OnePlus 15 Review: Skipping 14 Was the Easy Part
OnePlus jumped straight from 13 to 15, dropped Hasselblad, and built its fastest phone yet. Read our full verdict on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 flagship.
OnePlus has never been shy about breaking with convention, and this year it broke with counting. The OnePlus 15 succeeds the OnePlus 13 directly — no 14 was ever made, and none is coming. Beneath the naming quirk sits a genuinely significant generation: a new flagship chip, a display refresh rate few phones can match, and the end of a five-year camera partnership that defined the brand's marketing for half a decade.
About That Name
The number four is considered unlucky across much of East Asia — its pronunciation in Mandarin and Cantonese closely echoes the word for "death." OnePlus skipped 4 outright in its early numbering, and now applies the same logic one digit later, jumping from 13 straight to 15. It's a cosmetic decision with zero bearing on the hardware, but it's worth knowing before you go looking for a OnePlus 14 that was never released.
Design and Build
The 15 borrows its rounded, symmetrical camera housing from last year's OnePlus 13T — a shift away from the perfectly circular module that had become a OnePlus signature. It's a small but noticeable design pivot, and OnePlus has also quietly dropped the alert slider in favour of a customisable shortcut key, ending a feature that had survived every OnePlus phone since the very first model. At 211g (215g in some markets) and 8.1mm thick, it's marginally slimmer than the OnePlus 13.
Display
The 6.78-inch LTPO AMOLED panel supports up to 165Hz — a genuine outlier at this price, and higher than anything Samsung or Apple currently ships. In practice, the jump from 120Hz to 165Hz is subtle outside of competitive gaming, but it's there when you look for it, particularly in fast scrolling. The 1.5K resolution is a step down from the OnePlus 13's panel on paper, but the difference is essentially invisible at normal viewing distances.
Performance
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is the fastest chip OnePlus has ever shipped, and it shows — this is comfortably one of the quickest Android phones available at launch. Sustained gaming performance is excellent thanks to a larger vapour chamber, and everyday tasks are effectively instant. OnePlus's custom scheduler work continues to pay off in efficiency as much as raw speed.
Camera, Without Hasselblad
This is the first numbered OnePlus flagship without Hasselblad branding since the partnership began, and it's the detail most likely to generate headlines. In practice, the dual-camera system — a 50MP main sensor and a 50MP periscope telephoto offering 3.5× optical zoom — produces images that are, if anything, slightly more natural than the sometimes oversaturated Hasselblad tuning of recent years. What's missing is the third ultrawide lens the OnePlus 13 offered; this generation trims to two rear cameras, a real loss for anyone who used the wide-angle regularly.
Battery and Charging
The 7,300mAh dual-cell battery is the largest OnePlus has fitted to a numbered flagship, and it shows in real-world stamina — this comfortably outlasts every rival at this price, and most above it. 120W SUPERVOOC wired charging fills the phone from flat in around 25 minutes, and 50W wireless charging is present too, both best-in-class figures.
Verdict
GSMTechTok Verdict
The OnePlus 15 is a confident, occasionally contrarian flagship — new chip, new display ceiling, and a camera identity rebuilt from scratch after five years of Hasselblad branding. The dropped ultrawide lens and alert slider will bother longtime OnePlus users more than most, but the fundamentals — speed, battery, charging — are as strong as anything at this price. Ignore the naming gap; there's nothing missing here that matters.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did OnePlus skip the number 14?
Cultural, not technical: the number four sounds similar to the word for 'death' in Mandarin and Cantonese, so OnePlus jumped from 13 straight to 15 — the same thing it did with the number 4 itself, years earlier.
Is the OnePlus 15 worth £799 without Hasselblad branding?
Yes. The five-year Hasselblad partnership is over, and OnePlus's in-house colour processing is a genuine step forward rather than a downgrade — daylight shots are more natural, not less. The bigger story is the hardware: a 165Hz display and a 7,300mAh battery neither Samsung nor Apple currently match.
How does the OnePlus 15 compare to the Galaxy S26 Ultra?
The S26 Ultra wins on camera versatility (periscope zoom, 200MP main sensor) and the S Pen. The OnePlus 15 wins comfortably on battery life, charging speed, and refresh rate, and costs £500 less. For most buyers who don't need the S Pen, the OnePlus 15 is the better value.
Price history · 90 days · GBP
OnePlus 15
Current
£749
Saving
6% off launch
90d Low
£720
4 Aug
90d High
£814
3 Jun
Launch price
£799
All-time low ↓
Price tracking from major UK retailers. Updated daily. Prices may vary.
How it compares: OnePlus 15 vs Galaxy S26 Ultra
OnePlus
OnePlus 15
From £799
Samsung
Galaxy S26 Ultra
From £1,299
6.78" LTPO AMOLED 165Hz
Display
6.9" QHD+ 120Hz AMOLED
50MP f/1.8 OIS
Main cam
200MP f/1.7 OIS
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
Chip
Snapdragon 8 Elite 2
7,300mAh · 120W
Battery
5,500mAh · 65W
From £799
Price
From £1,299
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