The OnePlus 15 is an almost perfect smartphone

Image via Séamus Bellamy

I’ve been using OnePlus’ handsets since the OnePlus 6R came out. OnePlus used to be known for making inexpensive phones that could punch well above their weight. Now, they’re known for making outstanding flagship hardware designed to make you think, really hard, before dropping any dough on a different Android handset. One thing they’re not known for is resting on their laruels. The company is constantly farting around with new designs and new ways of doing things with their hardware. This generation of their handset is no different.

The OnePlus 15 is a fast, clever smartphone that most folks’ll be more than pleased with. There’s still room for improvement—somethings can be fixed with a bit of software scorcery. Other things will have to wait until the next the OnePlus 16 pops. But, you can say that about most phones these days, from most any brand.

What Makes it Great

How long a smartphone can go between charges isn’t the most exciting thing about a new handset, but it’s undoubtedly one of the most important. If being away from recharging options for long stretches is a routine part of your life, you’re going to dig the OnePlus 15’s longevity. With moderate usage—browsing the new, streaming music for hours to a Bluetooth speaker, being smarmy on Bluesky, and answering email—I managed to get 24 hours and change out of its 7,300 mAh battery. Of course, your mileage will vary, depending on how often you use it to play games, attend a Zoom meeting or record 4K video. When the time comes to juice it back up, it can handle 120W wired fast-charging or, with the addition of a MagSafe/Qi-compatible magnetic case, charge wirelessly at a slower clip.

The OnePlus 15 is one of the first smartphones to feature Qualcomm’s SM8850-AC Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset. The model I was sent to test came packing 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. To say that it’s fast is an understatement. Games like Diablo Immortal, Frostpunk, and Civilization VI didn’t even heat the handset up as I played. And its variable refresh rate LTPO AMOLED display, with a maximum of 1800 nits (nerd-talk for a very sharp, very bright screen), was unfailingly gorgeous to use, no matter the content. If you’re a traveler or need to maintain SIMs for both your personal and work life, you’ll be pleased to know that, as with past OnePlus handsets, when you buy directly from the company, you’ll get a phone that supports two physical SIMs at the same time. Squack as you will about eSIMs, but if your handset shits the bed, you’ll be glad to be able to pop those cards into a warranty replacement handset to get up and running again. I found that calls made on this 5G-capable handset provided clear incoming and outgoing audio and video during calls made on Android 16’s Phone app, Signal and Zoom. Oh, can we talk about how great the under-display fingerprint sensor on this thing is? finger print recognition is almost instantaneous, making using it an absolute pleasure. Just remember to turn it off when you’re dealing with the police or border patrol.

Let’s talk about its camera. It’s… ok. But it’ll most likely get better. As near as I can tell, the same lenses from the OnePlus 13 (50 MP wide-angle, 50 MP parascopic telephoto, 50 MP ultra-wide, and a 30 MP selfie-cam) are in play here. But OnePlus’ collaboration with Hasselblad on camera software has come to an end. Instead, it comes packing OnePlus’s in-house DetailMax Engine photography tuning and real-time tone mapping. I found that all the lenses performed admirably in most conditions, and I was able to capture images that, given they were from a camera phone rather than an actual camera, made me pretty happy. However, the phone’s lowlight performance can appear make arcetectural objects look a little patchy and, overall, color temperature management and sometimes the too-sharp capture of details could use some tinker work. All of this can be fixed in a software update down the road. Given the importance OnePlus has placed on image quality in recent iterations of its handsets, I’m betting that improvement in this area is a given.

Finally, so far as smartphones go, it’s pretty tough. The display is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and housed in an aluminium alloy frame. Depending on the color you pick, you’ll get a glass back or a fiber-reinforced plastic one. And, because sooner or later you will fumble your phone into the toilet, the OnePlus 15 comes with a IP68/IP69K rating.

What Makes it Less Than Great

OnePlus’ Alert Slider is no more. Generations of the company’s hardware allowed users to switch between audio, vibrating or slient alert settings with the flick of a tactile button, never having to take the phone out of their pocket. It’s been replaced by an iPhone-apeing programmable button that you can map software shortcuts to. Yeah, the button is fine and, you can set it up to change your alert status. But you’ll need to look at your display to make sure of where you stand with the handset’s audio now. I feel like the removal of the Slider was a mistake. There’s so many ways to futz with your software in Android. An extra button feels unneccesary. Then there’s it’s size and weight. It comes with a generous 6.78 inch display and weighs 7.44 ounces. Neither of these things are dealbreakers for me. But, by the time that I wrote this review, I was just about fed up with its balance. When tapping out a message, I found that the weight of the handset was poorly balanced: the top end of the smartphone had a tendancy to drift down if I didn’t keep a tight grip on the device. I spluged and bought one of OnePlus’ textured Sandstone cases when they became available. The added grippiness helped to ease this issue.

Oxygen OS 16, OnePlus’ in-house iteration of Android 16 feels pretty much the same as it has on the last few of its handsets, with a couple of notable exceptions. I love that its PC-side compaion app allows easy movement of files from Mac and Windows computers. However, I frigging loath that, like every new high-end handset out there, the OnePlus 15 employs AI—beyond the horseshit we already tolerate in photo processing algorythms, spell check and the like—whether you want to deal with it or not. This is a personal gripe. Maybe you like AI. Just remember, AI doesn’t like you.

Buy it? Avoid it?

If you’re in the market for a fast, easy to use Android smartphone that comes with years of software support, a chipset that’ll stay zippy for many geneations of Android updates and a camera that’s more than up to the task of capturing great images, yeah, this is your huckleberry. I’ve got absolutely no qualms in reccomending this thing. It’s just as worthy of your cash as anything made by Samsung or Google. As much as I bitch about aritificial intelligence, for the time being, it’s here to stay. No matter what you buy, you’ll run into it. But for now, this thing’s combination of long battery life, computing power and other features places it near ther top of the smartphone dogpile. I don’t think you’ll be sorry if you end up with one in your pocket.

That said, as always, if your current phone still feels great to use, keep on keeping on. Spend your money on experiences or the people you love. Life’s short. A new phone bought out of boredom won’t improve your life.