It's no secret that mobile gaming has come a long way in the last few years, but it looks like we're at the dawn of another big leap forward with the OnePlus 15. According to the Chinese tech brand, the upcoming Android flagship is capable of running games such as Call of Duty: Mobile, Delta Force, and others at a whopping 165 frames per second. That's a pretty far cry from the days of Angry Birds and Doodle Jump.
The jump to 165 fps gameplay is primarily thanks to Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which we're expecting to see in a lot of the best gaming phones in the next year or so. This souped-up processor offers even more performance firepower than last year's Snapdragon 8 Elite, which was already pretty potent, and combined with the OnePlus 15's 165Hz display, you're looking at a gaming phone that could rival some of the best handheld consoles, let alone its fellow Android flagship competition.
While we've seen phones with 165Hz displays before, or even higher, 165 fps gameplay hasn't been achievable due to performance throttling at around the 120 mark, making it quite the innovation. That's where the new Snapdragon chip comes into play, with its 23% improvement to GPU speeds and boosted power efficiency pushing the Android gaming experience to the next level. It wouldn't be a surprise to see brands such as RedMagic and Asus, who specifically target their devices at gamers, offer the same in the coming months, but for now, it seems like OnePlus is leading the way when it comes to mobile gaming.
The only slight issue with OnePlus' promise of 165 fps gaming is that not all the best mobile games are compatible with such high frame rates, with quite a few only going as high as 120 fps. Still, if more brands, such as Xiaomi or RedMagic, begin to offer similarly impressive performance capabilities, we could see more developers work to make their games compatible. That's the hope, at least.
Of course, we'll be eager to get our hands on the OnePlus 15 as soon as possible to really put it through its paces and see if it can deliver frame rates of up to 165 as promised. Until then, be sure to check out some more great hardware with our guides to the best iPhones for gaming and the best gaming tablets. Or, if you're looking for something new to play, check out our guide to all the best Android games and the best Switch games.