OnePlus officially confirms a massive battery upgrade for its next handset

OnePlus is continuing the drip feed of information about the OnePlus 15R, with the reveal that it will have a massive 7,400mAh battery. By comparison, the OnePlus 15 has a 7,300mAh battery, which we found would last two days fairly easily in our review.

That huge battery is the latest detail, with OnePlus previously confirming that the OnePlus 15R would be the first phone to run the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 (the non-Elite chip), but there's another detail, with confirmation that 80W charging will be onboard too.

There will be a 165Hz AMOLED display with up to 1,800 nits, while the camera will offer 120fps 4K video capture. That all sets up the OnePlus 15R to be an interesting sub-flagship model.

The OnePlus 15 was announced on 13 November after an earlier reveal in China, and is now available to buy, dragging the flagship phone forward compared to previous years. That seems to be to compete with brands like Oppo and Xiaomi, but also matches a shift in timing across the entire Android ecosystem.

Not only have we seen Android software appearing earlier, but we've also seen Qualcomm hardware appearing earlier, with the September launch of the latest Snapdragon hardware, an event that was previously scheduled for November. This also fits with providing great competition around the Apple launch, with Android able to put out new devices to rival the latest iPhone.

OnePlus 15R | Design - YouTube

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OnePlus's gradual teasing of the OnePlus 15R – due to launch on 17 December – is likely to continue, seeing OnePlus with two top-tier phones available to buyers. That also sees this hardware on the market well before Samsung has its new device available – now rumoured to launch in February 2026.

The specs of the OnePlus 15R shouldn't come as a surprise, as it's expected to be a global version of the OnePlus Ace 6 which has already been announced in China.

That suggests it will be a 6.83-inch display, although the listed battery capacity appears to be slightly lower in the 15R than the Ace 6. It's thought that the battery uses a split cell design, so rather than being one huge battery, it's actually two batteries.

Elsewhere, the cameras on the Ace 6 include a 50-megapixel main and 8-megapixel ultrawide, suggesting this is where some of the compromise will come in – while there's plenty of power and a great display, the camera may be less versatile.

There's not long to go until the full reveal of this new phone and one of the important details will be the price. With the OnePlus 15 costing £979, the OnePlus 15R could be a stealth hit for those wanting power for a reduced price.