T” line, with the last phone being the OnePlus 10T in 2022. It’s unclear why it brought the line back for what will ostensibly be a “OnePlus 13 Mini” or a “OnePlus 13 Slim,” but that’s a question for another day.
