The Best Value Flagship Phone Of 2025 Is Getting A Sequel - But Without An Iconic Partnership

1 month ago

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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

OnePlus 15 will characteristic a caller creation language.
It will person a Plus Key shortcut fastener for Mind Space.
The upcoming OnePlus telephone will beryllium powered by nan Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset.

OnePlus showed disconnected its adjacent flagship phone, nan OnePlus 15, successful each its glory complete nan weekend. It besides confirmed a world motorboat for its adjacent product.

Earlier, location were doubts regarding nan OnePlus 15's world readiness because nan institution didn't motorboat its OnePlus 13T / OnePlus 13S extracurricular of China and India. And it had an different guidance to nan tariffs pinch its Watch 3 value hike. However, it has yet been confirmed that nan adjacent OnePlus flagship will travel to nan US arsenic a follow-up to my favourite value-for-money Android flagship, nan OnePlus 13.

Also: The champion Android phones to bargain successful 2025

OnePlus 15 gets a caller design

Prakhar Khanna holding nan OnePlus 13R and OnePlus 13.

The Chinese institution took to Weibo to uncover nan OnePlus 15 successful each its glory. It appeared successful multiple photos on Chinese societal media successful a "sand storm" colour variant. This looks for illustration a departure from nan signature OnePlus creation arsenic it trades nan information camera module of nan OnePlus 13 successful favour of a caller creation -- borrowed consecutive from nan OnePlus 13T. And this camera module creation isn't nan only constituent that it's borrowing from nan Asia-exclusive phone.

OnePlus is besides adding nan customizable Plus Key shortcut fastener connected its upcoming flagship. It resides successful nan aforesaid spot arsenic nan Action Button connected your iPhone and allows you to easy prevention accusation to a dedicated "Mind Space." Like nan iPhone's Action Button, it tin beryllium customized to suit your preferences.

Also: Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. OnePlus 13: I compared nan champion Android phones, and it was very close

The soil large wind version looks awesome successful photos. It seems to person a somewhat textured back. OnePlus has confirmed that it sports a fiberglass backmost and houses a ceramic-coated metallic frame. It is claimed to beryllium tougher than either aluminum aliases titanium.

The OnePlus 15 will beryllium powered by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 SoC, which promises fantabulous video performance, ratio gains, and improved on-device personalized AI features. It will characteristic a 165Hz refresh complaint display. However, location is nary connection connected nan surface size yet.

Like past year's motorboat timeline, nan OnePlus 15 is speculated to debut successful China adjacent period and travel to nan US later. For reference, nan OnePlus 13 was released successful nan US successful January 2025, aft being launched successful China precocious past year.

No Hasselblad cameras for OnePlus 15

oneplus 15 camera module and surface renders

While nan OnePlus 15 looks for illustration a beardown contender for different value-for-money flagship, its cameras will deficiency nan Hasselblad colour science. OnePlus confirmed earlier that its tie-up pinch nan Swedish camera shaper is over.

As a result, nan OnePlus 15 is apt to miss retired connected my favourite and underrated camera feature, nan XPAN mode. When announcing nan in-house camera engine, OnePlus co-founder Pete Lau took to Chinese societal media and posted, "The connection was consistent: our users want images that are clear and real. Most don't attraction astir method jargon, but they cognize nan first point they do is pinch to zoom successful connected their photos. That's wherever nan camera really gets judged."

Also: Changing these 10 settings connected my OnePlus telephone gave it a large capacity boost

The OnePlus 15 will travel equipped pinch OnePlus DetailMax Engine, which is said to beryllium "designed from nan crushed up to present nan clearest and astir existent photos connected a smartphone." It is touted to harness nan "full imaginable of computational imaging to coming scenes arsenic they genuinely are, without over-beautification aliases distortion," according to Lau.

OnePlus isn't known for its cameras, and nan Hasselblad colour subject was ever inconsistent connected its flagships. It remains to beryllium seen if it'll beryllium capable to present a much reliable camera capacity than its predecessor, but nan in-house DetailMax Engine has large shoes to fill.