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OnePlus 13 with OxygenOS 15 to give users more system storage, new anti-theft feature expected

November 8, 2024

OxygenOS 15 has officially debuted, and the OnePlus 12 is getting a taste of it through a stable release. The new OS brings refreshed animations, AI features, a split Quick Settings panel like iOS 18, new icon colours, and more. There are some features/improvements that are exclusive to the OnePlus 13. Among the features, one that spikes attention is how much less system space the new OxygenOS 15 takes compared to previous versions.

Besides this, the new OS is also reported to bring support for a new anti-theft feature on the OnePlus 13 that allows for tracking even when the phone is powered off.

OxygenOS 15 cuts down system storage

In the OxygenOS 15 reviewers guide (via Android Authority), the company says the new OS on the OnePlus 13 cuts down the storage space taken by system data by nearly 20 percent compared to OxygenOS 14 on OnePlus 12.
A reduction of 20 percent is quite a lot. The company says that it was able to achieve this by examining and removing redundant features.
Android Authority notes that OnePlus mentioned that its next flagship i.e. the OnePlus 13 (probably the global variant) will offer up to 5GB+ more storage space for your apps and files, which seems to be better than the Chinese version.

The company briefed that it has reduced preloaded resources like wallpapers and opted to offer them when needed by the user.
To put this in context with numbers, the OnePlus 12 reserves 16GB for the super partition data, while the OnePlus 13 reserves only 14.3GB (a 1.7GB reduction).
While this cut down in space may limit the storage for future updates, OnePlus says that it will refine OxygenOS to make it more space-efficient.
On a 1TB model, the user-available storage on the OnePlus 12 is 932.52GB, whereas it’s 934.71GB on the OnePlus 13 (an increase of 2.19GB)
These numbers are extracted from the OnePlus 13 and OnePlus 12 Chinese versions (courtesy of developer MlgmXyysd), so the actual numbers on the global models might be different.

OnePlus 13 anti-theft tracking

OnePlus 12 received the OxygenOS 15 stable update a few hours ago. This came after a few weeks of open beta testing.
Reportedly, the beta build included a label in the power-off menu that suggested the phone could still be tracked even when it’s powered off. Surprisingly, this feature was removed in the stable release.

This is because the OnePlus 12 lacks the required hardware and does not support tracking when powered off, as confirmed by a OnePlus representative with Android Authority.
However, the report notes that a Qualcomm spokesperson confirmed that the new Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset has support for the FastConnect 7900 platform and is up to manufacturers to implement it.
Since the feature is spotted in the OS, there are chances the OnePlus 13, which is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, global variant might feature it.
While Google introduced the new theft protection features for Android, one familiar method to bypass is by turning off the phone right away. This will make it difficult to track.