The OnePlus 15 will be the first phone to use the brand’s DetailMax Engine on the camera, replacing the system it has worked on with camera experts Hasselblad since the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro.
Now, as the OnePlus 15’s global release nears, we’ve had the chance to take some photos with the phone to see the DetailMax Engine in action.
For complicated embargo reasons, I can’t provide any commentary on the photos outside of presenting them here, but I think you’ll be able to draw your own conclusions by looking closely.
Main and wide-angle camera
What’s it like without Hasselblad?
A gathering storm made conditions quite difficult while I was taking photos with the OnePlus 15, and you can see the darkening clouds over the river, along with the colors of the fall leaves in the background.
The same scene shot with the wide-angle camera gives an alternative view of the environment. Our final main camera photo also shows the fall colors of the leaves, the shimmering water, and more cloudy skies.
There’s little evidence here to suggest OnePlus has thrown out everything it learned with Hasselblad to start all over again, which is a good thing.
However, it has also avoided the temptation to give the photos a more social-media-friendly tone, preferring to keep them realistic and natural.
What about the zoom?
Getting in close
When I’m out taking photos with any phone, I often use a zoom mode or telephoto camera to help frame interesting pictures and play with depth of field. I immediately did this with the OnePlus 15, and the surrounding hype seems well deserved.
The photo of the buildings, full of sharp lines and angles, was taken using the 3.5x zoom. I want definition and sharpness, accurate colors, and minimal edge enhancement from images like this one.
In the photo of the Adidas advert on the side of a building, you can see a stark black-and-white ad with a low, hazy sun in the background.
Finally, as had been hinted, this would be a strength in some early official camera samples from the OnePlus 15. I experimented with the depth of field using the zoom camera.
What do we know about the DetailMax Engine?
Lives up to expectations
Credit: Qualcomm
Everything I learned from taking photos with the OnePlus 15 seems to back up the claims OnePlus made about the DetailMax Engine ahead of time. OnePlus CEO Pete Lau said:
Designed from the ground up to deliver the clearest and most real photos on a smartphone, it harnesses the full potential of computational imaging to present scenes as they truly are, without over-beautification or distortion.
The moment you zoom in on a photo, you’ll understand why I’m confident you’ll love the results.
It took a while for Hasselblad and OnePlus to create a really great camera together. However, with the OnePlus 15 and the DetailMax Engine, it appears that going solo hasn’t resulted in the same problem.
When does the OnePlus 15 arrive?
Not long to wait
Credit: Qualcomm
The OnePlus 15 will be announced in China on October 27, giving us our first look at the phone, albeit from afar. A global release will follow after this, but the date has yet to be confirmed.
We can make a guess, though, based on a teaser page found on OnePlus’s own website. It will release a limited “Bonus Drop” accessory package with a sling bag, a 120W charger, and a USB cable on October 31, then again on November 12.
There are no further dates after this, suggesting the OnePlus 15 will arrive globally very soon after.
The OnePlus 15 will be one of the first smartphones with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor, and other confirmed specifications include three 50-megapixel cameras, plus it will use OxygenOS 16 over Android 16.
