I Tested the OnePlus 15’s Gaming Prowess — and It’s Promising (So Far)

The OnePlus 15 doesn’t look like a gaming phone, but it behaves like one – especially because of the work that’s gone into it at the chip level. I was at the OverPower event in Singapore, where OnePlus introduced three technologies that form the backbone of its gaming ambitions with the OnePlus 15, alongside Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip. Those are the OP Gaming Core, the Performance Tri-Chip, and OP FPS Max.

There’s a lot of deep technical jargon behind those names – stuff like OnePlus rewriting around 20,000 lines of Android kernel code and building a new CPU scheduler to replace the default one – but what matters is what you actually feel when you play. If you want to read about that, click here.

OnePlus 15 Gaming Test

While OnePlus had most of its demos locked down before the launch, which is rumoured for November 13, they did let us spend some time gaming on the device. I jumped straight into Call of Duty: Mobile, since that’s where OnePlus is making a big claim – 165fps native gameplay.

The settings were the same as usual: Low + Ultra, which typically caps at 120fps on 120Hz phones. But since the OnePlus 15 uses a 165Hz display, the phone can finally stretch those frames to match. During my rounds of Team Deathmatch, the frame rate hovered between 158 and 165fps, staying impressively stable with no visible drops or stutters. Touch response felt snappier too, likely thanks to the dedicated Touch Response Chip.

In the display settings, PUBG Mobile and BGMI were both listed at 120Hz, while Call of Duty: Mobile showed 165Hz support – confirming that this wasn’t just software-level interpolation. The difference between 120fps and 165fps was easy to notice, especially when quickly panning the camera. This is a good glimpse into if tweaks are made at the chip-level, and there’s performance headroom, the utilisation can be much better.

OnePlus also mentioned that Genshin Impact will support 120fps “native-level” gameplay, but that phrasing is telling. Unlike Call of Duty: Mobile, this isn’t fully native. It’s likely a mix of optimisations and frame interpolation. For now, Genshin’s true 120fps support remains exclusive to iPhones.

Conclusion

Overall, OnePlus’ push into gaming seems more serious than what they were trying with the OnePlus 13. The gaming dashboard offers three modes: Power Saving, Balanced, and Pro Gamer. From this same panel, you can switch the frame rate to Hyper Frame Rate, boost the graphics to Hyper HDR, bump up the resolution, and adjust the touch response

The early results with gaming are promising, but we’ll know more once more titles are tested to see if these deep, chip-level tweaks help across the board. The real comparison will be with the iQOO 15, which usually sets the standard for Android gaming phones in this price range. We’ll be testing the OnePlus 15 thoroughly in the coming weeks – stay tuned to Gizbot for all the coverage.