TL;DR A YouTuber has reviewed the OnePlus 15’s gaming performance ahead of its official launch.
The OnePlus 15 is confirmed to arrive with a 165Hz display and the recently unveiled Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.
The reviewer confirms that the increase to 165Hz refresh rate aids in gameplay, especially for FPS games.
Qualcomm’s latest flagship chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, is less than a week old. And in the mere span of two days, we’ve already seen the first set of phones, under the Xiaomi 17 series, launch with this chipset. Meanwhile, other brands have also confirmed their flagship devices to be powered by the same chipset. One of the upcoming phones, the OnePlus 15, has been officially teased with a redesigned camera island. Even before the phone’s launch, we’ve come across the OnePlus 15 being put through its paces for a performance and gaming review.
The review comes courtesy of YouTuber Geekerwan, who has tested the OnePlus 15’s performance in a wide range of synthetic benchmarks, as well as in resource-intensive game titles. According to the reviewer, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 outshines Apple’s A19 Pro seen on the iPhone 17 Pro, as well as the recently unveiled Dimensity 9500, in CPU performance. In GPU performance, as determined with 3DMark’s Steel Nomad Light test, the Snapdragon chipset leads the A19 Pro but lags behind the Dimensity 9500.
OnePlus 15’s Geekbench 6 results align with Android Authority‘s own benchmarks of the new chipset in a reference design handset. However, it is interesting to see these numbers carry over to an actual consumer device. Notably, OnePlus 15’s initial scores are noticeably higher than what YouTuber Mrwhosetheboss reported for the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max, which uses the same chipset. This might indicate better software optimization or vapor cooling deployed by OnePlus compared to Xiaomi.
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The reviewer also ran FPS and RPG titles, including Garena Delta Force, League of Legends Mobile, Honkai Impact, and others. In addition to the improved chipset, the OnePlus 15 is reported to benefit from the enhanced 165Hz refresh rate — up from 120Hz on the OnePlus 13. The upgrade has already been confirmed by OnePlus.
The increased refresh rate, which, in theory, should allow frame rates of up to 165fps while gaming, although that also depends on the game. Geekerwan tested the upgrade’s impact using slow-motion videography and found that the higher frame rate is especially beneficial for FPS titles, where it allows faster, more accurate panning and quicker trigger response.
Since support remains an issue, OnePlus is said to be working with game studios to bring 165fps support in popular titles. Popular games that will benefit from the feature include Call of Duty Mobile, Clash of Clans, League of Legends Mobile, Naruto, and more. However, since the news originates from China, we can’t confirm whether these enhancements will also be extended to global markets. We will have to wait until the phone is ready to hit the global market, which, based on previous years’ schedule, may not be before the end of 2025.
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