OnePlus wants to sell you its new flagship phone; it just doesn’t know when it will be able to. Like so many other things these days, the OnePlus 15 is in limbo thanks to fallout from the government shutdown.
The 15 launched earlier this year in China, and OnePlus has announced pricing for the US: $899 for a version with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. That’s the same as the OnePlus 13, which is pretty neat when you consider the whole tariff situation. But because of the federal shutdown, OnePlus hasn’t been able to get the final FCC certification it needs to sell the phone in the US. And even with the shutdown at an end, it’s hard to say how long it will take the FCC to catch up on a month’s worth of work. According to a statement from the company’s head of marketing, Spenser Blank, OnePlus has submitted the required testing and is more or less just waiting on the final stamp of approval:
As is the case with every smartphone manufacturer, the United States’ Federal Communications Commission certifies OnePlus devices before they are sold in the U.S. As a result of the government shutdown, device certifications have been delayed. Subsequently, U.S. sales for the OnePlus 15 will be postponed until they have been secured. The OnePlus 15 has already finished all the required tests from the FCC’s recognized labs and the certification application has been formally submitted. We are hopeful that approvals can be generated quickly and as a result, we can bring the OnePlus 15 to our customers in the U.S. expeditiously.
Anyone interested in the OnePlus 15 can sign up for an email alert when it goes on sale by heading to Oneplus.com/us. And there’s one major reason to consider doing so if you’re shopping for a new phone: the 15 offers some of the best battery life you can find in the US, thanks to its use of silicon-carbon technology.
Chinese manufacturers like OnePlus’ parent company Oppo have embraced the new tech, which allows for thinner, higher-capacity batteries than traditional lithium-ion. The OnePlus 13 used the same kind of battery, but the 15 comes with a huge 7,300mAh capacity compared to the 6,000mAh of its predecessor. If you live in the US and you’ve been waiting for a phone with genuine two-day battery life, then the wait is almost over. You’re just going to have to hold on a little bit longer.
