OnePlus and Oppo can’t keep giving us the same phone in a different font

There’s no debating that the OnePlus 15 and Oppo Find X9 Pro were cut from the same cloth.

While previous Oppo and OnePlus phones have shared a few characteristics, this year’s flagships look nearly identical, despite being quite different phones under the hood – a decision that I’m really struggling to understand. 

The familiar design of the Oppo Find X9 Pro and OnePlus 15

With OnePlus now a subsidiary of parent company Oppo, there were always going to be similarities in hardware. We’ve already seen it on the software front, with OnePlus’ OxygenOS looking more ColorOS-like every year, but the similarities between the Oppo Find X9 Pro and OnePlus 15 hardware really take the biscuit. 

It’s as if OnePlus has copied Oppo’s homework, but not quite changed enough to hide that fact – or vice versa, I’m not quite sure who came up with the design first. I’m leaning more towards it being a OnePlus innovation considering we saw the design first on the OnePlus 13T earlier this year, but I can’t say for sure. 

Either way, it doesn’t really matter; what matters is that we’ve now got two nearly identical-looking phones on sale in the UK. 

And I’m not just being hyperbolic here; the phones really are identical in most aspects. Both share the same overall design with flat edges and rounded corners, though they aren’t exactly the only phones to adopt those hugely popular characteristics.

It goes further than that though; both have the same size screen with ultra-slim bezels, the same AI button on the upper-left side, and both have a near-identical camera housing, with only the camera and flash module placement varying slightly between models. That’s not exactly enough to tell them apart, is it?

Of course, you have the logo on the rear that helps you tell the two apart, but once they’re in a case, it’s anybody’s guess.

If you look really closely, there are a few other differences in design; the AI key is slightly higher up on the Find X9 Pro than the OnePlus 15, and the Oppo also features an iPhone-like button for zooming and taking photos on the bottom-right – but these are differences you’ll only notice if you have both phones side-by-side, like I do. 

There are plenty of differences, but you couldn’t tell at a glance

The near-identical design would lead some to believe it’s simply a branding exercise; if you’re a OnePlus fan, opt for the OnePlus 15, and if you prefer Oppo, choose the Find X9 Pro. They’re basically the same, right?

Actually, no. Look beyond the design of the two phones, and there are actually plenty of differences between them that make them suited to very different people. 

The OnePlus 15 is certainly the more performance-focused of the two. It features Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, offering some of the best performance I’ve seen from any phone to date, along with a big 7300mAh battery and rapid 120W fast charging – with bypass support – to boot.

It’s the screen that truly sets it apart from its sibling though; OnePlus went with a 1.5K AMOLED screen with an LTPO-enabled 165Hz refresh rate. 

That in itself is impressive – gaming phones with 165Hz tend to cap out at FHD+ – but OnePlus went a step further by working with popular game devs to introduce 165fps support in games. That means you can actually hit 165fps in games like Call of Duty Mobile – a real boon for mobile gamers.

The Oppo Find X9 Pro, on the other hand, offers a more camera-first experience. It not only offers the Hasselblad branding no longer present on the OnePlus 15, but it swaps out the OnePlus’ 50MP periscope lens for a 200MP alternative for impressive zoom performance. 

There’s also the Hasselblad Teleconverter lens add-on for the X9 Pro that really takes zoom photography to the next level. More generally, Oppo’s image processing tech is the better of the two, delivering more accurate colours and detail than OnePlus’ alternative across the board.

However, you won’t be getting the 165Hz refresh rate, 120W charging or Snapdragon power from Oppo’s more expensive phone – though the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 isn’t exactly a slouch in the processing department.

Still, there’s enough here to sway consumers one way or the other, but all that is lost when consumers are faced with two phones that look nearly identical without diving into spec sheets or reviews. 

Selling near-identical phones in the UK is confusing

Essentially, selling nearly identical-looking phones in the same market is confusing, and neither manufacturers nor consumers truly benefit. 

It infinitely muddies the water of what would otherwise be a pretty straightforward buying decision, while also diluting the brand recognition of both OnePlus and Oppo. There’s no way that anyone will see the OnePlus 15 or Oppo Find X9 Pro in the wild and be able to say for sure that it’s one or the other – and that’s a baffling decision. 

It’d make more sense if only the Oppo or OnePlus went on sale in the UK, but that’s not the case. We’ve got both, and both were announced within weeks of each other, further blurring the lines between the two. 

I have no problem with both Oppo and OnePlus phones going on sale in the UK – I’m a big fan of both, after all, and I welcome more variety with open arms – but I really hope they diverge in design a little more next year.