The next OnePlus flagship phone is expected to extend the reach of its telephoto camera, though not without a small trade-off you may notice after dark. The OnePlus 15’s periscope telephoto will feature a 50MP sensor matched with an 85mm equivalent focal length, and f/2.8 aperture, according to leaker Digital Chat Station on a Weibo post, with the f-stop being dialed up from the 73mm and f/2.6 found in the OnePlus 13.
What’s changing on the telephoto
The 3.5x–3. 7x optical zoom, depending on the actual focal length of the main camera (the OnePlus 13’s main is at about 23mm- equivalent). That’s a significant bump in reach from the OnePlus 13’s 3x, which should facilitate tighter framing of portraits, street details and events without getting any closer.
The trade-off is that its aperture is 2.8, rather than 2.6. Practically speaking, we’re talking about 14-15% less light reaching the sensor ((2.6/2.8)²), which possibly pushes the camera to pump up ISO or extend exposure times in low-light conditions — two avenues that are likely to result in more visible image noise or magnify the potential for motion blur. Daylight performance ought to stay strong; it’s in the twilight and indoor captures that you’ll be hit by the difference.
The good news: longer reach, better compression
There’s a reason an 85mm equivalent is a classic portrait focal length, after all. It will give you more flattering facial proportions, stronger subject separation and a more appealing background compression without being based on purely artificial bokeh. Anticipate more intimate framing of on stage performers, architectural details across the street and more natural looking portraits than a 70–75mm lens.
There’s also 50MP behind the periscope so there’s some headroom for non-stupid crop-based “lossless” steps between an optical zoom and hybrid zoom. A lot of brands lean on pixel binning and multi-frame fusion in order to preserve detail around 5x–7x; if OnePlus keeps some quality in the sensor, plus some strong processing, the added base-reach might actually come in handy at those mid-tele ranges.
The bad news: A dimmer lens in challenging light
Telephoto lenses already gather less light than wide lenses, and periscope systems need to fold that light through prisms and mirrors before it reaches the sensor. The difficulty is compounded if you stop down. Expect the camera to rely more heavily on multi-frame stacking, longer exposures and noise reduction in nightlife or in indoor arenas, types of scenes for which you’d use zoom.
How much it matters depends on stabilization and processing. Good optical stabilization can compensate for slower shutter speeds, and advanced computational photography can restore fine detail. But physics sets the bar: a f/2.8 tele compared with a f/2.6 will more frequently push the algorithm into more strenuous labor, and it will occasionally soften textures, or smudge moving subjects.
Context from rival flagships
Competitors offer a useful yardstick. Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max features a quadprism 120mm 5x lens and is at its best in bright or moderate light, though it can get noisy indoors. Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra went the difference, switching to a 5x 111mm tele at f/3.4, banking on a 50MP sensor and lots of processing to make up the distance. The Pixel 8 Pro from Google matches a 120mm 5x at f/2.8 with substantial computational photography to help steady low-light zoom. In a nutshell: a slightly dimmer lens isn’t a disqualifier if the sensor, stabilization and software come together to make it work for you.
Can software bridge the gap?
OnePlus confirms it’s moving on from Hasselblad branding, working on its DetailMax Engine If that pipeline gives a bump to multi-frame alignment, tone mapping, and tele-specific denoising, it might claw back the light deficit while maintaining the micro-contrast—especially at 3.5x–7x where many users reside. The company’s most recent phones already blend data across lenses to enhance mid-zoom clarity; extending that logic to a longer 85mm base could be powerful.
Two things will be key: the telephoto sensor’s physical size and the quality of optical stabilization. The larger sensor is more sensitive per pixel to photons and steadier optics can afford slower shutters without blur. If OnePlus can mate that f/2.8 glass with a sensor of meaningful size and decent OIS, most users won’t ever realize the 0.3-stop hit except in the darkest scenes.
The bottom line: a strategic trade for framing power
The Full OnePlus 15 telephoto seems to be a calculated shift: practical reach and classic 85mm rendering at the cost of a bit of light. For travel, portraits and daytime events, the shift is probably a net win. For night life and sports indoors, the proof will be in the noise and whether the new imaging pipeline can tame it without squashing too much detail.
If those specs from Digital Chat Station hold, the OnePlus 15’s zoom camera won’t be all of an upgrade or all of a downgrade—it’s a rebalancing. The best way to call it will be low-light side-by-side tests at 3x–7x. Until then, the hed is this: more reach in your pocket, at modest penalty the software needs to make up after dark.
