Nothing Phone (3a) vs OnePlus 15T

Nothing Phone (3a)

The standout feature — a triple camera system with 50MP telephoto at $349 that no budget competitor can match.

• A 50MP telephoto with 2x optical zoom at $349 is unprecedented — no budget phone offers a dedicated zoom lens, and the results are genuinely impressive
• The 50MP main sensor produces detailed, well-exposed photos with natural colors that compete with phones costing twice as much
• Low-light photography is adequate but expectedly falls behind Pixel's computational processing — noise is more visible in dim conditions
• Video recording at 4K30 is solid with decent stabilization, though the lack of 4K60 is a limitation some users will notice

OnePlus 15T

OnePlus has dropped the Hasselblad partnership (now Oppo-exclusive) and built the 15T camera around two 50MP sensors — a main with a 1/1.56-inch Sony IMX906 and OIS, plus a new 3.5x periscope telephoto with OIS at the classic 85mm portrait focal length. There is no ultrawide. Notebookcheck still rates the system 'a class above' the iPhone 17, but reviewers agree this is the area where the 15T's compact-and-cheap positioning is most visible — sensor sizes are small, sharpness and dynamic range trail genuine top-tier flagships, and the OnePlus 15 / Oppo Find X9 Pro siblings keep the better imaging.

• The new 3.5x periscope telephoto delivers a classic 85 mm focal length perfect for portraits — a huge step forward from the OnePlus 13T's limited 2x zoom.
• OnePlus has confirmed the headline upgrade is a LUMO periscope telephoto with both improved hardware and improved algorithms, focused on stronger zoom and better atmospheric portraits.
• Despite the small 1/1.56-inch main sensor, the 15T's daylight and low-light photos are 'still a class above' the iPhone 17 in side-by-side comparison.
• The 50MP main sensor lacks sharpness and dynamics — good photos are possible in both daylight and dark, but top quality looks different.
• There is no ultra-wide-angle camera at all — the omission is partly excused by the new periscope, but it's a meaningful downgrade versus the OnePlus 15's triple-camera system.
• The telephoto produces unstable results inconsistent with the main sensor — at night the camera struggles with depth perception and doesn't always switch to the periscope when it should.
• The cooperation with Hasselblad is now Oppo-exclusive, and the OnePlus 15T's built-in image sensors are quite small and therefore not very bright.
• The selfie camera drops from 32MP on the OnePlus 15 to 16MP on the 15T — a small but real downgrade for anyone who shoots a lot of front-facing video.

Nothing Phone (3a)

The Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 with 8GB RAM handles everyday tasks smoothly, though it shows its limits with demanding gaming.

• Day-to-day performance is smooth and responsive — apps open quickly, multitasking is adequate, and Nothing OS animations are fluid
• Casual gaming runs well, but demanding titles like Genshin Impact need reduced settings for a smooth experience
• 8GB RAM ensures good app retention for moderate multitasking, though heavy users may notice occasional reloads

OnePlus 15T

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 paired with 12-16GB LPDDR5X Ultra Pro RAM delivers flagship synthetic scores — Notebookcheck recorded Geekbench multi-core 10,976 and 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited 29,901, on par with the larger Xiaomi 17 and Honor Magic8 Pro Air. The problem is sustained: in the 3DMark Wild Life stress test the GPU drops over 50% and the back of the phone hits 50 °C, which both Notebookcheck and SuperSaf flag as a deal-breaker for long gaming sessions.

• Geekbench 6 multi-core hits 10,976 — flagship-tier and within 1% of the average 8 Elite Gen 5 result, so there is no compromise on the chipset versus larger phones.
• 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited hits 29,901 — 5% above the 8 Elite Gen 5 average and ahead of the Xiaomi 17 with the same chip.
• In the 3DMark stress tests the OnePlus 15T shows a sharp drop in performance of over 50%, which significantly lowers our rating.
• Wildlife Extreme stress test scores swung from 6,990 best loop to 3,743 worst loop in a single run — the chart is 'quite a bit of a bumpy ride' and performance mode did nothing to stabilize it.
• Surface temperatures hit 48.3 °C on the back during stress testing and continued climbing to 50 °C near the camera bump — about 45 °C internal — which seems to be the phone's thermal limit.
• Genshin Impact averaged 60.3 fps over 30 minutes at just 3.2 W power draw, with the phone staying cool to the touch — and Peacekeeper Elite pushed 164.5 fps thanks to native 165 Hz support.
• r/Android's reviewer thread flags the same thermal issue directly: 'Gets kinda hot, over 50 degrees in the corner. This is with its very heavy throttling.'