I've used the OnePlus 15 for a week and this is what really impressed me

After two weeks with the OnePlus 15, I’m honestly surprised by how much this phone has changed my expectations. OnePlus has spent years trying (and mostly failing) to break the iPhone–Galaxy–Pixel triangle in the US. However, with the OnePlus 15, it feels like the company finally stopped trying to be different for the sake of it and focused on what really matters. And strangely, that might be exactly what impressed me most.

OnePlus swapped style for practicality

When I first glanced at the OnePlus 15, I couldn’t believe how generic it looked. Gone is the signature design language, gone is the Alert Slider, gone is the curved screen. It just looks like just another iPhone clone from afar.

I still don’t love the design after my first two weeks with the phone, but I understand it more.

That plain look translates to a sturdier, more practical phone. The flat sides make it better prepared if an accidental drop happens, the flat display makes it much easier to install a screen protector and the extra-tough IP rating makes it feel prepared for the real world.

The OnePlus 15 gets a slightly smaller main camera sensor and drops the Hasselblad logo, all indications that camera quality was going down, not up. But after taking more hundreds of photos with this phone, I think it’s actually a surprising improvement.Photos look more natural and warmer,, without the old oversharpened look. Detail is noticeably better thanks to the move to 26MP default shots (copy this, Samsung), and night photos finally look normal and not like a fiery HDR explosion.

It’s not all perfect. Shots from the ultra-wide camera look colder than those from the main one, and some essential features like adding a portrait mode effect on a regular image are non-existent. But I see progress. I did not feel like I was using a mid-range camera this time around.

Performance is insane

I’m not much of a gamer lately, but you just cannot ignore this type of performance.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 absolutely tears through everything. Even after long gaming sessions, it just doesn’t throttle. OnePlus basically built a mini gaming phone, just look at the numbers on the intense 3D Mark Wildlife Extreme stress test. 99% stability, no throttling, blazing fast performance.

I also appreciate that OnePlus doesn’t overcharge you for upgrades like one other fruit company. The base model comes with 12GB of LPDDR5X Ultra RAM and 256GB of storage, but I strongly recommend spending just $100 more to get the 16/512GB model that features Ultra+ RAM, as fast as it gets.

This combines well with OnePlus’ DNA of optimiing every animation for smoothness and just how snappy the UI feels. Also, 165 Hertz refresh rate! This works only for some games and in daily use the phone still works as a regular 120Hz device, but in those few competitive games you get an extra edge.

Battery life that feels unfair to other phones

This is the part that impressed me the most.

The contrast is striking now: a 7,300 mAh battery on the OnePlus 15 and a 5,000 mAh battery on the Galaxy S25 Ultra that costs nearly half as much!

And our in-house PhoneArena battery tests confirm the exceptional battery life of this phone:

• 30+ hours of light use
• 12 hours of YouTube streaming
• Nearly 14 hours of continuous gaming

I’m running out of superlatives here, but this is truly insane. This was a two-day phone for me, even on those days I used it more than usual.Charging is also equally impressive, but we are kind of used to fast charging OnePlus phones and that’s why we might take it a bit for granted. But still, a full top-up in just 45 minutes is just such a quality of life feature.

What I wish could improve

So far, my experience with the OnePlus 15 is overwhelmingly positive, but still, I did notice some things could improve.

First and foremost, it was about the software. Having an iOS copy-cat is just not cool and I wish OnePlus developed some personality in the UI. Plus, many apps are just not optimized well, with empty spaces or strangely sized fonts. 

Here are a few other smaller complaints I have:

• The display gets super bright at nearly 3,500 nits, BUT it definitely needs better anti-reflective coating
• The four-year software update support lags behind Samsung and Google
• No Qi2 magnetic wireless charging
• Speakers get loud but sound muddy at higher volumes

I don’t think any of that is a deal-breaker, but it prevents the phone from truly taking on the mainstream flagships.So… is the OnePlus 15 the phone to buy in 2025 and early 2026?

I think it makes a strong case for itself, unless you really want the absolute best camera system where Apple or Samsung still have a number of advantages.

But if you are fine with a camera that is just “very good”, you are getting a battery life that is “insane”, a similarly impressive fast charging and a price tag that is much lighter on the wallet. Not bad, right?