New is better – until it isn’t. Many people aren’t convinced that the latest OnePlus 15 is better than the phone it replaces. And this is also not a recent case in the industry.
The OnePlus 15 can be had from Amazon UK for £880 for the 16/512GB unit. The retailer lists it as pre-order, which is probably a mistake—OnePlus UK is already selling it. And we recommend going for the 16/512GB unit as it’s only £30 more than the 12/256GB model. More RAM and double the storage for £30 doesn’t seem like a no-brainer.
However, the question of OnePlus 15 vs OnePlus 13 is more complicated. Check out our review of the new model – the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is impressive and the 7,300mAh battery is outstanding. It’s currently the top performer in our battery chart with a score of 23:07h, easily eclipsing its predecessor (which is no slouch at 15:28h). Smaller battery capacity allows older models to charge faster. It went from 44% in 15 minutes to 55% and a full charge took 35 minutes instead of 41 minutes.
We can do a more detailed head-to-head comparison down the line, but we’ve already tested the cameras—here’s the OnePlus 15 vs. OnePlus 13 shootout. The result is … unshakable. The 13 produced better images (especially with some tweaks), but we liked the out-of-the-box processing on the 15 better.
However, this debate is not taking place in a vacuum. While the £100 discount on the 512GB OnePlus 15 is nice (especially for a brand new phone), the OnePlus 13 is £190 cheaper for the same RAM and storage.
People had high hopes for Google’s transition to TSMC with the Tensor G5. However, the result was less than stellar — it’s faster than the G4, sure, but not by much. And the Snapdragon 8 Elite and Dimension 9400 are significantly more powerful.
Google prioritizes user experience over benchmark numbers and pixels feel smooth. But battery life is a huge part of the user experience and the Pixel 10 Pro only managed an active usage score of 12:06h in our test, which is below the 9 Pro’s 13:11h result. And this is despite the slightly larger battery (4,870mah vs 4,700mah). Charging speeds are effectively the same on both phones, though we have to admit that proper magnetic QI2 charging on the 10 Pro is nice.
Another thing we have to mention – the base 128GB model uses UFS 3.1 storage. For that reason – and also because 128GB just isn’t enough – we recommend getting at least 256GB (which uses UFS 4.0 chips). But should you go for the Pixel 9 Pro or the 10 Pro? We’ll let you decide, but we can’t help but nod at the £250 price difference between the two.
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