A gaming-focused review of the OnePlus 15 has leaked ahead of the phone’s official announcement, and the early verdict is crystal clear: performance is king.
Geekerwan’s tech channel has the model for testing, and in footage it sports a 165Hz screen alongside Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, which is designed to deliver impressive gains for frame stability, response times, and thermal management overall.
- What the preliminary testing says about gaming
- Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 vs. leading competitors
- Why 165Hz matters for mobile esports and responsiveness
- Thermals, tuning, and real playtime expectations
- Launch timing and key market availability questions
- So what’s the bottom line with the pre-launch verdict
What the preliminary testing says about gaming
The assessment led Geekerwan through both synthetic benchmarks and real gaming across a variety of resource-heavy titles such as Garena Delta Force, League of Legends Mobile, and Honkai Impact. The OnePlus 15, they say, can manage higher and more consistent frame rates than its forebears while sidestepping the kind of throttling dips that so often dog marathon outings.
The primary hardware change is the move to a 165Hz display panel, from 120Hz on the previous flagship, in tandem with a top-of-the-line SoC. In slow‑motion analysis, a significant improvement is shown in first-person shooters as the reviewer points out consistent aim tracking and faster target acquisition playing a role in win or loss where display refresh, frame pacing, and touch input latency can directly affect your win-loss margins.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 vs. leading competitors
On CPU workloads, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 reportedly smokes Apple’s A19 Pro and MediaTek’s Dimensity 9500 in terms of real-world multi-core performance, which isn’t surprising given the expected improvements to Qualcomm’s big-core cluster (refreshed cores) and scheduler tuning. Running GPU trials with 3DMark’s Steel Nomad Light, the Elite Gen 5 is ahead of the A19 Pro but loses to the Dimensity 9500, indicating that there are still some instances where MediaTek holds a graphics-bound advantage.
Early Geekbench 6 figures are nonetheless on par with those we’ve seen from reference-designed devices packing the chip, but what stands out is that this pre-release OnePlus 15 seems to have trounced a rival phone also made from Qualcomm’s silicon—the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max—in several tests noted by the reviewer. The likely explanations are software optimizations and thermal headroom, two things that can materially change outcomes even with the same silicon in a different OEM’s hands.
Why 165Hz matters for mobile esports and responsiveness
Jumping from 120Hz to 165Hz does more than just bump a spec. More refresh means less blur and a narrower delivery window of each frame, which can improve tracking, flick shots, and peeker’s advantage in FPS games. The catch is software support: a lot of popular games peg frame rates at 60 or 120fps to preserve thermal and battery budgets, or simply for the sake of parity.
OnePlus is partnering with studios to enable 165fps modes in a few games, according to the reviewer. Other titles mentioned include Call of Duty Mobile, League of Legends Mobile, Clash of Clans, and Naruto—though who knows when these higher refresh options will arrive in anything but the Chinese market. As ever, the pace of adoption may be slowed by regional builds, publisher sign-offs, and anti-cheat frameworks.
Thermals, tuning, and real playtime expectations
Sustained performance is the holy grail of mobile gaming. The early OnePlus 15 sample seems to be using aggressive thermal design (bigger vapor chamber, more advanced graphite layers) and scheduler tuning to keep higher boost clocks up longer. That would account for the flatter frame-time graphs we’ve seen in extended play of action-packed titles.
This approach is in line with wider industry developments. During the past two years, premium Android phones have moved away from chasing one-off peak scores to optimizing for 30‑minute-plus stability, a measure that aligns more accurately with real gameplay. Benchmarks are cool, but it’s frame-time consistency and heat dissipation that players feel in hand.
Launch timing and key market availability questions
Oh yeah, and let’s not forget that the phone still hasn’t hit the market, having only been teased in various promo shots featuring a sometimes new-look camera island and (with regard to recent leaks) a 165Hz refresh rate display. The software picture is in just as much flux: 165fps modes have to be supported on a per-title basis, and features often debut first in domestic builds before going global. Just like previous cycles, the worldwide availability may not keep up with the first release window.
So what’s the bottom line with the pre-launch verdict
If these pre-release results hold, the OnePlus 15 is looking to be a gamer’s phone first and an all-rounder flagship second. And with Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, a 165Hz display, and (presumably) well-behaved thermals, this has a plausible shout at leading the ranks of Android titles in sustained play. The three remaining variables—game support at 165fps, camera performance, and global availability—are what will make or break the momentum from this first review in terms of mass-market acceptance.