The rumors about the OnePlus 16’s camera specs are starting to gather pace, but I’m still convinced they represent progress.
According to Yogesh Brar, the OnePlus 16 will resist peer pressure and use a new 50MP main camera.
As the tipster points out (see below), the current trend among OnePlus’s Chinese contemporaries is a pixel-packed main camera. The flagship offerings from Xiaomi, Vivo, iQoo and parent company Oppo in late 2026/early 2027 would all come with a 200MP main camera.
Of course, having more pixels doesn’t necessarily mean a camera is better. The Xiaomi 17 Ultra has a 50MP main camera and is arguably the best in the industry, largely thanks to its huge 1-inch sensor.
However, after a somewhat shaky generation (in photographic terms) with the OnePlus 15, you can count me a little concerned about these latest OnePlus 16 rumors.
Step in the wrong direction
While the OnePlus 15 is a fine phone with stunning performance and particularly excellent battery life, I couldn’t help but find it a little disappointing.
We’ve gotten used to smartphones getting better and better from generation to generation, but in some key ways the OnePlus 15 just wasn’t. Not everyone on the team agrees, but I would say that both the design and display represented a step back from the OnePlus 13.
Most importantly, so was the camera setup. For the OnePlus 15, the brand has abandoned its Hasselblad partnership and reduced the size of its image sensors across the board.
As such, this latest OnePlus 16 rumor doesn’t really give us the essential information. How big is it? And if Hasselblad has once again been left out of the tuning process, what’s the special sauce that will lift this phone’s main camera above its (by the time of release) two-year-old ancestor?
Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd
Zoom forward
One camera department that was technically improved in the OnePlus 15 was the telephoto camera, with an optical zoom length shifted from 3x to 3.5x.
According to tipster Smart Pikachu, OnePlus is dialing things back in this area – but it’s not necessarily all bad news.
On Weibo, the tipster has claimed that the OnePlus 16’s telephoto camera will return to 3x, but it will jump from 50MP to 200MP.
Again, I’m not really concerned about the number of pixels here, but the move to 200 MP certainly means a change in the sensor. The OnePlus 15’s telephoto camera has also been scaled back on sensor size compared to the OnePlus 13, but the 200MP telephoto cameras we’ve seen so far in the Oppo Find X9 Ultra and the Honor Magic 8 Pro have been reassuringly chunky.
All in all, we are none the wiser as to whether the OnePlus 16 camera will solve its predecessor’s biggest shortcoming. With the future of the OnePlus brand seemingly at stake, I sincerely hope so.
