Home > Smartphone comparison > OnePlus 16 vs OnePlus 15 – which one to choose?

OnePlus 16 vs OnePlus 15

93 out of 100
OnePlus 16
VS
93 out of 100
OnePlus 15
OnePlus 16
OnePlus 15

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.78-inch OnePlus 16 (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6) that was released on October 12, 2026, against the OnePlus 15, which is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and came out 1 year before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Memory
  1. Differences
  2. Review
  3. Specs
  4. Benchmarks
  5. Battery life
  6. Camera
  7. Comments

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the OnePlus 16
  • Comes with 1700 mAh larger battery capacity: 9000 vs 7300 mAh
  • Higher display refresh rate – 185 Hz
  • 15% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (4627K versus 4008K)
  • More recent OS version: Android 17 versus 16
  • 13% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 4091 and 3607 points
Reasons to consider the OnePlus 15
  • The rear camera has a 3.5x optical zoom
  • Supports higher wattage charging (120W versus 100W)

Review

Evaluation of OnePlus 16 and OnePlus 15 crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
πŸ“± Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

To get an accurate value-for-money index, update the default prices with actual prices from your country’s retailers (for the selected memory configs) and press the "Calculate" button.
Currency
12 / 256 GB
VS
12 / 256 GB
58.2
(Average)
Value Index
66.9
(Good)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests
Phone:
OnePlus 16
vs
OnePlus 15

Display

Type AMOLED AMOLED
Size 6.78 inches 6.78 inches
Resolution 1272 x 2772 pixels 1272 x 2772 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 19.5:9
PPI 450 ppi 450 ppi
Refresh rate 185 Hz 165 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (1-185 Hz) Yes (1-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 2000 nits 1800 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR - 6000 nits
HDR support Yes, Dolby Vision Yes, Dolby Vision
Touch sampling rate - 330 Hz
Screen protection Crystal Shield Glass Gorilla Glass Victus 2
Screen-to-body ratio 91.2% 91.2%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming		 - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
Display tests
RGB color space - 99.9%
PWM - 120 Hz
Response time - 3 ms
Contrast - ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
OnePlus 16
n/a
OnePlus 15
3413 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3]

Design and build

Height 161.42 mm (6.36 inches) 161.42 mm (6.36 inches)
Width 76.67 mm (3.02 inches) 76.67 mm (3.02 inches)
Thickness 8.45 mm (0.33 inches) 8.1 mm (0.32 inches)
Weight 217 g (7.65 oz) 211 g (7.44 oz)
Waterproof IP69 IP69
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber Vapor chamber
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Black, Silver, Gold Black, Gold, Purple
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Repairability - Good (3.69/5)
Drop resistance - Good (C) Β· 90 drops
Screen-to-body ratio
OnePlus 16
91.2%
OnePlus 15
91.2%

Performance

Chipset specifications of OnePlus 16 and OnePlus 15
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
Max clock 5010 MHz 4600 MHz
CPU cores 8 (2 + 3 + 3) 8 (2 + 6)
Architecture - 3 cores at 3.74 GHz:
- 3 cores at 4.03 GHz:
- 2 cores at 5.01 GHz: 		- 6 cores at 3.63 GHz: Oryon Gen 3 Performance
- 2 cores at 4.74 GHz: Oryon Gen 3 Prime
L3 cache - 8 MB
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 2 nanometers 3 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Hexagon
GPU
Graphics Adreno 850 Adreno 840
GPU shading units 1536 1536
GPU clock 1450 MHz 1300 MHz
FLOPS ~4454.4 GFLOPS ~3993.6 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of OnePlus 16 and OnePlus 15
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
OnePlus 16 +13%
4091
OnePlus 15
3607
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
OnePlus 16 +11%
11891
OnePlus 15
10732
Compute Score (GPU)
OnePlus 16 +40%
34344
OnePlus 15
24461
Compute Score (GPU) 34344 24461
Single-core score 4091 3607
Multi-core score 11891 10732
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
OnePlus 16 +15%
4627389
OnePlus 15
4008294
CPU 1245672 1184036
GPU 1716431 1490867
Memory 650217 402813
UX 981543 930578
Total score 4627389 4008294
Samples Less than 3 [45 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability - 78%
Graphics test - 20 FPS
Graphics score - 2699
3DMark Solar Bay
Graphics test - 48 FPS
Section 1 - 56 FPS
Section 2 - 47 FPS
Section 3 - 39 FPS
Graphics score - 12540
Sources: 3DMark [5]
PCMark 3.0
Web score - 15531
Video editing - 6678
Photo editing - 26644
Data manipulation - 14971
Writing score - 20874
AnTuTu 11 Ranking List (13th and 27th place)
Submit your benchmark results

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
OnePlus 16
No benchmark results yet
Add
OnePlus 15
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-26 (ASCOπŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Ώ)AnTuTu 123842868
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-08 -> aleshkaAnTuTu 123914618
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-05 (Mehdi)AnTuTu 113651261
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-24 -> Ang3L4DAnTuTu 114057387
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-15 (YurOk)AnTuTu 113870500
Add View all (59)

Memory

RAM
RAM size 12 GB 12 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5X
Memory clock - 5333 MHz
Channels 4 4
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 256 GB
Storage type UFS 4.1 UFS 4.1
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 17 Android 16
ROM OxygenOS 17 OxygenOS 16
OS size - 26 GB
OS updates - 4 years
Security updates - 6 years

Battery

Capacity 9000 mAh 7300 mAh
Max charge power 100 W 120 W
Battery type Silicon-Carbon (Si/C) Silicon-Carbon (Si/C)
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (50 W) Yes (50 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes, (wireless)
Bypass charging Yes Yes
Fast charging Yes Yes (50% in 15 min)
Full charging time - 0:43 hr
Battery cycles - 1100 cycles
Battery life tests
Web browsing - 18:32 hr
Watching video - 28:44 hr
Gaming - 10:01 hr
Standby - 139 hr
General battery life
OnePlus 16
n/a
OnePlus 15
39:14 hr
Add your battery life

Main camera

Matrix 200 megapixels 50 megapixels
Image resolution - 8192 x 6144
Zoom Optical, 3x Optical, 3.5x
Flash Dual LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 30FPS Up to 30FPS
4K video recording Up to 120FPS Up to 120FPS
1080p video recording Up to 120FPS Up to 120FPS
Slow motion 480 FPS (720p) 480 FPS (720p)
Angle of widest lens 116Β° 116Β°
Lenses 1) Standard: 200 MP
2) Telephoto: 50 MP
3) Ultrawide: 50 MP
1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Telephoto: 50 MP
3) Ultrawide: 50 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support		 - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 200 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/1.6 f/1.8
Focal length 23 mm 24 mm
Sensor - Sony IMX906
Sensor size 1/1.4" (β‰ˆ 0.71 inch) 1/1.56" (β‰ˆ 0.64 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 50 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/2.6 f/2.8
Focal length 73 mm 85 mm
Sensor - Samsung S5KJN5
Sensor size 1/1.95" (β‰ˆ 0.51 inch) 1/2.76" (β‰ˆ 0.36 inch)
Pixel size - 0.64 micron
Stabilization Optical Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 50 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/2.0 f/2.0
Focal length 16 mm 16 mm
Sensor - OmniVision OV50D
Sensor size 1/2.88" (β‰ˆ 0.35 inch) 1/2.88" (β‰ˆ 0.35 inch)
Pixel size 0.612 micron 0.612 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital

Selfie camera

Megapixels 50 megapixels 32 megapixels
Image resolution - 6560 x 4928
Aperture f/2.0 f/2.4
Focal length 18 mm 21 mm
Sensor CMOS Sony IMX709
Sensor size - 1/2.74" (β‰ˆ 0.36 inch)
Pixel size - 0.64 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display		 - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 6.0 6.0
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 3.2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG		 - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort Yes Yes
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port Yes Yes
Network
Number of SIM* 2 2
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos No No
Speakers test
Max loudness
OnePlus 16
n/a
OnePlus 15
80.4 dB

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced October 2026 October 2025
Release date October 2026 October 2025
Launch price (MSRP) $900 $899
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint		 - Hall-effect sensor
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Not included Not included
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

These smartphones have a lot in common, but we would recommend the OnePlus 16.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
4 (50%)
4 (50%)
Total votes: 8

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