OnePlus is apparently so shaken with early anecdotes about its latest smartphone supposedly experiencing thermal instability issues, largely due to its notoriously power-hungry Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 AP, that it is now compelling tipsters to take down critical social media posts.

Debayan Roy takes down his X post, which detailed the OnePlus 15 heating up outdoors after 5 minutes of video recording at 4K resolution and 60fps

A Twitter post by Debayan Roy (@Gadgetsdata) showing a OnePlus 15 smartphone with temperature warnings and the message 'Camera is unavailable until your phone cools down.'

Just a few hours back, Debayan Roy published an X post about how his OnePlus 15 review unit heated up to 50 degree Celsius after he started video recording at a 4K resolution and 60fps outdoors during winter. Critically, as per Roy’s account, the smartphone stopped video recording after just five minutes, and disabled the camera for a “few minutes.”

To be honest, Roy did disclose in the comments that the OnePlus 15 performed normally indoors, and handled routine tasks fairly easily. However, it was only when it was stressed via 4K video recording that it started performing erratically.

I have no intention to harm any brand…

Any device has both good & bad and I was sharing both good & bad !

But since they like only good things,
So NO MORE TWEET regarding review of THAT PHONE

Planned a detailed🔋& 📸 review of that phone but those aren’t coming anymore !

— Debayan Roy (Gadgetsdata) (@Gadgetsdata) November 19, 2025

Then, OnePlus decided to up the ante, and forced Roy to delete his X post, pouring fuel on the speculative fire. Apparently, the company only wants people to talk about the phone’s “good things,” and doesn’t want anyone talking about how its phones are heating up when stressed.

We noted recently that the OnePlus 15 suffers from overheating issues, especially when running tests like 3DMark Wild Life Extreme. This is understandable, given the power-hungry profile of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.

However, the heavy-handedness from OnePlus has now transformed a minor controversy into salacious gossip. This is PR 101: you do not use a cudgel to deal with a budding controversy. One would think an established company such as OnePlus would have a PR department at the top of its game. Apparently not.

As we explained earlier this week, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip can consume an insane 22W of power when under stress. For comparison, Ultrabook-class CPUs typically consume this much power.

Also, do note that a gaming laptop with an Intel Core i9-14900HX processor typically consumes 15W of power when idle, while reaching ~62 degrees. Those devices, however, have a dedicated cooling fan running at 6,000RPM.

Of course, OnePlus 15 does have an enlarged vapor chamber, with claimed 2x heat dissipation capabilities. Consequently, the phone is able to perform normally most of the time and for most routine tasks. It is only when it is stressed that its AP apparently goes berserk.

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