I’m tired of thin phones, and the OnePlus 16 might be the cure

It feels like every other week we hear about a "game-changing" battery, but this latest OnePlus 16 leak is actually making me do a double-take. We’re barely a few months removed from the OnePlus 15 launch—which, let’s be honest, was a solid enough flagship—and yet the rumor mill is already spinning up some frankly absurd numbers for the next iteration.

The big one? A 9,000mAh battery.

I’ll just say it: that sounds ridiculous. For a bit of perspective, the OnePlus 15 has a 7,300mAh unit. Jumping to 9,000mAh in a single year feels... well, it feels like we’re moving back toward the era of thick, heavy phones. But then again, maybe that’s the price we pay for actually making it through a weekend without hunting for a USB-C cable.

Actually, there is a bit of a "paper trail" here. OnePlus recently outed the Turbo 6 series, and guess what? They both shoved a 9,000mAh cell inside. So, it isn't like this is some impossible tech they're dreaming up in a lab; it’s already out there in the wild, albeit in different shells.

I do wonder about the trade-offs, though. The Turbo series caps out at 80W charging. Compare that to the 120W speeds we’ve grown used to on the flagship line, and it starts to look like a bit of a compromise. You get the capacity, sure, but you lose that "zero-to-one hundred in twenty minutes" magic. I think most people would take the extra capacity, but I’m curious to see if the OnePlus die-hards will complain about the slower top-ups. I probably would.

Beyond the battery, the rest of the leak feels like a classic "throw everything at the wall" spec sheet. We're talking:

Honestly, does anyone actually need more than 120Hz or 144Hz? I’m skeptical. At some point, we’re just burning battery life for the sake of winning a spec war. Still, if the October launch window for China is accurate, we’re only a few months away from seeing if this thing is a genuine powerhouse or just a heavy-handed attempt to win back the "Pro" crowd.