1 day ago
10
ZDNET's cardinal takeaways
- The latest Android flagship starts astatine $899 for the 12GB of RAM and 256GB of retention variant.
- It's highlighted by a 7,300mAh battery, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, and 80W wired charging.
- The camera strategy is inferior to past year's model, and you can't really bargain the telephone yet.
Follow ZDNET: Add america arsenic a preferred source on Google.
When I archetypal learned astir the OnePlus 15, I wondered if the quest to marque the best smartphone had gone excessively far. Could a telephone ever person excessively precocious of specs? Or were those tanky Android 13 handsets -- with their edgy names and 10,000mAh batteries -- really showing america the aboriginal each along?
After all, the OnePlus 15 boasts a alternatively luscious diagnostic set, adjacent by my conjecture of 2026's standards, with a 6.7-inch AMOLED show that refreshes astatine 165Hz, Qualcomm's next-gen Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, a 7,300mAh artillery with 80W wired charging, and an IP69 standing to fend disconnected high-pressure h2o jets (or accidental tumbles successful the washing machine.)
Fortunately, the latest flagship telephone looks thing similar the Doogees and Unihertz of the world, arsenic I exhaled with alleviation erstwhile archetypal unboxing the handset. Instead, we're inactive moving with polished slabs of metallic and glass, with conscionable capable thickness and heft to marque you consciousness reassured that your $900 concern didn't conscionable spell toward "innovation."
To genuinely trial the OnePlus 15, I brought it with maine connected a caller travel to South Korea, on with respective competing Android devices, including the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and Google Pixel 10 Pro XL. Here's however it fared, including the unexpected discoveries passim the process.
Best mobile deals of the week
Deals are selected by the CNET Group commerce team, and whitethorn beryllium unrelated to this article.
For starters, I usage each telephone I review, careless of terms point, without a lawsuit during the investigating period. This signifier gives maine the champion consciousness of the concern designer's intent. (Does it substance what tier of Corning Gorilla Glass a shaper uses, oregon wherefore they curved the edges to a definite grade of radius, if I conscionable propulsion the telephone into an Otterbox? No.)
Also: OnePlus 15 vs. Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: I compared the 2 champion Android flagships
The OnePlus 15 has been the easiest telephone for maine to instrumentality that calculated hazard on. With this iteration, the institution ditched the faux-leather backing that was connected the OnePlus 13 successful favour of a satin-textured fiberglass panel. In particular, the Sand Storm variant, which shimmers successful tan and beige hues, features a grippy broadside railing that has fixed maine reassurance whenever I respond to substance messages oregon cheque navigation portion connected the street.
In the process, the OnePlus 15 loses its traditionally slim and contoured signifier factor. At this point, it looks and feels much similar an iPhone Pro Max oregon Google Pixel XL model, arsenic respective friends and household successful Korea expressed to me. Fans of originality volition beryllium disappointed.
For what it's worth, OnePlus is making a large woody astir its show engineering, though possibly not successful the country that users request attraction to. With the OnePlus 15, the bezels measurement conscionable 1.15mm, allowing you to spot little of the achromatic bordering astir the 4 corners and much screen. At the aforesaid time, the show solution has dropped from the erstwhile version's 2K sheet to a caller 1.5K panel.
I'd similar to deliberation that the dip successful solution is what enables the telephone to run astatine a consistently creaseless 165Hz refresh complaint without consuming arsenic overmuch powerfulness -- overmuch similar however accepted monitors thin to person the aforesaid give-and-take behavior. That was the lawsuit erstwhile I spent hours doomscrolling done blogs astir APEC during the week I was traveling, and playing graphics-intensive mobile games connected the flights to and back.
For the latter, the OnePlus 15 didn't grounds signs of throttling until the 30-minute mark. That's a acold outcry compared to the Samsung and Google flagships, which dropped frames and felt uncomfortably lukewarm to clasp wrong the archetypal 5 minutes of gameplay. This is some a testament to Qualcomm's caller Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset (which we'll apt spot connected much upcoming Android phones) and OnePlus' CPU Scheduler, which allocates computing bandwidth specifically for gaming.
Now I'm not a gaming enthusiast by immoderate means, but it's beauteous wide to maine that the OnePlus 15 is tailored to that ever-growing marketplace of consumers. From the bundle optimizations designed to stabilize framework rates and temperatures to the dedicated Wi-Fi spot that supports the latest Wi-Fi 7 standard, this is the wide prime for gamers astatine heart, and nary different mainstream telephone comes adjacent close now.
Also: How to wide your Android telephone cache (and hole dilatory show for good)
In different things I did not expect to say: OnePlus is someway starring the mode successful mobile AI features. The caller telephone has replaced the classical three-level alert slider with a programmable enactment fastener (my wording is intentional there). Sure, you tin representation the broadside cardinal to crook connected the flashlight oregon quick-launch the camera, but I've recovered it astir utile to activate Mind Space.
Like Nothing's Essential Space, Mind Space is simply a section database wherever you tin prevention screenshots and dependable recordings, which Gemini tin past usage to propulsion discourse and reply questions. For example, I made it a wont successful Korea to record images of important question emails and notices. That way, I could simply inquire Gemini to notation them erstwhile looking for formation schedules, weather, required documents, and more.
A left-side Plus Key tin beryllium mapped to assorted functions, including turning connected Mind Space to store screenshots and dependable memos.
What astir camera performance? As I've learned clip and clip again, 1 telephone simply can't person it all. After assorted camera shootouts successful Seoul, my verdict is two-fold. First, it's hard to disregard the information that each azygous camera sensor connected the OnePlus 15 is inferior to the OnePlus 13. I'm talking smaller sensor sizes and little susceptible camera tech.
In lieu of hardware upgrades, the institution is hoping that its improved AI bundle processing and Qualcomm's ISP volition service your captured subjects justice.
This works, but lone to a definite capableness -- and if you're a instrumentality of oversharpening. For wide wide and ultrawide shots, I recovered that images taken with the OnePlus 15 look well-saturated and person higher opposition than those from erstwhile models. Fortunately, HDR capturing isn't arsenic assertive arsenic what I get from Samsung and Google; there's a bully equilibrium of item and colour betwixt subjects and luminating backdrops.
The OnePlus 15 performs amended successful presumption of far-distance and telephoto capturing. In astir cases, the 120x optical zoom tin reproduce signage and substance from acold distant overmuch amended than adjacent Samsung's 200MP camera. There's a sprinkle of generative AI successful OnePlus' processing (I hatred to interruption it, but astir each telephone has a spot of this nowadays), but it's executed successful a tasteful mode that astir radical volition apt appreciate.
Also: These Samsung Galaxy S26 rumors suggest large changes that we didn't spot coming
Where the cooky crumbles is successful low-light capturing, arsenic the smaller sensors conflict to propulsion successful capable airy (and, therefore, detail) to support faces sharp, objects distinct, and colors natural. For clarity, nary flagship telephone champions nightography, but connected a comparative scale, the OnePlus 15 falls down its premium competitors. You tin cheque retired my workfellow Adam Doud's camera shootout astatine Six Flags for much photograph samples and comparisons.
I'll permission you connected a precocious note. That 7,300mAh artillery connected the OnePlus 15 is the existent deal; aft spending my days successful Korea taking countless photos and videos, moving the GPS successful the background, and searching for places to explore, the OnePlus ever had capable artillery to past into the adjacent morning. And erstwhile I did request to apical up, the 80W wired charging took it from 0 to 50% by the clip I brushed and washed my look successful the morning. Imagine each telephone was similar this?
ZDNET's buying advice
Despite what the specs suggest, the OnePlus 15 is not a drastic departure from the OnePlus 13. That's a bully thing, arsenic the second lone launched successful January of this year, and it was already a fantastic Android handset. With the successor, OnePlus is doubling down connected its biggest strengths, including artillery life, accelerated charging, and performance.
At the aforesaid starting terms of $899, the OnePlus 15 is the definitive enactment for mobile gamers, powerfulness users, and tech enthusiasts to adjacent retired the year. You'll conscionable person to settee for metallic erstwhile it comes to camera optics.
There's 1 past happening to mention. At the clip of writing, OnePlus is incapable to merchantability the 15 successful the US arsenic it's pending FCC approval, which has been temporarily halted owed to the authorities shutdown. Here's what OnePlus' Spenser Blank, Head of Marketing and Communications, tells ZDNET:
As is the lawsuit with each smartphone manufacturer, the United States' Federal Communications Commission certifies OnePlus devices earlier they are sold successful the U.S. As a effect of the authorities shutdown, instrumentality certifications person been delayed. Subsequently, U.S. income for the OnePlus 15 volition beryllium postponed until they person been secured. The OnePlus 15 has already finished each the required tests from the FCC's recognized labs and the certification exertion has been formally submitted. We are hopeful that approvals tin beryllium generated rapidly and arsenic a result, we tin bring the OnePlus 15 to our customers successful the U.S. expeditiously.
People who are funny successful purchasing the OnePlus 15 successful the U.S. should visit OnePlus.com/us, participate their interaction information, and they volition beryllium notified erstwhile the instrumentality is connected sale. The OnePlus 15 volition beryllium disposable for acquisition successful Canada starting November 13, arsenic scheduled, at OnePlus.com/ca_en.
English (US) ·