We’ve had a few Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5-powered smartphones in-house recently, and the results have been somewhat mixed. The gaming-oriented REDMAGIC 11 Pro excelled in our toughest benchmarking tests, largely due to its fan-assisted, liquid cooling setup. Meanwhile, the realme GT8 Pro runs extremely hot and has to throttle back its performance to make it through — but it manages to hang on.
In the lab today, we have the OnePlus 15 — our first mainstream flagship to feature Qualcomm’s latest processor. Unfortunately, it’s the worst performer yet.
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Starting with the good news, the phone performs well in CPU benchmarks without any issues. GeekBench 6 runs as well as our other Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 handsets, although their multi-core scores are significantly behind Qualcomm’s reference handset, which we saw during the announcement. Even so, those Oryon CPU cores far surpass the capabilities of Google’s Tensor G5 and keep it marginally ahead of the new Arm C1-Ultra cores inside the OPPO Find X9 Pro as well.
However, things quickly fell apart when it came to stress testing the OnePlus 15 in the usual array of 3DMark tests. The phone survived about two-thirds of the test before shutting down the benchmark due to heat. In fact, the phone wouldn’t let us run any apps other than calls or messages until it cooled down. We recorded a scorching 52.7°C (127°F) surface temperature — the internals will be even hotter.
While the phone may not be able to handle prolonged periods of demanding 3D workloads, single 3DMark benchmark tests can run to completion. However, the results are also quite disappointing. Based on our tests, the two other 8 Elite Gen 5 phones we’ve tested outperform the OnePlus 15 by roughly 9% to 17%, even when heat isn’t a significant factor. The Arm G1-Ultra GPU configuration inside the Dimensity 9500 also leads by 15% to 18% Wild Life Extreme and Solar Bay, respectively. That definitely raises some eyebrows.
When we inquired about the phone’s inability to complete these popular stress tests, a OnePlus spokesperson provided the following statement. In everyday use—whether multitasking or heavy-duty gaming—the units run within normal thermal limits; we’ve received no reports of excessive heat. Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 delivers our highest peak performance yet, so in prolonged, all-out workloads it reaches the thermal ceiling sooner. We are already refining the thermal curve so that our peak performance remains uncompromised while surface temperatures stay comfortable. Does that argument hold much water? Well, it’s certainly true that 3DMark’s stress tests are often more demanding than typical daily use cases and even many popular Android games. Just because the phone overheats during a stress test doesn’t mean it won’t take you through a solid session of Genshin Impact or COD Mobile with robust frame rates.
However, that’s not the whole picture. Tests like 3DMark’s Wild Life and Wild Life Extreme are somewhat old compared to some of the latest graphics-intensive benchmarks and games, and yet the OnePlus 15 still struggles with them. In real use cases, classic game emulation can significantly stress CPU and GPU components as much or more than these tests, necessitating sustained performance to run smoothly for extended periods. If the OnePlus 15 struggles with these stress tests, it probably won’t handle more demanding emulators for longer play sessions.
A 52.7°C (127°F) external temperature is far too hot for any handheld gadget.
Nevertheless, I have two other major concerns here. First, what’s the point of a powerhouse processor that your customers can’t use to its full potential? Thermal management is essential, but what we’re seeing here is a virtually complete shutdown of the phone if temperatures become too high. Either the phone isn’t throttling clocks or it’s not throttling aggressively enough to keep the handset cool in worst-case scenarios. That’s not necessarily OnePlus’s fault; Qualcomm certainly shares the blame if its newest Adreno GPU can’t run at peak potential for very long within the constraints of a mobile form factor.
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