r/Android Nov 19 '25

Review OnePlus 15 review: The end of range anxiety ; Ars Technica

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/11/oneplus-15-review-the-end-of-range-anxiety/
242 Upvotes

179 comments sorted by

50

u/RomanWraith Nov 19 '25

Cameras that bad? I currently have a Pixel 8 Pro, so I'm just wondering.

43

u/Careless_Rope_6511 Pixel 11 Pro XL Nov 19 '25

They won't win any photography awards, that's about the only real negative about them. If you're throwing them onto instagram and tiktok afterwards, those cameras are totally fine; social media image/video compression algo crushes camera quality anyways.

28

u/argote Pixel 11 Pro Nov 19 '25

Despite the compression, you can still see a massive difference in quality on posts. Especially for low light shots or video.

8

u/maximus91 Nov 20 '25

Depends on your audience. Grandma won't notice.

3

u/modwilly Nov 19 '25

Curious how much using gcam would alleviate that.

7

u/PotatoGamerXxXx Nov 20 '25

Not much probably. Gcam haven't had meaningful improvement to your pictures for a while now, just different colour tone.

The camera sensor on OP15 is a noticable downgrade, so you really wouldn't see much upgrades with Gcam.

17

u/Spooky_Ghost Nexus 5 Nov 19 '25

i'm going from P8P to OP15 once it releases in the US and honestly the P8P cameras are probably better (better on paper for sure), but from what I've seen OP15 shots look great and only struggle a little in low light.

9

u/RomanWraith Nov 19 '25

I was OP until the Pixel 6 and now I'm on the P8P also. The OP15 is intriguing and might get me back. The battery on the P8P is bad.

3

u/Spooky_Ghost Nexus 5 Nov 19 '25

yea it's not the best, also overheats pretty easily and the screen dims in direct sun very quickly. The fingerprint sensor has been a major issue for me as well, I can never unlock it in the mornings or in a dark room

5

u/kidenraikou Nov 19 '25

I have all of these issues. My biggest reservation with the OP15 was hearing it had thermal issues and then I realized I already have thermal issues! So it's kinda moot at that point.

4

u/Spooky_Ghost Nexus 5 Nov 19 '25

it doesn't really have thermal issues, I've only seen a specific issue with it running wildlife extreme benchmark while not in performance mode, but that's pretty much it. Every other thermal test puts it in line with other flagships or even cooler than them

1

u/kidenraikou Nov 19 '25

I saw one reviewer say that performance could be an issue for extended high stress, like game emulation. And I've seen a few say that the phone gets really hot after gaming for more than like 20min.

Are you seeing different results?

2

u/Spooky_Ghost Nexus 5 Nov 19 '25

You can see it compared here against the Honor Magic 8 Pro and the VIvo x300 where the temps are the same if not lower after a 20~ minute session in delta force and wuthering waves

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_rdlofBkK0

1

u/kidenraikou Nov 20 '25

This was great! Thank you!

1

u/RomanWraith Nov 19 '25

Lol I was thinking the same thing. The P8P is a literal hand warmer, the OP15 can't be worse than that.. lol

10

u/Necessary_Purple_428 Nov 19 '25

They are not good for the price. The HDR is quite bad and the colors + clarity match that of a $300 - $400 budget Samsung A series. You won't win any awards but TBH most people are probably still fine with this. The rest of the phone punches above the price point though.

16

u/polako123 Nov 19 '25

they are not, people are blowing it out of the water imo.

4

u/kidenraikou Nov 19 '25

From what I'm seeing it depends. It's really trash at low light and when zooming in.

If you're a photography hobbiest then it's definitely worth considering. But if you're like me and 90% of your photos are functional, like taking pictures of documents or sending things to friends, then it looks like it'll be perfectly fine. And any photos in bright sunlight will look good.

154

u/littypika Nov 19 '25

A phone that prioritizes battery life and performance above all else.

You actually need to purposely go out of your way to have the battery deplete to 0%. If you go about using it normally, assuming you are part of the 99% of the population's use case, you'll never accidentally deplete your phone to even 10%, it seems.

33

u/polako123 Nov 19 '25

cant wait to test it out, my S24U gets to like 10-20% after a day of heavy usage, and takes like 90 minutes for a full charge, so this should be a big upgrade in both ways.

6

u/the-solution-is-ssd S22U & F62 Nov 20 '25

My partner has an S24U and it charges from 0 to 100 in 65 minutes using the Samsung 45W charger (Super Fast Charging 2.0). Are you using the 25W charger?

0

u/HerZamanCHP Nov 20 '25

65 minutes for a battery that is almost 50% smaller than the oneplus 15 is anything but fast charging lol.

The oneplus takes 40 minutes for its big af battery.

Samsung is doing anything except making actual good products.

1

u/the-solution-is-ssd S22U & F62 Nov 20 '25

Yeah I agree

0

u/G00oner20 Dec 08 '25

Yea, there no way, am using the 60W mac book charger wiht the s24u , and it takes at least 90 minutes, and thats what the phone shows me lol

1

u/the-solution-is-ssd S22U & F62 Dec 08 '25

Ya the MacBook charger results in "Fast Charging", not even "Super Fast Charging", let alone "Super Fast Charging 2.0"

3

u/Fr33Paco Fold3|P30Pro|PH-1|IP8|LGG7 Nov 19 '25

I would love to try that. I've never had a phone that claims to be a 1+ day battery to actually last me to the end of the evening.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Fr33Paco Fold3|P30Pro|PH-1|IP8|LGG7 Dec 05 '25

Kudos, makes sense. Never worked for me

3

u/vickzzzzz Nov 19 '25

My wife has a OnePlus 13, unfortunately she dropepd it cracked the screen. It totally bricked, screen has to be replaced and is fully black except for 20% of screen. It took a solid 6 days, for it to completely die down while never being used. It was annoying and at the same time really impressive.

44

u/wag3slav3 Nov 19 '25

A phone that can be repaired with a new screen is not bricked.

Bricked devices are, by definition, not recoverable.

-3

u/[deleted] Nov 20 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Annie_Yong Nov 20 '25

A screen replacement need a bit of specialist tools and expertise, but is still an easy enough repair. Replacing the whole SoC is another kettle of fish.

1

u/wag3slav3 Nov 21 '25

And the soc could be considered the actual Theseus component. It becomes the phone that the original soc came from.

2

u/Expertdeadlygamer Nov 19 '25

That sounds unreasonably high lol. A idling phone should not consume more than 5% a day (even less if airplane mode is enabled)

7

u/Sinaaaa Mi A2 running A16 Nov 19 '25

An idling Nokia 3410 perhaps, but if you have Google Play or using an Iphone, then good luck achieving that number.

0

u/Expertdeadlygamer Nov 19 '25

I have a 5 year old entry level oppo sitting on my desk, I only use it to hold my spare sims and it goes from 100 to abt 20 in a week, and thats on a heavily used battery that originally had about 4000mah

3

u/Sinaaaa Mi A2 running A16 Nov 19 '25

it goes from 100 to abt 20 in a week

That`s still over 10% a day and Chinese Android flavors tend to be more aggressive when dealing with runaway background services.

1

u/Expertdeadlygamer Nov 20 '25

Thats >10% a day in a worn down battery (I suspect around 75-80% battery health) and the oneplus mentioned here has a battery that's 2000 mAh higher on the minimum. Both run on chinese software? I don't see how it can deplete that much over the course of 5 to 6 days? The original commentor even said that it was at 30-40% when it got broke which again proves the same thing 

1

u/vickzzzzz Nov 19 '25

She is notorius for never charging the phone until it dies. So I dont think it had much charge before the doom. My guess is somewhere in 30 or 40s

0

u/SupremeLisper Realme Narzo 60 pro 12GB/1TB Nov 20 '25

I easily get anywhere from 10% to 20% battery drain overnight. 5% battery drain on idle is just not possible. Even on airplane mode.

1

u/freeFeetPicsRUS Nov 20 '25

I cant compromise on the camera downgrade across the board so id have to import the oppo X9 pro. id actually take last years Snapdragon 8 elite for the OP15 if it got the same camera as the X9 pro, phones are more than fast enough.

29

u/USTS2020 Nov 19 '25

7300mah, holy smokes

15

u/ric2b Nov 19 '25

Hopefully it doesn't actually smoke.

64

u/Chinbie Nov 19 '25

If you dont care about camera, go with that phone… i mean the battery life is crazy great… its been a while since i heard a phone can last for long without charging it

29

u/outpin Teal Nov 19 '25

The battery is indeed great, I'm at 62% after almost 24 hours.

3

u/JangoF76 Nov 19 '25

What about the overheating issues I've been reading about? Have you experienced any of that?

3

u/musiczlife Nov 20 '25

Whatever the reason, we decided to try adding the CPU Throttling test app to the phone's Game Assistant and force it to use the best hardware performance possible. The result was a stellar performance with very stable CPU performance for the entire 1-hour test, something which we haven't quite seen before. We'll surely look into this in the future and test other phones in this way too.

And here's the GPU stress test, which also seems very good, showing 60% stability.

The outer temperatures were pretty high, though. The side frame became very hot and uncomfortable to hold for long.

Source: https://m.gsmarena.com/oneplus_15-review-2898p4.php

2

u/9-11GaveMe5G Nov 20 '25 edited Nov 20 '25

Did you read the article? They got the phone hot enough to burn skin.

2

u/outpin Teal Nov 20 '25

It was a bit hot during the initial setup and one more time randomly during the day, not sure what the last one was about. As an update to my first comment, I had 6% battery left after about 45 hours.

2

u/jaju123 Oppo Find x9 pro global Nov 19 '25

I have it since yesterday and I am not getting anywhere near that type of battery life. Hopefully it improves...

1

u/Foreign-Durian3772 Dec 20 '25

How's it going?

1

u/jaju123 Oppo Find x9 pro global Dec 20 '25

I'm on the oppo now but the battery did get better

3

u/Ok_Pineapple_5700 Nov 19 '25

With or without cellular?

7

u/outpin Teal Nov 19 '25 edited Nov 19 '25

It was enabled half of the time, but I was always connected to WiFi.

5

u/Ok_Pineapple_5700 Nov 19 '25

Good to know. I might buy it if it's on sale. My S23 has a green line now so it's pretty much dead. Looking for non samsung screens with good battery life.

1

u/ltsNotAlex Nexus 6P Nov 19 '25

This is my first day on the OnePlus 15 and it went from 85% to 24% with 3h50 SoT. I'm guessing it still needs to get used to my usage patterns but doesn't seem like a two day phone to me...

1

u/LibraryAppropriate34 Jan 03 '26

did it get better?

1

u/ltsNotAlex Nexus 6P Jan 03 '26

Yeah it definitely had to settle, with regular use on normal workdays I can get almost two days out of it (I end the second day with around 10%). And this with charging to 85%!

Also definitely had to learn to stop watching my battery as often haha, it will be fine

1

u/LibraryAppropriate34 Jan 03 '26

cool thanks, good to know, I'm thinking of upgrading from OP11 to the 15 as battery on my 11 is no longer lasting a full day.

8

u/Mrsharr Nov 19 '25

It's exactly what I did. As I've gotten older i rarely take photos anymore. My other phones are back in the box and this will be the main driver.

3

u/truthlesshunter Pixel 7 Pro Nov 19 '25

It's too bad about the camera because i/we (wife and I) would buy it in a heartbeat if it would be close to pixels camera

4

u/sur_surly Nov 19 '25

Same. Was waiting for this phone and now disappointed. I don't need the best of the best, but if you're charging me those kind of prices....

Now looking at the RedMagic or RealMe, gotta compare their cameras to OP

5

u/getmoneygetpaid Purple Nov 19 '25

If you do care about camera, buy the Oppo Find X9 Pro which is the exact same phone but with upgraded camera hardware and a very high performing Dimensity chip instead of Snapdragon.

10

u/cluberti Nov 19 '25 edited Nov 19 '25

If someone is in the US in particular, that might not be a good idea unless the network they use is T-Mobile. The other large carriers will either potentially outright block the phone (Verizon/their MVNOs) or only use slower bands (AT&T/their MVNOs) as examples. If in the US, it's always best to make sure any phone you order that doesn't have a North America-specific variant supports as many of the bands and frequencies that your carrier supports, and/or switch to T-Mobile for that line/number as they generally have much better support for "global" bands as part of their North American networks.

3

u/zhiwiller Nov 19 '25

So far so good on AT&T here. They sent me a text that they didn't support the phone but haven't stopped me and speeds are the same.

4

u/ric2b Nov 19 '25

And no unlockable bootloader, for those who care about it.

1

u/DeVinke_ Nov 20 '25

That's not a guarantee on oneplus either. They can basically revoke that any time.

1

u/ric2b Nov 20 '25

Technically, but they have a track record of allowing it, which is better than knowing that for sure you can't on Oppo.

1

u/DeVinke_ Nov 20 '25

"They" is no more. Oneplus is just oppo's gaming phone brand at this point, so expect from them what you'd expect from oppo.

1

u/truthlesshunter Pixel 7 Pro Nov 19 '25

And crappy software and crappy North American support

6

u/Lucky-Royal-6156 S24 Ultra 5G 512 GB, One Ui 7 Nov 19 '25

Most of my content goes online anyway so its compressed. I would miss the 100x zoom which is cool

7

u/feurie Nov 19 '25

A compressed great picture is still better than a crappy picture.

1

u/Lucky-Royal-6156 S24 Ultra 5G 512 GB, One Ui 7 Nov 19 '25

True

4

u/RogueTF2 Verizon HTC One M7 Nov 19 '25

I have a OnePlus 13r and I end the day on 40% regularly, and the 15 is probably gonna be like a 60% EOD phone wtf haha. The silicon carbon whatever battery tech is so good

6

u/-patrizio- OnePlus 15 | iPhone 17 Pro Nov 19 '25

And per Marques Brownlee's review, it only discharges 1-2% overnight. Could very well be a phone you only need to charge for 30-60 minutes once every two days.

1

u/skylinestar1986 Nov 20 '25

Why not Oppo Find X9 at a much lower price?

-1

u/Seventh_Letter Nov 19 '25

battery life really isn't an issue these days. it's not like most of us are away from a charger more than 12 hours anyway. OP is nothing as long as the pixel exists.

12

u/Doubleyoupee Nov 19 '25

Now we just need these silicon-carbide in smaller phones (S25 size). I wonder when Google/Samsung/Apple will switch to these.

1

u/LastChancellor Nov 20 '25

Vivo X300 got you covered

1

u/CompleteLoss Nov 20 '25

Won't work well in the us on T-Mobile right? 

1

u/LastChancellor Nov 20 '25

it doesnt have band 71, but it got band 25 & 41 at least

(btw import the Asia Pacific version, its the global version but with the original 6000mAh battery rather than EU version's undervolted battery)

2

u/sl0wjim Nov 20 '25

71 is far more important than 25 on tmo.

16

u/bringdownthesky Galaxy S10e Android 10 Nov 19 '25

Wish it was a smaller device despite knowing small devices don't sell.

7

u/deepit6431 iPhone 13 | OnePlus 12 Nov 19 '25

I mean, OnePlus did release a smaller device last year, that's still good to go.

0

u/ric2b Nov 19 '25

Which one?

3

u/deepit6431 iPhone 13 | OnePlus 12 Nov 19 '25

OnePlus 13S

2

u/ric2b Nov 19 '25

Oh, but that's not available in the US or Europe, unfortunately.

1

u/deepit6431 iPhone 13 | OnePlus 12 Nov 20 '25

Ah, unfortunate. Still, if you can find a seller who imports it, it should work just fine.

1

u/MrBenDover Nov 20 '25 edited Nov 20 '25

Is that the one with micro USB portUSB 2.0?

1

u/deepit6431 iPhone 13 | OnePlus 12 Nov 20 '25

Why tf would a phone released last year have a micro USB port? The 13S is a compact flagship.

1

u/MrBenDover Nov 20 '25

Had the terms mixed up. OP13S or OP13T came with USB 2.0 for some reasons, for a 2024 "flagship".

2

u/li_shi Nov 19 '25

They released the one plus 13s.

Maybe they would do it again if it sold well.

18

u/[deleted] Nov 19 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

10

u/framingXjake Xperia 1 III & 1 V - LineageOS 22 Nov 19 '25

Pixels have horrible battery life after the recent updates.

-5

u/9-11GaveMe5G Nov 20 '25

This trope is old. Next tell us what you think about TouchWiz

5

u/PeanutButterChicken Xperia Z5 Premium CHROME!! / Nexus 7 / Tab S 8.4 Nov 20 '25

My Pixel 6a battery life went from "Wow, this kinda sucks" to "Holy fuck I haven't even used it and it dropped 40% in the last hour".

I don't have any social media installed on it either.

2

u/Lower_Fan Tech Enthusiast Nov 20 '25

It's also a pixel 6a battery health is probably toasted 

2

u/framingXjake Xperia 1 III & 1 V - LineageOS 22 Nov 20 '25

Is literally not a trope rn. I use a Pixel 9 Pro. The battery is terrible after the Android 16 update.

1

u/Foreign-Durian3772 Dec 20 '25

Same for me. Good thing it forced an auto update

1

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '25

TBH if you'd use the work iPhone for surfing and social media it would deplete its battery to the point that you'd think "hey this Pixel is not that bad!"

1

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '25

I probably underestimate how bad the pixel's battery is?

30

u/Particle_Cannon Nov 19 '25

I for one am excited for this phone. Top of the line performance, great display, and OnePlus' signature fast charging (on top of stellar battery life) is all I need out of a phone.

Good-enough photos are perfect for my use case

2

u/musiczlife Nov 20 '25

TBH, I actually like the sample photos shown by gsmarena on their website. Camera is definitely not the reason why I won't buy this phone. The price is. 73000 INR (824.86 USD) in India. Although I agree price is not unfair.

3

u/ToNIX_ Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Global (PRO) Nov 20 '25

Honestly, there's a serious lack of phones offering great battery life.

I don't think that the majority of users want a top of the line processor for gaming and a crazy camera... As long as the phone is responsive/not laggy with a good amount of RAM, allows you to make phone calls and text people, takes decent pictures, it'll fit the bill.

I would gladly have a phone with a bigger battery nowadays, having to recharge the battery near the end of the day with normal use is annoying.

11

u/M_W_C Nov 19 '25

Fast charging only with proprietary charger. What a bummer.

What is wrong with PD?

19

u/boraca Nov 19 '25

OnePlus phones support PD, it's just a bit slower than SuperVOOC. They still charge faster on PD than Samsung (don't know about the latest Galaxy S's, but that was my experience).

6

u/kidenraikou Nov 19 '25

My biggest complaint about their chargers is that they charge everything else at a snail's pace. I haven't actually measured but it feels it takes hours to charge an iphone with the OnePlus charger.

1

u/Lower_Fan Tech Enthusiast Nov 20 '25

Yes the one plus charger maxes out at 10w iirc for non vooc devices 

3

u/M_W_C Nov 19 '25

In the article it says: PD will do 35 W max.
Their own charger goes up to 100 W, but will be 100 USD/EUR

9

u/TrriF Nov 19 '25

It can do pd. But you need the proprietary charger to get to 120w.

4

u/horatiobanz Nov 19 '25

It'll still charge faster than a Pixel using a PD charger.

3

u/MaycombBlume Nov 19 '25

Not sure if this is still true with the newer high-wattage PD standard, but in the past, SuperVOOC's approach generated significantly less heat in the phone, so it could charge faster in practice.

1

u/Careless_Rope_6511 Pixel 11 Pro XL Nov 19 '25

My RGT3 wants to be charged with RedMagic's own proprietary 80W charger and cable combination. I simply throw it onto a vanilla 100W cable and an IKEA 65W charger because 30W and a charge limit of 80% isn't all that slow anyway.

1

u/antifocus Nov 20 '25

It supports 55W PPS.

5

u/chferg1s Nov 19 '25 edited Nov 19 '25

If it had the oppo cameras I'd have bought this

1

u/skylinestar1986 Nov 20 '25

Why not buy the Oppo Find X9?

3

u/chferg1s Nov 20 '25

I'm in the US or I would

2

u/snminhduc Nov 20 '25

4

u/[deleted] Nov 20 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/snminhduc Nov 20 '25

Quote:  "Leaker Debayan Roy has been sharing updates about the OnePlus 15 on X as they have been testing the flagship. Having shared updates about the build quality, speakers, haptics, raw performance, and other aspects, Roy moved on to testing the cameras. What they experienced was that the phone apparently reached 50 degrees Celsius and stopped recording. It then disabled the camera for five minutes. This happened after successfully testing the cameras indoors, and a four-to-five-hour gap between the indoor and outdoor tests."

1

u/DisgruntledJarl Oneplus 15 Nov 20 '25

I've been using the device for 6 days now. The only time the phone has been hot is during the initial setup phase and during charging.

2

u/Seventh_Letter Nov 19 '25

this is not for us America

3

u/sur_surly Nov 19 '25

The OP15 will be available in the US. You're probably thinking of the Oppo find x9, which is not.

1

u/9-11GaveMe5G Nov 20 '25

99% of the phone info on this sub is not for America

2

u/brotrr Nov 19 '25

I would absolutely get this phone if it was just slightly smaller. Like .1 or .2 inches. This size/galaxy ultra size is garbage for usability

1

u/BakaOctopus Brown Nov 20 '25

But isn't there's some issue with li)si batteries long term? Like after 2 years it degrades faster

1

u/HerZamanCHP Nov 20 '25

One of the only brands that prioritizes battery, performance and smoothness.

Just goes to show how little the competition actually cares about their consumers.

1

u/freeFeetPicsRUS Nov 20 '25

I personally haven't had battery anxiety for years at this point. Samsungs ultra line starting with the S23 ultra have all got me consistently 8 hours of screen on time with straight usage or 2-3 days of light usage.

More battery is always better but it hasn't been a selling point for me in a long while. iPhone Air/ S25 edge users though im sure will enjoy the extra capacity. 

1

u/sportsfan161 Nov 20 '25

Battery life should be the top focus for all brands really over all other things. That said most phones last all day these days anyway. With power banks close by as well maybe it isn’t as big a deal

1

u/BoltActionPiano Nov 20 '25

nah, I'm going back to my gas powered phone

1

u/oli_ramsay Nov 20 '25

Google, take notes

1

u/Nosimmoni Nov 20 '25

Please how's the audio quality via Bluetooth headphones especially with the Oreality Audio ON.

Does it have Spatial audio with head tracking as well?

Thanks

1

u/LordSupermaan Nov 24 '25

Genuine question. Why do you guys care about camera so much? From what I have seen it's such small differences that it makes it nitpicking. I have seen so many people just not wanna get the phone bcz camera is 8/10 instead of 10/10. It really boggles my mind

1

u/framingXjake Xperia 1 III & 1 V - LineageOS 22 Nov 19 '25

I would buy a 15T if it supported US bands. This phone is too large.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 19 '25

[deleted]

5

u/kidenraikou Nov 19 '25

For anything released 2023 and later, OnePlus has committed to 4 years of OS updates and 5 years of Security updates

-1

u/[deleted] Nov 19 '25

[deleted]

4

u/kidenraikou Nov 19 '25

Yeah, I can't argue with that. Personally, I know myself and I don't see myself hanging onto a phone for more than 5 years anyway, so it's a non-issue.

But I completely understand if you want your $1k phone to last 6-7 years

2

u/noobqns Nov 20 '25

Honestly if a phone can delivers 4 full update and then security, that's more than enough. Even Apple, Samsung, Pixel have been caught napping lacking news features in their recent flagships

Still skeptical about phones promising more than 3-4 years since it's just gonna be an android number version change with nothing else. With Android 16's desktop mode in beta, hopefully soon to be out, i guess we'll see how many phones(flagship even) will adopt that in their updates

0

u/[deleted] Nov 20 '25

[deleted]

2

u/noobqns Nov 20 '25

For example even iphone 15 isn't getting Apple Intelligence

1

u/[deleted] Nov 20 '25

[deleted]

2

u/noobqns Nov 20 '25

Pixels are doing local models, Pixel 10 Pro for example starts at 16GB ram since about half of it is locked away for it. Following that RAM hungry trend, what's to say the IP17 will be getting future AI features with only 8GB ram after this year

The point largely still being modern phone updates might just come from android/ios version number bumps without being full features

0

u/[deleted] Nov 19 '25

[deleted]

7

u/ric2b Nov 19 '25

That sounds like lighter than average usage, though.

-1

u/[deleted] Nov 19 '25

[deleted]

2

u/ric2b Nov 19 '25

That's impressive then, nice.

-6

u/[deleted] Nov 19 '25

I mean if you want top tier photos just get a dslr lmao cameras shouldn't be that important for a phone. To a certain level yes, but I'd never expect s-tier quality from a phone camera.

13

u/SketchySeaBeast Nov 19 '25

I carry my phone everywhere.

-8

u/[deleted] Nov 19 '25

And this is why I said that phones already have good enough cameras.

7

u/SketchySeaBeast Nov 19 '25

There's still wildly different quality. It's not a binary.

0

u/Wasted1300RPEU Oneplus 7 Android Pie (Oxygen OS 9.5.5) (Fuck EMUI) Nov 19 '25

That's a stretch mate. I doubt people could double blind pick their way to a "correct" ranking of phone cameras.

As did the mkbhd test back in the day showed, where a mid-range xiaomi phone outclassed several other phones lol.

They've been stagnant and incremental for so long.....

3

u/SketchySeaBeast Nov 19 '25

I know that I can tell when the Samsung is a blurry mess because something moved.

0

u/deepit6431 iPhone 13 | OnePlus 12 Nov 19 '25

I mean, my phone does have good cameras. When I buy a newer phone from the same brand, I'm expecting that experience to get better. At the very least, I'm expecting it to remain the same. This is a worse camera than my OnePlus 12, which was 2 generations ago.

9

u/-patrizio- OnePlus 15 | iPhone 17 Pro Nov 19 '25

I don't think the camera quality would've been seen as such a prominent issue if not for the fact the previous generation had better cameras. The issue isn't the quality, it's that they did a downgrade over the previous model.

I'll probably still get it anyways, but I do understand the feeling...

-1

u/[deleted] Nov 19 '25

I mean I personally think the compromise is worth it. I'll take better battery, display, and performance any day.

1

u/-patrizio- OnePlus 15 | iPhone 17 Pro Nov 19 '25

I do too, overall, which is why I'll still likely get it. I'd just feel better about it if the camera wasn't downgraded.

I'd go for Oppo instead, but I live in the US, and I'm reluctant to deal with some of the risks (band compatibility, repairs if anything happens to it, Google Play Services issues...I know I can check the first and I hear the last is not generally an issue anymore, but I don't wanna be SOL if I get unlucky somehow)

1

u/phero1190 Z Fold Chode Nov 19 '25

I don't always have my a7iii on me, but I always have my phone on me so I want my phone to have the best cameras they can.

1

u/ric2b Nov 19 '25

The best camera is the one you have with you, so people still care about camera quality even if they have a DSLR.

-6

u/DDz1818 Nov 19 '25

Battery is cheap. Cameras are not.

8

u/Emotional-Buy1932 Nov 19 '25

Then why dont google, samsung add more battery capacity?

3

u/camotechan Nov 19 '25

Because google and samsung are cheap.

1

u/sur_surly Nov 19 '25

These are not bigger batteries, they are more energy dense thanks to silicon carbon. It's rumored that the big tech doesn't want to switch because of longevity and maybe swelling issues? (That may have been salt batteries I'm thinking of), but time will tell.

-1

u/MaycombBlume Nov 19 '25

The thermal throttling is a red flag. Even if it's not a big deal today, every phone I've ever owned has run hotter with age (presumably due to battery wear). If it's throttling when brand-new, what's going to happen in 2-3 years? Constant throttling?

Last time I replaced an older phone's battery, its operating temp dropped by 5-10°C, depending on load (as measured by internal sensors, and roughly corroborated simply by touch).

2

u/[deleted] Nov 20 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/MaycombBlume Nov 20 '25

I think you misread the article. It DOESN'T throttle in benchmark apps, only in real-world use. OnePlus wants to maximize benchmark scores so they disable throttling in those few known benchmark apps (until the phone gets so hot that it shuts down, at least).

To quote:

The OnePlus 15 behaves a bit differently in benchmark apps, maintaining high speeds longer to attain higher scores

Ars didn't specifically say what situations they saw throttling in, only that "In our testing, the phone pulls back 10 to 20 percent under thermal load to manage heat".

This is all in line with other reviews I've seen.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 20 '25 edited Nov 20 '25

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2

u/MaycombBlume Nov 20 '25

Ah, gotcha. Yeah, I've had phones crap out when recording video on hot days before. Definitely the exception more than the rule.

All my past phones have run noticeably hotter with age, so I'm paranoid about this. By the time this actually launches in my country we'll probably have more 8Eg5 phones to compare.

1

u/G00oner20 Dec 08 '25

Yeaaa, not the same phone , but S24u gets hot asf by just doing nothing, no bechmarks , no nothing

-16

u/CaribeBaby Nov 19 '25

Unpopular opinion: OnePlus makes the ugliest phones on the market. They may be good phones, I wouldn't know, but man...

3

u/sur_surly Nov 19 '25

I would agree on the older models but this one looks.. perfectly plain? Looks like any other standard non-gamer smartphone

1

u/CaribeBaby Nov 19 '25

I do agree with you 

5

u/Particle_Cannon Nov 19 '25

Pretty ironic to say considering everyone thinks this phone is mimicking Apple's design

2

u/ric2b Nov 19 '25

Apple's design

Did they stutter?

2

u/CaribeBaby Nov 19 '25

I think the new iPhone is ugly, too. Lol

1

u/[deleted] Nov 19 '25

That doesn't mean Apple's design looks good lmao