The OnePlus 15 has other things going for it: a great screen and top-notch performance, for starters. And there are things I like less, like OxygenOS\u2019 creeping tendency toward bloatware. It\u2019s not like, Samsung-bad yet, but it\u2019s a far cry from the OnePlus of five or six years ago. As I see it, this is a phone for the battery anxious. And given the recent trend<\/a> toward \u201clighter, thinner phone but with worse battery,\u201d this \u201chuge battery capacity, but a regular-sized phone\u201d feels like a winning proposition.<\/p>\n $899<\/p>\n The Good<\/p>\n The Bad<\/p>\n When I first set up the OnePlus 15, I took its 7,300mAh battery capacity as a challenge. Display resolution, always-on display, screen timeout, performance \u2014 I set everything to their most battery-draining settings. Across two days with no overnight charge and nearly nine total hours of screen-on time, the battery was down to only 32 percent. If I\u2019d tried that with any other flagship phone sold in the US, I would have had a dead battery halfway through the second morning, if not sooner. That\u2019s astonishing.<\/p>\n There is some bad news: Silicon-carbon batteries tend to degrade faster than their lithium-ion counterparts, which is why US manufacturers have been hesitant to adopt them. OnePlus claims the battery will retain over 80 percent of its overall health through the first four years. Likewise, the company guarantees OS upgrades for four years and security updates for an extra two years beyond that.<\/p>\n That feels like an entirely reasonable commitment on OnePlus\u2019 part, but also, I wish technology was moving toward batteries with better long-term longevity, not shorter. Most people who buy this phone will probably choose to move on within four years anyway, and I know plenty of people with phones that have lithium-ion batteries that haven\u2019t held up in that time frame. I\u2019d hope that a phone like this could be passed on to a family member or donated and used by someone else when its first owner is done with it. OnePlus offers a repair service in the US, but there is no specific battery replacement option, and turnaround is slow \u2014 12 to 15 workdays, according to the website<\/a>. Don\u2019t expect the kind of same-day battery swaps you can get with Apple or Samsung phones.<\/p>\n This \u201cindustry-first\u201d display is nice whether or not you\u2019re a gamer.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sorry to say that this phone\u2019s \u201cindustry-first 1.5K 165Hz display\u201d is largely wasted on me. This is a nice screen, for sure! It\u2019s plenty sharp, though I wish it got a touch brighter in direct sunlight, if I\u2019m being picky. But I\u2019m not sure I could tell you the difference between a 120Hz screen and this 165Hz display in a blind comparison. I tried it with Real Racing 3, one of a handful of games that supports the top refresh rate, and yeah, it looks nice. Over the course of a 20-minute session, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 warmed slightly, but I didn\u2019t see so much as a stutter.<\/p>\n OnePlus was one of the last to ditch curved edges and adopt the flat sides the rest of the industry has embraced. I, for one, welcome the change; flat edges feel a little more secure in my hand. OnePlus fans are less enthused about another update: changing the beloved alert slider to an action button called the \u201cPlus Key.\u201d It\u2019s a move ripped right out of Apple\u2019s playbook, right down to the menu screen where you can assign different functions to the button.<\/p>\n By default, it serves as a shortcut to the \u201cMind Space,\u201d where you can dump screenshots and voice memos so AI can catalog and tag them for later reference. It\u2019s giving Pixel Screenshots or Nothing\u2019s Essential Space. Interestingly, Gemini Assistant on the OnePlus 15 can access information you\u2019ve saved to the Mind Space. This only works consistently when you specifically prompt Gemini to search Mind Space, though, which makes it a little less compelling. And I like the idea of a place to put things that would otherwise just exist in endless Chrome tabs, but my dozen open Chrome tabs are evidence of just how hard it is to drop old habits and form new ones.<\/p>\n The OnePlus 15 ships with OxygenOS 16, which is based on Android 16.<\/p>\n Speaking of software features, I\u2019m not crazy about the way that OxygenOS has crept toward bloat over the past few generations. I think it\u2019s starting to show as artifacts from years past pile up and the company continues chasing new ideas. There\u2019s the Shelf, a place for widgets that I never remember to use, two rows of suggested apps at the top of the app drawer, and a handful of first-party apps crowded in among the stuff Google requires OnePlus to preload.<\/p>\n On top of that, now there\u2019s a bunch of AI features vying for attention, like the AI Writer that often pops up as the first option when I tap selected text, right where my finger instantly heads to hit \u201ccopy.\u201d Cheeky. You can opt out of, uninstall, and disengage a lot of these things, but it\u2019s a lot to wade through \u2014 especially if you come to OnePlus looking for a less cluttered experience than you\u2019ll get with Samsung.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t care for the placement of this AI Writer option.<\/p>\n This menu page for the Plus Key is the spitting image of Apple\u2019s UI for its customizable button.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, OnePlus is still hanging onto some of its traditions. You\u2019ll get up to 80W fast charging with the wired charger (still!) and red cable (still!) included in the box; OnePlus also sells one that goes up to 100W. Over standard USB-PD, you get a snappy but less blistering 36W. Plugging the phone into the provided charger for 20 minutes with the provided charger when it was down to a worrying 17 percent brought it back up to 60 percent \u2014 easily a day\u2019s worth of power.<\/p>\n Wireless charging is fast too, though you\u2019ll need OnePlus\u2019 proprietary $50 charger<\/a> to get its top 50W speeds. But there\u2019s one thing you won\u2019t find here: integrated magnets, a la the Qi2 wireless charging standard. Instead, the OnePlus 15 outsources the magnets to cases. With one of those cases you\u2019ll get up to 11W on a Qi2 charger. The ability to charge quickly with specific chargers isn\u2019t as appealing as being able to thwack this phone onto any old MagSafe charger, but maybe I\u2019m no fun.<\/p>\n The OnePlus 15 is the company\u2019s first flagship since parting ways with Hasselblad as a camera partner; it\u2019s now using a DetailMax Engine of its own making. I think OnePlus is doing just fine on its own; white balance is well judged and leans into warm tones at all the right times. Colors are punchy without looking unrealistic. Curiously, OnePlus has opted for smaller sensors in all three rear cameras than it used in the OnePlus 13. And while it can get away with a lot in good lighting, you run up against its limitations in low light pretty quickly; trying to capture a moving subject in dusky blue light proved to be beyond its capabilities.<\/p>\n The OnePlus 15 stands alone.<\/p>\n Overall, the OnePlus 15 feels a little incohesive. There are a lot of borrowed ideas here \u2014 Apple\u2019s action button and maybe a hint of frosted glass throughout the UI, too. There are a few things OnePlus is carrying forward from a previous era, like its commitment to offering fast charging. And there are the AI features \u2014 some of which seem well thought-out, though others feel a bit more me-too. But put all that together and it\u2019s a bit of a confusing picture. Thankfully, the OnePlus 15 has one great idea that overshadows the rest of them: a phone that answers the question \u201cWhat if you didn\u2019t have to worry about battery life?\u201d<\/p>\n I suspect that OnePlus thinks of this as a Phone For Gamers, even if it doesn\u2019t look much like a Phone For Gamers on the surface. The emphasis on performance and screen refresh rate, coupled with the battery longevity, seems plenty appealing to someone who runs a lot of power-hungry games. But you don\u2019t have to be a gamer to appreciate the battery life this phone provides; pretty much anyone would be happy with a device you charge less often. I would have appreciated more of an emphasis on camera hardware than an industry-leading screen, and if you would too, then you might be happier with a Pixel or a Galaxy. But for the battery anxious \u2014 gamers or otherwise \u2014 there\u2019s nothing else quite like the OnePlus 15. Not in the US, anyway.<\/p>\n Photography by Allison Johnson \/ The Verge<\/p>\n Agree to continue: OnePlus 15<\/p>\n Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it \u2014 contracts that no one actually reads. It\u2019s impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we started counting exactly how many times you have to hit \u201cagree\u201d to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people don\u2019t read and definitely can\u2019t negotiate.<\/p>\n To use the OnePlus 15, you need to agree to:<\/p>\n There are also several optional agreements that you need to get past during setup:<\/p>\n In total, that\u2019s six mandatory agreements and six optional agreements.<\/p>\n Follow topics and authors<\/strong> from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.<\/p>\n Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n See All by Allison Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n See All OnePlus<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n See All Phone Reviews<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n![\"OnePlus](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/258099_OnePlus_15_review_AJohnson_0005.jpg\"\/)
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Allison Johnson\n