The OnePlus 13 at long last renewed our faith in the brand’s flagships. It was distinctive in appearance, felt premium to the touch, and provided a perfect blend of performance, screen quality, and camera chops rivaling anything from Samsung or Google. That’s why the China debut of the OnePlus 15 feels like a punch to the gut. On both paper and in early positioning, it reads less like a legit successor to the 13 and more of a reboot that chips away at exactly what made the 13 so easy to recommend.
This is not about nitpicking one spec. Rather, it’s a series of decisions — form factor, display, cameras, and controls — that together push the product away from OnePlus’ hard-earned sweet spot. The upshot is a phone that appears more glam in a press slide than it does on the streets.
Design Regression and Identity Loss Are Here
The design language of the OnePlus 13 was bold: a massive sculpted camera island, an insanely good-looking vegan leather option, and a flat display that felt like it had been engineered to seem intentionally modern. The OnePlus 15 sheds a lot of that character. The rounded camera bump has been replaced with a more generic square one, and the vegan leather finish is no more. It’s a visual reprieve from the unfamiliar; it seems every flagship needs a point of view.
And more disappointing to long-time users is the lack of an alert slider. OnePlus established itself on fast-and-smooth usability, and the slider — first practically implemented in the brand’s infancy — was part of that ethos. A multimodal programmable abstract soft action button is not a tactile, glance-free mute toggle you can flick in your pocket. This smacks of the compromise of the OnePlus 10T, not the ambition of the 13.
Show Moves That Sacrifice Everyday Clarity
Take the headline numbers: The OnePlus 15 boasts a superfast 165Hz refresh rate and can dim all the way to a relaxing 1 nit. Those are good for gamers and night readers. But in most buyers’ worlds, resolution and tuning matter more than raw refresh numbers. In stepping back in resolution against the already good 120Hz flat AMOLED of the OnePlus 13, the 15 sacrifices everyday text sharpness and image crispness for a spec-sheet victory that few people will actually notice.
Yes, durability claims seem to be stronger — Chinese launch materials tout IP69 and IP69K ratings — and wireless charging is still table stakes for this class. All the same, those benefits don’t make up for the blow to on-screen clarity. OnePlus got the 13’s balance right, while the 15 feels optimized for a demo reel rather than day-to-day readability.
Cameras Step Back After Hasselblad Partnership Ends
OnePlus has been transparent on Weibo and in press briefings that its collaboration with Hasselblad is over. That collaboration went beyond the inclusion of a logo. It had an impact on color science, cute portraits, and fan-favorite modes like XPan. The OnePlus 15 relies on a new in-house DetailMax Engine — ambitious, but unproven.
Adding to the confusion, the main lens is also listed with a smaller maximum aperture now (f/2.8 where it’s f/2.6 on the 13), and not all of its sensor details are completely clear in launch materials. The main Sony LYT-808 sensor and the 3x telephoto LYT-600 on the OnePlus 13 were dependable for detail capture and low-light consistency. If the 15 really does use smaller sensors under that more pinched aperture, look for pricier nights, squatter depth, and even more reliance on software to fill in holes — where Hasselblad’s tuning previously offered an advantage. Independent testing from the likes of DXOMARK and GSMArena will be crucial, but early signs aren’t confidence-inducing.
Power-User Features Blunted by Questionable Changes
Action button can be set to camera, flashlight, or screenshots, but it’s replacing a key differentiator rather than adding one. The alert slider is consistently one of the highest-rated features on brand forums’ community polls, and that’s because pressing a button and being in another mode gives users more tactile feedback — bringing an instant, frictionless context switch. That kind of muscle memory can’t be duplicated with a software shortcut.
Similarly, pursuing a 165Hz panel while also stepping down resolution isn’t an understanding of why the OnePlus 13 was refreshing. It was the exception to the flagship rule, which typically made you choose between smoothness, clarity, and battery life. Ramping up the refresh rates can strain the GPU and not provide an appreciable benefit in everyday apps, while a lower-res canvas is evident the instant you go to open an e-book or scroll news text.
What Buyers Should Do Before Considering OnePlus 15
If you can still get a OnePlus 13, it looks like the safer bet: one-of-a-kind design, excellent flat 120Hz screen, and trusted Sony sensors matched with a proven camera pipe that is designed in Hasselblad’s spirit.
For those tempted by the OnePlus 15, just wait for independent reviews — including lab-measured display sharpness, battery endurance, and low-light camera performance from reputable test houses.
The bottom line is simple. A well-disciplined successor guards core strengths before applying new tricks. By backtracking on its identity-defining design, by downgrading screen clarity, by wiping the slate clean of a camera system that was just hitting its stride, the OnePlus 15 comes across as exactly the kind of mess that feels like the worst possible follow-up to something like the OnePlus 13: one in which novelty is pursued not at any price point but by trading in many fundamentals.
