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Don’t hold your breath for another compact phone from OnePlus anytime soon

After briefly flirting with a compact flagship revival, OnePlus may be retreating again, leaving global buyers waiting for the puported OnePlus 15T.

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The rear of the OnePlus 15R, propped up on a wooden table.
Tom Bedford / Digital Trends

OnePlus turned quite a few heads when it launched the OnePlus 13s, a rebadged version of the OnePlus 13T, outside of its home market. The handset practically reignited excitement in the compact flagship space, offering better value than popular models like the Samsung Galaxy S25, but it remained exclusive to the Indian market.

Now, the Indian tipster Yogesh Brar claims that the handset’s successor — the OnePlus 15s — might not make it out of the Chinese market at all. In response to an X user asking whether the OnePlus 15s is canceled, the tipster said there’s a 90% chance that OnePlus will cancel the phone.

90% chance of it getting cancelled..

— Yogesh Brar (@heyitsyogesh) January 10, 2026

The compact OnePlus flagship keeps slipping away

For those catching up, OnePlus has been adding a lot of models to its flagship number series lately. Take the OnePlus 13 series, for instance. It features four models: the flagship OnePlus 13 and the OnePlus 13R, which were officially available in the United States, along with a compact flagship.

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While the compact flagship in the lineup didn’t make it to the United States, it was called the OnePlus 13T in the company’s native market or the OnePlus 13s in India, where it featured a smaller battery. In total, the OnePlus 13 series included four smartphones, though not all were available in the United States.

Most recently, the company released its latest flagship, the OnePlus 15, here in the United States, along with the OnePlus 15R, both of which offer great value for their price. Naturally, we were waiting for the company to launch its compact flagship, the OnePlus 15T, hoping that its Indian variant — the OnePlus 15s — might make it across the Pacific as well.

However, Brar’s claim realigns our expectations. Although he doesn’t provide any details, the tipster responds to a question about the OnePlus 15s, not the OnePlus 15T. So, while there’s still hope for a compact flagship with a 6.32-inch screen powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, the handset may remain exclusive to China.

In other words, the company might have canceled the global launch of the OnePlus 15T. The reason isn’t immediately clear, but it could be due to weak global demand for compact flagships, rising memory and component costs, and the possibility that the purported handset’s price clashes with the OnePlus 15R.

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