Drones are no longer just niche toys for enthusiasts. Today’s models are compact, increasingly affordable and capable of capturing sharp aerial photos and video with minimal effort. Whether you’re curious about flying for the first time or looking to upgrade to a more advanced camera drone, the options available in 2026 are broader and more approachable than ever.
Entry-level drones now offer features like GPS-assisted flight, return-to-home safety systems and automated shooting modes that take much of the stress out of learning to fly. Step up to more advanced models and you’ll find foldable designs that travel easily, longer flight times and stabilized 4K video that holds up well beyond social media clips.
We’ve tested a range of drones to identify the best options across different skill levels and budgets. Whether your priority is learning the basics, capturing polished aerial footage or packing light for travel, these picks highlight the drones that offer the best balance of performance, reliability and ease of use.
Best drones for 2026
What to look for in a drone
Camera features
For this guide, we're looking only at drones that are basically flying cameras, so you want the best video and photo features possible. Bigger devices like DJI’s Mavic 3 Pro or Air 3S carry relatively large sensors, offering superior camera quality for nighttime cityscapes or other low-light scenes. Smaller models like the Mini 4 Pro and HoverAir X1 Max use smaller camera sensors, so they aren’t as good in dim light.
Field of view and minimum aperture are also important, with most drones typically having a wide-angle focal length, though a few others like the HoverAir X1 Max carry an ultrawide lens. Some models have multiple cameras including a wide and a zoom. As for aperture, lower numbers are better and allow for shooting in dim light. Most DJI models are solid in this regard, while the HoverAir models don’t perform as well.
Video resolution and slow-mo are also essential camera capabilities. Most drones these days can shoot at 4K with a frame rate of at least 30 fps, though some offer 6K or even 8K at up to 30 fps. Higher-end models can shoot 4K at up to 120 fps, allowing you to slow down the action dramatically to create a cinematic look.
Other noteworthy features include log or HDR video that supports higher dynamic range, particularly in bright and sunny conditions. Finally, the camera’s gimbal and stabilization are important factors to keep your footage looking as smooth as possible. Some drones have gimbals that can rotate the camera 90 degrees to give social media creators the maximum resolution for vertical formats.
Drone features: Speed, range, safety, battery life and obstacle detection
By and large, there are two types of camera drones to consider. The first are standard drones (usually with open propellers but not always) designed to fly outside and take scenic shots. Often there’s nothing to stop the props from striking skin or objects, so they can’t really be used indoors or around people. Some models like the DJI Neo and Flip have prop guards that better protect bystanders and property, as well as the drone itself.
Then there's first-person-view (FPV) camera drones, which often have propeller guards and are meant to be used both indoors or outside to capture exciting footage. Standard models don’t need to go particularly fast as they’re mainly used to shoot fun videos for social media, but FPV drones need to move at high speeds to create excitement. Because of that speed, they’re also better in breezy conditions thanks to stronger wind resistance, and they can fight gusts and return home more quickly. Acrobatic abilities (often promoted by the manufacturer in ads or packaging) are also important for FPV drones, as it allows the user to perform tricks and zip around obstacles.
Battery life is another important factor. The best drones boast a battery endurance of up to 45 minutes, while FPV drones like the Avata 2 can only fly for about half that time as they tend to be heavier and carry smaller batteries to reduce weight. As a general rule, a single battery isn’t enough for any serious shooting so you’d do well to buy your drone in a kit with a few batteries and a charger.
As for range, DJI tends to dominate in this area, with its latest models able to maintain a video signal at a distance up to 20km (12.4 miles). HoverAir’s models are weaker with the top-end X1 Max model limited to just 1km (0.6 miles) when using the optional beacon system. DJI also offers multiple ways to control its drones including headsets, joystick-type controllers, motion detection controllers and smartphones.
The best drones have sensors to detect obstacles in all directions. Others are limited to only avoiding obstructions coming at them from the front and some only rely on the main camera to prevent crashes. Finally, if you want to have your drone follow you around automatically, you’ll need it to be able to track you around when you’re vlogging, riding a bike or skiing, while also avoiding obstacles. Smooth takeoff and return-to-home features are especially valuable here for both beginners and experienced drone pilots as well.
Best drone FAQs
What are the rules for owning a drone?
Anyone can buy any drone, but once purchased, all drones between 250g and 25 kg must be registered with the FAA and marked with the FAA registration number. Recreational pilots with drones over 249g must pass the recreational UAS safety "TRUST" exam and carry proof of TRUST completion when flying a drone. Commercial pilots must obtain a Remote Pilot Certificate from the FAA. You must be aware of and avoid any areas with airspace restrictions, particularly around airports.
Are drones safe to fly in the city?
In general, it is not legal to fly a drone within city limits over populations, as a crash from a high altitude could injure or kill someone. However, they can be flown over adjacent, non-populated areas in many cases. Here is a guide to where: https://uavcoach.com/where-to-fly-drone/
What is the average flight time of a drone?
Most drones can fly for around 20-30 minutes, though some advanced models like DJI's Mavic 4 can fly up to 40 minutes or more.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/best-drone-120046775.html?src=rss
At the end of 2024, Google was one of the first companies to start offering a Deep Research tool through its AI chatbot. Now, nearly a full year later, the company is bringing that same capability to NotebookLM. Like its Gemini counterpart, the tool allows you to task the app with generating an extensive report on a single topic. When you queue a Deep Research task, NotebookLM will browse hundreds of websites on your behalf before it starts writing up its findings.
The entire process can take a few minutes, but at the end you'll have a multi-page report to read. As the model works in the background, you can instruct it to seek out specific online sources. NotebookLM will also recommend articles, papers and websites that might be relevant to your query. Once its findings are ready, you can use any of NotebookLM's capabilities to generate insights on the content.
With today's update, Google is also adding to the variety of sources NotebookLM can access. Now the app can pull data from Google Sheets, Microsoft Word documents and PDFs you've uploaded to Google Drive. It's now also possible to add Google Drive files just by copying over the URL. Google says all of today's enhancements should roll out to users within a week. The timing of the update is fortuitous given the company recently gave NotebookLM the capability to generate flashcards and quizzes.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-adds-deep-research-capabilities-to-notebooklm-170000817.html?src=rss
Yesterday, Valve announced three (3) hardware products: a Steam Machine console, an accompanying Steam Controller and the long-rumored Steam Frame VR headset. This hardware, along with the excellent Steam Deck, gives Valve a pretty comprehensive way to get people playing games wherever they want, on any sort of screen. And, of course, the games are what this is all about. Steam’s catalog is impossibly vast, encompassing every genre you can imagine — but there’s still one crucial title missing from the thousands of games available.
I am, of course, talking about Half-Life 3.
I swore back in 2017 that I’d stop beating this dead horse, but Valve sucked me back in with the utterly unexpected, excellent, VR-only Half-Life: Alyx prequel. At the very least, it was a sign that the Half-Life universe wasn’t dead and buried in Valve’s mind, despite the fact that it had lain dormant with an unresolved cliffhanger for more than a dozen years.
At the time, Valve indicated it was interested in moving forward with more games in the series, though I wouldn’t have been surprised if the company just dropped things again. But, a big push into hardware that is significantly more powerful than the Steam Deck feels like another perfect opportunity to make Half-Life 3 happen.
And there have actually been a few more concrete bread crumbs to follow over the last year or so indicating Valve might finally be returning to the Half-Life story. It started with the 20th anniversary of Half-Life 2, when Valve dropped a major update for the game. “Every map in Half-Life 2 has been looked over by Valve level designers to fix longstanding bugs, restore content and features lost to time, and improve the quality of a few things like lightmap resolution and fog,” the developer wrote. Along with some developer commentary, a documentary and the inclusion of the two episodic follow-up games, this was a pretty substantial update for such an old game.
At the end of last year, YouTuber Gabe Follower dropped some details on a potential Half-Life 3 coming soon. Follower had previously called the release of Counter-Strike 2, lending some credibility to his findings. To make a long story short, Follower claimed a Valve project internally titled “HLX” had reached the play-testing stage. That didn’t necessarily mean a launch was imminent, but at the very least the game was advancing in development.
Another less consequential but fun tidbit dropped around the same time: actor Michael Shapiro (who voiced the infamous G-Man in the Half-Life series) posted a New Years’ message where he spoke in the G-Man’s strange accent and said he’d see viewers in the year to come. Not coincidentally, he also did this in 2020 prior to the Half-Life: Alyx launch. The game had already been announced when he posted that message, but it’s still an intriguing tease.
The timing couldn’t be better, either. The Game Awards are less than a month away, and that extravaganza is about the biggest platform you could ask for if you’re announcing a big new title. Not that Valve really needs the stage — they could just drop a trailer on YouTube and the gaming world would take care of the rest.
But as a companion piece to the company’s renewed hardware ambitions? The synergy would be too good to pass up. After all, the Valve Index VR headset launched just a short time before Half-Life: Alyx was announced, and anyone who had purchased it got the game for free. A theoretical Half-Life 3 isn’t quite the same, as there’s no chance the game will require the official Steam Machine. But it would still make a heck of a launch title to help drive interest in the company’s new devices.
As for me, I’m not letting myself get too excited here. I remember in 2013, when Valve introduced the first Steam Machines initiative and its first attempt at a controller, I assumed it would be a perfect time to announce Half-Life 3. That clearly did not happen. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit hopeful this time around. There’s enough smoke to make me think that the fire is real; it’s hopefully time to wake up and smell the ashes.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/valves-trio-of-hardware-announcements-revived-my-half-life-3-fever-dream-170000561.html?src=rss
Meta is revamping Facebook Marketplace in an effort to make it more appealing to "young adults" on the platform. The updates includes new collaborative shopping features, as well as AI-generated suggestions and "insights" about specific listings.
Now, would-be buyers can create Pinterest-like "collections" of Marketplace listings and invite friends to join. These collections can then be shared elsewhere on Facebook or on WhatsApp and Messenger. People will also be able to invite their Facebook friends to join messages with sellers, which Meta says will make it "easier to coordinate pickup, negotiate prices, and get answers to your questions." Facebook is also making Marketplace listings themselves more social, with the ability to add comments and reactions. And while I'm not sure many Facebook users are clamoring for this, it seems like it could seriously up the meme potential for accounts like @insanefbmarketplace.
Meta will provide AI-generated insights about vehicles listed on Marketplace.
Meta
And, because it's 2025 and AI is in just about every other part of Facebook, the company is also adding "AI insights" to listings. This will allow Meta AI to offer up suggestions for questions to ask sellers about the items they've listed. (Importantly, though, it looks like the default first-message suggestion is still a variation of "is this still available," which I've always found to be one of the more annoying quirks of using Marketplace.) The company is also experimenting with vehicle-specific "insights" from Meta AI as car shopping is apparently one of the most popular use cases for Marketplace among younger adults.
All of the updates are part of Meta's years-long mission to make Facebook cool — or, at least, useful — for "young adults." And the company has long touted Marketplace as one of the more popular features among that demographic. The company has also experimented with local events, a friends-only feed and bringing back the Facebook "poke."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-is-trying-to-make-facebook-marketplace-a-social-shopping-experience-170000682.html?src=rss
Valve’s second attempt at a console-like gaming PC for your living room is hopefully going to be a triumph worthy of plenty of cake, with or without fun accessories. But if you really want to make the Steam Machine feel extra special when it arrives in early 2026, you’re going to want to dress it up in Dbrand’s Companion Cube skin.
A tribute to the iconic Weighted Companion Cube from Valve’s beloved Portal series, it’s such a fitting design that I sort of wonder if the company is kicking itself for not making something similar for its cube-shaped compact PC. Of course, putting your Steam Machine inside this will ensure it stands out from the other consoles occupying your TV unit, which is the opposite effect that the standard design is going to have. While it does have a customizable front plate and an LED light strip, the default all-black colorway could hardly be less attention-grabbing.
In case you missed yesterday's announcement, the Steam Machine is a Linux-based mini PC that runs SteamOS and is designed to be plugged into your TV, like a console. Valve says it’s roughly six times more powerful than a Steam Deck and is capable of supporting 4K/60fps gaming with FSR. You can also use it to stream VR games to the new Stream Frame headset, while the Steam Controller, with its distinctive trackpads, allows you to play your Steam games wirelessly.
Given that we don’t yet have a release date or price for the Steam Machine, Dbrand’s accessory doesn't have either of those yet either, but it is coming in 2026. And I’m fairly confident that isn’t a lie…
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/dbrands-companion-cube-is-the-perfect-partner-for-your-future-steam-machine-161634417.html?src=rss
We are about a month away from the premiere of Fallout season two on Prime Video. The streaming gods have blessed us with a beefy two-minute trailer that's packed with "blink and you'll miss it" Easter eggs and nods to the source material.
This is the first real-deal trailer for the upcoming season, though we did get a teaser back in August. It checks in on every major character from the first season and, of course, is absolutely littered with New Vegas stuff. The first batch of episodes ended with an acknowledgment that the show would be visiting the iconic location and this trailer further proves that.
There are new actors coming to the show, many of which are featured here. Justin Theroux is playing Mr. House, a fan favorite character from the games who was originally voiced by the late, great René Auberjonois. Kumail Nanjiani shows up, and so does Macaulay Culkin. Ron Perlman can also be heard speaking during the trailer, and he did all of the opening narrations for the Fallout games.
We have no idea what will happen this season, as the show is set in the Fallout universe but is telling its own story. The first season took the world by storm, given that nobody really expected it to be quite that good. The new batch of episodes begin on December 17, but this is a weekly release schedule. There will be no Netflix-style drop here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/fallouts-new-season-two-trailer-is-filled-with-quick-nods-to-the-source-material-161533128.html?src=rss
An MMO based on Sony's Horizon series is on the way. However, Horizon Steel Frontiers is not coming to PS5, at least not initially. It's a mobile-first game that's also coming to PC, in another example of Sony Interactive Entertainment expanding beyond its core PlayStation console business.
NCSoft, the MMO developer and publisher behind the likes of the Guild Wars series and Throne and Liberty, is taking the lead on Horizon Steel Frontiers. It's working on the game alongside original Horizon developer Guerrilla Games and Sony.
Horizon Steel Frontiers is said to build on the fun robot dinosaur hunting action of Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West with greater player freedom, "deeply customizable combat" and other advanced MMORPG systems. You'll be able to undertake "large-scale raids" with other players. You'll likely end up competing with other players for resources too.
You'll create your own character, who belongs to a tribe of your choosing. Just like in the main games, status effects are a key component of combat. You'll also be able to grapple onto giant machines, chip parts of them off and use weapons that robot enemies drop against them. In a neat touch, you can carry these weapons on your mount and use them in your next fight. Horizon Steel Frontiers has Tallnecks too, so I'm happy about that.
The action is set in a region called the Deadlands, which is inspired by New Mexico and Arizona, and you'll share this part of the Horizon world with "thousands of other players," according to Guerrilla studio director Jan-Bart Van Beek. As with the series' core games, the story here concerns finding a balance between humanity, technology and nature.
Guerrilla said back in 2022 that it was working on more “epic solo adventures for Aloy” (the protagonist of the mainline entries) and it's said to be making its own Horizon multiplayer game. This MMO isn't the first Horizon spin-off either. Lego Horizon Adventures, from Guerilla Games and Studio Gobo, arrived a year ago. Co-op is a key aspect of that game, so that's a multiplayer title too.
Handing development of Horizon Steel Frontiers to a studio with vast experience in the MMO genre is a smart move on Sony's part. The company pivoted a few years back to focus heavily on live-service games, but that strategy hasn't panned out so well. Sure, Helldivers 2has been a major hit, but Concord was an utter disaster. An attempt to make a multiplayer game in the world of The Last of Us didn't work out. Sony's acquisition of Bungie hasn't gone as smoothly as expected either. The company said this week it wrote down the value of Bungie's assets by $204 million amid Destiny 2's struggles, putting even more pressure on the upcoming Marathon to succeed.
Sony and NCSoft have not yet revealed a release date for Horizon Steel Frontiers. In any case, Horizon is one of Sony's most popular franchises and it should make for strong fodder for an MMO. The action in the gameplay trailer looks as slick as you'd expect from this series and taking down robot dinos with friends in Monster Hunter-style action could be a lot of fun. It's probably a good thing that you're not playing as Aloy here, given how annoyingly reluctant she is to accept help from would-be allies in her own games.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sonys-latest-horizon-spin-off-is-an-mmorpg-for-pc-and-mobile-but-not-ps5-153532860.html?src=rss
In case you missed it, Valve announced a load of new hardware this week, including a second stab at the Steam Machine, a Steam controller, and a long-rumored new VR headset called the Steam Frame. But in with the new often means out with the old, and perhaps inevitably, the company has confirmed that its previous headset, the Valve Index, is no more.
Valve’s Lawrence Yang told The Vergethat it’s "no longer manufacturing" the Index, which we called "the best desktop VR yet" when it launched in 2019. The Index arrived around the same time as the Oculus Quest and its promise of an affordable all-in-one future for VR. By contrast, the Valve Index was very much still a high-end tethered device for the hardcore enthusiasts, with a price tag that reflected that.
We don’t know how much the Steam Frame will cost yet, but it definitely sounds like Valve is making a play for the more casual VR crowd here too, as well as those who want to play demanding 3D titles. You can stream flatscreen and VR games from your PC or Steam Machine using a wireless adapter, but the Steam Frame is also a standalone device like the Meta Quest 3, backed by a built-in Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset and 16GB of RAM. Valve is supporting Android games too, seemingly a move to entice VR developers to bring their Quest games over to Steam.
In order to track your movements in virtual space, the Valve Index relied on external lighthouse base stations, which meant you had to go through a more than a little laborious setup process to play roomscale VR games. Consumer VR has moved towards built-in sensors since then, and it sounds like Valve wants to leave its lighthouses in the past too, with the company confirming to The Verge that they won’t be supported on the Steam Frame. The new headset instead has four high-res monochrome cameras for inside-out tracking, as well as infrared LEDs on the outside that help with tracking in darker environments.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/valve-confirms-that-it-has-stopped-making-the-index-vr-headset-150324456.html?src=rss
OnePlus has launched its latest flagship smartphone, the OnePlus 15, today in a live event. It’s supposed to mark the availability of the phone outside of China, where it came out in October, but the US government shutdown apparently put a damper on the manufacturer’s plans. “As is the case with every smartphone manufacturer, the United States’ Federal Communications Commission certifies OnePlus devices before they are sold in the US,” said Spenser Blank, OnePlus North America’s Head of Marketing & Communications, in a statement. “As a result of the government shutdown, device certifications have been delayed.” That means the US release of the model has been postponed until the FCC approves its certifications.
The company explained that the OnePlus 15 has already gone through all the required tests from labs recognized by the government agency. It is also done submitting formal application for the certifications, and it’s just a matter of waiting for approvals at this point. “We are hopeful that approvals can be generated quickly and as a result, we can bring the OnePlus 15 to our customers in the US expeditiously,” Blank said.
OnePlus 15 is the first phone to ship with OxygenOS 16, the company’s take on Android 16. The OS combines Android’s new customization options with smoother animations and AI-enabled features. OnePlus 15 will be available in Canada today, as planned. Those in the US can visit the company’s page for US customers, where they can type in their contact details to be notified when they can purchase the device. The variant with 12GB of memory and 256GB of storage will set buyers in the US back $900, while the one with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage will cost them $1,000.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/the-us-government-shutdown-claims-an-unexpected-victim-oneplus-15-143000307.html?src=rss
If you’re reading this review, there’s a chance you’ve come to it with some confusion. Didn’t OnePlus already release a new flagship phone this year, and wasn’t it called the OnePlus 13? The answer is yes to both those questions. So, what gives? Well, over the last few years, OnePlus has been working to shorten the gap between when its phones debut in China and when they’re available in the rest of the world. This year, the OnePlus 15 arrives in North America just a few short weeks after its initial October 27 release. And like it did with the jump between the OP3 and OP5, OnePlus is skipping the OP14 because of the number four and its unlucky association in Chinese culture.
With that cleared up, you might think the OnePlus 15 suffers from following too soon after its predecessor. I’m happy to report it offers some clear upgrades over the OP13, including a faster processor and an absurdly big battery. What it doesn’t do, however, is change the OnePlus formula — for better and worse.
Pricing and availability
Due to the federal government shutdown, the OnePlus 15 does not have a US release date yet. The company had hoped to begin selling the phone starting today, November 13, but the phone has yet to obtain the necessary clearance.
"As is the case with every smartphone manufacturer, the United States’ Federal Communications Commission certifies OnePlus devices before they are sold in the US. As a result of the government shutdown, device certifications have been delayed," Spenser Blank, OnePlus North America’s head of marketing and communications, told Engadget.
"Subsequently, US sales for the OnePlus 15 will be postponed until they have been secured. The OnePlus 15 has already finished all the required tests from the FCC’s recognized labs and the certification application has been formally submitted. We are hopeful that approvals can be generated quickly and as a result, we can bring the OnePlus 15 to our customers in the U.S. expeditiously."
There's also some uncertainty around pricing. On release, OnePlus plans to offer two versions of the OnePlus 15. The base model, with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, will cost $900. The company will also sell a 16GB/512GB variant that will cost $1,000. However, OnePlus warns the price of both models is "subject to change due to current market conditions."
Hardware and display
The OnePlus 15 offers a big, vibrant AMOLED display.
Igor Bonifacic for Engadget
The OnePlus 15 is a great phone with a boring, derivative design. It borrows its visual identity from the OnePlus 13s and 13T, a pair of smaller, 6.32-inch phones OnePlus released in India and China this past spring. There’s no two ways about it, in making its new flagship look more like those devices, OnePlus has at the same time made it look more like last year’s iPhone 16 Pro.
It’s a shame. The design of the OnePlus 13 was one of the things my co-worker Sam Rutherford praised that phone for, and it’s something I liked about it too. The 15 just looks generic, even if there are a few nice touches. For example, the sand storm color has a nice, ceramic-like feel to it. One other impressive aspect of the design is how thin OnePlus has managed to keep the 15 while adding a massive 7,300mAh battery. At 0.31 inches thick, the sand storm variant is only slightly fatter than the 0.29-inch thick Galaxy S25 FE I recently reviewed, which has a more modest 4,900mAh battery (the two other OP15 colorways, infinite black and ultra violet, are listed as slightly thicker at 0.32 inches).
Now, if you’re a longtime OnePlus fan, I need to mention the 15 doesn’t have the signature Alert Slider found on the company’s previous phones. I know what you’re thinking, did OnePlus do away with a fan favorite feature to add an AI button? The answer is both yes and no. The first time you tap the Plus Key, OxygenOS will prompt you to make it a shortcut for one of eight functions. Naturally, the default option is to use the button in conjunction with the company’s newish Mind Space AI hub, but you also can bind other functions to the Plus Key, including the old Alert Slider functionality. Even if it’s another thing that’s derivative of the iPhone, I like the flexibility the Plus Key gives.
Separately, OnePlus has gone with a different screen this time around. The OP15 offers a 6.78-inch AMOLED display with a 1,272 x 2,772 resolution. The new screen is both smaller and less dense than the one found on the OnePlus 13, which was 6.82 inches big and had a 1,440 x 3,168 resolution. It’s also faster, offering a 165Hz refresh rate in select games, up from 120Hz on the earlier model. OnePlus told me it went with the lower resolution display because there’s no OLED manufacturer making QHD panels that fast yet. I’ll have more to say about the display in the performance section, but for now I’ll say the OP15’s screen is one of the best parts of using the phone. It’s dense enough to make text and images look sharp, and with up to 1,800 nits of brightness available, it’s easy to see and use even in harsh sunlight.
Cameras
The OnePlus 15's cameras are a half step behind the competition.
Igor Bonifacic for Engadget
OnePlus and Hasselblad ended their partnership in September, and the OP15 marks the debut of the company’s new DetailMax imaging engine. I’ll get to the software in a moment. First, OnePlus has once again gone with a main camera system built around three 50-megapixel sensors. What’s different this time around are the lenses. Two of them are slightly slower than their counterparts on the OnePlus 13. The main camera now has an f/1.8 aperture lens, down from the f/1.6 glass found on last year’s model. At the same time, OnePlus has gone with an f/2.8 lens for the telephoto camera. For comparison, the OP13 had an f/2.6 lens for distant shots. The good news is both cameras still come with optical image stabilization (OIS).
Broadly, the OP15 suffers from the same problem its predecessor did. Most photos look good — sometimes great even — but they don’t come out as nice as what you might snap with the latest phones from Apple, Google or Samsung. The difference is most noticeable in nighttime and low-light photos where the OP15 can sometimes struggle to eke out shadow detail. It will also completely miss a shot because it used too slow of a shutter speed. I sometimes saw similar results in daytime photos in situations where the company’s high dynamic range algorithm would get tripped up by harsh lighting. Specifically, the shots had overly lifted shadows and unnatural highlights, resulting in photos that look flat with poor contrast.
I also wish the OP15 had a better telephoto camera. It’s not bad by any means, but after seeing what the Pixel 10 Pro can do with its 5x zoom, any phone with a 3x telephoto doesn’t feel special. The limitations of the OP15’s hardware is especially noticeable when you try to push the camera beyond its maximum optical zoom. OnePlus says the camera offers 7x lossless zoom, but in my testing, I found there was a subtle drop in picture quality above 6x. At 10x and beyond, there's very noticeable pixel smearing.
There are two areas where the OP15’s cameras impress. Across both stills and video, it does a great job of measuring color temperature and ensuring images come out true to life. Even more impressive is the phone’s ability to capture a burst of photos at 10 fps, up from 6 fps on the OP13. If you’ve read one of my reviews before, you’ve probably noticed I enjoy photographing the cats in my neighborhood, and no phone has made that task as easy as the OP15.
As it’s already wintery in Toronto, I wasn’t able to test the OP15 new underwater camera mode. But if you live in a warmer climate, the feature is designed to make it easier to snap photos in the water by temporarily turning the OP15’s physical buttons into camera controls. This is also as good as any time to mention that OnePlus has shored up the OP15’s waterproofing. The phone is now rated IP68 against water and dust, and carries IP69 and IP69K protection against pressurized water at up to 176 degrees Fahrenheit.
Performance and battery life
In North America, the OP15's SUPERVOOC adapter can charge the phone at 80W.
Igor Bonifacic for Engadget
The OP15 is the first phone in North America to ship with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, and as you can probably guess, it’s a performance powerhouse. In Geekbench’s processor suite, the OP15 put up a single-core score of 3,696 and a multi-core mark of 11,187. That puts it in select company with the iPhone Air and its A19 Pro chipset, which in our testing had a slight edge in single-core performance but didn’t perform nearly as well in the multi-core suite (likely due to thermal limitations). In real-world use, I tried my best to find a game or application that could trip up the OP15, but between its new Snapdragon chipset and the 16GB of RAM that came in my unit, the phone handled everything with ease.
It’s hard to describe how smooth the OnePlus 15 feels relative to other phones I’ve used recently. Every swipe and scroll feels nearly instantaneous. I suspect that’s a byproduct of the OP15’s dedicated touch response chip, which samples the screen at 3,200Hz. Speaking of the display, that 165Hz refresh rate I mentioned at the top is more of a forward-looking feature right now. As things stand, there are only seven games that can render at 165 fps. One of those, PUBG, does so through frame interpolation. So unless you’re an avid Call of Duty Mobile or Clash of Clans player, you won’t notice that benefit of the OP15’s screen, yet. Things could change in time, especially as more OEMs bring 165Hz displays to their phones. For now, the OP15 is still a great gaming phone, but it has yet to live up to its true potential.
As much performance as the OnePlus 15 offers, what’s more impressive is its 7,300mAh battery. It’s the result of a new technology the company calls Silicon NanoStack. It allowed OnePlus to make a denser battery and one it claims will age more gracefully over time, thanks to a design that retains more than 80 percent of its health after four years. Obviously, I haven’t had the OP15 long enough to test that claim, but what I can say is that it offers tremendous battery life out of the box. On our local video rundown test, it posted a time of 38 hours and 30 minutes, which is eight hours longer than the OnePlus 13, the previous record holder.
The Aramid case is one of three cases OnePlus offers alongside the OP15.
Igor Bonifacic for Engadget
Just as impressive is how quickly the OP15 can charge. With the included 80W SUPERVOOC adapter, the battery can go from dead to full in about 40 minutes. The one downside of how OnePlus has approached charging is that the phone doesn't support the Qi2 standard. It can wirelessly charge at 50W, but you'll need to buy the company's proprietary AIRVOOC magnetic puck.
Software
Two screenshots showing of the OnePlus Mind Space
Igor Bonifacic for Engadget
When he reviewed the OnePlus 13 in February, Engadget’s Sam Rutherford praised OnePlus for its restrained AI approach. Unfortunately, no company appears immune to the technology’s pull at this point, and in the months since, OnePlus has begun integrating more AI features into OxygenOS. Thankfully, many of those are either easy to ignore or situationally useful.
First, there’s Mind Space, which is functionally similar to Nothing’s Essential Space. You can either tap the Plus Key (if it’s configured for use with Mind Space) or swipe up on the touchscreen with three fingers to save a screenshot to the hub. From there, the OP15’s built-in LLM will summarize the image, and you can ask the model questions about it. It’s also possible to save voice memos to the hub, and OnePlus offers a few other AI tools there, including one for scanning documents. All of these work well, and like I said, if they’re not your thing, they’re easy to ignore.
The OnePlus 15's volume rocker and power button are located on the right side of the phone.
Igor Bonifacic for Engadget
It’s been a few years since I’ve used OxygenOS, so it was a pleasant surprise to learn it remains one of the more attractive and tasteful Android skins on the market. A standout is some of the custom animations OnePlus has baked into the OS to accentuate the speed of the phone. I also find OnePlus has one of the best organized quick settings menus. There are just enough customization options there to make it feel powerful, but not enough to overwhelm.
One area where OnePlus could do better is software support. The company has pledged to provide the OP15 with four years of software updates and six years of security patches. That’s worse than both Google and Samsung, which have committed to supporting their latest phones for seven years.
Wrap-up
The OnePlus 15 sits on a set of icy concrete steps.
Igor Bonifacic for Engadget
In using the OnePlus 15, I was frequently reminded of the last OnePlus phone I reviewed, the OnePlus 7 Pro. At the time, it was the company’s most expensive device ever, coming in at the same $750 price as the iPhone XR and Galaxy S10e. The appeal of that phone was its speedy Snapdragon 855 processor and the fact it was one of the first smartphones with a 90Hz AMOLED screen. It was also the first OnePlus phone with a camera that was more than just serviceable.
All these years later, the appeal of the OP15 feels similar. It’s a phone for those who value speed over everything else. The tricky thing about this phone is judging its value when its price could change tomorrow. As I mentioned earlier, in the US the OP15 will start at $900, with OnePlus warning pricing for both models could “change due to current market conditions.” At $1,000, the 16GB model is a compelling alternative to the Pixel 10 Pro XL, offering a newer processor, more storage and a significantly bigger battery.
Here’s the thing: Google has already aggressively discounted the entire Pixel 10 lineup, and until Black Friday, you can get the Pro XL for $899 — $100 less than the 16GB OnePlus 15. For most people, I think that’s the play, given both the Pro and Pro XL have the better telephoto camera and Google has promised to support all of its latest phones for seven years. That said, if you’re okay with a worse camera overall, the OP15 has a lot going for it, and provided OnePlus can successfully navigate an uncertain tariff regime, it will end up not just one of the best phones of 2025 but much of 2026 too.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/oneplus-15-review-a-great-phone-if-photography-isnt-a-priority-143000489.html?src=rss
