OnePlus 15R: there's much more than its 7,400 mAh battery to write home about

The OnePlus 15R was unveiled 24 hours ago and immediately drew attention with a battery that's larger than the one on the OnePlus 15 (the "proper" OnePlus flagship):

• OnePlus 15R – 7,400 mAh
• OnePlus 15 – 7,300 mAh

And the OnePlus 15R is the less premium, cheaper model out of the two.

It's interesting to see how the software optimizations will handle the different hardware on these phones – and the longer battery life might be offered by the non-R model in the end – but on paper, 100 mAh is still 100 mAh more.

Would Samsung do something similar? Equipping the Galaxy S26 Plus with 5,100 mAh, while packing the Galaxy S26 Ultra with a 5,000 mAh cell? Don't make me laugh.

I personally think that the OnePlus 15R, however, is not just a large-battery phone. It's so much more.

It's a different beast

The OnePlus 15R is a phone oriented primarily at gamers who happen to shiver at the sight of a "true" gaming phone.

Above, you have the OnePlus 15R, and below is a dedicated gaming handset:



The OnePlus 15R is much subtler, but don't let that fool you: its 6.83-inch AMOLED display goes up to 165Hz of refresh rate. Some mobile games support 165Hz, and OnePlus 15R owners would take advantage of that.

OnePlus even brags that you'll have "an unfair advantage" over your enemies in games – because, thanks to the 165Hz refresh rate, you'll be able to see them faster, aim better and fire at them before they do.

In terms of chipset, the OnePlus 15R packs the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, which is not as powerful as the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (yeah, Qualcomm's naming convention infuriates me, too). But the non-Elite Gen 5 silicon is getting a 36% increase in CPU performance over the previous generation (the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which is still mighty good).

Pair that with 12 GB of LPDDR5X Ultra RAM and superfast UFS 4.1 ROM, and the speed bumps or lags are a thing of the past.

But no, OnePlus had to go even further than that. The OnePlus 15R has a really impressive vapor chamber to keep temperatures down. Gamers know how hot a handset can get – and excessive heat kills the performance.

That's not the end of the story, though, for there are further gaming refinements.

It has an upgraded gyroscope that can detect movements up to ±4000 degrees per second, offering precise control when every movement could be fatal in the game. There's a new Touch Response Chip that supports touch detection at 3200Hz, "officially the fastest in the industry", says OnePlus. The Wi-Fi performance has also been improved for uninterrupted gaming sessions.

What are its shortcomings?

OK, so this thing has a massive 7,400 mAh battery, a high-end chipset, a ton of gaming optimizations, fast RAM, a large display… what's not to like about it?

Well, the camera setup for starters. The OnePlus 15R's predecessor had a dedicated telephoto snapper, this one doesn't. It only has a main 24mm, 50 MP camera and an ultra-wide: 16mm, 8 MP.

It's 2026 in some days and no phone above $200 should have an 8 MP camera. Cold, but true.

The problem is that the OnePlus 15R ditched the wrong camera. This ultra-wide should've been gone, as the 24mm equivalent focal length of the main camera is already wide. A 72–80mm telephoto would've been so much better and practical.

Then, there's the price: the OnePlus 15R starts at $699, which is a whole $100 more than the OnePlus 13R and its $599 price tag.

I know that $100 doesn't feel like a lot of money these days – but that's not normal, that's our inflation-altered minds speaking.

Everybody expects phones to get even more expensive in 2026, so maybe this is just the first wave. Although it would be much better if the price hike was $50, not $100. But you can't win 'em all, can you?

It's more than just a battery

The OnePlus 15R is a pretty interesting phone. I think it's wrong to label it as a "battery phone" and keep a blind eye to its other side.

It's like having a large 4x4 SUV and only using its trunk to load stuff – yes, it's spacious, yes, it's practical. But a 4x4 can take you to places where regular cars simply can't.

If you crave crazy battery numbers, I've got something else for you: the 10,000 mAh alleged Honor Power 2.