iPhone 17 Pro Max Vs OnePlus 15
The OnePlus 15 will be debuted officially today, October 27th, in China, with a worldwide unveiling in the following month. The latest flagship device appears to be a serious competitor as it has many improvements and is a great upgrade for the brand.
The OnePlus 15 includes an impressive lineup of features, from a massive 7,300 mAh battery to what could be the fastest processor in the industry. This combination creates a lot of promise and excitement to use.
On the other hand, Apple has unveiled its updated, latest products in the iPhone 17 Pro Max series, which brings many changes to its products.
iPhone 17 Pro Max
This review aims to evaluate the prospective OnePlus 15 against its flagship competitors, particularly the flagship iPhone 17 Pro Max from Apple.
Although this is an early assessment as the OnePlus 15 is not yet available, we have a nearly complete picture based on the tremendous number of leaks and rumors.
OnePlus 15 vs iPhone 17 Pro Max expected differences:
After it first showed up in leaked renders and advertisements, OnePlus has officially unveiled several teasers on its social media and website, confirming the final design of its upcoming phone.
The square-shaped camera area on the back looks very similar to the new Pixel 10 Pro Fold camera, although it could just be coincidental. Other than that, the phone maintains the familiar glass-and-metal “sandwich” construction, with flat surfaces on both the front and sides.
Google Design
This design has become quite popular and a unifying design language amongst the big players in the industry – Google, Apple, and Samsung. Now, it appears OnePlus will carry on with the same design style with the OnePlus 15.
While the exact size is unconfirmed, one Weibo post suggest that the phone will be 8.1 mm in thickness and weigh between 211-215grams depending on the back material.
Display Changes
There are said to be different display specifications for the OnePlus 15. There are speculations of a 165Hz refresh rate, as well as a BOE panel with X3 material, and these developments could improve brightness compared to the last generation. The resolution is likely to remain at 1.5K.
On the other hand, the iPhone 17 Pro Max has a somewhat larger 6.9-inch OLED screen with a resolution of 1320 x 2868 pixels, and pixel density of around 460 PPI.
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In our display testing, it reached a peak brilliance of 2689 nits at 20% APL—one of the highest numbers we have seen before. That is a tall order for the OnePlus 15 to try to beat.
Performance and Software
Both Qualcomm and OnePlus Pakistan have verified that the new flagship is powered by a different chip. The naming is somewhat convoluted: it’s the “Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5,” not the “Snapdragon 8 Elite 2.
Qualcomm explained to us that even though it is going back to “Gen” names, it still will be using “Elite” to show that all its chips are “Elite” chips.
Apple employs its own A19 Pro chip. Even though Apple has often taken the lead in most synthetic benchmark tests in the past, the latest Snapdragon processor will surely give Apple a noteworthy challenge.
Early benchmark results show the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 chip may even outperform Apple’s A19 Pro chip. You can expect more in-depth benchmark results very soon.
Battery Life and Recharge Times
As the first company to introduce silicon-carbon batteries to the world, OnePlus is promising an enormous battery with a capacity of 7,300 mAh—which is impressive compared to the 6,000mAh battery found in the last generation.
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This is not a guarantee to lead our battery life list, but the potential is very good. The iPhone 17 Pro Max has different configurations depending on the SIM slot, with the model that has eSIM using a 5,088mAh battery;
while the nano SIM version has a 4,823mAh battery which is slightly smaller.
The EU model we tested with a physical SIM slot and smaller battery resulted in a battery life of 7 hours and 46 minutes. In our tests over the last two years, this places the iPhone 17 Pro Max 36th out of all phones tested. I believe the OnePlus 15 will exceed this, but we’ll have to see when we test it in the lab.
OnePlus is one of the prominent companies in charging technology, along with manufacturers like Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Honor that are getting really close to 100W speeds.
It is anticipated that the OnePlus 15 will support wired charging speeds up to 120W, though depending on different regulations the speeds in the US and Europe may be less than this.
Specs Comparison
Summary
After transitioning from its “flagship killer” roots to the ultra-premium sector, OnePlus is getting ready for the OnePlus 15, which looks like it could be a top-tier phone with arguably the fastest chip yet as well as the largest battery on any Android phone.
Is this enough to compete against the iPhone 17 Pro Max?
We need more data for a conclusive answer past initial impressions. Stay tuned for the benchmark scores and the arguably most important data point, price. The latter will certainly matter in this contest.
