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OnePlus is changing things up with the launch of its next flagship Android phone, the OnePlus 15. The company is skipping the 14 because four, which sounds like the word for death, is bad luck in Chinese culture. Notably, the OnePlus 15 will be one of the first phones to launch with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, a chipset that seems to kick the iPhone 17 Pro 17’s ass, especially for gaming and graphics-intensive tasks.
Releasing sometime in China in October, and then with a global launch likely following, the OnePlus 15 ditches the round camera design along with its image processing co-developed with Hasselblad. OnePlus announced earlier this month that the Hasselblad “planned chapter” was “complete” and that its “next flagship” would have its own “DetailMax Engine.” We’ll have to see how photos from the OnePlus 15 cameras compare to previous Hasselblad-optimized ones. I really liked how photos came out on the OnePlus 13; they leaned a little warm, with a color science closer to what people generally associate with looking “cinematic.” Let’s see if the OnePlus 15 can one-up that, or the end of the Hasselblad team-up means a step backward for image quality.
The OnePlus 15 has a boxier look with flat sides, a flat display, and a flat square-shaped camera bump. (Are we just going to call them “plateaus” now because of Apple?). In a video posted to OnePlus’s X account, the company teases a metal body that’s “tougher than titanium,” whatever that means.
The calm has ended. #OnePlus15 in Sand Storm is coming soon. pic.twitter.com/eUvLanUJwv
— OnePlus (@oneplus) September 29, 2025
There doesn’t appear to be an Alert Slider switch. The three-stage switch has been a staple feature on OnePlus phones since the OnePlus 2 and lets you quickly adjust sound between ring, vibrate, and silent. It’s such a signature OnePlus phone feature that when the company removed it from the OnePlus 10T in 2022, backlash from upset and disappointed fans forced OnePlus to add it back into the OnePlus 12 and 13. In place of the Alert Slider, I spy what appears to be the same programmable “Plus Key” introduced on the OnePlus 13S. The Plus Key works pretty much the same as the Action button found on iPhone 15 Pros, the whole iPhone 16 series, the entire iPhone 17 series, and the iPhone Air.
There’s a triple-lens camera on the back, which we can presume will include a main, ultrawide, and telephoto lens. We’ll be paying extra attention to see how it compares to the telephotos in the iPhone 17 Pros, Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra, and Pixel 10 Pros. The screen size has not been announced yet, but for what it’s worth, the OnePlus 13 has a 6.82-inch 120Hz display.
We’re still waiting for full specs, the exact release dates, and word on pricing, but we should have that info closer to launch. For reference, the OnePlus 13 launched for $899 with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and $999 for 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. We’ll have to wait to see whether Trump’s tariffs, which have increased the price of gadgets from Xboxes and PlayStation 5s to Fujifilm cameras, will impact the OnePlus 15. Either OnePlus eats the cost or passes it on to consumers.
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Source: Gizmodo