New OnePlus phone beats Samsung on power, battery | Tech News

It has been a good yr for OnePlus. The Android phone maker launched an wonderful phone with the OnePlus 13 back in January, a system with distinctive cameras, battery and efficiency. The firm then, unusually, changed that phone final month with the OnePlus 15, which had even higher battery life and a fully overhauled design.

Now one month after that, OnePlus is placing a cherry on prime of its 2025 with the £649 OnePlus 15R, a tweaked and cheaper model of the £849 OnePlus 15 that boasts an huge 7,400mAh battery.

The 15R can be one of the primary telephones on the market to run on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, one of the newest high-end cellular chips from Qualcomm. It’s a small step down in general pure energy from the 8 Elite Gen 5 within the OnePlus 15, however on paper is more highly effective than the 8 Elite present in telephones such because the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, which prices £1,249.

OnePlus says the 8 Gen 5 “sees 36% faster CPU speeds and 11% faster GPU speeds and 46% better AI performance than the previous generation chipset”, which refers back to the 8 Elite.

The 15R’s 7,400mAh battery additionally bests the S25 Ultra’s 5,000mAh cell by a long way, and will show to have the very best battery life of any phone round. I just lately reviewed the OnePlus 15, which went for 3 days on a single charge.

That phone has a 7,300mAh battery. With a barely much less demanding processor and a bigger battery, the OnePlus 15R is prone to be an absolute winner on this division. Like the OnePlus 15, and in contrast to Samsung, Apple or Google telephones, the OnePlus 15R’s battery is comprised of silicon-carbon tech, which is more power dense than lithium ion cells. This means OnePlus can match more battery capability into gadgets with out making them thicker.

The phone has a 6.83-inch 165Hz LTPS OLED show with an under-screen ultrasonic fingerprint sensor and high 3200Hz pattern price for easy scrolling. Much just like the OnePlus 15, the phone will solely be capable of output easy 165Hz refresh charges in appropriate video games, but it surely’s nonetheless spectacular to see on a phone, when most rivals prime out at 120Hz.

OnePlus has helped keep the price down right here by not together with a telephoto lens on the digital camera system. But you do the identical IMX906 sensor discovered on OnePlus 15 for the 50MP most important digital camera, plus an 8MP ultra-wide as back up. There’s additionally a 32MP selfie shooter on the entrance with autofocus.

To prime it off, the phone has 4 separate IP scores for mud and water resistance: IP66, IP68, IP69 and IP69K. This is a far cry from the OnePlus of a few years in the past, which refused to even pay to offer its telephones IP scores. Now, the 15R is one of essentially the most mud and water resistant on the market. You may put it in a dishwasher and it’d be OK, allegedly.

This highly effective new Android phone is up for pre-order right now, December 17, from £649 for 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. There can be a 12GB/512GB option for £729, which remains to be wonderful worth – and OnePlus is even working an early hen off of £100 off this more costly model till January 21, so proper now you may get it for £629.

The phone goes on full sale on January 15, 2026. OnePlus additionally introduced a mid-range Android pill, the £319 Pad Go 2, in addition to the £179 OnePlus Watch Lite smartwatch, which might connect with an Android and iOS system concurrently.