WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.520 The OnePlus 13 marked a return to form for the company 00:00:03.520 --> 00:00:07.280 and let's see if they can continue that hot streak with the OnePlus 15. 00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:12.120 I am the owner of a OnePlus 13R, which is their more budget oriented version of the device 00:00:12.120 --> 00:00:15.520 and I'm very excited to see what they've done on the 15. 00:00:15.520 --> 00:00:20.160 Nothing interesting in there, except for a USB-A to USB-C adapter. 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:23.440 What? Maybe this is something to do with the charger. I don't know, we'll set that aside for now. 00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:28.360 Before we get to the phone, we'll look at the rest of the box. One of the most exciting parts of the OnePlus 15 00:00:28.360 --> 00:00:32.040 is that it is the debut of Snapdragon's latest high-end 00:00:32.040 --> 00:00:35.720 chip, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. 00:00:35.720 --> 00:00:40.800 The names just keep getting longer, ladies and gentlemen. Inside we have a, whoa my gosh, 00:00:40.800 --> 00:00:47.520 you get their Super VUK fast charger, their proprietary still USB-A charging brick. 00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:51.960 It charges 120 watts on 240 volt and 80 watts on 120 volt. 00:00:51.960 --> 00:00:55.480 And that's good that it's gonna be nice and fast because it's a big battery. 00:00:55.480 --> 00:01:00.480 The dual cell battery in this thing is 7,300 milliamp hours, 00:01:01.440 --> 00:01:05.240 which is freaking large. It is USB-A, which is kind of annoying 00:01:05.240 --> 00:01:08.440 because you won't be able to use this with as many devices as you'd hoped. 00:01:08.440 --> 00:01:12.240 And I guess that means that this thing is not 00:01:12.240 --> 00:01:16.680 for the charging because you would want this to be a male USB. 00:01:16.680 --> 00:01:20.380 But that's all extra goodies. Let's take a look at the phone itself. 00:01:22.080 --> 00:01:25.760 Oh wow. The first thing I'm noticing is this interesting texture 00:01:25.760 --> 00:01:29.280 on the side. Usually it's just like an aluminum or titanium, 00:01:29.280 --> 00:01:32.440 but on this version, the Sandstorm Colorway, 00:01:32.440 --> 00:01:36.080 OnePlus is using something called micro arc oxidation. 00:01:36.080 --> 00:01:39.880 And what that basically allows them to do is apply a coating to the aluminum 00:01:39.880 --> 00:01:46.240 that provides it with a lot of extra durability. They're claiming 3.4 times harder than aluminum 00:01:46.240 --> 00:01:49.800 and 1.3 times tougher than titanium. 00:01:49.800 --> 00:01:55.720 Hardness refers to like it's scratch resistance and toughness refers to its ability to bend without snapping. 00:01:55.720 --> 00:01:59.120 It's even more iPhone-esque than it used to be. 00:01:59.120 --> 00:02:05.480 I think maybe that's just the rounder curves compared to the more square corners of the OnePlus 13R 00:02:05.480 --> 00:02:10.980 and also the OnePlus 13. And we're also getting that hint of that vertical oval glass 00:02:10.980 --> 00:02:15.920 that is on the very pronounced camera bump, though I don't think it's substantially more pronounced 00:02:15.920 --> 00:02:19.120 than it was on phones past. 00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:23.320 And you even get the Apple-inspired, kind of pill-shaped island there. 00:02:23.320 --> 00:02:27.480 All three of these sensors are 50 megapixels. You have a 116 degree ultra-wide 00:02:27.480 --> 00:02:30.600 and a 3.5 times optical zoom telephoto. 00:02:30.600 --> 00:02:38.160 And on the front, we get a 32 megapixel camera with a RGBW sensor that OnePlus claims gets 60% more light 00:02:38.160 --> 00:02:43.680 in your low-light selfies. It's hard to see, but there is this almost paper-like texture 00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:48.000 to the coloring of it that is just really nice. 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:53.280 No. No. Look how they've massacred my boy. 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:56.800 They got rid of the slider again. It's a button now. 00:02:56.800 --> 00:03:00.280 No! As disappointing as that is, you don't have to worry 00:03:00.280 --> 00:03:05.240 that it's gonna be a one-use button, like a Bixby sort of thing. This action button is meant to be programmed 00:03:05.240 --> 00:03:09.720 for a ton of different actions, just like, say, the action button on your iPhone. 00:03:09.720 --> 00:03:13.680 What those actions are, we'll get into a little bit later. Let's continue our way around the phone. 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:17.760 At the bottom, we have our dual SIM tray, USB-C port and speaker. 00:03:17.760 --> 00:03:22.260 Looks basically identical to last gen. 00:03:22.260 --> 00:03:26.120 And at the top, you can see our microphone, as well as it looks like another port for a speaker. 00:03:26.120 --> 00:03:31.160 And on this side, you have your volume rocker and your power button. 00:03:31.160 --> 00:03:34.240 One downside of these brighter colorways, especially when they wrap around the edges, 00:03:34.240 --> 00:03:37.580 that you really see the edge of this phone. 00:03:37.580 --> 00:03:41.560 Compared to the edge of the bezels on this thing. If it's anything like my previous OnePluses, 00:03:41.560 --> 00:03:47.020 it's a plastic screen protector that is included on the front. It's actually a quite nice screen protector. 00:03:47.020 --> 00:03:50.160 And I always appreciate when they give you something like that for free. 00:03:50.160 --> 00:03:53.480 Let's turn the phone on, but not before I turn you on to our sponsor. 00:03:53.480 --> 00:03:58.000 Look at that, it's liquid glass. It's transparent, that means that it's copying Apple. 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:02.280 The OnePlus 15 is running OxygenOS 16 based on Android 16, 00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:05.760 which I think is actually a very good Android skin. 00:04:05.760 --> 00:04:09.560 And it offers a lot of improved features. I think it really handles multitasking better 00:04:09.560 --> 00:04:14.080 than almost any other operating system at the moment. And it has stuff like this useful side dock 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:17.800 that I use all the time. I am interested to see what this button's gonna do though. 00:04:17.800 --> 00:04:21.000 So let's press that. It's a little blatant, don't you think? 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:25.920 Look at this, the animations are just cool. You want to be recognized as music. I don't want to change your settings though. 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:31.120 Just like on iOS, you get a lot of different options, but they're pushing this thing called Mind Space, 00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:36.600 which is basically going to be like an AI assistant that's going to be based on your notes and screenshots. 00:04:36.600 --> 00:04:41.700 And now they're integrating it with Gemini so you can get better insights 00:04:41.700 --> 00:04:46.620 and give all of your data to Google, if that's like your thing. It's a very similar concept to the essential space 00:04:46.620 --> 00:04:50.380 on nothing phones. And the idea that OnePlus has is, I'd I quote, 00:04:50.380 --> 00:04:54.380 a unified and searchable repository for your digital memories, 00:04:54.380 --> 00:04:58.700 which honestly, if you can take a bunch of screenshots and then have them in here and then be like, 00:04:58.700 --> 00:05:02.820 oh, I need my BlueJays tickets or whatever. And then it'll just pull up those tickets 00:05:02.820 --> 00:05:06.500 out of your screenshots. That would be pretty cool. It remains to be seen. 00:05:06.500 --> 00:05:10.460 I think OnePlus has a kind of a bad track record with special features. 00:05:10.460 --> 00:05:14.140 Like they do have a dynamic island like feature, 00:05:14.140 --> 00:05:20.000 but very few things use it. As far as I can tell, only Spotify and Uber use that, 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:24.100 though I don't know if Apple has a better track record with the dynamic island support. 00:05:24.100 --> 00:05:28.060 So like who knows, maybe Mind Space could be really awesome. 00:05:28.060 --> 00:05:33.220 Maybe it'll be just another thing on your phone. The plus key is assignable to several other tasks. 00:05:33.220 --> 00:05:37.380 Like you can make it be your alert slider again, but with a press and hold, 00:05:37.380 --> 00:05:41.060 or you can make it a camera button or flashlight button, whatever your heart desires, 00:05:41.060 --> 00:05:45.380 as long as it's one of these eight options. There might be apps that will allow you to implement it 00:05:45.380 --> 00:05:49.380 into more complex automations, but right now you have a solid selection of tasks 00:05:49.380 --> 00:05:52.820 that you would probably want on a hotkey like this. 00:05:52.820 --> 00:05:56.880 Let's keep it at Mind Space for now. And that is pretty bright. 00:05:56.880 --> 00:06:02.280 It's blowing out the camera for sure, right? Hell yeah. OnePlus claims 1,800 nits for its high brightness mode, 00:06:02.280 --> 00:06:08.140 but according to our lab's testing, it reaches 1,951 nits in a 1% window. 00:06:08.140 --> 00:06:13.460 By fiddling around with the settings, we were actually able to get it as high as 2,859 nits. 00:06:13.460 --> 00:06:18.420 It's not the brightest screen on the market, but in my opinion, it's about bright enough 00:06:18.420 --> 00:06:21.980 as you'll ever need for almost any setting. And I think that the brightness arms race 00:06:21.980 --> 00:06:27.100 is kind of coming to an end on phones. But as somebody who was chronically on my phone before bed, 00:06:27.100 --> 00:06:31.420 what I think is a pretty cool feature is that this reportedly gets to 0.5 nits, 00:06:31.420 --> 00:06:35.540 which is really low brightness. But what isn't low on this 00:06:35.540 --> 00:06:39.420 is the 165 Hertz refresh rate display, 00:06:39.420 --> 00:06:44.980 which it will only be some of the time. In day-to-day usage, this will just be a 120 Hertz display. 00:06:44.980 --> 00:06:48.500 LTPO, so the refresh rate can't go down to one Hertz if there's a static image on there 00:06:48.500 --> 00:06:52.540 to help with battery life. But if you want access to the 165 Hertz display, 00:06:52.540 --> 00:06:56.300 you do need to be in game mode. So it's really just kind of a gaming thing. 00:06:56.300 --> 00:07:01.300 And if mobile gaming is your thing, you'll be happy to know that they have a super high sample rate digitizer 00:07:01.300 --> 00:07:04.600 for super responsive touches, sweeps, 00:07:04.600 --> 00:07:07.680 and whatever you do in the game. You'll whirdle like never before. 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:12.640 And with the new Snapdragon chip, this thing is pretty damn fast. 00:07:12.640 --> 00:07:16.080 Across our suite of benchmarks, the OnePlus 15 performed better than the OnePlus 13 00:07:16.080 --> 00:07:21.080 by 19 to 22% and better than the S25 Edge by 14 to 19%. 00:07:22.080 --> 00:07:28.280 That's a pretty impressive generational uplift, assuming that this isn't just sucking back even more juice 00:07:28.280 --> 00:07:32.400 than the last Snapdragon Elite chip did. Because if your phone is sucking back 20 watts, 00:07:32.400 --> 00:07:37.040 it's just gonna overheat and throttle. Qualcomm claims that they made substantial efficiency gains 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:40.940 on this generation of chip, but let's see what it looks like in our stress test benchmark. 00:07:40.940 --> 00:07:45.400 And in that stress test, on average, the OnePlus 15 outperforms the OnePlus 13 by 10%, 00:07:45.400 --> 00:07:48.600 but destroys the S25 Edge by 56%. 00:07:48.600 --> 00:07:51.720 You can tell that cooling is very important 00:07:51.720 --> 00:07:55.760 for keeping these high power chips running smoothly. But it's not quite the same uplift 00:07:55.760 --> 00:08:00.160 that we saw on our shorter benchmarks. While the thermals might not be 100% solved, 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:03.080 efficiency gains should translate into improved battery life. 00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:10.480 And boy, howdy, do we have improved battery life. The OnePlus 15 gets 29 hours in our battery test. 00:08:10.480 --> 00:08:16.800 Compare that to the 20 hours of our OnePlus 13. That's like a 50% increase in screen on time. 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:20.120 We actually ran the whole battery test again, just in case there was a fluke. 00:08:20.120 --> 00:08:25.040 But no, this thing is a battery life champ. And that big battery will charge super fast 00:08:25.040 --> 00:08:29.840 with their included SuperVook charger. Our charging test doesn't use proprietary chargers. 00:08:29.840 --> 00:08:33.000 We stick to a standard 45 watt USB-C charger 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:37.640 and to get this phone from zero to 100, it took about one hour and 20 minutes, 00:08:37.640 --> 00:08:41.280 which is about 20 minutes better than the Galaxy S25 Edge. 00:08:41.280 --> 00:08:44.720 So, cool. It does support Qi charging, 00:08:44.720 --> 00:08:47.800 but it doesn't include magnets, so no MagSafe. 00:08:47.800 --> 00:08:51.180 But you're probably just gonna use the included charger. Oh, and one more cool feature 00:08:51.180 --> 00:08:56.400 that OnePlus tossed in there is bypass charging. So if you're playing a game and you're plugged into the wall, 00:08:56.400 --> 00:09:01.600 you don't have to worry about heating up the battery by charging the battery. You can just power the phone directly from the wall. 00:09:01.760 --> 00:09:05.760 ["Pirates of the Galaxy S25 Edge"] 00:09:07.840 --> 00:09:12.280 They don't get that loud, but they do sound quite good. One thing I do appreciate is that they've added a vent 00:09:12.280 --> 00:09:15.800 at the top for better stereo sound. So it's not like a big bottom speaker 00:09:15.800 --> 00:09:20.360 plus a tinny earpiece speaker. You get a little bit better performance from the top, 00:09:20.360 --> 00:09:23.740 which is gonna be great if you're somebody who likes watching movies. Cameras. 00:09:23.740 --> 00:09:27.800 The camera experience on OxygenOS is very reminiscent of iOS 00:09:27.800 --> 00:09:32.080 and is not deviated substantially from previous camera modes. 00:09:32.080 --> 00:09:36.600 And let's see about that low light performance. 00:09:36.600 --> 00:09:40.760 Honestly, pretty impressed. You do, they did make you look pretty pale, Belle. 00:09:40.760 --> 00:09:44.640 Overall detail in the darker parts of the scenes are pretty good and the studio lights 00:09:44.640 --> 00:09:49.120 didn't absolutely destroy all the detail in the corner. 00:09:49.120 --> 00:09:52.800 The color might need some work, 00:09:52.800 --> 00:09:55.000 but the quality on the telephoto 00:09:55.960 --> 00:10:00.240 is quite good for this low light shot. 00:10:00.240 --> 00:10:04.240 It did do the longer exposure. Does this have optical image stabilization? 00:10:04.240 --> 00:10:05.080 I sure hope so. 00:10:07.800 --> 00:10:11.220 Taking the video right now, the phone struggles with matching the image 00:10:11.220 --> 00:10:15.480 between the lenses, at least in the viewfinder. 00:10:15.480 --> 00:10:18.560 That's something that Apple's gotten really good at. So it's a lot less jarring when you zoom 00:10:18.560 --> 00:10:22.720 all the way in on something and then zoom all the way out. A pretty stable video. 00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:25.840 I was shaking the camera that whole time. What we're doing right now is not enough 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:30.200 to give a full conclusion on the cameras for this, especially for those who are worried 00:10:30.200 --> 00:10:33.640 about the lack of the Hasselblad partnership that ended. 00:10:33.640 --> 00:10:37.080 I'm pretty impressed by it in this room, but obviously your mileage may vary. 00:10:37.080 --> 00:10:41.240 I'm not really a videographer, but OnePlus has included a bunch of cool new features 00:10:41.240 --> 00:10:46.320 for creators, which includes log video recording in OnePlus's proprietary color space. 00:10:46.320 --> 00:10:49.440 OnePlus has also added what they claim is an industry first, 00:10:49.440 --> 00:10:53.400 and that is live LUT previews. So if you're recording in RAW, 00:10:53.400 --> 00:10:58.880 instead of monitoring a washed out gray image, it'll apply a LUT that will make your footage look 00:10:58.880 --> 00:11:02.320 more like how it should after editing. And that's gonna be cool if you're somebody 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:07.000 who's maybe a travel vlogger, because this also has an underwater mode, 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:11.000 which allows you to use the camera app with just the buttons on the phone. 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:15.520 And you might be thinking, oh well, it must be IP rated to be underwater. 00:11:15.520 --> 00:11:22.000 And oh boy, is it ever IP rated. It's IP66, IP68, IP69, and IP69K, 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:26.400 which means it can be submerged and blasted with water up to 80 degrees Celsius. 00:11:26.400 --> 00:11:30.480 Who's doing that to their phone? I don't know, but it is really nice to see the focus on durability. 00:11:30.480 --> 00:11:35.120 And OnePlus claims you can even use this in minus 20, and Labs actually confirmed that 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:38.560 by tossing this in our environmental chamber, and it still works. 00:11:38.560 --> 00:11:42.760 So if you are a Canadian who forgets their phone in their car, you don't have to worry, 00:11:42.760 --> 00:11:45.880 unless it's lower than minus 20. Which happens. 00:11:47.880 --> 00:11:51.480 It's like, I don't know, I'm not, that's not an impressive selfie. 00:11:51.520 --> 00:11:54.600 Being a flagship phone, there's an endless list of features. So we're gonna just speed run 00:11:54.600 --> 00:11:59.280 through some of the interesting ones. It's got Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, UAV grade gyroscope. 00:11:59.280 --> 00:12:06.160 It's got the world's fastest smartphone RAM. We're talking LPDDR5X, running at 10,667 megabits 00:12:06.160 --> 00:12:11.720 per second in the 16 gig variant. It's got a dedicated Wi-Fi chip for a 50% faster Wi-Fi, 00:12:11.720 --> 00:12:15.280 360 cryo velocity cooling, where it's trying to avoid sending 00:12:15.280 --> 00:12:19.560 too much heat to your display. It's got 4K 120 FPS Dolby Vision HDR, 00:12:19.560 --> 00:12:24.080 real-time tone mapping, and a bunch of AI stuff if you're really into that. 00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:29.760 Combine that with the performance, the battery life, the screen. You have a solid package in this phone. 00:12:29.760 --> 00:12:33.840 And speaking of the screen, it's actually fully flat, so it's easy to apply a screen protector 00:12:33.840 --> 00:12:36.960 and it's less fragile. The OnePlus 13, it was not completely flat, 00:12:36.960 --> 00:12:41.500 and it was super annoying, but now it's good, it's nice. 00:12:41.500 --> 00:12:45.200 Yeah, I think that if you are looking for a phone, 00:12:45.200 --> 00:12:49.520 this should be a real contender. However, the question remains, what does it cost? 00:12:49.520 --> 00:12:54.520 OnePlus has gone from flagship killer to flagship, and it will be available for $899 00:12:54.520 --> 00:13:01.120 for the 12 256 gig version, or $999 for the 16 gig 512 version. 00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:04.360 So, what do you think? Is that a fair price? Let us know in the comments below. 00:13:04.360 --> 00:13:07.840 And if you enjoyed this video, why don't you check out some of our other phone videos, 00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:09.680 maybe the Pixel 10, perhaps? 00:13:10.880 --> 00:13:11.720 Perhaps?