I expected the OnePlus 15R's display to be run-of-the-mill, but it turns out it's exactly the OLED we've been asking for

OnePlus debuted the R series in the U.S. earlier this year with the OnePlus 13R, and now the OnePlus 15R makes its entrance at the tail-end with massive upgrades in tow. It's not only the first phone to sport the Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite Gen 5 processor, but it's also one of the only phones to sport a 165Hz refresh rate OLED, too. That, combined with the 3200Hz touch sampling rate, makes this a truly superb gaming phone.

Not only that, but the OnePlus 15R churns out top-tier brightness levels and excellent outdoor visibility, all without compromising on eye care features. It's the first OnePlus phone with a 3840Hz PWM dimming rate, helping make it the most eye-friendly OLED we've tested to date.

It's the premium OLED experience we didn't expect in a $699 phone, and it not only rivals phones twice its price in every regard but eclipses them in eye safety features. Read on to find out all the nitty-gritty details!

Eye comfort, brightness, and colors

The OnePlus 15R's display represents the best of the best in OLED tech. It's extraordinarily bright when it needs to be, gets impressively dim in a dark room, and uses a dimming method that doesn't flicker the way Samsung and Google Pixel phones do. In fact, this phone sets a new bar for OLED flicker-free tech.

OLEDs are different from tech like LCDs because each pixel emits its own light, producing beautiful contrast. But OLEDs have to re-adjust the brightness each and every frame that's drawn, making them prone to flicker. Some phones use an additional PWM dimming layer on top of this, making the effect even worse and making it impossible for some people to use them.

But the OnePlus 15R's display sets a new bar for flicker-free OLEDs. It sports the lowest modulation I've ever seen from an OLED. Modulation is the percentage difference between the brightest and dimmest points during the refresh cycle. Lower is always better. Phones like the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Pixel 10 Pro have 99% modulation, meaning they fully turn off before turning on again. The OnePlus 15R gets as low as 3.89% modulation. That's not a typo.

The OnePlus 15R uses DC dimming above 25% brightness and 3840Hz PWM dimming below that. Samsung and Google use a mere 480Hz rate, which has been shown to cause health issues in studies. Not only is 3840Hz well within the safe range deemed by the IEEE PAR 1789 standard, but it's also the fastest rate we've seen yet on a OnePlus phone.

To make things even better, the modulation rate, even during the PWM cycle, is a record low of under 10%. I've never seen that on any phone, regardless of the price. It's a monumental win for OnePlus and the flicker-sensitive community, and great news for anyone who regularly uses this phone at low brightness.

It's also a true 10-bit panel, ensuring the phone doesn't use temporal dithering to fake colors and add yet another layer of flickering to the experience. Like PWM dimming, dithering can cause headaches, nausea, or other health issues.

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Despite having so many great eye care features, the OnePlus 15R still gets plenty bright when it needs to. Sunlight visibility was as good as any other phone I've ever tested, including phones that are twice the price (or more).

OnePlus doesn't employ any kind of anti-glare layer on the display, but while the glass won't do anything to reduce glare, the display itself gets more than bright enough to offset the reflections. One of the comparison images above compares it to several other ultra-bright OLED phones, while the other two images compare it to two popular phones that use matte or anti-glare displays.

Gaming, refresh rate, and resolution

The OnePlus 15R's display uses the same horizontal resolution as the OnePlus 15 — a maximum of 1272 pixels at the "high" resolution setting. That's almost identical to even more expensive phones like the Honor Magic 8 Pro (1256 pixels), but slightly lower than some phones like the Galaxy S25 Ultra (1440 pixels). Regardless, this is a 450ppi display, and it's unlikely you'll ever notice a difference, especially if you're using the high resolution option.

The slightly lower resolution enables OnePlus to push 165Hz in a select few games, including popular shooters like Call of Duty Mobile, PUBG, and Battlegrounds Mobile India. Just select 165FPS from the game's settings menu, and you'll be blown away by how smooth things are. Here's the full list:

• Call of Duty Mobile
• Clash of Clans
• Brawl Stars
• Real Racing 3
• Standoff 2
• Blood Strike-FPS
• Battlegrounds Mobile India
• PUBG

To make things better, the phone sports the same 3200Hz dedicated touch response chip as the more expensive OnePlus 15R. That means games feel notably more responsive, even if they don't support the 165Hz display refresh mode.

Since this uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite Gen 5 processor, it has plenty of power to run games at that frame rate, too. By default, games that support 165Hz drop details a bit, but it's usually just down to medium, not low. I prefer resolution over frame rate any time, but 165Hz modes don't lower resolution, only object detail.

The OnePlus 15R uses an LTPS OLED, which only supports a handful of specific refresh rates: 60Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz, 144Hz, and 165Hz. An LTPO display like the one on the OnePlus 15 can dynamically adjust from 1-165Hz. LTPO certainly looks better on paper, but LTPS displays are generally better for people with flicker sensitivity. That's because the refresh rate mathematically aligns with the dimming rate more closely than on LTPO displays.

Verdict

I'm beyond impressed with the OLED display on the OnePlus 15R. It's not just the most flicker-free OLED I've ever tested, but it features the fastest refresh rate I've seen on a phone this side of a dedicated gaming phone (or a more expensive model like the OnePlus 15).

It does all that without sacrificing outdoor visibility or low light comfort and gets closer to perfecting OLEDs as we know it. It's funny, because I was impressed by the OnePlus 15's display just a few weeks ago, and now the 15R — a $200 cheaper phone — pushes the same brightness metrics with even better eye comfort.

The OnePlus 15R is an LTPS display, which means the main refresh rates are 60Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz, 144Hz, and 165Hz. The OnePlus 15's LTPO display can drop as low as 1Hz, which could offer better power savings in some situations, but I'm not convinced this will make a difference for most people.

The OnePlus 15R is also missing the OnePlus 15's video enhancement modes, which can convert SDR content to HDR or even upscale lower resolution content on the fly. While I don't care much about these two settings very much, they're notable settings that might be worth choosing the more expensive model if they're important to you.

FAQ