As OnePlus and Apple have revealed their latest premium smartphones, we’re keen to see how the two compare.
Ahead of our iPhone 17 Pro Max review, we’ve compared its specs to the 4.5-star OnePlus 15 and highlighted the key differences between the premium smartphones below.
If you’re still not convinced by either then make sure you visit our best smartphones and best Android phones lists, where we’ve compiled the top rated models from the last year.
Price and Availability
The OnePlus 15 is available to buy now and has a starting RRP of £849 for the 256GB model. Although at the time of writing the OnePlus 15 is not available in the US, it’s rumoured that the handset will make its way across the pond soon.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max is considerably more expensive than the OnePlus 15, with a starting price of £1199 / $1199 for the 256GB model. However, unlike the OnePlus 15 which only offers up to 512GB of storage, the iPhone 17 Pro Max offers up to a whopping 2TB instead.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 vs A19 Pro
Powering the OnePlus 15 is Qualcomm’s current premium mobile processor, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. We found during our time with the OnePlus 15 that the phone “absolutely flies” in day-to-day use and can handle everything, including demanding games, in its stride.
What’s more is that OnePlus worked with mobile game developers to enable the phone’s full 165Hz experience (which we’ll discuss more later). While this might not necessarily be a visible difference compared to typical 120Hz displays, what we found is that it aided the phone to feel even faster, as more frames were displayed during gaming too.
Sure, that’s not necessarily a direct response from the Snapdragon chip, but it certainly makes a difference when it comes to the OnePlus 15’s performance as a whole.
In comparison, the iPhone 17 Pro Max runs on Apple’s A19 Pro chip. While we’re yet to review the handset, Apple promises A19 Pro is “the most powerful and efficient chip for iPhone yet, enabling the advanced camera systems, next-level mobile gaming, and Apple Intelligence”.
Apple explains that the iPhone 17 Pro Max should deliver up to “40% better sustained performance” than its predecessor, which makes it ideal for “gaming, video editing, and running large local language models”. Of course, we’ll have to wait until we review the handset to see how it performs in real life, but these claims certainly sound promising.
OnePlus 15 has IP68, IP69 and IP69K ratings
It’s safe to say that OnePlus didn’t want to take any chances when it came to its flagship’s water resistance. Not only does the OnePlus 15 sport a fairly typical IP68 rating, but it’s also fitted with an IP69 and IP69K rating too.
Essentially, IP69 means the handset can withstand high pressure and high temperature water jets, while IP69K is more commonly found within the food industry as it ensures a device can be thoroughly cleaned for hygiene purposes.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max is a touch more modest, with a simple IP68 rating which means the phone can withstand a maximum depth of 6 metres up to 30 minutes.
Sure, in comparison to the OnePlus 15 it might sound as if the iPhone 17 Pro Max isn’t quite as water resistant. However, the reality is that for most people, an IP68 rating is perfectly sufficient.
iPhone 17 Pro Max has a larger display
As its name suggests, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is a seriously XL handset with a mighty 6.9-inch display. The OnePlus 15, on the other hand, measures in at a slightly smaller 6.78-inches.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max, unsurprisingly, is packed with plenty of premium screen technologies including Super Retina XDR OLED, Apple’s ProMotion and the Dynamic Island too. Although we’re yet to review the iPhone 17 Pro Max, as its screen seems unchanged from the iPhone 16 Pro series, which we concluded offered one of the “best screens” for HDR content, we expect much of the same.
Otherwise, we found it hard to fault the OnePlus 15’s screen. With a 1.5K resolution, we found the AMOLED panel looks “gorgeous at a glance” with vibrant colours and inky blacks.
As we touched upon earlier, the OnePlus 15 is fitted with a 165Hz refresh rate, thanks to a dedicated display chipset. This, alongside its rapid 3200Hz touch response rate, feels among the fastest in any smartphone and, as we said earlier, means gaming in particular feels impressive.
OnePlus 15 supports 120W charging
One area which has usually let the iPhone series down is charging speeds. While the iPhone 17 Pro Max promises up to 50% charge in 20 minutes when paired with a 40W adapter, the OnePlus 15 supports a seriously speedy 120W speed.
In our tests, we found this resulted in up to 47% in 15 minutes and full charge in just 45 minutes.
Both have three rear cameras
Arguably one of the key reasons to opt for a Pro iPhone has been for its camera set-up, and it seems as if the iPhone 17 Pro Max is no different. The 48MP Pro Fusion camera system is made up of a 48MP Fusion main, 48MP Fusion ultrawide and, you guessed it, a 48MP Fusion Telephoto lens too. Apple promises this set-up offers the equivalent of eight lenses, including the “longest optical-quality zoom ever on iPhone at 8x”. Not only that, but the iPhone 17 Pro Max can also shoot 4K Dolby Vision videos at up to 120fps too.
As we’re yet to review the iPhone 17 Pro Max, we’ll have to wait and see how the camera really performs in everyday use.
In comparison, the OnePlus 15 is fitted with a trio of 50MP lenses, including a main, ultrawide and periscope camera. Also, this is the first year that OnePlus hasn’t partnered with Hasselblad for image processing and instead uses its own Detail Max algorithm for the OnePlus 15.
Overall, we found that the OnePlus 15 offered a solid everyday shooting performance and is a great choice for anyone looking for a decent all-rounder. Plus, the OnePlus 15 benefits from being the first Android to offer 4K@120fps with Dolby Vision.
Despite having not reviewed the iPhone 17 Pro Max yet, it’s worth noting that we concluded the OnePlus 15 is still not “Apple-level”.
Early Verdict
Both the OnePlus 15 and iPhone 17 Pro Max promise to offer a powerful performance across everything from gaming and using AI, to photography and shooting videos too. As there’s an obvious price difference, if you’re not tied to either Android or iOS and just want a solid flagship smartphone on a budget, then the OnePlus 15 is undoubtedly an appealing choice.
While we’re yet to review the iPhone 17 Pro Max yet, its specs are exciting and means the phone looks set to make it into our best smartphones list.
However, we’ll refrain from giving a conclusive verdict yet and will update this versus once we’ve reviewed the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
