The very best OnePlus 13 digicam characteristic is one you are not utilizing

Three months after its launch in January, the OnePlus 13 is holding sturdy as one of many greatest Android telephones obtainable at this time. Between its wonderful and distinctive {hardware}, top-notch spec sheet, and surprisingly nice software program, it’s a rattling near-perfect handset that I’ve completely loved utilizing.

Though I’ve frolicked with different Android telephones all year long up to now, the OnePlus 13 is the one I hold coming again to. I like its design and in-hand consolation; its lengthy battery life and quick charging are unmatched, and — amazingly — its digicam system is one in all my absolute favorites to shoot with.

The 50MP major digicam is a improbable all-around sensor, delivering crisp, vibrant, and contrasty pictures. The telephoto digicam does a commendable job at 3x and 6x zoom, whereas the ultrawide digicam is equally dependable, too. Nevertheless, as a lot because the cameras shine in common day-to-day use, the actual magic of the OnePlus 13’s digicam system lies in a hidden characteristic you most likely aren’t utilizing.

Tucked away within the “Extra” tab of the OnePlus 13’s digicam app is the often-forgotten XPan Mode. XPan Mode has been obtainable on OnePlus telephones since 2021 with the discharge of the OnePlus 9 sequence, and it was one of many first large digicam options we noticed come out of OnePlus’s partnership with Hasselblad. XPan has been obtainable on each OnePlus flagship since then — together with the OnePlus 13 — although it typically goes unnoticed.

The mode will get its title from Hasselblad’s well-known XPan digicam. Launched in 1998, XPan mixed 35mm and panorama picture codecs and allowed customers to seize each on the identical movie roll — supplying you with a single digicam to seize each conventional 3:4 and panoramic 65:24 pictures.

In contrast to conventional panorama digicam modes, which require you to maintain your telephone regular whereas gently turning it to seize the scene, XPan concurrently makes use of the first and ultrawide cameras so you possibly can seize that panoramic picture with only a single click on.

Along with the enjoyable digicam historical past tie-in and the comfort of the mode, XPan Mode can also be simply lots of enjoyable to shoot with. While you swap to the mode, the FoV stretches out, and a border goes throughout the display to imitate taking pictures with a movie digicam. You possibly can drag a slider on the left to manually alter the publicity, swap between 15mm/23mm/73mm lenses, and allow/disable a black-and-white filter.

That each one sounds fascinating sufficient on paper, however what does it appear like in follow? I’m glad you requested! As a result of XPan pictures are panoramic, they’re for much longer and extra expansive-looking than a “regular” image from the OnePlus 13. Simply have a look for your self.

The image above was taken utilizing the OnePlus 13’s default picture mode. It’s an incredible shot of Las Vegas, displaying The Sphere and the mountainous Nevada panorama within the background. Nevertheless, nearly as good as the colours and particulars are, it doesn’t really seize simply how spectacular my view was from excessive up within the Venetian. For that, we flip to the identical scene captured with XPan Mode.

Now that’s extra prefer it. Should you’re a pixel-peeper, you’ll discover that dynamic vary and sharpness take a success once you swap to XPan Mode, however the elevated scale of the picture is nicely price it. XPan permits you to seize a lot extra of the scene in entrance of you, and when offered with a view like this, its profit is plain.

Whereas dramatic views actually assist XPan Mode shine, they aren’t the one conditions the place it turns out to be useful. One other prime instance is the shot beneath from a serene disc golf course in San Jose, CA.

That is one other wonderful image. Captured with the OnePlus 13’s major digicam, I like the darkish inexperienced grass, the shadows engulfing the timber, and the late afternoon solar setting within the distance. It completely captures how the scene felt in individual, and I’ve zero complaints about how the shot turned out.

Nevertheless, we then evaluate it to the very same setting as seen by way of the eyes of XPan Mode.

As soon as once more, compromises are made in comparison with the common picture. Right here, the picture as an entire is a bit darker, and the dynamic vary takes a success. However the added width captured by the XPan shot provides a lot extra to the picture. It higher represents the grass discipline in entrance of me and the scale of the timber. It’s not fairly as transformative because the Las Vegas picture, however it nonetheless provides the scene a very completely different feel and appear.

While you’re not doing side-by-side comparisons, the distinctive model of XPan pictures remains to be phenomenal. Even with one thing so simple as an image of my cat, taking a photograph of him with XPan Mode provides knowledgeable, virtually cinematic-like perspective I wouldn’t have gotten with a “regular” picture.

I additionally actually take pleasure in utilizing XPan Mode for inside pictures. I used it to seize the within of a brand new matcha cafe I visited this weekend, and whereas a conventional image would have sufficed, XPan encapsulates the room so darn nicely — displaying the nook and eating tables, the individual to the left of me, and the opposite sitting space to my proper. Regardless of what was a reasonably tight space in actuality, XPan nonetheless provides it a big, spacious feeling.

Lastly, one in all my favourite XPan Mode pictures got here from a current night time out at one in all my favourite breweries — which simply occurs to have a room full of 50+ pinball machines. The road of seemingly limitless video games was exhausting to seize in a typical 4:3 picture, however the further scope of XPan Mode was excellent for it.

That is what I like a lot about XPan Mode. Whereas I don’t use it rather than the OnePlus 13’s default picture mode, I like utilizing each of them to see how in a different way XPan Mode makes a shot look in comparison with a regular picture. Most of the time, it’s nicely, nicely price it.

To me, among the finest methods to guage a smartphone digicam is by how a lot I need to use and work together with it. Some telephone cameras will be technically sound however don’t give me that inventive feeling I’m in search of — one thing I just lately skilled whereas revisiting the Google Pixel 9 Professional.

The OnePlus 13 advantages from having an objectively sturdy digicam system mixed with a novel taking pictures mode that encourages me to hunt out new methods to make use of it. Not solely do I stay up for utilizing XPan Mode whereas at a restaurant or a nature path, however I’m inspired to go searching my condo and consider the way it would possibly in a different way seize one thing I’ve taken an image of a whole bunch of occasions earlier than — equivalent to my cat laying in his mattress.

XPan Mode provides me that inventive jumpstart I like in a digicam. Not solely is it one in all my favourite and most-used digicam options on the OnePlus 13, however it’s one of many many causes I like carrying OnePlus’s newest over different Android telephones obtainable at this time. In case you have a OnePlus 13 (or one other OnePlus telephone) and haven’t used XPan Mode but, take this as your signal to alter that at this time.