The OnePlus 15 hit the global market with a massive 7,300mAh battery and a remarkable 165Hz refresh rate, but there was less hype around the triple-lens rear camera.
I’ll get to the actual specs below, but on paper the OnePlus 15 has similar camera hardware to Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro, although it costs $200/£250 less (strictly speaking, the price is closer to the base iPhone 17, which doesn’t have a telephoto lens).
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Features
Here’s how the two phones compare in terms of camera specs:
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OnePlus 15
iPhone 17 Pro
Wide angle lens:
50MP, 0.64in, ƒ/1.8 (24mm)
48MP. 0.78in, ƒ/1.78 (24mm)
Telephoto:
50MP, 0.36in, ƒ/2.8, 3.5x optical zoom (80mm)
48MP, 0.39in, ƒ/2.8, 4x optical zoom (100mm)
Ultra Wide Angle Lens:
50 megapixels. 0.34in, ƒ/2.0 (16mm)
48 megapixels. 0.39in, ƒ/2.2 (13mm)
Selfie lens:
32 megapixels (21mm, ƒ/2.4)
18MP (ƒ/1.9)
The OnePlus 15 has three 50MP rear cameras (a wide-angle lens, an ultra-wide-angle lens and a telephoto lens with 3.5x optical zoom), while the iPhone 17 Pro has three 48MP rear cameras, one of which is a telephoto lens with 4x optical zoom.
Both phones offer “optical quality” extra zoom (7x for the OnePlus, 8x for the iPhone), but they do this via a sensor crop rather than fixed focal lengths, so I’ve prioritized the effective optical zoom distance in the “Telephoto” section below.
It’s also worth noting that both phones take photos in smaller file sizes by default than their large sensors suggest. The OnePlus 15 has 12 MP as standard, while the iPhone 17 Pro has 24 MP as standard.
As my colleague Jamie notes in his explanation of the iPhone 17’s photography specs: “The iPhone 17 Pro comes standard with 24 MP to ensure a balance between detail and file size. This uses a process called pixel binning, which combines four pixels into one larger pixel to improve image quality. » Clarity.”
It’s a similar story with the OnePlus 15 and its standard 12 MP configuration. The phone uses extra data from the 50MP sensor to produce a sharper, croppable image. Again, in the comparison below I’ve prioritized these default recording settings for both phones.
As for their respective selfie cameras, the OnePlus 15 has a 32MP lens, while the iPhone 17 Pro has an 18MP “Center Stage” lens. The latter uses subject tracking to automatically keep you in the frame and also lets you switch between portrait and landscape orientation depending on the number of subjects in the frame.
wide angle lens
Let’s start with the wide-angle lens, the main lens that most people use every day. In almost every image, you can see the different approaches of OnePlus’ DetailMax engine and Apple’s Photonics engine.
Ahead of the launch of the OnePlus 15, OnePlus ended its long-standing partnership with Hasselblad and the new in-house DetailMax engine is said to focus on delivering “clear and true” images rather than relying on post-processing tricks.
This objective applies to the images above. OnePlus 15 captures environments as they appear in real life: photos are clear, detailed and natural. Sometimes this approach makes the photos look cold and not as “pretty” as they could be, but it is true that the days I visited Prague were cold and rainy.
The iPhone 17 Pro takes the opposite approach. Apple prefers style over realism, sometimes making images warmer with higher saturation, making images almost yellowish (Czech “chimney cake” looks tastier on the iPhone).
Personally, I like this approach 90% of the time, but it can sometimes result in unnatural skin tones or an “overheated” lighting scene (see first image of Old Town Square).
In short, the iPhone 17 Pro has very strong contrast between shadows and highlights, while the OnePlus 15 makes things look as they really are.
Interestingly, the Alley images look very similar, so neither phone fully commits to the processing mantra in any scenario.
In these night shots (also taken with the 1x wide angle lens) you can see the different brightness approaches in action again.
To be fair to Apple, OnePlus exaggerates the lights (it wasn’t *that* bright on the boat), but the water and color of the boats look much more detailed.
Telephoto
This also applies to the telephoto lenses on the OnePlus 15 and iPhone 17 Pro (note: I used the fixed optical zoom options here, hence the slight difference in focal length).
With the exception of the cityscape (which was taken through a hotel window), Apple’s processing boosts contrast significantly, which works for something like a stained glass window, but less so for an exterior photo of a restaurant facade.
In the following shots of an accordion player and two polka dancers, both phones handle moving subjects quite well, although the iPhone 17 Pro excels in detail (zooming in on the main model’s tweed jacket and black gloves).
Ultra wide angle lens
I agree with you: I was so busy using wide-angle and tele when shooting in Prague that I forgot to take more than one photo with the phones’ ultra-wide lenses. Since then I’ve taken more photos in London (which you can see in the gallery above), but this oversight reflects the growing debate about whether phones need ultra-wide lenses.
Anyway, OnePlus 15 and iPhone 17 Pro behave more or less the same in this case. The OnePlus certainly wins in the darkest scenario – look carefully for road signs and tree lines – but interestingly it also exaggerates the contrast in the final image, where the iPhone 17 Pro (surprisingly) takes a more measured approach.
selfie lens
Here’s another example of the “realism vs. style” debate. The OnePlus 15 selfie captures me as I am, but I prefer the overall feel of the iPhone 17 Pro selfie, which looks a bit more detailed and alive (look at the sparkle in my eyes…).
For reference, I’ve also included a selfie of the iPhone 17 Pro in the new landscape mode below. OnePlus cannot do this.
The horizontal selfie orientation of the iPhone 17 Pro
Pronunciation
Which approach to photography do I prefer? To be honest, it’s a very mixed group.
If Apple’s photonic engine isn’t crazy about contrasts, I love the warmth of photos taken with the iPhone 17 Pro – they have a cinematic quality that OnePlus doesn’t even try to replicate. But the OnePlus 15 is significantly more consistent in its ability to deliver realistic images (there are no instances where I find the OnePlus images to look completely “bad”).
In that sense, the iPhone is capable of capturing higher peaks and lower valleys, while the OnePlus is a “safer” and potentially more reliable camera.
Both phones have impressive zoom lenses and can both handle moving subjects with ease, while the iPhone 17 Pro is the clear selfie winner (if only because it offers more options than the OnePlus 15).
Note that I used both units in their standard out-of-the-box configurations. I haven’t played with the professional features in the settings. There have been some great iPhone 17 Pro photos taken by far more talented photographers than me, and I suspect others will take just as beautiful photos with the OnePlus 15.
Let me know which photos you like the most in the comments below. We’ll be publishing more camera comparisons in the coming weeks, including the Galaxy S25 Ultra Review” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Google Pixel 10 Pro.