iQOO, OnePlus, Realme Drop Same-Price Phones—Big Twist Revealed
Three Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 flagships enter India together. Each offers different camera setups, brightness levels, battery sizes and charging speeds.
image for illustrative purpose
With the release of the iQOO 15 on Wednesday, the premium smartphone market welcomed another Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 device. India now boasts three smartphones powered by the Qualcomm chipset, all at the same price, but different brands are leading in their own way regarding software, imaging, and display tuning.
iQOO used the launch to present OriginOS 6 as the new interface for Indian users. The company keeps the navigation familiar but expands cross-platform links that tie phones to other platforms in the ecosystem. Realme, with UI 7.0 on the GT 8 Pro, immerses itself even more in automation and on-device AI actions that help to perform common tasks more easily. OnePlus keeps its software minimal strategy alive with OxygenOS 16, making the OnePlus 15 consistent with the brand’s uniform aesthetic among devices.
OnePlus has now also indicated that another variant, the OnePlus 15R, will be revealed on December 17, the date set for the launch of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 powered model. Besides, OnePlus Pad Go 2, the next-gen device, will also be part of the event.
All three manufacturers focus their attention on cameras during this cycle. iQOO 15 through the main lens, ultra-wide, and telephoto—the same resolution for all—confirms the OnePlus 15 with the three-sensor setup. On the contrary, Realme's telephoto unit with a 200-megapixel sensor has been the major differentiator among brands in the imaging battle. Nevertheless, all three devices come with a 32-megapixel front camera, thus no difference on the selfie side.
Battery capacities continue to increase across the top tier this year, indicating that the trend is still alive. Holding the highest capacity in this group, OnePlus 15 has a 7,300 mAh battery supported by 120W charging. On the other hand, iQOO 15 employs a 7,000 mAh battery with 100W charging support, while Realme maintains a 7,000mAh battery but matches OnePlus’ 120W charging rate.
On the other hand, the display behavior pushes the smartphones even farther apart. The Realme GT 8 Pro takes the crown with an impressive peak brightness of 7,000 nits. iQOO takes the second spot with a 6,000-nit maximum and OnePlus 15 remains at a low 1,800 nits. OnePlus, however, manages to get the conversation back on its side by increasing the refresh rate and driving the panel up to 165 Hz, while iQOO 15 and Realme GT 8 Pro are limited to 144 Hz.
All three phones boast the same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor and have a starting price of Rs 72,999 for the 12GB RAM and 256GB storage variant. Even though they all cost the same, the three models have really different approaches to display strategy, battery priorities, imaging hardware, and software experience, which allows the buyers to see clear differences within the same performance tier.
