Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs OnePlus 13 | Infinium-tech

The Galaxy S25 Ultra is perhaps the most complete version of a smartphone you can get right now running Android, offering competent cameras, plenty of performance, solid battery life and display experience, all of the AI, and, of course, an S Pen. Not everyone needs all that, however, and if you’re willing to sacrifice a feature here and there, a OnePlus 13 may be the more sensible option for you and perhaps even the better one in some ways. Let’s compare.

Table of Contents:

For starters, you can compare the complete specs sheets or directly continue with our editor’s assessment in the following text.

Size comparison

OnePlus
13

210 g

162.9 x 76.5 x 8.5 mm
(6.41 x 3.01 x 0.33 in)

Samsung took the chisel out this year and managed to make the S25 Ultra a little narrower and a little thinner than the previous model and conversely, easier to handle. The OnePlus 13 is also a little bit shorter and thinner than the previous one, but a hair wider than before. The two phones are equally tall, but the OP’s 1.1mm advantage in width and its overall more fluid shapes make it feel notably more compact than the sharp-edged Galaxy. Each has its own appeal, but only the OnePlus 13 can try and claim to be considered remotely compact.

The Galaxy’s screen is covered by Gorilla Armor 2, while the back is made of Gorilla Glass Victus 2. It’s got a titanium frame all around.

The OnePlus 13, meanwhile, has a Ceramic Guard display cover (who knows how that compares to Armor 2) with an aluminum frame. One of the OP colorways features a leather-like back, the other two are glass.

The Galaxy carries an IP68 rating so it should survive immersion in water down to a depth 1.5m for as long as 30 minutes. The OP13 adds an IP69 on top of that, making it certified to withstand high-temperature water jets – maybe that makes it better?

The Galaxy’s color choices are pretty subdued with relatively pale hues all around, even if you get one of the Samsung.com-exclusive options. The OnePlus has a bit more personality even though it only comes in three colorways – the leatherette-clad Midnight Blue is the hero color, and the glass-backed black and white options also have some character.

Display comparison

OnePlus
13

6.82″

LTPO OLED
120Hz

1440×3168
pixels

510
ppi

1204
nits

The two phones feature great OLED displays that tick a lot of boxes, though some of the boxes are different. Both are on the larger end of the spectrum, the Galaxy’s 6.9 inches being that one bit more than the OP’s 6.82-inch diagonal. Both have 1440p resolution with a pixel density around 500ppi, and you get dynamically adjustable refresh rate up to 120Hz (and down to 1Hz).

The Galaxy doesn’t support Dolby Vision – the OnePlus does, for what that’s worth. The S25 Ultra is a little bit brighter at full blast, the 200-ish nits worth of a difference being almost perceptible. In manual mode, either phone can go up to around 800nits.

Of course, one of the Galaxy’s major advantages is the lower reflectivity of its front glass, making it more easily legible in particularly bright environments. There’s also the fact that the panel has the layers for the S Pen pressure sensing. The OP 13’s is just a really nice display.

Battery life

The Galaxy S25 Ultra remains stuck at 5,000mAh for its battery capacity, with Samsung putting off upgrading to a larger silicon carbon battery. The OnePlus 13, meanwhile, has a 6,000mAh SiC battery, a more sensible choice we reckon.

In our testing, the Galaxy ended up being notably more frugal in gaming compared to the OP, while the OnePlus 13 has meaningful advantages in both web browsing and video playback.

Charging speed

The OnePlus 13 is also quicker to top up – provided you get one of the company’s adapters capable of reaching the phone’s 100W charging spec. If you max it out, you can count on reaching 95% in half an hour, starting from an empty battery.

The Galaxy would only be showing a little over 70% 30 minutes after you’ve plugged it in – again, if you have the right adapter that can negotiate the just under 45W that the phone is capable of taking. That’s admittedly a relatively easier task, but the point stands that if you want fast charging, there’s a way to have it with the OnePlus and not quite so with the Galaxy.

Also, the OnePlus will still get to 85-ish percent with a good powerful USB Power Delivery adapter (a breed of which there are plenty of options).

Both phones support wireless charging, but sure enough it’s not all the same. The Galaxy is Qi 2.1 compliant, so you can get cases for it with magnets and use those for coil alignment, plus upcoming in-car chargers may support automatic alignment for the S25 Ultra.

The OnePlus doesn’t really do Qi 2, but the phone does support the older spec, and the company also sells magnetic cases. Then there’s a puck-like charger contraption that could get you up to 50W of power to the phone (with the caveat that for wireless charging, the ‘max watt’ rating typically is even less meaningful than wired).

Speaker test

Each of these phones has a stereo speaker setup with minor but inconsequential conceptual differences between them when it comes to channel allocation and separation (strict on the Galaxy, some mixing on the OnePlus).

Both earned ‘Very Good’ ratings for loudness in our testing, but we’d give the nod to the Galaxy for sound quality, if only just.

Performance

OnePlus
13

Snapdragon 8 Elite
3 nm

256GB 12GB RAM
base config

Both phones use the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, though Samsung will have you believe their variant is special by slapping a ‘for Galaxy’ as part of the name. Both models start at a relatively modest 12GB/256GB memory configuration, but you can get the OnePlus 13 in a 16GB/512GB spec in most of the world while having the Galaxy with 16GB of RAM and (1TB of storage) is very region-limited.

Benchmark performance

OnePlus
13

AnTuTu 10
2,690,491

Geekbench 6
9,278

3D Mark Wild Life
6,615

In the benchmarks we ran, the Galaxy isn’t exactly consistently better than the OP, despite the ‘for Galaxy’ chipset. It does have an advantage in multi-core CPU uses, but it’s a tie in single-core performance, and the OP’s GPU does about as well as the Galaxy’s, occasionally slightly better.

The S25 Ultra comes with a promise for 7 years of software support – that covers major OS upgrades, as well as ongoing security patches. OnePlus says something along the lines of 4 OS upgrades and 6 years of security updates, which sounds like a disadvantage, though it just might be the longest truly sensible period.

There’s a less quantifiable aspect to software that’s worth mentioning here. While we’re pretty fond of ColorOS, One UI still feels like the most feature-rich take on Android, with wide-ranging capabilities beyond the basics. The close collaboration with Google on the AI stuff also puts Galaxies a notch above the rest. So the S25 Ultra is quite probably the most capable workhorse of a phone, from a software perspective.

Camera comparison

The two phones take different approaches to zooming in, the Galaxy relying on two telephoto cameras, while the OnePlus only has one. That said, the OnePlus’s 3x camera has significantly better hardware in most respects, so if the 70ish millimeter focal length is your thing, the OP might have an advantage – on paper, at least.

The Galaxy does have minor advantages in sensor size on both the ultrawide and the main cameras, though we’ll see if that translates into an actual practical edge.

There is, of course, the Galaxy’s 5x telephoto that gives it a lot more reach, plus some close-focusing capabilities, which the OP13’s zoom camera misses out on.

Additionally, the S25 Ultra’s front-facing camera setup is more to our liking – reasonable 12MP resolution and AF, next to the fixed-focus 32MP OP unit.

Image quality

At 1x, the Galaxy has a bit of an advantage in sharpness – not huge, but quite consistent. The OP shots are a tad more colorful, but hardly a big enough difference to be of any significance.

Daylight photo samples, 1x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • OnePlus 13

At 2x, the Galaxy’s superiority is even more pronounced.

Daylight photo samples, 2x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • OnePlus 13

As projected, the OnePlus has a significant and readily-observable advantage at 3x – its photos simply have more definition and an overall finer quality to them.

Daylight photo samples, 3x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • OnePlus 13

Zooming in further, the S25 Ultra’s 5x images are, in turn, meaningfully better than the OP’s 6x shots taken on its 3x camera. That said, the OnePlus results still hold up decently well even at 1:1 magnification.

Daylight photo samples: Galaxy S25 Ultra (5x) • OnePlus 13 (6x)

Comparing the ultrawides, we’re essentially looking at a tie from a practical perspective.

Daylight photo samples, 0.6x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • OnePlus 13

Selfies are a little nicer on the Galaxy in terms of resolved detail, and there’s also the added benefit that you can do close-ups thanks to its autofocusing capability.

Selfie samples: Galaxy S25 Ultra • OnePlus 13

In the dark, the OnePlus 13’s main camera produces notably better shots in full auto than what the Galaxy can muster – detail is better, noise is lower, dynamic range is wider.

Low-light photo samples, 1x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • OnePlus 13

At 2x, the Galaxy does have a bit of a sharpness advantage, but the OnePlus is reasonably alright.

Low-light photo samples, 2x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • OnePlus 13

We expected a bit more from the OnePlus at 3x, but it only manages decent results, similarly to the S25 Ultra, though the two do arrive there differently. The Galaxy’s shots are sharp and noisy, the OP’s 3x images are clean and softer.

Low-light photo samples, 3x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • OnePlus 13

At the next zoom level, the Galaxy’s admittedly suboptimal (noisy, mostly) 5x shots are notably better than the OP’s 6x results.

Low-light photo samples: Galaxy S25 Ultra (5x) • OnePlus 13 (6x)

The ultrawide cameras are comparable in the dark, with a small sharpness advantage for the Galaxy.

Low-light photo samples, 0.6x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • OnePlus 13

Video quality

Below we have a few framegrabs from the videos taken by the two phones at each focal length so it’s easier to compare to one another.

When it comes to video quality, the OP13 has a better definition in the ultrawide footage. The Galaxy has a small advantage at 1x, and is significantly better at 2x. The 3x cameras are roughly similar, and at 5x/6x the Galaxy is again superior.

Daylight video samples, 0.6x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • OnePlus 13

Daylight video samples, 1x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • OnePlus 13

Daylight video samples, 2x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • OnePlus 13

Daylight video samples, 3x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • OnePlus 13

Daylight video samples: Galaxy S25 Ultra (5x) • OnePlus 13 (6x)

In the dark, the Galaxy captures higher-quality video at all zoom levels, including (somewhat disappointingly) 3x. While a little noisy overall and not necessarily superb in absolute terms, the Ultra’s clips have better detail than those from the OP.

Low-light video samples, 0.6x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • OnePlus 13

Low-light video samples, 1x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • OnePlus 13

Low-light video samples, 2x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • OnePlus 13

Low-light video samples, 3x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • OnePlus 13

Low-light video samples: Galaxy S25 Ultra (5x) • OnePlus 13 (6x)

Verdict

The Galaxy S25 Ultra, as every previous generation, is likely the most complete and feature-packed Android smartphone on the market. Samsung may be dragging its feet when it comes to innovation, but the latest Ultra is still the ultimate power user’s go-to choice.

The Galaxy is neither the best cameraphone out there, nor does it have the longest battery life, its display has a couple of shortcomings, and don’t get us started on charging speed. But it does most things at an expert level and has an S Pen.

The OnePlus 13 is a notch or two below that but still provides reasonable value for its money, particularly compared to the Galaxy. The OP does a couple of things better, even – it’s got advantages in certain areas of its battery life, charges faster, and is a more pocketable option than the Samsung. It also offers a capable camera system, if not quite as versatile as the Galaxy’s.