Football’s iconic coach Jose Mourinho once told Dele Alli, “Time flies. I am 56 today, and yesterday, yesterday, I was 20”. That’s exactly how I feel as a smartphone enthusiast. If someone asks me about the invite system of the OnePlus One, I process the event as something that happened 3-4 years ago; that’s how fresh the memories are.
But in reality, it’s been over 11 years since this company was founded, and here we are in 2025 with the OnePlus 15. My team members at MySmartPrice had the opportunity to use the upcoming OnePlus 15, and since then, our video production head, Divyakant Thaledi, can’t stop talking about it.
While I am not allowed to speak about the specifications of the device, I can share some bits and pieces of the camera samples. Divyakant was supposed to write this review, but since his excitement has taken him over the moon, we did not want to turn this overview into a 5000-page document. Hence, here’s a quick glimpse at the OnePlus 15’s camera capabilities, and see how it fares after leaving behind the legacy of Hasselblad.
First look: Colours, Mood, and Dynamic Range
The biggest question every OnePlus fan currently has is, “How are the cameras without Hasselblad?”. The DetailMax Engine now takes charge, and in grand style. The initial impression of opening the camera app on the OnePlus 15 gives a familiar feeling, and the colour tones are similar to what we are used to seeing on a OnePlus phone.
While roaming through the rich historical forts of Udaipur, the device captured an impressive amount of detail while capturing the essence of the moment with natural tones. Just look at this image: it has the sky, a mix of artificial lights, darker areas, and, of course, the building. The OnePlus 15 blended the perfect tones for each artefact, without adding an artificial processing effect.
We did miss the Hasselblad filters, but the native camera modes did more than enough. A similar pattern can be observed across other images, where the OnePlus 15 strikes a great balance between shadows and brighter areas, something it has struggled with in the past. However, the textures do take a hit sometimes, depending on the lighting.
The zoom capabilities carry forward the wow factor by capturing the smallest of details in the subject. However, the background gets a softening effect in the process, but it could also be because of the sky.
OnePlus has also introduced a new long-exposure mode, which can be used in daylight. Previously, this was limited to dark lighting conditions to capture light trails, but the OnePlus 15 can artistically capture the Flash running effect at any time of the day.
The selfies also look sharp, and the overall dynamic range appears to have improved. Even though the car was moving at a high speed, the OnePlus 15 was able to retain the logo of the Mahindra and Tata cars in the background.
Unfortunately, that’s all the liberty I get to share about the OnePlus 15. Based on the 2000 camera samples that my team captured, I can definitely say that the cameras are impressively good.
OnePlus 15: Launch Date
The OnePlus 15 global launch is scheduled for November 13. We can’t wait to share our detailed camera review of the device. The OnePlus 15 feels like a true upgrade, something which smartphone enthusiasts will enjoy to their core.
