It has been a good year for OnePlus. The Android phone maker released an excellent phone with the OnePlus 13 back in January, a device with exceptional cameras, battery and performance. The firm then, unusually, replaced that phone last month with the OnePlus 15, which had even better battery life and a completely overhauled design.

Now one month after that, OnePlus is putting a cherry on top of its 2025 with the £649 OnePlus 15R, a tweaked and cheaper version of the £849 OnePlus 15 that boasts an enormous 7,400mAh battery.

The 15R is also one of the first phones on the market to run on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, one of the latest high-end mobile chips from Qualcomm. It’s a small step down in overall pure power from the 8 Elite Gen 5 in the OnePlus 15, but on paper is more powerful than the 8 Elite found in phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, which costs £1,249.

OnePlus says the 8 Gen 5 “sees 36% faster CPU speeds and 11% faster GPU speeds and 46% better AI performance than the previous generation chipset”, which refers to the 8 Elite.

The 15R’s 7,400mAh battery also bests the S25 Ultra’s 5,000mAh cell by some distance, and could prove to have the very best battery life of any phone around. I recently reviewed the OnePlus 15, which went for three days on a single charge.

That phone has a 7,300mAh battery. With a slightly less demanding processor and a larger battery, the OnePlus 15R is likely to be an absolute winner in this department. Like the OnePlus 15, and unlike Samsung, Apple or Google phones, the OnePlus 15R’s battery is made from silicon-carbon tech, which is more energy dense than lithium ion cells. This means OnePlus can fit more battery capacity into devices without making them thicker.

The phone has a 6.83-inch 165Hz LTPS OLED display with an under-screen ultrasonic fingerprint sensor and high 3200Hz sample rate for smooth scrolling. Much like the OnePlus 15, the phone will only be able to output smooth 165Hz refresh rates in compatible games, but it’s still impressive to see on a phone, when most rivals top out at 120Hz.

OnePlus has helped keep the price down here by not including a telephoto lens on the camera system. But you do the same IMX906 sensor found on OnePlus 15 for the 50MP main camera, plus an 8MP ultra-wide as back up. There’s also a 32MP selfie shooter on the front with autofocus.

To top it off, the phone has four separate IP ratings for dust and water resistance: IP66, IP68, IP69 and IP69K. This is a far cry from the OnePlus of a few years ago, which refused to even pay to give its phones IP ratings. Now, the 15R is one of the most dust and water resistant on the market. You could put it in a dishwasher and it’d be OK, allegedly.

This powerful new Android phone is up for pre-order today, December 17, from £649 for 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. There is also a 12GB/512GB option for £729, which is still excellent value – and OnePlus is even running an early bird off of £100 off this more expensive model until January 21, so right now you can get it for £629.

The phone goes on full sale on January 15, 2026. OnePlus also announced a mid-range Android tablet, the £319 Pad Go 2, as well as the £179 OnePlus Watch Lite smartwatch, which can connect to an Android and iOS device simultaneously.