Forget Samsung S25 Ultra: This Android alternative has battery life that left me speechless

[ad_1] ZDNET's key takeaways The newest Android flagship begins at $899 for the 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage variant. It is highlighted by a 7,300mAh battery, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, and 80W wired charging. The digital camera system is inferior to final yr's mannequin, and you'll't truly purchase the cellphone but. nov / 2025

Replace (12/5/2025): The OnePlus 15 has been accepted by the FCC on the market within the US and is now obtainable for preorder, with OnePlus providing free equipment with the acquisition.

After I first realized concerning the OnePlus 15 , I questioned if the hunt to make the finest smartphone had gone too far. Might a cellphone ever have too excessive of specs? Or have been these tanky Android 13 handsets -- with their edgy names and 10,000mAh batteries -- truly exhibiting us the longer term all alongside?

In any case, the OnePlus 15 boasts a fairly luscious function set, even by my guess of 2026's requirements, with a 6.7-inch AMOLED show that refreshes at 165Hz, Qualcomm's next-gen Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, a 7,300mAh battery with 80W wired charging, and an IP69 ranking to fend off high-pressure water jets (or unintended tumbles within the washer.)

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Thankfully, the most recent flagship cellphone seems nothing just like the Doogees and Unihertz of the world, as I exhaled with aid when first unboxing the handset. As a substitute, we're nonetheless working with polished slabs of metallic and glass, with simply sufficient thickness and heft to make you're feeling reassured that your $900 funding did not simply go towards "innovation."

To really take a look at the OnePlus 15, I introduced it with me on a latest journey to South Korea, together with a number of competing Android gadgets, together with the Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely and Google Pixel 10 Professional XL. Here is the way it fared, together with the sudden discoveries all through the method.

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For starters, I take advantage of each cellphone I overview, no matter worth level, and not using a case in the course of the testing interval. This apply provides me one of the best sense of the commercial designer's intent. (Does it matter what tier of Corning Gorilla Glass a producer makes use of, or why they curved the sides to a sure diploma of radius, if I simply throw the cellphone into an Otterbox? No.)

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The OnePlus 15 has been the best cellphone for me to take that calculated danger on. With this iteration, the corporate ditched the faux-leather backing that was on the OnePlus 13 in favor of a satin-textured fiberglass panel. Specifically, the Sand Storm variant, which shimmers in tan and beige hues, incorporates a grippy aspect railing that has given me reassurance every time I reply to textual content messages or test navigation whereas on the road.

Kerry Wan/ZDNET Within the course of, the OnePlus 15 loses its historically slim and contoured kind issue. At this level, it seems and feels extra like an iPhone Professional Max or Google Pixel XL mannequin, as a number of family and friends in Korea expressed to me. Followers of originality will probably be dissatisfied.

For what it is price, OnePlus is making an enormous deal about its show engineering, although maybe not within the space that customers demand consideration to. With the OnePlus 15, the bezels measure simply 1.15mm, permitting you to see much less of the black bordering across the 4 corners and extra display screen. On the similar time, the show decision has dropped from the earlier model's 2K panel to a brand new 1.5K panel.

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I might wish to suppose that the dip in decision is what permits the cellphone to function at a persistently easy 165Hz refresh price with out consuming as a lot energy -- very like how conventional displays are likely to have the identical give-and-take conduct. That was the case once I spent hours doomscrolling via blogs about APEC in the course of the week I used to be touring, and taking part in graphics-intensive cellular video games on the flights to and again.

Kerry WanZDNET For the latter, the OnePlus 15 did not exhibit indicators of throttling till the 30-minute mark. That is a far cry in comparison with the Samsung and Google flagships, which dropped frames and felt uncomfortably heat to carry inside the first 5 minutes of gameplay. That is each a testomony to Qualcomm's newest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset (which we'll possible see on extra upcoming Android telephones) and OnePlus' CPU Scheduler, which allocates computing bandwidth particularly for gaming.

Now I am not a gaming fanatic by any means, but it surely's fairly clear to me that the OnePlus 15 is tailor-made to that ever-growing market of customers. From the software program optimizations designed to stabilize body charges and temperatures to the devoted Wi-Fi chip that helps the most recent Wi-Fi 7 normal, that is the clear selection for players at coronary heart, and no different mainstream cellphone comes shut proper now.

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In different issues I didn't count on to say: OnePlus is in some way main the best way in cellular AI options. The brand new cellphone has changed the traditional three-level alert slider with a programmable motion button (my wording is intentional there). Positive, you may map the aspect key to activate the flashlight or quick-launch the digital camera, however I've discovered it most helpful to activate Thoughts House.

Like Nothing's Important House, Thoughts House is a neighborhood database the place it can save you screenshots and voice recordings, which Gemini can then use to drag context and reply questions. For instance, I made it a behavior in Korea to file photos of vital journey emails and notices. That method, I may merely ask Gemini to reference them when on the lookout for flight schedules, climate, required paperwork, and extra.

A left-side Plus Key may be mapped to numerous features, together with turning on Thoughts House to retailer screenshots and voice memos.

Kerry Wan/ZDNET What about digital camera efficiency? As I've realized time and time once more, one cellphone merely cannot have all of it. After numerous digital camera shootouts in Seoul, my verdict is two-fold. First, it is arduous to disregard the truth that each single digital camera sensor on the OnePlus 15 is inferior to the OnePlus 13. I am speaking smaller sensor sizes and fewer succesful digital camera tech.

In lieu of {hardware} upgrades, the corporate is hoping that its improved AI software program processing and Qualcomm's ISP will serve your captured topics justice.

This works, however solely to a sure capability -- and in the event you're a fan of oversharpening. For common extensive and ultrawide photographs, I discovered that photos taken with the OnePlus 15 seem well-saturated and have larger distinction than these from earlier fashions. Thankfully, HDR capturing is not as aggressive as what I get from Samsung and Google; there is a good steadiness of element and shade between topics and luminating backdrops.

Kerry Wan/ZDNET The OnePlus 15 performs higher when it comes to far-distance and telephoto capturing. Typically, the 120x optical zoom can reproduce signage and textual content from far-off significantly better than even Samsung's 200MP digital camera. There is a sprinkle of generative AI in OnePlus' processing (I hate to interrupt it, however virtually each cellphone has a little bit of this these days), but it surely's executed in a tasteful method that most individuals will possible respect.

Additionally: You'll be able to preorder the OnePlus 15 now - however do not forget to assert the $180 freebie

The place the cookie crumbles is in low-light capturing, because the smaller sensors wrestle to drag in sufficient gentle (and, due to this fact, element) to maintain faces sharp, objects distinct, and colours pure. For readability, no flagship cellphone champions nightography, however on a relative scale, the OnePlus 15 falls behind its premium opponents. You'll be able to try my colleague Adam Doud's digital camera shootout at Six Flags for extra photograph samples and comparisons.

I will go away you on a excessive notice. That 7,300mAh battery on the OnePlus 15 is the actual deal; after spending my days in Korea taking numerous images and movies, working the GPS within the background, and looking for locations to discover, the OnePlus all the time had sufficient battery to final into the subsequent morning. And once I did have to prime up, the 80W wired charging took it from 0 to 50% by the point I brushed and washed my face within the morning. Think about each cellphone was like this?

ZDNET's shopping for recommendation Regardless of what the specs recommend, the OnePlus 15 isn't a drastic departure from the OnePlus 13. That is a superb factor, because the latter solely launched in January of this yr, and it was already a incredible Android handset. With the successor, OnePlus is doubling down on its largest strengths, together with battery life, quick charging, and efficiency.

On the similar beginning worth of $899, the OnePlus 15 is the definitive choice for cellular players, energy customers, and tech fanatics to shut out the yr. You will simply must accept silver in terms of digital camera optics.