OnePlus 15 review | Nasi Lemak Tech
It’s a new generation of devices and we’re very busy testing all of these devices. The OnePlus 15 is another one of the highly anticipated phone as it is equipped with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset which has super long name. However, the OnePlus 15 does have quite a lot of discourse online. Is this a good phone and what secrets does it hide? Find out in today’s review of the OnePlus 15.
Performance
There are a lot of great things going on for the OnePlus 15. The first, is obviously going to be the performance. Powered by the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, we can expect good gaming performance from this device.
Genshin Impact, at the highest graphical settings, managed to run around 50-60fps though there are some frame dips to around 45fps here and there, especially while in combat. Still, pretty good experience so far but Genshin Impact is no longer the most demanding game nowadays anyway.
Let’s then talk about Zenless Zone Zero. The render resolution here is quite low, at only 1782×818. Yet the frame rate still fluctuates up and down between 45-58fps. The frame rate consistently is considered good here as there is no sudden drop to the point that it’s distracting – and the overall gaming experience is actually quite good. However, consuming nearly 7W, the temperature will definitely start rising.
Wuthering Waves is the most demanding game to date, and it will test the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 to its fullest extent. With the render resolution at 2344×1080 pixels tuned to the highest graphical settings, the frame rate fluctuates between 50-60fps at first, but the temperature rises and it thermal throttles.
However, the behavior here is… weird. When it does thermal throttle, it should let the device cool down a little before going back to full throttle. The OnePlus 15 decided to still go full performance when it is throttling… and I have no idea why this happens. It can definitely be fixed via a software update.
By the way, the OnePlus 15 also has a bunch of unique features via the OP Gaming Core. For supported games like Genshin Impact, we have things like a frame rate interpolator to make it go 120fps, dynamic HDR that boosts the colors, and also a resolution setting that raises the render resolution.
Battery life
Now, let’s take a look at the battery life. The OnePlus 15 got a massive upgrade to a dual-cell battery, totaling to an equivalent of 7,300mAh or 27.6Wh in capacity. Remember, mAh is a very dumb and it’s always better to use Wh.
Anyway, with our standardized battery life test, the OnePlus 15 can last up to around 30 hours. This is the longest-lasting phone that we’ve tested so far, and that is to be expected from a phone with this battery capacity.
Charging speed
As for the charging speed, well – notice anything weird about the box? Yes, it’s thin. There’s no charger in the box, just like the OnePlus 13. So, we can only use our own USB-PD PPS charger to do the charging test.
Luckily, OnePlus is moving away from its own proprietary charging standard, and it can take around 48 minutes to charge from 15% to completion. It’s actually very fast for a 27.6Wh battery, and I’m just very glad that we’re not locked to their own proprietary charger to fast charge the device.
Screen
One big thing that many people complain about the OnePlus 15 on the internet though, is the screen. On paper, the OnePlus 15 got a downgraded screen. It’s now using a slightly smaller 6.78-inch OLED screen with a lower resolution at 1272 x 2772 pixels but at a higher refresh rate at 165Hz.
One big upgrade, in my opinion, is that the OnePlus 15 is now using a flat display. Thank you for this, since it is just better than a curved edge. It’s just easier to apply screen protectors.
Now, this screen can go up to 1250 nits brightness in auto mode, and it can go around 2000 nits in HDR. And we also tested the screen using the three color profiles that can be found in the settings menu.
With the default standard color profile, it can covers 99% of sRGB and 71.93% of DCI-P3 color gamuts. Changing it to the natural color profile kinda changes nothing as it also covers 99% of sRGB and 72.53% of DCI-P3.
Using the vivid color profile then, cranks up the color gamut coverage to nearly 100% of sRGB and 96.54% of DCI-P3. It’s actually very good in this regard.
Design
The OnePlus 15’s design is something that I personally love. It’s a lot simpler in terms of design. For our particular unit of the OnePlus 15 with the Sandstorm color, it looks and feels so good to touch. It feels like a superfine matte finish, and yet the color spills over to the frame of the phone as well. It’s a very elegant look and I really like it.
However, the complaints come pouring in when it is found out that this back panel is actually made out of fiberglass plastic. I don’t understand why people are complaining, honestly. Plastic is always better for your phone as – number 1, it has a lower specific heat capacity than glass, so it can transfer heat faster.
Number 2, plastic is also much more durable against drops, knocks, and bumps. I personally support that more brands should stop using glass backs. Every time someone tells me “glass feels more premium”, I just roll my eyes. You guys use a phone case to cover it up anyway.
Software
Okay, enough about that – let’s now talk about the software. The OnePlus 15 is using OxygenOS 16 and there’s really nothing out of the ordinary from what we’ve experienced before. The overall navigation is smooth and fast and snappy with some fluid animations – though no one will actually use their phones like this.
I personally also find that the animation speed to be supremely slow, so I headed into this menu and turn the animation effect to “enhanced”.
The overall software experience is actually very clean as ther are minimal bloatware and ads.
We do have the Snap key – I mean the Plus Key, that works exactly like how it does on the OPPO Find X9 Pro that we reviewed recently – link at the top right corner there to know more. We can customize this key to do a bunch of different shortcuts, but what interests me the most is the Mind Space. It’s a personal memo kind of agentic AI. We can press the Plus Key to take a screenshot, then it’ll get sent into the Mind Space. We can then ask the Mind Space stuff and it’ll intelligently reply us based on whatever we have saved inside the Mind Space. Kind of useful, to be honest.
Camera
Let’s also not forget about the cameras. It’s no surprise that OnePlus actually downgraded the camera sensors on the OnePlus 15 when compared to the OnePlus 15. The sensor size across all the three cameras are smaller, and two lenses’ aperture also got smaller. Plus, errr, I mean minus in this case, OnePlus 15 does not have the Hasselblad color calibration collaboration anymore. That’s a difficult sentence to say.
To have a look at all the pictures and videos taken with the OnePlus 15, watch our video at the top of this review.
A few more things to mention
And a few more things to mention about the OnePlus 15. It has a USB 3 port at the bottom, and it does support display mirroring via USB-C. Nice.
It also has a dual SIM card slot, at least for our region – and also an IR blaster at the back of the phone too.
Should you buy the OnePlus 15?
So, at the end of the day, should you buy the OnePlus 15? I personally think that the price is the biggest deciding factor here. The OnePlus 13, with 512GB of storage, was priced at RM4,399 at launch. The OnePlus 15 with 512GB of storage is priced at RM4,399. Same price, but with a lot of changes across different aspects of the phone.
I personally think that the OnePlus 15 is a perfectly good phone. While it is obvious that OnePlus had to be smart and make necessary compromises to retain the same retail price, just to make way for the rising cost of the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset. Regardless, the OnePlus 15 is still a magnificent phone.
I truly wonder how OnePlus will deal with the soaring cost of DRAMs and NAND flash that is happening right now. Those rising prices affect everything.
Where to buy? (Affiliate links)
Like our Facebook Page here at NasiLemakTech.com for more news and in-depth reviews!
Also, join our Facebook Group for insightful information and memes!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel too!
