OnePlus 15R review: it’s not flashy, but it’s the best phone I’ve ever tested in one key area

Instant insight

If you were interested in buying the OnePlus 15 but would rather spend a little less money for a phone with a few choice downgrades, then the OnePlus 15R is ostensibly for you. But in a year when the best OnePlus phones have been repeatedly wowing us, the new mid-range mobile initially seems like a dud option. 

At $699.99 for its basic model (256GB storage; pay $100 more for 512GB), the phone is only $200 cheaper than its spec-heavy sibling, despite a range of downgrades across the board. In fact, it retails for $100 more than the OnePlus 13R did only eight months prior, despite that cut-price version of the OnePlus 13 beating the new mobile in a few key departments.

However having used the OnePlus 15R for a month, I was eventually won over by it; it’s a solid Android phone, even if it won’t go down in the annals of OnePlus history. It eschews the flashy and headline-grabbing features expected of flagship mobiles, in favor of specs and traits that actually make a meaningful difference to the average user.

Case in point: the OnePlus 15R has the best battery life of any phone I’ve tested, and it’s not even close. It’s also much hardier than most others I’ve used, with a lovely big screen. And instead of cramming the phone with dubiously-useful AI software features, OxygenOS’ tools are well thought out and help with navigation or organization. 

The charging speed and processing power are impressive too, if not quite on par with OnePlus’ flagship phones. If anything reveals that the OnePlus 15R isn’t a premium phone, it’s the camera array, with a few pieces of hardware missing from the brand’s other mobiles. It’d be an incredibly easy-to-recommend Android if it offered a meaningful value proposition compared to the barely-older OnePlus 13 series, or even its premium kin, and I can’t help but feel that it’s about $100 pricier than it should be. But if you can find it discounted in the sales then it’s well worth considering.

OnePlus 15R specs

OnePlus 15R design is uninspiring but solid

Quick take: While it’s a hardy phone, the OnePlus 15R is no looker

If you were disappointed with how nondescript the OnePlus 15 looked compared to its predecessor, you’re not going to find the R model any better. It apes its sibling’s understated — some may say boring — design: flat edge, top-left camera bump, pattern-less rear. I’m no more a fan of how this uninspired look has pervaded the Android phone market than the next guy, but at least on a mid-range phone like this, it’s fitting.

The phone is a little on the large size, poking out a small amount more than the 15 and weighing a touch extra, but that all lends itself to the bigger screen.

Though undistinguished in looks, the OnePlus 15R has one of the company’s design additions: the Plus Key. This can be mapped onto a variety of functions for quick access if you press and hold it; I used it to open the camera app but it can also turn on the torch, toggle Do Not Disturb, open the Recorder app, take a screenshot and a few more things. It took a while to become natural to use, but was really useful after a while. It also doubles as a shutter button the camera app, but is on the wrong edge of the mobile for that to be really useful.

In the review pictures, you can see the Charcoal Black model of handset. Also going on sale in some regions is a Mint Breeze colorway.

Thanks to a range of protection certifications, the OnePlus 15R is a hardy phone. It’s rated quadruply: IP66, IP68, IP69 and IP69K (OnePlus lists them all separately, even though some are linear improvements on others). That means you can submerge the handset in 1.5 meters of liquid, subject it to 80-degree-warm jets of water, and drop it in dust or sand without them working their way into the internals.

It survived a good few bumps and drops during my testing, many of which are due to how smooth and friction-free the edges are — it fell straight out of my hand quite often.

That’s just as well because, unlike the vast majority of smartphones I’ve tested, the 15R doesn’t come with an in-box case which you can use to tide you over until you buy a proper one.

Design score: 6/10

OnePlus 15R display is big and bold

Quick take: OnePlus offers a giant panel with all the bells and whistles of its top offerings

Depending on what you value in a phone screen, you might consider the OnePlus 15R to have the best the company has made yet; it has nearly all the same specs as the OnePlus 15, but it’s bigger.

That means it’s 6.83 inches diagonally, offering you plenty of viewing room but a larger expanse to stretch your fingers over. It’s broken up only by a small punch-hole for the camera at the top. The resolution is 1272 x 2800, or FHD+, for a 450 pixel-per-inch count and a 19.5:9 aspect ratio.

It’s an AMOLED panel, nice and punchy with a blinding max brightness of 1800 nits. I used this phone alongside the LCD-toting OnePlus Pad Go 2, and the vibrancy and contrast of colors and darkness was apparent. The screen also uses Corning Gorilla Glass 7i for protection, so it should be drop- and scratch-proof. The default screen protector isn’t, though, so my screen quickly looked scuffed-up.

The refresh rate hits 165Hz in theory, but that’s only if you use any of the handful of apps that support higher it or 144Hz. Usually I stick to lower refresh rates in phones, to save battery — the 15R lets you drop the resolution for the same reason — but for reasons we’ll shortly get to, I didn’t need to worry about that.

I also want to pay some attention to the range of display features offered, with eye comfort and color enhancement modes to make the day-to-day experience of using the phone a little nicer. While OnePlus hasn’t confirmed whether the 15R marks a return of Aqua Touch, which ensures the display picks up your touch even if your finger is wet, my experience lets me believe that something like it is in play.

Display score: 8/10

OnePlus 15R performance and software both feel premium

Quick take: The OnePlus 15R feels like a premium phone when you’re using the thing

Any OnePlus fan knows that performance is always a strong suit in its phones, and despite the 15R technically being a redux phone, you’ll barely notice a difference when it comes to performance. 

The handset packs the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chipset, a near top-end chip, along with 12GB RAM and either 256GB or 512GB storage. Benchmark tests point to peak power that’s only a hair under the OnePlus 15, which packs the ‘Elite’ model of the above chip. 

The proof is in the pudding, or in this case, in the gamut of games that the OnePlus 15R can play without breaking a sweat. In any title I played, I was always able to opt for the top graphical settings without risking stuttering, lagging or long load times. The phone did heat up notably if I played intensive games for more than around 30 minutes, though, paired with a drop-off in power shown in benchmark tests. Take breaks from your gaming sesh, kids.

For day-to-day operations, you’re using Android 16 with OnePlus’ OxygenOS 16 laid over the top. The company has committed to four years of Android updates, taking you up to Android 20, and another two years of security patches.

OxygenOS continues to be one of the more popular Android forks, and over the testing period, I could appreciate why. Features like Zen Space, a restrained approach to AI features and the Shelf landing page of easy-to-summon widgets are all easy to point to as reasons to like it, but to me the appeal is simpler than that. It’s the look, the customization tools, the navigation; all distinctive in their own ways, but still easy to use. 

I’ve reviewed countless Androids that I’ve had to wrestle to use, and it’s quite rare that I have nothing bad to say about a user interface. Rare, and a breath of fresh air — or as they call it, ‘oxygen’.

Actually, I do have one gripe: the phone has a fair amount of bloatware. If you’re paying $700 for a smartphone, you shouldn’t have to spend five minutes deleting apps when you first boot up the phone.

Performance score: 8/10

OnePlus 15R cameras aren’t here to win awards

Quick take: The OnePlus 15R leans heavily on software to make up for minimal hardware

OnePlus hasn’t seemingly designed the 15R to impress smartphone photographers. That’s not the insult it sounds, just recognition that the camera department is where lots of costs are cut from the 15.

The phone packs a 50MP f/1.8 main camera and an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera with a 112-degree lens. The main model’s telephoto lens isn’t present, even though the 13R had one, and that longer zoom lenses was one of the big trends of 2025.

Here we can see the zoom performance, from ultra-wide to ultra-close, on a Cathedral. As you can see, it’s detailed and crisp up to 2x zoom, but when you punch in further you’re getting some messy shots. Anything above 1x zoom is digital zoom, or cropping, up to the limit which is 20x, and I found myself happy with photos up to 2x.

For what it’s worth, the OnePlus 15R performs just fine in the camera department. Having used it indoors and outdoors, in varying weather and light conditions and on a range of subjects, I struggle to level any serious criticisms at it, beyond the hardware downgrades. Snaps are sharp, bright and clear, even if it takes a moment to frame them right thanks to some slow autofocus. I found them good enough to use for product photography for another article I wrote.

Lots of the OnePlus 15R’s camera performance is reliant on exciteable post-processing optimization which can have a noticeable impact on pictures. Most noticeably, it ramps up the saturation of colorful subjects to almost unnatural degrees — I found the vibrancy of fruit and flowers made them look artificial, but others might like how social media-ready they become.

You can see from the tangerines and chrysanthemums the zealous hand of the optimization; they weren’t that zingy in real life. However the pictures are a little more appealing as a result, also apparently from the firework snap which comes straight from the reel.

Round the front, you’re looking at a 32MP f/2.0 selfie camera with a focal length that, at 25mm, isn’t quite as wide as on the 15 (which I consider a positive). The real test of front-facing snappers is how well Portrait mode cuts out the subject, and I’m pleased to say that it was accurate at identifying and applying appropriate bokeh background blur.

Camera score: 6/10

OnePlus 15R battery is its strongest spec

Quick take:  The OnePlus 15R has the best battery life of any phone I’ve tested, and its charging is impressive too

I initially didn’t think I was going to give the OnePlus 15R a fair shake when testing its battery; you see, my testing period overlapped with Christmas. Long travel times to my hometown require long gaming or TV binging sessions, and the entire holiday consists of days of streaming festive songs, leaving the screen on while I follow recipes, and video calls with distant relations and friends. So I was ready to go easy on the phone if it tapped out early.

Surprisingly — and thankfully — it didn’t, and I was constantly floored by how much power the phone had in the tank. I shouldn’t have been surprised — at 7,400mAh, this has one of the biggest batteries of any consumer-ready phone (and OnePlus’ best for about a month until the OnePlus Turbo 6 was announced).

My average use over the festive season was higher than normal, and yet the OnePlus 15R almost always finished a day with 60-70% battery left. I regularly went two full days without charging — phone companies often claim ‘two-day battery lives’ but this is the first time I can ever say I’ve tested a mobile which truly lasts that long. It’s no exaggeration to say that the handset has the best battery life of any phone I’ve tested.

The phone’s charging speed is nothing to turn your nose up at either, with OnePlus using its fast (though not quite flagship fast) 80W powering here. 

OnePlus’ official charging predictions say you’ll be able to get from 1% to 50% charge in 22 minutes, and in my own testing, it took about 50 minutes to get a full charge.

Unlike in the flagship model, you’re not getting wireless or reverse charging. It’s just one downgrade of the cut-price model.

Battery score: 10/10

Should you buy the OnePlus 15R?

The OnePlus 15R would be a must-buy if it were a little cheaper, and I can’t help but feel that OnePlus’ choice of price might hurt its prospects as a ‘budget’ alternative.

Still, there’s definitely a market for the OnePlus 15R, if you prefer long-lasting hardy workhorses rather than flashy powerhouses. Its battery life and protection rating mean it’ll withstand life’s hardships a little better than the next phone.

I’d best recommend this to people who people who are outdoorsy and need something that’ll survive, those who often can’t charge for long periods of time, and those who’re buying a handset for work.

Why not try…?

OnePlus 15

What more do you get for the extra $200, you may be asking. Well, OnePlus’ second flagship launch of 2025 has a few perks on its cut-price sibling.

It charges faster, at 120W, and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 Elite chipset offers top processing power. All its models have 16GB RAM and it also totes a trio of 50MP cameras for photography.

The screen is slightly smaller, with the same resolution and refresh rate as the R, and its battery is only 100mAh smaller. It has the same software, but wireless charging may be a big plus for some.

OnePlus 13R

For many buyers, the OnePlus 13R might trump the 15R as the cut-price mobile to buy.

The main reason for that is the price: it retails for $100 less and, being a few months older, will be primed for more price cuts. It also has a telephoto lens for long-distance photography, and a more distinctive look.

The rest of the specs lean in favor of the 15R though as the older model is slightly weaker, slower to charge and X, with a smaller battery and screen.

Samsung Galaxy S25 FE

If you’re happy to shop beyond OnePlus, another affordable take on a premium mobile is the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE. This is, as the name suggests, a more affordable take on the Samsung Galaxy S25, and it’s just a touch cheaper than the 15R.

It’s a slightly lighter and thinner phone than the OnePlus, but with a few premium features that the 15R is missing; it charges wirelessly, has a zoom lens and has seven years of promised software updates.

Downgrades? It’s a weaker mobile with a lower refresh rate and slower wired powering rate.

How we tested

I used the OnePlus 15R as my everyday smartphone for a full month before writing this review, following Digital Trends’ commitment to four weeks of testing for each device. 

Over that time I used the OnePlus as I would any smartphone; for social media and communicating, streaming music and playing games when I’m on the go and taking pictures and watching TV shows. I conducted a few benchmark and ‘lab-style’ tests during testing, but most of my impressions come from experience.