The OnePlus 15 is starting to look like a radical departure from the status quo for OnePlus, thanks in large part to the dissolution of its camera partnership with Hasselblad. Today, we’ve learned a little more about what to expect from the display on its next flagship, and it’s come as part of a social media dig towards Apple.
OnePlus China President Li Jie Louis took to Weibo earlier this week to “welcome” Apple’s “High Refresh Era,” as spotted by GSMArena. In his post, Li Jie notes it’s difficult to switch away from high-refresh displays once you’ve used one, marking the largely universal swap to 120Hz screens as “one of the most significant improvements” to smartphones over the last decade. However, it sounds like OnePlus isn’t done just yet.
According to Li Jie, the OnePlus 15 will launch what the CEO calls the “Ultra-High Refresh Era.” Earlier rumors suggested the device will use a 165Hz display, rather than sticking with the 120Hz panels used throughout the company’s most recent flagship products. Li Jie also echoes the OnePlus 7 Pro in his post, which marked one of the first times an Android OEM launched a device with a high-refresh rate display (in that case, 90Hz) that wasn’t specifically designed for gaming.
Like the OnePlus 7 Pro, however, the OnePlus 15 won’t be the first smartphone with a 165Hz panel. Gaming phones, including the Asus ROG Phone 8, launched with a 165Hz screen, while this year’s ROG Phone 9 bumped its refresh rate to an even-higher 185Hz. Obviously, OnePlus caters to a wider audience than gaming-specific phones — though, arguably, it’s a pretty similar niche of power users and enthusiasts — but it’s clear the company is hoping to bring the trend to a wider audience. Whether the relatively-imperceptible improvements between 120Hz and 165Hz really resonates with customers, however, remains to be seen.
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The post comes following the announcement of Apple’s iPhone 17, which finally shares a display panel with the higher-end iPhone 17 Pro. That doesn’t just mean a noticeable bump to brightness, but also — for the first time ever on the entry-level iPhone — a 120Hz display with always-on display support. Apple was late to the party with both features, having introduced those features on the iPhone 13 Pro and 14 Pro, respectively. And compared to even the cheapest of Android devices, the mainline iPhone’s screen was beginning to feel particularly stale prior to this week’s event.
Expect the OnePlus 15 and its Hasselblad-less camera to launch in China later this year, before a global launch in early 2026.
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