OnePlus 15 series

[0orichi0]

my order still preparing, i presume ready tomorrow

 

[tkte_85]

$19.90 for screen? That's expensive.

Thats e price for walk ins without quoting from hwz, actual quoted price is already posted by masashi, plus they do it properly for u b4 u leave e store. Like i said, its good for fat clumsy hands like mine who always bubble up the screen protectors, tempered glass or film.. Not gonna point a knife at u and say die die must buy, but personal experience from x9pro is the fingerprint works flawlessly without needing to reregister. According to him, this is actually already ver 2 where the 1st one was too thick and have issues with fingerprints being recognised.

 

[masashi]

Thats e price for walk ins without quoting from hwz, actual quoted price is already posted by masashi, plus they do it properly for u b4 u leave e store. Like i said, its good for fat clumsy hands like mine who always bubble up the screen protectors, tempered glass or film.. Not gonna point a knife at u and say die die must buy, but personal experience from x9pro is the fingerprint works flawlessly without needing to reregister. According to him, this is actually already ver 2 where the 1st one was too thick and have issues with fingerprints being recognised.

Love the way they apply front and back. Unlike other places

 

[tkte_85]

Love the way they apply front and back. Unlike other places

They have always been my go-to for hydrogel film protectors in e past where the phones are curved screens. I always buy the matte uv cured ones which are in between e normal film protector and tempered glass. The lady boss is the main applicator, she is always very careful yet thorough with the pasting and makes sure its aligned properly b4 passing back to e buyer to inspect one. Just that prob need some patience and esp if its busy coz they also need to do case and sim card sales too

 

[KeYoKe]

Aloha, it is time of the year again for the new OnePlus flagship launch!

Special shoutout to OnePlus SG for allowing me to have a chance to get my hands on and review the brand new OnePlus 15!

Before I begin with my review, disclaimer: I am reusing back some of my pictures, pardon me for that.

Introducing OnePlus 15 and the bundle sent over to me:



1. OnePlus 15
2. OnePlus SuperVOOC 120W Charger
3. OnePlus 15 Aramid Fiber Magnetic Case
4. OnePlus 15 Hole-Pattern Magnetic Case

Unboxing OnePlus 15:
The Box:




Front of the phone:

Gorgeous almost 165hz full screen display with 1.15mm even bezels all around.

Back of the phone::


Top of the phone::


Bottom of the phone::


Left side of the phone::

Alert slider gone with the wind! Introducing the Plus Key!

Plus Key supports remapping which includes:
1. Mind Space
2. Sound & Vibration (Toggle between Sound, Vibration, Silent mode).
This takes me some time to get used. Previously when using the alert slider, so much more easier to switch from Sound to Vibrate/Silent mode. With the Plus Key, you have to press and hold to cycle through the 3 modes. Ley chey and more time involved.
3. Do Not Disturb (I use this instead of Sound & Vibration now to quickly toggle to Silent Mode).
4. Camera
5. Torch
6. Recorder
7. Translate (Launch OnePlus translate app. It will be good to press and hold to start recording what you want to translate instead of just launching the app. You have to tap on the record button to begin the translation ).
8. Screenshot
9. No action

Right side of the phone:

 

[KeYoKe]

Now let me move on to share my usage experience with the phone:

1. I love the design of the OnePlus 15 this year, especially the camera portion. Minimalist look. Sandstorm color looks nice. Sides of the phone has a special texture compared to the normal colorway. Special technique of using high voltage electrical current is used to oxidize the aluminium instead of using the traditional technique of using acid. This forms a ceramic-like coating on the aluminium which makes is even stronger than titanium. (This is being explained in detail during the OnePlus event which I have attended)

However, do note that Sandstorm colorway's back is made of glass fiber instead of glass on the black and purple variant. For some hardcore enthusiast out there and from what I read, glass is able to dissipate heat better compared to the glass fiber.

For purple color variant, do note that the glass is slightly raised compared to the black and sandstorm variant as it is a 2.5D glass at the back, where the curved part is not matte, so when light hits it, there will be a light ring reflecting off the phone.

Purple:


Sandstorm:


2. Gorgeous 1.15mm thin bezel FLAT display. I cant emphasize enough how much I love the flat screen this time round. It is like a dream came through. Test fitted with a tempered glass from Taobao, works fine without any issues for the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. OnePlus also has the AR tempered glass available for sale or as part of the free gift during the pre-order phase.

3. Haptics does not make much of a difference to me when compared to OnePlus 13. Some reviews did mention it is weaker, but nothing on the bad side. Still as solid as it is, one of the best in Android market.

4. L1 + L5 GPS


5. Benchmark screenshots:
Antutu:


Geekbench 6:

Wildlife Extreme:



Phone heat up quite a bit during the benchmark. The sides are warm but not uncomfortably hot to touch. Guess the vapor chamber is doing it's job as during the event, OnePlus did mention that the special technique used to oxidize the aluminium will improve thermal performance as well.

6. Gaming performance is good so far. Was having long sessions of Diablo Immortal and Mobile Legend.

7. Battery life is superb. Yielding about 10 hours of screen on time with about 1 hour+ of Diablo Immortal session. Gaming battery drain is good compared to some phones I owned. Guess the optimization OnePlus specially did pays off?
To add on, based on my experience, battery life is slightly better than Find X9 Pro despite the bigger battery on Find X9 Pro.

8. WiFi chip performance seems good. I can even receive WiFi connection at Level 1. My house is at Level 13 btw So far, all the phones would have lost connection at Level 1 despite still connected to it. However, I did not encounter any high latency during gaming, and WiFi performance seems decently well for me especially when comparing it with 13R which I will encounter random dropoff issue which I need to Off and On the WiFi to solve it.

 

[KeYoKe]

Am not really into hardcore photography, but photo output seems ok for my eye. Not as punchy in terms of colors compared to the hassleblad counterpart though.

Photo samples from the camera:



The rest I will leave it to tkte to cover for photography.

Accessories time:

OnePlus 15 Aramid Fiber Magnetic Case:







It is a downgrade. The top and bottom are exposed this year. Hate this kind of case due to the lack of protection.
Not sure why they went with this design for OnePlus 15.

OnePlus 15 Hole-Pattern Magnetic Case:



Top and bottom are exposed similarly as the aramid fiber case. Hence, did not take any photo of the sides. A bit sian of it

Side note:
1. There are a total of 74 dots for you to populate (yes i calculated the number of squarish holes). I will respect you if you populate all 74 of them as it requires quite a bit of patience
2. if you are wondering will the red color dots prone to falling off? So far from 1 week usage experience, only 1 of it dropped off halfway inside my pocket. My son noticed it and tells me, that is when I told him it should be gone, but I manage to find it in my jeans pocket
However, I only put 4 of it. Not sure if you populate all 74 of them, what's the rate it will drop off

 

[limmk]

 

[limmk]

 

[limmk]

 

[TheSacredSoul]

Wow I've never seen MKBHD go this hard on cameras on any phone. Overwhelmingly positive on every other aspect though.

 

[KeYoKe]

Wow I've never seen MKBHD go this hard on cameras on any phone. Overwhelmingly positive on every other aspect though.

That's why I have mentioned, to me the camera looks fine for any social media posting for sure.

But the phone is smooth. On find x9 pro, I encountered some random hangs here and there, like everytime I want to use the camera (e.g using singpass app for face verification, or shop back scanning qr code), it will take like 2 seconds to open it. But totally no issue on OnePlus though

Give and take ba.

It is not a bad phone overall imo.



Shots taken in auto mode

In my eyes, not much difference between both cos I'm not anal about photography. But I send it over to @royfrosty , he mentioned otherwise that the photos are constantly captured with a higher ISO, causing photos to lose details, bad for post processing etc. BUT, that is it I turn on the watermark with the camera specs, if I turn off, or for someone whom doesn't know, will you notice it?

Also, I did not compare day shots, as difference is minimal. Most cameras take good daylight shots tbh. The most difference are during night shots

 

[tkte_85]

My turn to post my review of the new yet controversial Oneplus 15. 2nd time reviewing a phone in general, many thanks to @KeYoKe for the hookup again for this. All are based on my own general usage and opinions, so is quite subjective for many things. Also, i try to not cramp too many pictures in 1 post, because i think theres a limit?

Package received

Phone Box Contents
same since Oneplus 12, no charger is provided in the box. Only a couple of guides, A - C cable, sim ejector tool, and Oneplus 15 itself. As per usual, Chinese companies generally like to skip the number 4 because of it sounding like "death", but HWZ people should already know this, but still gotta say it because international youtubers keep missing the fact because they do not know the fact.

And here is the phone itself, KeYoKe decides his review colour 1st because he is my review senpai, and he chose white. I might had gone for the Violet(Mist Purple) then, but this time round the only 2 colours available for review are White(Sandstorm) and Black(Absolute Black), Violet's shipment didn't make it in time for our review.

Beside Oneplus 13

Beside Oppo Find X9 Pro

 

[tkte_85]

Heres the exterior of the phone
Back

Top - Speakers + 2nd mic for noise cancellation

Right - Power button + Volume buttons

Left - Plus Key: Gone are the iconic alert slider, I kinda expected it since 13T/13s already had it replaced

Bottom - Sim card slot, Type C slot(USB 3.2 Gen 1), mics, speakers

So no IR blaster? Yes there actually is, located at the back in between the main and tele cameras on the left

 

[tkte_85]

As posted on my 1st post, I also received a 120W Supervooc Charger and 2x original cases, both are long running iconic cases in the Oneplus case lineup. And both are magnetic cases, i.e magsafe compatible cases. Oneplus till now is still using the traditional magnet on case unlike the Pixel 10 series phones(they still are the only ones now though). One thing of note is that unlike 13, this time round the Aramid case went back to not being a full cover case AND is thinner, while Sandstone still is full cover kind and is thicker, if that's what you want for protecting the phone. Which is actually a good thing the Sandstone case is the case that comes with your preorders

Sandstone

Aramid

The 120W charger. It does not come with the phone, but it will come as a free gift with the preorders too, with a OnePlus Nord Buds 3R TWS to start off with.

One thing of note is our older Oneplus cables (most are 80W/100W i believe, I didn't have time to try 13's cable as it is still untouched in my box) will not trigger 120W because it does not carry 11A, and will charge at 80W and display Supervooc charging without wattage number as below.
Edit: addon: i confirm 80W cables have the item code DL129, and 100W(10A) cable from OP13 has item code DL153

If use the cable in Oneplus 15

 

[tkte_85]

Then comes the usage and testing

Global model of Oneplus 15 has 2 configurations, 12/256GB Black and 16/512GB Black/White/Violet. I initially thought that it is a pre-release firmware as it does not list the processor as the name, instead its listed as the model number. For specifications, I suppose every one knows. Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5(displayed here as SM8850), 7300mAh battery, UFS 4.1 storage. Pretty much what you would expect from a flagship phone.
Also, ppl in china have commented that the global version of OP15, at least the 512GB variant, has faster LPDDR5x Ultra+, is a global edition-only upgrade from the CN variant. I cannot confirm this though..

I noticed the preinstalled 3rd party apps are about the same as per Nord 5, namely Amazon, Facebook, Fitbit, LinkedIn, Netflix

Then for some strange reason, the results are abit all over the place, with my initial results being the lowest, and that's not due to overheating due to prolonged testing. I did it at hourly to 2 hourly intervals after getting the strange results. But after a few days of use and going back to benchmark the phone again, the results became more normal of what a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 should have, hence the suspicion of the firmware being pre-release and not retail firmware, but the rep told me that it should be the retail firmware... I will put them side by side but not sure if the forum post will display them as such.

 

[tkte_85]

The screen is a 6.78" 165Hz 1.5k BOE X3 display. Is it a downgrade? Definitely yes because previous few models are all using 2k screens. But imo, this should benefit its battery life overall which everybody wants, isn't it? My battery life experience is playing pokemon go using daily incense for 15 mins in max brightness, doing it together with my Oppo Find X9 Pro, Oppo's battery drained slightly that much faster even though there was a bigger battery in Oppo. At the end of the 15 mins session, the Oppo - Oneplus battery % was about 94% - 96%

1-120 Hz refresh rate for the OS, up to 165Hz for games(that specifically support it)

Right now, one of the only few games that run at 165Hz is Call of Duty (though the settings goes to medium, I believe is to achieve consistant 165fps)

 

[tkte_85]

Cameras

Probably the most controversial thing about this phone since the parent company Oppo decided to have this phone be more towards gaming, as per the gaming event held on 3 and 4 Nov, which I was invited through @KeYoKe senpai again, but could not attend due to actual work commitments.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1b8YGAnsax/

The layout of the cameras are as follows, from left to right, top to bottom

Main-IMX906: 50MP f1.8 | UW-OV50D40:50MP f2.0
IR Blaster
Tele-S5KJN5: 50MP f2.8 | Flash

Since this will be a heavy photo post, I not gonna embed every single photo, instead I will just link them, and note not all are taken together in the same conditions, framings and not all are taken on the same day etc. In general, I feel Oneplus 15 cameras are capable on their own. Overall, is pretty obvious the biggest weakness is definitely the Tele even though it has higher focal length

Edit: sorry guys, hwz seems to have problems with embedding the link to my photos, i have to put a space in the https to break the link, to see the photos directly just copy paste and remove the space i had to put in to see the photos

Oneplus 15
http s://imgur.com/a/oneplus-15-photos-SvXDo7E

Oppo Find X9 Pro
http s://imgur.com/a/oppo-find-x9-pro-photos-PIAGM3q

Vivo X200 Pro
http s://imgur.com/a/vivo-x200-pro-photos-sAlDv0w

Oneplus 13
http s://imgur.com/a/oneplus-13-camera-iTBqfVK

 

[royfrosty]

Good morning hwzoners,

Here is my lor sor story. Many thanks to bro @KeYoKe. Been rocking the OnePlus 13T for a couple of months. Till I have decided to pick up the OnePlus 15.

Originally when handling the OnePlus 15 at MBS event, I didn't really think much. Just went with a free mind. Took some time to catch up bro KeYoKe, honestly I enjoyed the catch up more than the phone LOL. Initial impression, just another phone.....

Then I kept researching back and forth with all the BBK group launches. After some thought, then decided to dive in again and compare with the x9 Pro. Honestly I prefer the output colour of the x9 Pro than the OnePlus 15. Truth to be told, I prefer Zeiss/Hassleblad colour science over OnePlus 15. But what pulled me over is the overall how the OnePlus 13T was. The software experience, it is fast and responsive, it is also fuss free and I have never complained my time with OnePlus 13T. So I hope to continue this trend with the OnePlus 15.



Even games I can afford to run on floating window and run another game on full screen. Although yes I can do it on the OnePlus 13T. But the screen is far too small for me to do so. And uncomfortable to press both at the same time.

Those geek that loves statistics. Their Over Powered panel is quite intrigued to look at honestly. Yes this game is enjoyable over at 90+fps. Cause I need to see how to pawn my opponent fast enough in PVP solution.



Some morning flowers? As I'm heading to Malacca now, will post some photos when I'm there.

 

[KeYoKe]

Nice shot of the flowers @royfrosty. Didn't expect that to come out from OP15

Didn't know talking to me is so intriguing then the new phone