I tried to melt my OnePlus 15 with some real games

Ever since I heard about the OnePlus 15, I was sure of one thing — even without using the phone: while it might fall short of a true upgrade to the OnePlus 13, it would be excellent for gaming. It had to be, owing to the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5’s improved architecture, OnePlus’ abiding emphasis on internal cooling tech, the new highly responsive 165Hz display, and the brand’s general fidelity to users who expect more than just the basics from their phones.

But my colleagues’ initial reactions to the phone shook that conviction. In their initial testing, my colleague Robert Triggs found the new phone running at nearly scorching temperatures. That’s a good thing if you’re near the North Pole, helping Santa pack gifts for kids. But for the rest of us mere mortals, those temperatures — I’m talking about nearly 53°C (127°F) on the surface, were bothersome, and especially harrowing for mobile gamers who intend to use it for several dozen minutes, if not hours, holding the phone in their hands while fragging foes in leading FPS games.

Thankfully, OnePlus acknowledged the issue and delivered a couple of updates to address it. So, I’m taking the opportunity to test its claims about gaming and see if the OnePlus 15 actually scores a high K/D spread compared to its competitors.

Testing OnePlus 15’s competence

Since my colleagues have already evaluated the OnePlus 15 on its core performance metrics, I am sprinting straight to test its gaming performance. For this, I’m relying on two Android games that are brutal on the hardware — Call of Duty: Mobile and Genshin Impact. Then, I would follow it up by running a couple of emulators to test the 15’s ability to survive and thrive in alien territories.

To quantify performance, I’m using Gamebench, a professional benchmarking tool. Gamebench has been kind enough to offer me a free journalist’s license for several years now. However, it does not have any input on the findings in this (or any other) gaming test.

I’ve allocated 30 minutes of continuous gameplay for each game. This should be sufficient, since the OnePlus 15 had already started sizzling after 20 minutes of a continuous 3DMark stress test during our previous evaluation. After each of the tests, the external temperature is recorded with an infrared thermometer.

Each test is performed at a room temperature of 22ºC (~72ºF), and the phone is at around 25ºC (~77ºF) before starting. Meanwhile, the phone is tested with Normal Mode and not the High Performance Mode to ensure realistic results. Lastly, the results were recorded after updating the phone to version 16.0.1.305 of OxygenOS.

Here. We. Go!

For this test, I’m relying on two taxing Android games: Call of Duty: Mobile and Genshin Impact. I will detail the graphics settings for each in their respective settings.

Call of Duty: Mobile: The 165fps test

While the OnePlus 15 boasts of a 165Hz panel, only a handful of titles can actually run at 165fps. Thankfully, COD:M is one of the games that natively support 165fps gameplay. Others include Brawl Stars, Clash of Clans, Real Racing, and Standoff 2.

To start, I chose the Ultra frame rate setting in COD:M, removed any frame rate limits, and enabled frame rate adjustment. One trade-off of doing that is that the resolution falls back to Medium graphics and disables any HDR color options. But to test that separately, I will perform another test later.

But first, let’s go with 165fps. Based on the stats recorded by Gamebench, here’s a brief summary of my 30 minutes of gameplay:

Okay, to start, I wasn’t expecting the OnePlus 15 to stay cool under extreme pressure, but this test suggests the phone does dissipate heat well. This indicates the update may have had a beneficial effect. Moreover, the majority of the deviations from the median were due to the loading screens in COD:M, which render at 30fps instead of 165, 120, or even 60fps.

Overall, the phone delivered consistent frame rates between 162–165fps, with some variation in the value when I was killed and an animation of the killer played while I was respawning. Other than that, I did not see any frame drops while firing multiple rounds or delivering headshots, even with a scope.

Assuming this smooth performance might be because of Medium graphics settings, I switched to Max and turned on depth of field and reflection to stress the GPU further.

Call of Duty: Mobile: The graphics test

Switching to Max graphics also reduces the frame rate to 60fps, but enhances visibility significantly. So, this test was to evaluate whether 165fps is truly worth any hype, and if the Max graphics setting drains the OnePlus 15 more.

Here’s what Gamebench’s stats tell me:

Honestly, after the first test, I wasn’t really surprised to see COD:M rendering at 60 fps. I was automatically primed to expect it to run well.

While the higher deviation may grab your attention, it is once again due to extremely long loading screens between multiple deathmatches.

However, what did astonish me was the meager battery consumption and the minimal increase in external temperature. This time, the phone was barely warm to the touch, failing to live up to (which is a good thing) its ill-reputed status as a hot mess. Notably, average RAM consumption increased slightly, likely owing to the game’s greater level of detail.

While the improved graphics certainly helped me spot enemies better, I felt the lower refresh rate deterred me while trying to aim and shoot quickly, as compared to 165Hz.

Slightly underwhelmed with the experience, I moved to the graphically more demanding Genshin Impact. And this time, I ensured to set each graphic setting to the maximum to challenge the OnePlus 15 even further.

Genshin Impact: The heavy Android game test

Since Genshin Impact is an open-world game with more varied visuals, I was expecting some trimming in performance, especially with anti-aliasing, reflections, and shadows set to the highest values. Despite setting Genshin Impact to the highest video settings, the OnePlus 15 rendered remarkable performance.

Here’s an overview:

Although the RAM usage increased slightly, I did not encounter any issues while running the game at 60fps consistently. There were times when it would drop to around the 55fps mark, but jumped back up almost instantaneously.

Since other phones I have tested while playing Genshin Impact tend to boil due to the graphics load, I was actually surprised when the OnePlus 15 surpassed my expectations with its heat management.

Emulating games for other platforms

Regular Android games haven’t exactly proven to be taxing on the OnePlus 15, so I moved to tests that I feel could be more rigorous.

PS3 emulation: After Burner Climax

The first test of this part involves emulating a Sony PlayStation 3 title using the RPCSX emulator. While PS3 emulation on Android is still patchy, I was able to run After Burner Climax, which involves high-speed air combat between Air Force fighter jets.

Here’s an overview:

After Burner Climax runs as effortlessly on the OnePlus 15 as the fighter jets glide through the damp ocean atmosphere in the various dogfight scenarios. Despite PS3 hardware being dated by all standards and modern chips, delivering a nearly rock-solid 60fps without excessive external temperatures is no mean feat. This makes me hopeful about better performance while emulating more recent gaming hardware, such as the Nintendo Switch.

I’m surprised that it barely takes a toll on the OnePlus 15’s hardware, which probably only heated up as much as it did from the warmth of my hands, and not the game itself.

Windows emulation: Stumble Guys

Windows game emulation on Android has been picking up steam recently, especially with the addition of tools such as GameHub. Running a game that’s intended to work on x86 hardware is naturally a taxing job for an Arm chip, including the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.

So I decided to stress the chip further by running a Stumble Guys (PC version) through the GameHub emulator. The emulator allows installing games from EXE files or downloading them by linking your Steam library, and I chose the latter option. Admittedly, Stumble Guys wasn’t my first choice, but GameHub still struggles to run online competitive games such as PUBG or Counter-Strike 2, perhaps likely due to limited support for anti-cheat algorithms on Arm architecture.

Still, I feel like it was intensive enough to be run as part of this test. I ran the game at a resolution of 1,280 x 720 and left all other graphics options set to their default values. Here’s how it went:

This is the first test where the average frame rate dropped far below the maximum supported values. While the median recorded here is 45fps, the frame rate fluctuates significantly, swinging between 30 and 50 fps a lot. Meanwhile, the loading screens rendered at 120fps (and not 165fps, likely due to GameHub’s limitations), leading to more variance.

It was also the test where the phone got the hottest, but I did not have to hold the phone, thanks to the emulator’s native support for GameSir’s G8 Plus controller.

I wasn’t truly disappointed by the performance and feel confident that the OnePlus 15 can deliver passable results with similar not-so-graphics-intensive PC games. With USB 3.1 Gen 2 support on the phone, it can also be used to project the game onto a bigger screen, using the OnePlus 15 as a makeshift Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck alternative.

Are OnePlus 15’s overheating issues fixed?

Perplexed by the fact that none of the tests drove the OnePlus 15 to extremely high temperatures, I also ran 3DMark Wildlife Extreme, which previously led the app to crash on the phone and drove its external temperature to 53°C (127°F).

I used an infrared thermometer connected via USB to a phone to measure the external temperature at the end of the 20-something-minute run. What ensued truly surprised me.

Not only did the OnePlus 15 complete the test without crashing, but its external surface also did not exceed a temperature of 42°C (108°F). While it was warm to the touch, it did not feel extremely hot. And this does prove one thing — OnePlus has listened to the feedback from early adopters and users, and fixed the heating issues. And just in time for the phone to be available in the US.

Will the OnePlus 15 melt?

The short answer is “No!” And that’s not just relieving to potential buyers, but also me, as a reviewer, who plans to recommend the OnePlus 15 to most of my friends looking to buy a new Android phone. While my chief list of reasons included a large battery and superfast charging, OnePlus’ recent fixes for the heating issue make its case stronger.

As impressed as I am at the stable performance I saw across gaming and emulation tests, I wonder if the phone could technically perform even better. With games I tested capped at just 60fps with high-fidelity graphics enabled, many modern Android games probably aren’t making full use of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5’s — or a similar chipset’s — power. With last-gen models already performing virtually as well, generational upgrades feel less enticing. What I’d really like to see is Google pushing harder to make Android gaming more engaging. One way could be to bring more complete, close-to-original ports of PC games to smaller screens, especially as Apple is already taking slow but steady steps in that direction with franchises such as Resident Evil. 

On the plus side, the OnePlus 15’s excess power is assuring enough that it won’t disappoint for gaming. However, I wish I could maintain the same stance for its cameras too!