OnePlus 15 Comes to China With Bigger Battery and Refined Design
Not every flagship needs to reinvent itself as the OnePlus 15 focuses on staying solid where it counts.
It feels like every few weeks, there’s another flagship dropping in China. Vivo dropped the X300 series, Oppo rolled out the Find X9, and the specs just keep getting wilder. It’s almost like everyone is trying to one-up each other with faster screens, crazier charging speeds, and bigger camera sensors.
OnePlus has been part of that race from the start, but the vibe with its latest release is a bit different. The OnePlus 15 isn’t trying to shock anyone with a brand-new design or some brand-new feature that dominates the conversation. Instead, it feels like OnePlus looked at what already worked on the 13 and just dialed in the details.
You can see it in the refined build, the bump in battery size, and the focus on durability this time around. Rather than trying to reinvent itself, OnePlus seems more interested in sticking to the identity people actually liked and improving the parts that mattered day-to-day.
The design sticks to that familiar OnePlus feel, but a bit more refined. You get flat sides with rounded edges and a redesigned camera bump on the back. The display is a 6.78-inch OLED running at 165Hz. It gets as dim as one nit, which is useful when you’re scrolling at night. The catch is that the resolution drops from the usual QHD+ to 1.5K. OnePlus says it simply isn’t possible to push QHD+ at 165Hz yet, which makes sense, but still, this is the first time in years their flagship display takes a step down on paper.
Beneath the display, you’ll find the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset paired with “Glacier VC” cooling to keep temperatures in check. OnePlus is pushing performance hard this year, and it really needs to, given that 165Hz display. Powering all of this is a massive 7,300mAh battery, with 120W wired and 50W wireless charging. That battery alone is a big jump from the OnePlus 13’s 6,000mAh pack.
On durability, though, they went all out. The phone is rated IP69 and IP69K. Most phones stop at IP68. It’s more than most people need, but given how long OnePlus avoided strong water resistance ratings, it’s a welcome change. One thing you’ll notice on the frame: the alert slider is gone again. In its place is a customizable shortcut key. This is probably going to split opinions because that slider has been part of the OnePlus identity for years. If you didn’t like the slider anyway, this might feel like an upgrade. If you did, it’s a loss.
Oyinebiladou Omemu
Camera-wise, the OnePlus 15 takes on a new rebrand. The Hasselblad partnership is done, so the branding is gone. In its place, they’re using OPPO’s Lumo Imaging (which might be renamed globally). The main camera features a Sony 50MP sensor, although not the biggest or most premium sensor out there. The periscope camera is now 50MP too, offering 3.5x optical zoom instead of 3x. Specs look nice, but again, the lack of sensor detail makes it feel like OnePlus is leaning more on software this year rather than trying to win on raw hardware. You still get a 50MP ultrawide, and up front, a 32MP selfie camera.
It also launches alongside the cheaper Ace 6, which is expected to show up globally as the OnePlus 15R. That one actually gets an even larger 7,800mAh battery, but the tradeoff is a simpler dual-camera setup. So battery-focused users might look there instead.
Performance and extras are solid with the phone running on ColorOS 16 (internationally known as OxygenOS 16), an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, Wi-Fi 7, IR blaster, and USB 3.2 speeds. Interestingly, you can even use the Apple Watch with it via OPPO’s Health Connect app, though you still need an iPhone for initial setup. Pricing starts at ¥3,999 (around $560), which lands it in that upper mid-tier range in China.
David Adubiina
Conclusion
Overall, the OnePlus 15 feels like a refined OnePlus 13 rather than a big leap. Better durability, faster display, cleaner design. But the camera hardware and resolution shift might raise eyebrows. In a nutshell, this is one of those releases where the real verdict will depend on how well the new imaging software holds up in real-world shots.
