The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is out. Whenever Qualcomm drops a new silicon crown jewel, we know the next wave of flagship phones aren’t too far behind. I live for moments like these to see which phone has the most bragging rights over the best use of its resources.
The spotlight, at least this week, belongs to OnePlus. At the Chinese edition of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit, the company shared the first official look at the OnePlus 15 and has shared important details about the phone today.
OnePlus 15 looks a lot like OnePlus 13T
Qualcomm held its annual Snapdragon Summit earlier than usual this year. Instead of limiting the main event to Hawaii, they also hosted the China-focused edition where OnePlus teased the OnePlus 15.
For more than a decade, OnePlus and Qualcomm Technologies have moved in lockstep to redefine what a flagship can be. With Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 at its core, the OnePlus 15 carries that legacy forward, delivering the speed, intelligence and efficiency our users demand today and into the future.
Pete Lau, Founder of OnePlus.
Representatives showcased the black model of the phone on stage, confirming its design and revealing a major change. Previous leaks have shown titanium and pink color variants.
But the phone has the same square camera bump with a 2×2 grid pattern on the OnePlus 13T/13S, instead of the circular module we once saw on the OnePlus 13. It does look like it deliberately borrows from the latest Pixel camera bump designs and iPhone.
In case you think there's a typo or you slept through an entire release cycle, there was never a OnePlus 14. The company skipped the number altogether after because of the same superstition that made it jump over the OnePlus 4 years ago. In Mandarin, the word for “four” sounds dangerously close to “death”, and brands selling in China often avoid it like the plague. No one wants their business dying after all.
Expect ColorOS 16 and some sacrifices
OnePlus has confirmed in different Weibo posts that their new phone's display will support a 165Hz refresh rate, and the Chinese variant will run ColorOS 16 based on Android 16. The global version should run OxygenOS.
Rumours have it that the resolution will be downgraded to 1.5K from the previous 2K resolution and it'll have a 7300mAh battery. Translated excerpts from their demo video praise their software optimization layer on Qualcomm's chip, the Tidal engine.
It manages how apps and games are scheduled to use the processor, and it has been upgraded to keep performance smooth even when juggling demanding tasks. Executive Li Jie Louis demonstrated it by opening two games at once without visible windows and then switching between 10 different apps before jumping back into the game without lag.
The latest press release also mentions a brand-new feature called the DetailMax Engine, which is OnePlus's in-house image-processing technology designed to use the chip’s AI and raw horsepower to deliver “breathtakingly clear and truly real” photos.
