- OnePlus 16 has finally arrived with a Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 SoC.
- It also brings OnePlus' fastest system-wide refresh rate of 165Hz with an exclusive gaming mode accelerating it to 185Hz.
- Launched in China with up to 16GB and 1TB storage, the phone may not see it's debut in other markets.
Waiting for the OnePlus 16 launch? Well, the flagship phone is officially here. With a starting price of 5,699 yuan in China, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6-powered phone is a true gem of a beast with one of the fastest display refresh rates and the acumen to woo anything that yields it. Well, let’s take a deeper look at what the Chinese smartphone maker has brought to the table.
OnePlus 16 design remains noticeably unchanged
Well, that’s a bummer. The OnePlus 16 looks identical to the OnePlus 15 in terms of its design language, except for an LED on the back panel if you pick up Tomorrow’s Starlight as the colorway.
Typically, the phone has a squarish camera bump at the back with a dual vertical camera setup and a separate third sensor in the second row, plus an LED flash. The front looks similar as well, with a giant display and bezels at 1.15mm each side.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 SoC and a 185Hz refresh rate
Well, the phone is impressive in its entirety. For starters, it brings a 6.78” OLED panel from BOE using its fourth-gen Oriental Screen technology. Unlike many others, this flagship phone has native system-wide support for a 165Hz refresh rate that yanks up to 185Hz for supported games, and that’s insane come to think of it.
The display can bring down brightness to 1 nit at the lowest. It also has one of the slimmest bezels on board, measuring 1.15mm on each side. There’s an ultrasonic under-display fingerprint scanner as well for quick access to your phone.
On the performance end, we have a 2nm Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 SoC, the powerhouse from Qualcomm. Hitting upwards of 5 GHz max frequency for the first time (for any SoC), the chipset is linked with up to 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 1TB of storage, an improved Glacier cooling system with 40% better dissipation using a vapor chamber compared to the last one. Finally, we have an Android 17-based ColorOS 17 taking care of the software on-board, with years of support for major Android upgrades coming forward.
The OnePlus 16 camera setup includes a massive 200MP primary lens plus a 50MP periscope telephoto with 3x optical and a 50MP ultrawide camera. This is a sure-shot upgrade over the last-gen, except for the ultrawide sensor. Finally, we have a 50MP front camera on the OnePlus 16 compared to 32MP on the OnePlus 15. Exactly how the camera performs remains to be seen.
Ginormous battery alert!
When it comes to the OnePlus 16 battery, we have a ginormous 9,000 mAh battery. This makes OP16 the most generous when it comes to battery life compared to many flagship phones out there. We have 100W wired charging and 50W wireless charging. We did see the wired charging drop from 120W on OP15 to 100W on OP16, but come to think of it, the battery is ~20% larger, so I’ll give it a pass.
OnePlus 16 pricing, colors and availability
OnePlus 16 arrived in China with multiple storage configurations. The 12/256GB variant arrives at 5,699 yuan at launch and 5,199 yuan after subsidy in the country. Similarly, the 12/512GB is pegged at 6,499 yuan, but with national subsidy, it is priced at 5,999 yuan. We have a 16/512GB at 7,199 yuan and 6,699 yuan for the price tag and subsidized price tag, respectively.
Finally, the highest of ‘em all is 16GB/1TB priced at 8,199 yuan in China, and after the national subsidy, you’ll get it for 7,699 yuan. The introductory price with subsidy is applicable from October 12 to November 13, based on local policy. The sales commence at 10.00 local time on October 13. Color-wise, the phone is available in Dark Forest, Marian Masterpiece, and Tomorrow’s Starlight.
Compared with the last-gen OnePlus 15, the latest OnePlus 16 is on the expensive side, with a higher starting price by 1,700 yuan for the base variant. When converted, the phone and its storage variants (mentioned above) are typically priced at $848 / $967 / $1,071 / $1,220, respectively, without the introductory offer.
However, note that these aren’t the official pricing in the US, and thus, in case OnePlus decides to roll out the phone outside the country, which seems improbable, the pricing may differ.
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