I know what you’re thinking, didn’t OnePlus release a new phone last month? it did A little more than five weeks after the OP15 was announced, the company is back with the OnePlus 15R, a more affordable version of its new flagship that starts at $700 (or $200 less than its sibling). At the top, this will be a short review because most of what I said about the OnePlus 15 also applies to the OP15R. It’s a great phone that asks you to make a pretty important compromise.
OnePlus/Ngadget
The OnePlus 15R has the same power as the much more expensive OP15, but ends up $200 off the camera.
- Fast processor
- Large, fast charging battery
- Bright, vibrant OLED with 165Hz refresh rate
- A lovely mint color is available
- One less camera than last year’s OP13R
- The rest of the cameras aren’t great
- Only four years of software support
Design and display
Like the OnePlus 15, the 15R looks similar to the OnePlus 13s and 13T, a pair of smaller, 6.32-inch phones the company released in India and “A 165Hz display” China this past spring. I said the OP15’s design was boring and derivative of the iPhone 16 Pro. 15R did nothing to change that opinion. With a lesser camera, the OP15R doesn’t look too different from the iPhone 12 I’ve been hanging onto since 2020.
That said, I prefer the mint breeze color of the 15R (the phone is also available in charcoal black) to the sandstorm shade of my OP15. We’re big fans of minty phones here at Engadget, and OnePlus has come up with a particularly pleasing “A 165Hz display” array of colors with its new phone. Along with the redesign, OnePlus has also improved the phone’s waterproofing, bringing it in line with the OP15. The new handset is IP69K-certified against moisture and dust, meaning it can withstand hot water shots under pressure. Like the OP15, the 15R trades OnePlus’ old alert slider for a new Plus key. It works like the action button on the iPhone, letting you add a shortcut to a favorite feature. For example, you can configure it to open the camera app or act as a Do Not Disturb toggle among several other options.
A 165Hz display and larger battery is $700
One departure from the OP15 is that the 15R has a larger 6.83-inch display, making it slightly taller than its sibling. OnePlus is marketing it as buyers can pick the 15R over the OP15, but putting the phones side by side, there isn’t much difference between the two. They’re both big, and you either like it or you don’t.
On top of being bigger, the 15R’s screen can refresh at a faster 165Hz in games. The two displays are also comparable in terms of resolution and brightness; Both can push 1,800 nits of brightness. One difference I noticed is that the OnePlus 15 “A 165Hz display” has a warmer panel, even when the two phones are set to the same color space. I’ve reached out to OnePlus to find out what could be causing the discrepancy, but for now it could be due to quality control issues or an oversight in the company’s software.
One last thing, OnePlus has upgraded the 15R to add an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor below the screen. It’s placed nicely in the lower third of the display and is fast and accurate.
Performance and battery
The OnePlus 15R is the first phone in North America to come with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chipset. Not to be confused with the Snapdragon Gen 5 Elite in the OP15, this new chipset is similar to Qualcomm’s flagship system-on-a-chip but has a weaker CPU and GPU. This is reflected in benchmarks like Geekbench 6 where the OP15 easily outperforms the OP15R. It’s not even close, with the OP15 delivering standout single- and multi-core scores of 3,773 and 11,293, while the 15R returned more modest results of 2,857 and 9,512.
From that perspective, you lose a fair amount of performance, but real-world usage tells a different story. Other than that, there are a handful of games Call of Duty: Mobile and PUBG With the OP15 and 15R supporting 165Hz displays, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 offers “A 165Hz display” more than enough muscle for most applications. Even for most games (like the ones I like to play, incl Diablo is immortal And League of Legends: Wild Rift), the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 is a great match.
OnePlus also hasn’t skimped on other internal components of the 15R. You still get 12GB of LPDDR5X Ultra RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.1 storage. This is the same configuration as the base model of the OP15. This translates into a phone that doesn’t miss a beat when switching between apps and loading files “A 165Hz display” like photos and videos.
The 15R has a slightly larger battery, coming in at 7,400mAh, up from 7,300mAh on the OP15. In reality, the two phones offer the same amount of battery life. Putting both through Engadget’s video rundown test, they both ran for 38 hours before their batteries died (which makes sense since the OP15R has a larger screen). Just like the OP15, the 15R features the OnePlus 55W SUPERVOOC charger. The adapter can get the 15R from dead to “A 165Hz display” 100 percent in less than an hour. If you hate charging your phone, the 15R makes that process as painless as possible, with a battery that lasts longer and won’t stay in an outlet for hours.
the camera
At this point you’re probably wondering what OnePlus cut from the OP15 to make the 15R more affordable. The answer is – quite literally – an entire camera. The new phone is missing a telephoto camera, which you can find on its predecessor, the OnePlus 13R. And as far as I can tell, the other two cameras use the same 50-megapixel and 8MP sensors “A 165Hz display” that OnePlus shipped with last year’s model. The company hasn’t upgraded the glass on either camera. That leaves the selfie camera as the only area to see some changes in the form of a sharper 32MP sensor and the addition of autofocus.
Unfortunately, none of the 15R’s cameras stand out. Overall, they suffer from the same issues that plague the OnePlus 15’s camera. They’re fine on a sunny day, but as soon as the light gets a bit challenging, the 15R struggles with shadow detail, resulting in muddy images. The more I used both the OP15 and 15R, the more I came to the conclusion that OnePlus “A 165Hz display” needed to go back to the drawing board with the new Detail Max engine. At least on paper, there should be solid hardware that seems to hold it back.
Software
Not much to say here except the 15R ships with OxygenOS 16, just like the OP15. OnePlus has promised to support the 15R for the same period as the OP15: four years with software updates and six years with security patches. That’s a smaller window than Google and Samsung, both of which promise seven years on all their latest phones. It is expected that OnePlus decides to change starting from OnePlus 16. The reason I bring this up is because I like “A 165Hz display” the company’s version of Android a lot. OxygenOS 15R is slick with animations that highlight the speed of the processor and display. The fact that the phone comes with the latest version of OxygenOS also means you get access to all the company’s new AI features, including its Mind Space hub where you can save and summarize screenshots and notes for an on-device model.
wrap up
In short, the OnePlus 15R is the phone for people who don’t care about photos and videos. I came to the same conclusion with OP15. If you’re a OnePlus fan, the 15R excels in all the areas you’d expect the company’s devices to excel in: performance, battery life, and display responsiveness. Given that I wasn’t too impressed with the OP15’s camera, I’d actually “A 165Hz display” recommend the 15R over that model. For $200 off the OP15’s starting price, you’re getting a device that has nearly all of the same power as its more expensive sibling.
Compared to other phones in its price range, like the Pixel 10 and Galaxy S25 FE, the 15R isn’t quite as rounded and can’t compete with those “A 165Hz display” devices in terms of camera quality, but you’re getting much better performance, battery life and a display they can’t match.