Your OnePlus 13 Will Get a Dedicated AI 'Mind Space.' Here's What That Means
An Inside Look at OnePlus' New AI Strategy and How It Will Transform Your Smartphone Experience
Introduction: OnePlus Joins the AI Revolution
In today's smartphone landscape, artificial intelligence integration has become non-negotiable for manufacturers seeking to remain competitive. OnePlus, though arriving somewhat later than some competitors, has now unveiled its comprehensive AI strategy. At a recent London launch event, the company announced plans to bring its unique vision of personalized AI to OnePlus phones, including the flagship OnePlus 13. This article explores OnePlus' AI approach, examines the new features firsthand, and looks at what's coming next in the company's ambitious three-stage AI roadmap.
Fresh AI features will soon land on the OnePlus 13. (Photo: Andrew Lanxon/CNET)
The AI Landscape for Android Manufacturers
With all Android phone manufacturers increasingly utilizing Qualcomm's best-in-class chips and relying on Google's Gemini AI, developing a distinctive AI strategy has become essential for standing out in a crowded market. OnePlus appears to have taken a thoughtful approach, avoiding the rush to implement AI features without clear purpose. Instead, the company has developed a phased strategy that begins with practical applications and builds toward more sophisticated capabilities.
While OnePlus may not be first to market with AI features, its initial offerings show promise in capturing user attention, even if some concepts bear similarities to competitors' implementations. The company's measured approach suggests a focus on refining the user experience rather than simply adding AI features for marketing purposes.
Plus Mind and Mind Space: OnePlus' Core AI Features
Understanding Plus Mind
OnePlus' flagship AI tool is called Plus Mind, a contextual assistant that can save, suggest, store, and search based on what's currently displayed on your phone screen. The system analyzes on-screen content and can identify actionable information, such as event details or reservations, automatically proposing to create calendar entries or save important information.
Plus Mind can be activated in two ways: either through a dedicated hardware button (the "Plus Key") on newer models like the OnePlus 13S, or via a three-fingered swipe-up gesture on devices without the dedicated key, such as the current OnePlus 13. This contextual awareness allows the system to understand and act upon information without requiring users to manually copy and organize content.
The OnePlus 13's upcoming "Mind Space." (Photo: Katie Collins/CNET)
Exploring Mind Space
Mind Space serves as the central hub where all content captured by Plus Mind is stored and organized. According to Arthur Lam, OnePlus' director of OxygenOS and AI strategy, Mind Space is designed to "organize your fragmented memories" by creating a searchable repository of important information.
The system incorporates AI search capabilities that allow users to find specific content using natural language queries, eliminating the need to remember exact details or navigate through complex folder structures. Mind Space can also automatically translate content into different languages, making information more accessible and searchable regardless of the original language.
Content saved to Mind Space can include snippets from articles, event details, contact information, or any other on-screen data that users might want to reference later. The system aims to reduce information overload by providing a centralized location for important content that might otherwise be scattered across different apps and services.
The Plus Key on the OnePlus 13S. (Photo: Katie Collins/CNET)
Hands-On Experience: First Impressions
Activation Challenges
During hands-on testing with the OnePlus 13, activating Plus Mind using the three-fingered swipe gesture proved inconsistent. The gesture requires starting from a specific position above the lower edge of the screen, and there's a significant risk of accidentally displacing on-screen content when attempting the gesture. This experience highlights the importance of the dedicated Plus Key that will be included on future OnePlus devices, as hardware activation provides a more reliable and intuitive way to access AI features.
The current implementation on the OnePlus 13 feels like a compromise, suggesting that OnePlus designed Plus Mind with the dedicated button in mind. For users of the current flagship, mastering the gesture will require some practice and patience.
Content Capture and Organization
Testing Plus Mind with various types of content revealed both strengths and limitations. The system excelled at capturing event details and creating calendar entries, with the process feeling seamless and intuitive. Natural language search within Mind Space also performed well, making it easy to retrieve saved information using conversational queries.
However, when saving articles, Mind Space only captured the specific text visible on screen at the time of activation, rather than generating a summary of the entire article. This limitation means users may need to activate Plus Mind multiple times when reading longer content to ensure they capture all relevant information.
OnePlus' natural language search within Mind Space worked well in testing. (Photo: Katie Collins/CNET)
Another limitation is the manual nature of content organization within Mind Space. Unlike some competing systems that automatically categorize saved content, OnePlus requires users to manually organize information into collections. This represents a missed opportunity for AI-powered organization that could further streamline the user experience.
The Future of OnePlus AI
A Three-Stage AI Strategy
Plus Mind and Mind Space represent just the first phase of OnePlus' ambitious three-stage AI strategy. The second stage will integrate a large language model into Plus Mind, enabling the system to understand user habits and create a personalized "persona" that better anticipates needs and preferences.
According to Lam, this enhanced understanding will "help you understand yourself" and potentially reveal "surprising" or "enlightening" insights about your habits and preferences. This deeper level of personalization aims to make AI interactions more relevant and valuable by adapting to individual users over time.
The third and most ambitious stage will transform Plus Mind into a full AI agent capable of functioning as a comprehensive personal assistant with deep knowledge of user preferences and needs. While this vision is still some time away from implementation, it demonstrates OnePlus' long-term commitment to AI development.
Coming Soon: Additional AI Features
Beyond the core Mind Space functionality, OnePlus is developing several specialized AI tools that will debut in the coming months. For the Indian market, the company is preparing AI VoiceScribe, which will provide quick summaries after calls on messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Telegram. Another India-first feature is AI Call Assistant, offering real-time in-call translation in both text and voice formats.
For photography enthusiasts, OnePlus is introducing two creative AI tools. AI Best Face 2.0 will allow users to correct up to 20 faces in group photos, ensuring everyone looks their best by fixing issues like closed eyes or what OnePlus describes as "suboptimal expressions." Meanwhile, AI Reframe will analyze photos and suggest creative cropping and framing options to improve composition, particularly useful for casual snapshots taken without careful consideration of framing.
These photo-focused AI features are scheduled to arrive on OnePlus phones this summer, providing a taste of the company's AI capabilities while users wait for the more comprehensive Mind Space rollout later in the year.
Availability and Rollout
Regional Release Schedule
Plus Mind will debut with the launch of the OnePlus 13S, a device specifically designed for the Asian market that includes the dedicated Plus Key for AI activation. For users in the US and Europe with the current OnePlus 13, the AI features will arrive as an over-the-air update later this year, though OnePlus has not yet confirmed the exact timing.
This staggered release strategy allows OnePlus to refine the experience based on initial user feedback before expanding to global markets. It also gives the company time to adapt features for different regions and ensure compatibility with existing devices that lack the dedicated hardware button.
The photo-focused AI features (AI Best Face 2.0 and AI Reframe) will have a broader initial release, coming to OnePlus phones across markets this summer as part of the company's phased AI rollout strategy.
Conclusion: OnePlus' AI Vision
OnePlus' approach to AI integration shows a thoughtful balance between innovation and practicality. Rather than rushing to implement AI features for marketing purposes, the company has developed a phased strategy that begins with solving real user problems and gradually builds toward more sophisticated capabilities.
While the initial implementation has some limitations—particularly for users of the current OnePlus 13 without the dedicated Plus Key—the foundation appears solid. The natural language search capabilities and seamless event capture demonstrate the potential of the system, even if content organization remains more manual than it could be.
OnePlus' AI strategy will inevitably draw comparisons to similar offerings from competitors like Nothing's Essential Space, but the company's long-term vision and three-stage roadmap suggest a commitment to developing a distinctive AI experience. As smartphone hardware continues to converge around similar specifications, these AI-driven experiences may increasingly become the key differentiator for manufacturers seeking to stand out in a crowded market.
For OnePlus users, the coming months will bring a steady stream of new AI capabilities, starting with creative photo tools this summer and expanding to the full Mind Space experience later in the year. While the most ambitious aspects of OnePlus' AI vision remain on the horizon, the initial offerings provide a promising glimpse of how AI might transform the smartphone experience in meaningful ways.
Stay tuned for more updates on OnePlus' AI features as they roll out to devices worldwide. The future of smartphone AI is evolving rapidly, and OnePlus is positioning itself as a thoughtful innovator in this increasingly important space.
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