The OnePlus 15 impressed my excellent colleague, David Lumb, with its superb battery life and excellent performance, especially for gaming. I wasn’t as thrilled with the cameras in my early testing, but the proof of its photography prowess comes down to how it stacks up against the competition. In this case, the iPhone 17 Pro is one of our favorite phone cameras and indeed one of the best camera phones you can buy in 2025.
For years, OnePlus has partnered with the iconic Swedish camera maker Hasselblad to work on color science and image calibration for OnePlus phones. But that partnership has ended, which puts a lot of pressure on the Chinese company to impress with its camera suite on the OnePlus 15. Throughout all these changes, Apple released the iPhone 17 Pro, which has a brand-new 48-megapixel 4x telephoto camera and carries forward the company’s reputation for excellent photography.
I headed out to the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland, to test both phone cameras in a variety of situations. It’s important to note, though, that what I consider «better» might not be what you agree with. Photography, like all art, is subjective. While, as aprofessional photographer, I prefer more natural, true-to-life tones, you may prefer imagery with more pop and colors. Take my thoughts with a grain of salt.
Note, too, that all images were taken with each phone’s standard camera mode in JPEG format, and all images have been resized using Adobe Lightroom, with no additional edits or sharpening applied. Small print done with, let’s dive in.
Straight off the bat, I’ll admit a small mistake in the photos above. I took this shot using one of the iPhone’s Photographic Styles. I think it was Gold, and so it’s no surprise that it’s given the image a more vibrant, warmer look that suits the scene incredibly well. I only had the style active for this example and the ultrawide version below.
However, I noticed that the iPhone’s exposure is broadly better, while the OnePlus’ software processing had worked so hard in reducing image noise that a lot of the texture in the floor had been lost.
Switch to the ultrawide lenses, and things do change a bit. The iPhone’s exposure above looks preferable to my eye, but the OnePlus’ shot definitely has more detail overall.
This example above is quite classic of the problems I have not just with the OnePlus 15, but also with most of OnePlus’ phones. The image is quite heavily saturated, with an electric-blue sky and vivid greens that look unnatural to me. The iPhone’s image has a much better handle on color here.
My other problem with OnePlus’ phones is how hard they go with their HDR processing, brightening up shadows and pulling back highlights, resulting in images that quite often lack depth and believable contrast. The image above is a prime example where the deep shadows under this bridge have been maintained in the iPhone’s shot, but where the OnePlus 15 has tried to lighten them so much that the image looks very overprocessed.
And to prove it’s not a one-off, this example above is a real low point for the OnePlus. It really tried to eliminate any kind of shadows in this scene, while pulling back the highlights in the sky outside far too much. The image looks fake, overprocessed and exactly what people would think of if you told them a photo was taken on a phone. By taking a far more subtle approach, the iPhone’s image is much more to my liking.
The OnePlus hasn’t gone as hard with its vendetta against shadows in the image above, but it does look like it’s ramped that saturation way up. It’s not that I don’t like vibrant colors — I do — it’s just that I want to add in that saturation should I want to, rather than having it forced on me by default.
The images above show a more muted scene and a good effort from both phones. Although taken just nine seconds apart (I checked the metadata), I do think the sun may have slightly peeked out from behind a cloud a little more in the iPhone’s shot, as the front of the building does look quite a lot brighter. Or maybe the OnePlus is going hard on the HDR again. Who knows? Either way, good details on this image from both phones.
The same scene in ultrawide does arguably look a little muted from the iPhone, at least when compared with the bold blue of the OnePlus’ shot above. Somewhere between the two would be my sweet spot. After I zoomed in on the details, the iPhone’s shot is certainly clearer, but at full screen — or on your Insta feed — that difference is negligible.
That brightness and color difference persists when taking each phone to its maximum default telephoto zoom, so maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with the sun and clouds after all. Colors aside, the iPhone’s shot above is also clearer, and its details look sharp without being overly digitally sharpened. The OnePlus’ image does have something of a «crunchiness» to it from its software processing that I don’t like as much.
Peeping close up at the pixels on each phone’s telephoto zoom shot, I definitely think the OnePlus has gone too hard with its sharpening in the image above of a person in a window.
I’m slightly more torn on this nighttime scene. The OnePlus shot above has yet again gone big on the saturation. Look at the overcooked green on the grass — it looks like it was taken at midday in the spring. The iPhone’s colors look way more natural. However, the OnePlus’ sharpening works in favor at night, delivering a shot with crisper details throughout.
And in ultrawide, I flat out prefer the OnePlus image above. Those vibrant tones look much better here, especially as they make the oranges of the building in the background stand out more.
And if we peep at those pixels again, it’s clear that the details on the OnePlus’ shot (left) are far better. Finally, a win for the OnePlus.
This final indoor low-light scene is a bit more of a mixed bag. The OnePlus’ image above is unquestionably brighter — especially the people nearest the camera — but its noise reduction has gone a bit too hard in some areas, reducing textures on clothing and hair that the iPhone hasn’t done. Overall, though, I’d say this example is a close fight.
iPhone 17 Pro vs. OnePlus 15: Which camera is better?
For me, it’s an easy victory for the iPhone 17 Pro. Almost across the board, its images are more natural looking with realistic colors, saturation levels and exposure. The OnePlus 15’s reliance on heavy-handed image processing has resulted in often garish-looking photos that are almost the opposite of what I look for in my photography. However, as I said at the beginning, that’s just my opinion.
As a photographer, I want my camera — any camera — to be able to capture the best-looking image straight out of the camera that I can then apply more edits to if I want to. But maybe you don’t want to do that and instead want a vibrant, punchy-looking shot that you can immediately share to social media. If so, maybe the OnePlus will be fine for you.
At the end of the day, deciding which phone to buy will come down to more than just the camera, so make sure to read CNET’s in-depth reviews of all of 2025’s best phones to decide which is the one for you.
