I found out if this newcomer can beat the Pixel 10 Pro XL’s camera in a test

The Google Pixel 10 series is already recognized as having one of the best cameras on a smartphone, making it a great benchmark to judge other cameras against.

That’s what we’ve done with the OnePlus 15. The brand’s partnership with Hasselblad has ended, and it has now entered into its DetailMax Engine era.

How does the OnePlus 15’s camera compare to the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL’s camera? Here’s the answer.

What about the camera specs?

Before we get to the photos, a quick reminder about the camera specs.

The Google Pixel 10 Pro XL shares the same camera system as the Pixel 10 Pro, with a 50-megapixel main camera, a 48MP wide-angle camera, and a 48MP telephoto camera for a 5x optical zoom.

The OnePlus 15 also has three cameras on the back, starting with a 50MP main camera, and continuing with a 50MP wide-angle camera and a 50MP periscope zoom camera with a 3.5x optical zoom.

There are some feature differences, too. The Pixel 10 Pro XL has laser detection autofocus, a spectral sensor for color accuracy, plus optical and electronic image stabilization on the telephoto and wide-angle cameras.

OnePlus has used optical image stabilization on the main and telephoto cameras and has a multi-level laser and phase-detection autofocus system.

Both phones use different processors, with the Pixel 10 Pro featuring Google’s own Tensor G5 chip, and the OnePlus 15 coming with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.

Main camera

Pixel 10 Pro XL streaks ahead

The DetailMax Engine is a big deal for OnePlus, and this is the first iteration. Shooting with the main cameras on both phones immediately shows the direction OnePlus has taken with the tones and colors.

Heavy contrast and a strong HDR effect separate the OnePlus 15’s photos from the Pixel 10 Pro XL’s, and you can really see the difference in this image of the National Theatre in Prague.

From the treatment of the sky to the stonework, the OnePlus 15’s photo is imposing, but lacks the detail and sharpness of the Pixel 10 Pro XL’s photo.

It’s not that this approach doesn’t produce appealing photos, as you can see in the next photo.

Punchy colors, a bright sky, and another strong HDR-style effect make the photo of the field pop, as if it’s made for instant sharing, but it’s not as natural as the Pixel 10 Pro XL’s photo.

The OnePlus 15’s photos consistently have an edited look, even when they’re untouched, and this won’t be to everyone’s taste.

Inside, in challenging lower lighting, the OnePlus 15’s camera struggles to adapt.

The photo of the stained glass window and its surroundings lacks detail and introduces both noise and blur, while the Pixel 10 Pro XL’s photo appears stable and reveals so much more detail in both dark and light areas.

Telephoto cameras

Pixel 10 Pro XL maintains its lead

Both cameras have a different optical zoom range, so we haven’t directly compared the two, as it wouldn’t be fair. Instead, let’s see how photos taken at 3.5x zoom on the OnePlus 15 and 5x zoom on the Pixel 10 Pro XL look.

In the photo of the skyline, the Pixel 10 Pro XL better captures the atmospheric conditions, and is much sharper when you look at the text on all the signs, and the windows on the buildings in the far distance. Both suffer from obvious smoothing, though.

The photo of Prague Castle underlines where the OnePlus 15’s telephoto camera still needs work.

There’s a lack of sharpness, and far less detail than in the Pixel 10 Pro XL’s photo, which even at 5x zoom brings out the intricacy of the castle, which is shrouded in shadow in the OnePlus 15’s photo.

The Pixel 10 Pro XL’s photo isn’t perfect, though, and it introduces more noise into the sky than the OnePlus 15’s photo.

This is a surprise, as several other photos taken with the OnePlus 15’s telephoto camera suffered badly with noise, but the more I tested, the more it became clear it was very dependent on the conditions and subject.

Wide-angle cameras

OnePlus 15 closes the gap

The OnePlus 15’s wide-angle camera has a 116-degree field of view, and is a little tighter than the Pixel 10 Pro XL’s 123-degree field of view, so you’ll see this in our example photos.

It’s good to see consistency between the main and wide-angle cameras on the OnePlus 15, but less so when the same contrast and detail issues remain. There’s evidence of edge enhancement at work, such as on the spire on the church in the photo above.

In general, the OnePlus 15’s wide-angle camera is decent in terms of detail, but not everyone will like the darker, moodier, and high-contrast look, especially compared to the brighter, natural-looking Pixel 10 Pro XL’s wide-angle photos.

Night mode

Harder to split

When I was shooting interior shots of the church, the OnePlus 15 used a one-second Night mode exposure when the Pixel 10 Pro XL didn’t feel the need to intervene, often resulting in photos that had more blur and less detail.

However, put them together in dark environments, and the results are more similar.

The photo of the watches shows great white balance from the OnePlus 15, and the pair is very close in terms of color reproduction and textures. It’s hard to split them on detail too, and while neither is fantastic, the performance is essentially the same.

Even using the telephoto in low light produces good results from the OnePlus 15. Ambient light levels are good in the photo of the Porsche Macan, but it better handles white balance than the Pixel 10 Pro XL.

Both have a good level of detail, too. Night performance is one of the OnePlus 15’s strengths.

Which camera is better?

OnePlus 15’s DetailMax Engine still needs work

The Google Pixel 10 Pro XL’s camera beats the OnePlus 15’s camera, particularly when shooting with the main and telephoto camera, where the DetailMax Engine shows its young age through a general lack of polish.

However, putting the two side-by-side shows the OnePlus 15’s DetailMax Engine has potential, and is perhaps only a few updates away from taking cracking photos with all cameras and in most environments.

We don’t know how long OnePlus had to fully develop its new camera system following Hasselblad’s single commitment to Oppo.

While it hasn’t quite met our expectations after the OnePlus 13’s excellent camera, we should remember how long it took OnePlus and Hasselblad to get it to that stage. Early cameras from the collaboration weren’t very good at all.

It won’t come as a surprise to many that the Pixel 10 Pro XL is the phone to buy if you’re really into photography.

If you’re about to buy the OnePlus 15, I don’t think you’ll hate the camera, but you should be aware that the current tuning is less focused on realism and more about social media pop.