One of the standout phones this year has been the OnePlus 13, which was launched in January 2025. The OnePlus 13 continued a recent trend of OnePlus phones that broke barriers in different ways, and the OnePlus 13 ushered in a new era of water resistance for smartphones.
The OnePlus 13 was more than just this, however, as our OnePlus 13 review found it’s a brilliant all-around phone with a great design, excellent cameras, long battery life, and a feature-packed software suite.
How does OnePlus follow that up? Why is it not the OnePlus 14? What do we want to see in OnePlus’ next phone? Let’s find out.
You may be wondering: where’s the OnePlus 14? The answer lies in the translation of the number four into Mandarin, where it phonetically sounds similar to the word for death. This similarity leads to tetraphobia — a fear of the number four — and it’s the core reason that most East Asian companies avoid using this number in their model numbers. OnePlus previously jumped from the OnePlus 3 to the OnePlus 5 for this same reason.
The OnePlus 13 is one of the best phones you can buy right now, and many of the competition still haven’t caught up, so there’s not a huge amount of improvement needed for the OnePlus 15 to compete. That said, there are a few key improvements that we’d like to see.
It’s almost certain that Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 will power the OnePlus 15, which should deliver a further boost in CPU and NPU (Neural Processing Unit) power. However, the Snapdragon 8 Elite draws a considerable amount of power, and hopefully, Qualcomm has improved the efficiency of the chipset as well.
One of the primary reasons for the new chipset is the inevitable boost in on-device AI performance. As we’d also like to see OnePlus bring its OnePlus AI key to the OnePlus 15, the likely improvement in NPU performance will make all of these, and the rest of Gemini, even smoother.
If the rumors are true, OnePlus is poised to make a significant leap in battery life. This is no mean feat: the OnePlus 13 has one of the highest endurance ratings of any Android phone, and the likely jump to 7,000 mAh in the OnePlus 15 will increase this even further.
As someone who travels often, this will be a huge benefit. The OnePlus 13’s endurance makes it my favorite phone to use on a plane, as it’s easy to share the in-flight Wi-Fi connection with other phones, and the battery can last an entire long-haul flight with plenty to spare. The OnePlus 15 could make this even better.
The OnePlus 13 camera has surprised me on several occasions, as it’s proven to be just as capable as the best smartphone cameras despite lacking a secondary telephoto lens like many Ultra phones. In many tests, it outperformed all the competition, thanks to its close partnership with Oppo, which resulted in similar hybrid zoom performance to the Oppo Find X8 Pro.
We’d like to see OnePlus finally address this in the OnePlus 15. In an ideal situation, OnePlus would add the secondary 50MP telephoto lens from the Oppo Find X8 Ultra, which offers 6x optical zoom and delivers performance up to 120x zoom.
A separate rumor suggests that OnePlus will stick to three cameras, but may follow rivals like Xiaomi by using a 200MP periscope telephoto lens. It’s unclear whether OnePlus will make broad changes to the camera on the OnePlus 15, but with the Pixel 10 and Galaxy S26 both expected to push the bar for cameras, I hope OnePlus will follow suit.
One last potential improvement is in the design. The OnePlus 13 boasts a stunning rear leather-like finish in blue, but its 8.5mm thickness is on par with some competition, but thicker than Samsung’s camera behemoth..
Given the ultra-thin design of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy S25 Edge, the Galaxy S26 Ultra could be slightly thinner, which makes it more comfortable in the hand. Hopefully, OnePlus will follow the current trend and make the OnePlus 15 a little thinner.
Are you tired of paying for streaming services you never watch just to get a phone plan feature you actually want? T-Mobile has good news for you! The carrier is rolling out new plans, called T-Mix, in early November to replace its old Experience lineup with a build-your-own perks system called Picks.
The benefits you choose vary from streaming and gaming to food delivery, AI, satellite service, and phone discounts. But if you are satisfied with your existing plan, you can keep it.
Merely days after the iPhone Duo hit the shelves, images of broken screens on the phone started popping up across social media. Until now, it’s been unclear what’s causing the line of defective pixels that appears vertically along the crease, as well as horizontally, on the phone’s inner display.
Apple has finally acknowledged the issue, which has shown up on iPhone Duo units owned by customers as well as demo units in stores. In a statement shared with Bloomberg, Apple says that not all iPhone Duo units are affected and that those that are tend to show the display fault early on. The company added that users who experience problems with their iPhone Duo display should contact AppleCare for a replacement.
Not long ago, Apple treated independent repair like an act of outright hostility. The Cupertino giant locked down parts with serial-number pairing, while repair tools remained firmly out of reach of anyone outside its authorized repair network. More importantly, the company waged a legal and lobbying battle against right-to-repair legislation.
I've covered enough of these fights over the years to know what a shift looks like. That's why what happened in October 2026 genuinely caught me off guard. The day the iPhone Duo went on sale, what may be the most mechanically complex iPhone to date, Apple pulled off a surprising about-face. It published teardown-style repair manuals for a handful of major components.