OnePlus 15 Review: specs and features, camera quality test, gaming benchmark, user opinions and photos

OnePlus 15: Flagship or Victim of Current Trends?

It's hard to deny the global economic downturn. It's affecting virtually every industry, including the smartphone market. Component prices have risen significantly, but demand for phones hasn't. Chinese company OnePlus has made every effort to contain the cost of today's review subject while still providing decent functionality and a powerful chipset. Unfortunately, compromises are inevitable.

The new device's appearance is stylish and modern. Its ergonomic candybar shape with rounded corners, the beautiful velvet texture of the glass back panel with its perfectly chosen color scheme, the metal frame, the reasonable thickness of the device, and its IP68 water resistance, unique camera module, and thin screen bezels with an integrated ultrasonic fingerprint scanner make it clear that the device belongs in the premium price category. The 6.78-inch AMOLED display is also impressive. The impressive 2772x1272 resolution offers a good balance between image clarity and power efficiency. LTPO technology also benefits from this. Also noteworthy are the top-end 165Hz refresh rate, realistic color reproduction, enormous brightness, and an effective oleophobic coating.

Technical specifications include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, 12GB/16GB RAM, and an Adreno 840 GPU. This is the highest-performance configuration currently available for Android devices, suitable for both casual users and the most demanding gamers. Any resource-intensive game can be run at the highest graphics presets and a very high frame rate. Throttling is moderate and noticeable in benchmarks. However, the AnTuTu score is impressive, as it's rare to see scores approaching 4,000,000 points. The phablet also avoided battery life issues. The 7,300mAh battery delivers a solid 10-12 hours of screen-on time, while offering high-speed wired (120W) and wireless (50W) charging. Storage options range from 256GB to 1024GB.

A potential source of disappointment is the camera capabilities, which have been downgraded compared to its predecessor. The main 50MP Sony IMX906 sensor and the 50MP Samsung telephoto lens (3x optical zoom), while equipped with advanced hybrid stabilization, still fall short of the detail of true flagship camera phone sensors in evening shots. Photos taken with the wide-angle Omnivision camera module also suffer from some noise and blur. Stereo sound hasn't been streamlined; it remains loud and rich. eSIM, 5G, NFC (contactless payments) and an IR port add to the list of advantages of a device that is still competitive, but seems less interesting when compared to the previous model in the series.