For a long time, OnePlus was known for releasing a limited number of smartphones that invariably attracted attention with excellent hardware at a very reasonable price, earning almost every new device the title of “flagship killer.” Later, the concept changed, the product line expanded, and buying top-end devices no longer held the same appeal in terms of savings. In 2025, the brand seemed to have decided to return to its roots, and the latest addition to the premium line, the OnePlus 15, still offers powerful hardware and retails for 50,000-60,000 rubles. Compared to flagships from other brands, this is significantly cheaper, making the new device a surefire hit. We’ve gotten to know the model and will share our impressions in this review.
The OnePlus 15 comes in a rectangular black and red cardboard box with the device name on the front and a list of specifications on the back.
The package contents vary depending on the packaging. The CPH2747 version, which we received for review, includes the smartphone itself , a SIM card eject tool, a USB-A to USB-C cable in a beautiful red color, and documentation. The CPH2745 version also includes a power adapter .
The OnePlus 15 is available in three colors: Sand Storm, Ultra Violet, and Infinite Black. The latter two versions feature a metal frame and Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on both the front and back. The back has a matte finish with a velvety texture, making the smartphone very pleasant to the touch. Unfortunately, the black device we received for review is very easily soiled, requiring constant cleaning. Fortunately, this is quick and easy. The Sand Storm version features a ceramic back, created using a micro-arc oxidation process. According to the manufacturer, this makes it 3.4 times stronger than aluminum and 1.3 times stronger than titanium, making the ceramic version resistant to impacts, drops, and scratches.
The dimensions and weight of the new device are 161.4 x 76.7 x 8.2 mm and 215 grams for the Infinite Black and Ultra Violet versions. The Sand Storm colorway, meanwhile, is slightly thinner and lighter at 8.1 mm and 211 grams. Overall, the device is ergonomic. While it’s not exactly compact, it’s still smaller than most other flagships. Furthermore, its popular shape with flat edges and panels, as well as its textured surface, makes it feel great in the palm of your hand.
The back is adorned with the brand logo and a relatively low camera module, shaped like a square with rounded corners. It houses three lenses and a flash. Despite its size, it looks neat and sleek, and its slim profile prevents the smartphone from wobbling when resting on its back.
The frame, as I mentioned earlier, is metal with a matte finish. There are plastic notches along the entire perimeter, where the antennas are located for better signal reception.
The right edge houses the power button and volume rocker. They’re strategically placed, ensuring your finger rests firmly in the right spot. They click with a satisfying click, a noticeable tactile response, and a moderate amount of pressure.
The left edge now has a Plus Key button, which you can assign to it. Available functions include launching the Mindspace feature (which I’ll discuss later), switching between Ring, Vibrate, and Silent modes, activating Do Not Disturb mode, turning on the camera, flashlight, voice recorder, translating text, and taking a screenshot. It can also be deactivated if desired.
At the top are the multimedia speaker and microphone.
The bottom houses a pair of microphones, a second multimedia speaker, a USB-C port, and a tray for two nanoSIM cards. Looking ahead, I should note that both can be replaced with eSIM cards, meaning you can use this phone without physical SIM cards.
There’s no support for microSD or 3.5mm headphone jack without an adapter. This is typical for flagships, and indeed most modern smartphones in general.
The front side is almost entirely taken up by the screen. It’s already protected by a high-quality protective film. There’s a frame around it, but it’s symmetrical and only 1.5 mm thick, making it completely unnoticeable. The front-facing camera is embedded in the top center, and a little higher, if you look closely, you can see a very thin cutout for the earpiece.
The new device has an under-display fingerprint sensor. Its speed and accuracy are pluses, but its placement is rather odd . It’s located about twice as high as usual, making it a bit awkward to reach. You get used to it over time, of course, but I really didn’t like its location during the first few days of use. Fortunately, there’s an alternative: face unlock. It’s just as fast and accurate.
Finally, I’d like to point out that the device is IP69-rated for water and dust resistance. This means it’s impervious to dust and water, even hot water and high-pressure water. Therefore, if you consider the version with a ceramic back, you’ll get a virtually indestructible smartphone.
The OnePlus 15 features a 6.78-inch LTPO OLED panel with a 2772 x 1272 resolution. It features 10-bit color coding, meaning it can display 1.07 billion shades, and with a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, it does so with the utmost realism.
The refresh rate ranges from 1 to 120 Hz , and in games, it reaches 165 Hz. Furthermore, the device features a dedicated sensor chip with a 3200 Hz sampling rate, resulting in incredibly responsive display performance. This has earned the new device the status of an esports smartphone.
In addition to the above, the model boasts a high brightness of 1800 nits, making it comfortable to work in direct sunlight. The minimum backlight level is 1 nit, meaning it won’t cause eye fatigue even in complete darkness. If that still seems too much, you can turn the brightness down to 0.5 nits by activating the Reduce White Point function.
Other benefits include support for HDR and HDR Vivid, as well as TÜV Rheinland Intelligent Eye Care 5.0 certification, which ensures the display is safe for the eyes.
The display settings offer a choice between dark and light themes, a dimming mode with three levels and the ability to apply the effect to individual apps, manual and automatic brightness adjustments, and the ability to activate adaptive hues (which change depending on environmental conditions), change the color mode, and use eye-protection technologies.
In addition, there are options for improving image sharpness and color rendition in videos, choosing the screen resolution and refresh rate, and an option called “Attention to the screen,” which, when activated, keeps the screen on while you are looking at it.
Personalization options include choosing themes, wallpapers , icons, fonts, color schemes, and text and image scaling on the display. You can also enable edge lighting , fingerprint scanner animation, and the AlwaysOn screensaver.
The OnePlus 15 is the first smartphone to feature the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor , currently the world’s most powerful. Manufactured using a 3 nm process, it features eight cores, divided into two Oryon V3 Phoenix L cores clocked at 4.608 GHz and six Oryon V3 Phoenix M cores clocked at 3.62 GHz.
The graphics processor is Adreno 840 with a frequency of 1200 MHz.
Memory options include 12GB/256GB or 16GB/512GB. The former has LPDDR5X Ultra RAM, while the latter has LPDDR5X Ultra+. Both versions feature UFS 4.1 ROM.
With this configuration, the new device scores 4,115,000 points in AnTuTu, making it one of the most powerful smartphones on the market. Naturally, it runs apps and games smoothly, even at the highest settings.
Unfortunately, this power comes with a downside: heat. The manufacturer claims the device is equipped with a 360° Cryo Velocity cooling system, which consists of a 5731 sq. mm Cryo-Velocity 3D vapor chamber, manufactured for the first time from ultra-thin steel, and a special white graphite layer between the motherboard and the back panel. Combined, this should ensure effective cooling, but in reality, it doesn’t.
During benchmarks, the device heats up to an uncomfortably high temperature, resulting in a rather mediocre throttling test. However, in real life, I didn’t notice such high temperatures, even after playing Genshin Impact for about four hours at high settings. So, the OnePlus 15 is certainly a very hot device, but it doesn’t noticeably impact its performance, at least in real-world use. Benchmarks show a different picture, but synthetics and real life are two different things. Furthermore, it’s possible that the heating issues will be fixed with updates.
Speaking of gaming, in addition to its high performance, the model boasts excellent responsiveness and a high refresh rate, and it’s also equipped with a military-grade gyroscope that tracks around 4,000 positions, making motion control just as good as a touchscreen.
All of this is complemented by the Game Master gaming panel, which allows you to monitor performance online, customize it for increased productivity, disable notifications and calls, get quick access to screen recording and screenshots, improve wireless network health, change your voice, program macros, and perform a host of other actions to achieve the most positive gaming experience.
To sum it up, the OnePlus 15 is a true gaming smartphone, boasting not only excellent hardware but also a robust software suite.
The OnePlus 15 runs Android 16 with the company’s OxygenOS 16 user interface. It has a very pleasant interface , and most importantly, it’s minimalist. There’s no bloatware, let alone ads, which is a huge plus.
As mentioned earlier, the new device has a dedicated “Game Master” app for gaming. Other useful features include “Kids,” “Simplified,” and “Outdoors” modes, gesture support, floating windows, a dynamic area around the front camera, and more.
Naturally, AI is a key part of the process . In this case, artificial intelligence can translate foreign languages, convert thoughts into text, transcribe phone calls, and edit photos. In the latter case, it can change the composition, remove unnecessary objects from the frame, enhance portrait shots, increase clarity, and remove blur and glare.
OnePlus’s key AI feature is the “Mindspace” feature, which lets you save literally anything, from voice memos to screenshots. The AI then recognizes, summarizes, and categorizes it all, providing clear comments and notes. All personal information is processed in a secure environment, so you don’t have to worry about data leaks.
In terms of interfaces, the OnePlus 15 is well-equipped:
The new model features a 360-degree antenna layout, ensuring excellent signal reception regardless of its position, even in poor coverage conditions. It also supports BeaconLink, allowing you to communicate with nearby users even when there’s no internet or mobile service.
The call app doesn’t have a call recording feature, but it does have blacklists and whitelists, caller ID, VoLTE, and Wi-Fi calls.
The earpiece and triple-microphone system ensure excellent dialogue quality, while the X-axis linear motor delivers a pleasant vibration with adjustable intensity. O-Haptic support also provides haptic feedback that mimics the texture of real materials.
Audio playback is handled by OReality stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support and three presets for different types of content. The sound quality is good, but not the best I’ve heard on a smartphone.
The OnePlus 15 has four lenses, three of which are located on the back and one on the front.
The main sensor is a Sony IMX906 with a resolution of 50 MP, a viewing angle of 84 degrees, optical stabilization and hybrid autofocus, which combines phase, contrast and laser rangefinder.
The second module is a wide-angle OmniVision 50D with a similar resolution of 50 MP, a 116-degree viewing angle, optical stabilization, but without autofocus.
The final lens on the rear is the Samsung ISOCELL JN5 telephoto lens, also featuring 50 MP resolution, optical image stabilization, and hybrid autofocus. It offers optical zoom up to 3.5x, hybrid zoom up to 7x, and digital zoom up to 120x.
The front camera is a 32-megapixel Sony IMX709 with a modified RGBW pixel arrangement. According to the manufacturer, this allows the sensor to collect 60% more light, which improves photo quality.
The main module shoots excellent photos regardless of lighting conditions. It produces photos with good detail, a wide dynamic range, and decent color rendition. In low light, processing is gentle, making photos more expressive without the overt effects of intelligent algorithms.
The telephoto lens delivers excellent photos up to 7x, but predictably produces mediocre results at higher magnifications. Overall, the image remains sharp and without significant color distortion. The module is fully functional and usable.
The wide-angle sensor is decent, but not the best. It shows a noticeable drop in dynamic range, occasional color shifts, and some distortion at the edges.
The front camera is excellent. It has three viewing angles, background blur, filters, beautifiers, and more.
The new camera records video at a maximum resolution of 8K at 30 fps, but only with the main lens. It also supports 4K at 120 fps with the main and telephoto lenses, as well as 4K at 60 fps with all cameras, with the ability to switch between them. All of this is complemented by electronic and optical stabilization, as well as the ability to record in Dolby Vision. I rate the video quality highly.
The Camera app is standard. Notable features include manual and automatic HDR, continuous autofocus, filters and beautifiers, a solid selection of modes, and RAW format support.
The OnePlus 15 is equipped with a new silicon-carbon battery with a capacity of 7,300 mAh. More precisely, there are two batteries, each with a capacity of 3,650 mAh.
The advantages of this new type of battery are well known, but we’ll repeat them just in case: a longer service life, smaller dimensions with increased capacity, and operation at temperatures down to -20 degrees.
All of this is important, but the most interesting thing is the battery life, because compared to the standard value (5000 mAh), the capacity of this battery has increased by one and a half times.
Fortunately, the boost did improve battery life, and in the PCMark test with our standard settings (constant Wi-Fi connection, adaptive display refresh rate, and manually set maximum backlight brightness), our hero lasted just over 13 hours. This is an excellent result, not only for flagships but for all smartphones in general.
The real-life results are also pleasing. The device reliably lasts for a full day under load, and about two hours under standard tasks. In my opinion, this is very good for a flagship.
Charging from 0 to 100% with the included charger takes 39 minutes, but one of the models doesn’t come with one. Third-party chargers without SUPERVOOC support take significantly longer, as the power delivery is significantly limited. Therefore, if you don’t have a proprietary charger, it’s worth considering the version with the included charger. There’s another option, though. The OnePlus brand is part of the BBK group, which also includes realme, vivo, and OPPO, so the chargers from their smartphones are compatible. That’s exactly what I did – I used a 120W realme charger and got the same 39 minutes to fully recharge the battery.
The new device also supports 50W wireless charging, which will charge the battery to 50% in just 39 minutes. Naturally, the charger must be a proprietary one.
All this is complemented by reverse and bypass charging. The former allows you to power other gadgets wirelessly, while the latter helps extend battery life and reduce heat when gaming with the charger connected.
The OnePlus 15 is an excellent smartphone with a very powerful processor, fast memory, a cool display, good cameras, a full set of wireless modules, high-quality stereo speakers, long battery life, and fast charging.
In addition, it has a pleasant design, demonstrates decent ergonomics, is not afraid of water and dust, and in the case of the ceramic version, it is also impact-resistant.
Among the downsides, I would highlight the very hot case, the easily soiled surface of the black version, the inconvenient location of the fingerprint scanner, and the modest package, which does not include a case, and in one of the versions, even a power supply.
Despite the shortcomings mentioned, I consider the new product an extremely successful device, because in addition to its many advantages, it also attracts with a reasonable price, which in today’s reality is a serious argument.
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