OnePlus appears to have quietly teased its next flagship on Weibo, and the first official-looking look suggests a drastic design reset.
From the screenshot above, spotted by 9to5Google, a group of successful esports players are standing around a device taking a selfie together in an empty stadium with some tantalizingly vague copy acting as the caption. The phone in their hands seems to be the next OnePlus flagship, rumored to be called the OnePlus 15.
A new camera silhouette breaks the recent OnePlus mold
The most noticeable difference is a square rear camera island instead of the circular module you may recently have seen on OnePlus flagships. It’s a minor shift in philosophy that speaks volumes: a square plate gives more room for lens movement and can handle larger sensors, the periscopic telephoto or yet another new stabilization system without cramming all those components into a slim ring.
Notorious leaker Digital Chat Station poured on the gasoline when they took to Weibo and insisted the phone has a matte texture and uses a ceramic-like coating. If true, it’s an indication that OnePlus is pursuing a premium in-hand feel to go along with improved scratch resistance. The same source also teased a particularly thin body — reputedly slimmer than the next iPhone from Apple, even – albeit we should take early marketing whispers here rather than measurements.
What the Weibo tease says about priorities
The use of esports talent for the reveal is no accident. OnePlus has been running its flagships to performance-first buyers for some time now, and it’s kept itself gaming-optimized with a high refresh rate LTPO display and aggressive thermal management, as well as fast touch response. The brand’s most recent phone is pretty consistently near the front of the Android pack for frame rate stability, specifically in games like Genshin Impact and PUBG Mobile, and the video teaser leans into that.
Expect the company to play up speed again. Speaking in terms of release, the new flagship should be tipped to have Qualcomm’s top silicon available at launch, along with LPDDR5X or newer memory and UFS 4.0 storage – if we’re talking about specs for 2021 this is what we’d expect performance-wise. OnePlus has a history of pushing charging speeds hard, so 80W+ wired fast charging in some territories would keep pace with prior models, while retaining big battery capacities is table stakes throughout the category.
Naming, culture and the ‘15’ question for OnePlus
There are several reports that OnePlus intends to skip “14” altogether, going immediately from the previous model number to 15, like it went from 3T to 5, because of an aversion in some parts of Asia for the number four. Though the number is a cosmetic concern, it does matter for branding consistency and search exposure in various markets. A clean numerical leap sounds to resonate as a new cycle.
How this fits in with the Android flagship landscape
A square camera island would move OnePlus closer to the design languages of rivals that prefer rectangular modules as vessels for larger sensors and periscope optics. With OnePlus’s recent partnership with Hasselblad on imaging, a reworked arrangement might also mean differences in sensor size, stabilization hardware or focal length tactics. Expect talk of better color science, faster night shots and better portrait processing — where the brand has invested heavily over several generations.
The stakes are real. Counterpoint analysts have noted that OnePlus still has momentum in the premium Android segment in countries like India and continued presence in China, where visual differentiation and camera credibility are outsize considerations. A unique back design aids on store shelves and in social feeds — still the first place many shoppers encounter a phone.
What we’re still not certain about from the early teaser
The teaser provides practically no hard specs: No confirmed size for the display, details of what kind of sensor OnePlus has put into this thing, battery capacity and charging wattage. Certification databases like 3C or TENAA tend to appear before the full reveal, which could share those details in the run-up. For now, the most explicit message is aesthetic: OnePlus is ready to look different again.
If the recent OnePlus release cycle is any indication, some more official images and technical confirmations will trickle out by way of Weibo ahead of a China-first launch followed soon after by a wider global availability. So for now, treat this as a fancy leak with an agenda – namely to set the silhouette, get people talking about materials and make sure you know that the next OnePlus flagship wants to be seen as much as it does benchmarked.
