OnePlus is starting off the year with a simple sweetener to incentivize prospective buyers of its current flagship model, the OnePlus 15: a $100 cashback bonus on any trade-in and one freebie at checkout that also includes the company’s premium earbuds as an option. It’s a classic OnePlus play — lead with value, marry it with speed — and for power users who are otherwise in the market for a new Android phone, that math is convincing.
Why This Deal Is Meaningful for OnePlus 15 Buyers
Here’s the headline incentive: Trade in any phone, any condition, and OnePlus gives you an instant $100 bonus applied to your purchase. If you’re offering up a relatively recent phone, some models can snag much more in credit — for example, an iPhone 17 appears on the list at up to $478, which would put total savings far beyond the baseline for many buyers. The pitch is ready to be sealed, with shoppers able to choose one freebie as part of the deal.
Trade-in-led promotions like this have been a fundamental lever for premium phone sales. In a report by analysts at Counterpoint Research, they observed that aggressive bonus credits drive conversion for high-end Android devices, especially when there is immediate checkout discount instead of back-end rebates.
What You Get With OnePlus 15: Specs and Features
The current shipping configuration comes with 16GB of RAM and 512GB storage, and is available in Infinite Black, Ultra Violet, or Sand Storm (silver). At the center of it all is a 6.7-inch AMOLED panel that boasts an also-quite-fast 165Hz refresh rate (faster than the 120Hz many rivals use), meaning ultra-smooth scrolling and game animations.
Powering the vehicle is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 under the hood. With their own platform and our data, we know this family of chips brings big boosts to both GPU throughput and sustained performance – the latter especially important in more demanding titles where frame pacing makes a difference. It supports Wi-Fi 7 so that the phone is ready for next-gen networks from the Wi-Fi Alliance – and unparalleled thermal tuning, plus OnePlus’ CPU Scheduler should help to keep clocks steady under sustained load.
Endurance is another highlight. Sitting well above the 5,000mAh-class segment deluge, a 7,300mAh battery and 80W wired charging take you from empty to a meaningful buffer in minutes. For the heavy users pinging back and forth between work apps, social video and gaming, that combination hits the right pain points: less tuna-canning for power-ups — and quicker recovery when you need juice.
Camera Trade-Offs to Know Before You Buy This Phone
One important change: this generation gets rid of the co-branded Hasselblad system previously found on prior models. In real-world use, daylight shots are full of lovely color and detail thanks to better AI image processing and Qualcomm’s new image signal pipeline, but low-light performance still isn’t as competitive as the best camera-first flagships. If photography is your absolute number one, well, it won’t hurt to keep that in mind as you ponder.
Free Gift Picks Explained: Best Options and Value
One standout freebie is the OnePlus Buds Pro 3. Tuned in collaboration with Dynaudio, they sound clear and punchy — a natural complement to the 15’s audio stack. If you’re already sorted for earbuds, the other gift items (a magnetic charger or official cases) are practical add-ons, but they tend not to be worth much monetarily and carry a lot less immediate value than the earbuds for most people.
Pricing and Availability Snapshot for OnePlus 15
At this writing, the 16GB/512GB model is in stock and plummeting in price to roughly $900 after a $100 trade-in bonus. Stack that with greater trade-in values, and the real-world price can drop even lower. Color availability can also change, so if you’ve got your eye on Ultra Violet or Sand Storm, check stock before you cart.
Bottom Line: Is the OnePlus 15 Deal Worth It?
For speed-loving buyers who don’t want to sacrifice marathon battery life for a high-refresh display (or vice versa), this is as good as you’ll find: a guaranteed $100 discount with an old device plus a genuinely nice free accessory.
Factor in a potential trade-in credit, too, and the OnePlus 15 is one of the absolute best values for pure performance at the top end of Android right now.
