OnePlus 15 could be the most powerful Android phone you can buy – at least for a while

If you're on the lookout for the best Android phone on the market, there might well be a new contender. What's more, this new option could hang on to the top spot for a while.

That's because the OnePlus 15 has just been announced, and it's packing some serious firepower under the hood. The handset is one of the first in the world to feature the brand new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset.

That is – rather confusingly – the second generation of the brand's Elite chipsets, and is its current flagship offering. The brand suggests that this chip will offer a 20% boost versus its predecessor, which should mean killer performance.

Speaking about the announcement, OnePlus founder, Pete Lau, said, "For more than a decade, OnePlus and Qualcomm have moved in lockstep to redefine what a flagship can be. With Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 at its core, the OnePlus 15 carries that legacy forward, delivering the speed, intelligence and efficiency our users demand today and into the future.”

It's not just the processor specs which we're excited by. The announcement also talks about the new DetailMax image engine, which is the OnePlus' post-Hasselblad effort.

The OnePlus 15 will be the first device to use that engine, and the first released images from a few weeks ago suggest that it'll be a pretty strong contender. Those images looked sharp and vibrant, which fills us with confidence in the brands efforts to spread its wings.

There's no official word on exactly when the device will be launched at this point, but we're used to seeing OnePlus handsets arrive before the calendar is changed, so it shouldn't be too long. There's the promise of even more information being released in the coming weeks, too, so there should be plenty for fans to sink their teeth into.