The OnePlus 15R’s battery life is unbeatable

The OnePlus 15R’s battery life is exceptional. It’s a little better than The OnePlus 15 is very impressiveand the 15R costs two hundred dollars less. So why do I have a hard time recommending it?

The OnePlus R-series phone is usually a simplified, less expensive follow-up to a flagship flagship phone – in this case, the OnePlus 15. Technically, yes, it meets those criteria. But the atmosphere is different. 15R Don’t feel like you’re getting away with it Key features at a competitive price. It ranges in price from $699 to $899 for the $15, includes a less powerful but still powerful Qualcomm processor, and lacks a telephoto camera. In terms of battery, it manages to surpass the amazing performance of the 15 with a slightly larger capacity of 7,400 mAh. You can go for days -Days- Before you have to He thinks About charging your phone. I’ve been using it for the past two weeks, and I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve needed to charge it.

But here’s the “but”. The camera isn’t that great, there’s no wireless charging, and at $700, the 15R is a no-go zone: about $200 too much to feel like a bargain and missing some features found on other phones for about the same price. You can also opt for the full flagship 15 and just charge your phone every two days instead of every three or four days, or pick up the phone Pixel 9a For a more reliable camera and a reasonable price of $499.

The 15R uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chipset, which is a layer below the “Elite” SOC in the OnePlus 15. In daily use, it’s quite powerful; My litmus test is always one of the existing build pages Icy veinsWhich is dense with media and interactive elements. As with page 15, there is a bit of fluctuation when I scroll around one of these pages using the 15R.

As a side note, I don’t see much of it Historical trend of OnePlus To forcefully close background apps. I kept Google Photos running in the background over the course of two days while I collected images for a photo book project; Every time I opened the app, it was right where I left it in my timeline. If it had been completely closed, I would have had to go back to where I left off. It’s the little things.

As for the big stuff, it’s hard to overstate how well the 15R battery performs. And with a mix of light to moderate use in the phone’s highest performance mode, the battery typically drops below 20 percent after three full days. this with Always-on display enabled full time. Going back to balanced performance, which is the default, seems to help extend it a bit more. If you want to be truly With the power saving settings, I bet you can get a week’s worth of use on a single charge. This is wild.

The downside: The silicon-carbon battery technology that allows the 15R to hold such massive battery capacity tends to degrade faster than standard lithium-ion batteries. OnePlus claims the battery will retain 80 percent of its original capacity over four years of use, which is reasonable, but I wish battery technology would move toward longer life with better reusability potential, not worse.

I usually find the lack of wireless charging to be quite annoying on a $700 phone. I think that’s in principle, but when you only have to charge your phone every few days, it’s a bit forgivable. As it stands, you’ll get wired charging speeds of up to 55W with the mold and cable included in the box. Personally, I’d give up super-fast wired charging if it meant getting slower wireless charging, but many people would make the opposite argument.

The 15R’s camera system includes the same 50-megapixel main sensor with an f/1.8 lens as seen on the flagship OnePlus 15. And like the 15, there’s no more Hasselblad branding here — it’s just OnePlus’ DetailMax engine for image processing. I got some very nice photos in good light, although the results were a little unpredictable in mixed or dim indoor light. Images were sometimes too bright and unnaturally saturated, and low light is still as challenging for the 15R as it was for the 15.

There’s no dedicated telephoto camera on the 15R, which is forgivable since that’s often the case on phones under $800. However, the 8MP ultra-wide camera is hard to let slide. It’s a significant downgrade from the more advanced 50MP ultra-wide camera on the 15, and it’s easy to spot the difference in low-light photos – they’re a smudged mess. Overall, it’s a camera system that will do the job for someone who’s not picky about image quality, but I’d take the Pixel 9A over this one any day.

Not to make it all about Google, but the Pixel lineup clears up the 15R’s positioning conundrum. It’s over $200 The Pixel 9A packs a mid-range punchwhich provides wireless charging and a more reliable camera. Or for just $100 more, there it is Pixel 10Where you’ll find a telephoto camera and Qi2 wireless charging with a magnet built into the back of the phone. What the 15R offers—huge battery capacity, but a lackluster camera and no wireless charging at all, at a mid-to-high price—seems a bit unbalanced.

However, it’s hard to argue with battery life. If you liked the OnePlus 15 on that basis but felt it was a bit pricey, the 15R might be for you. Otherwise, I think it’s best to keep your phone charger next to your bed for the time being.

Photography by Alison Johnson/The Verge