Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra or OnePlus 13: Which One Should You Buy?

Globally, both of these Android monsters came around at a similar time. They got delivered to my place in New Mexico around a week ago. One of them clearly had some innovation while the other one lacked it. 

But do such innovations make the OnePlus 13 better than the S25 Ultra? Let’s talk about that in detail. 

First Things First: The Performance

Both of these flagships are powered by the latest and greatest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. They have the same base 12 Gigs of RAM, and have the same UFS 4.0 storage variant. Though OnePlus optionally offers up to a whopping 24 gigs of RAM with its 1 Terabyte variant, while Samsung limited it to just 16 gigs with its 1TB variant. 

Specs aside – how do they perform in real life? Well, the thing is, you would barely notice any difference in regular use. You need to push the boundaries to see their limits and this is what I did. 

I thought gaming was where it would show the difference. To give them a fair front, I relied on my high-speed Optimum Internet so that the internet wouldn’t be an issue. If you too prefer speaking Spanish and need to upgrade your internet, you can talk to their Optimum en español customer support team. 

On my 1 Gbps internet plan, I played COD and PUBG mobile at the highest possible setting and none of them showed any signs of dropping frame rates. Then, I tried editing videos on Adobe Suite, and S25 Ultra rendered significantly faster than the OnePlus 13. The rest was just draw upon draw in the battle between the two. 

The bottom line is that there isn’t going to be any major difference in performance. You will be well-covered for extensive usage with either of them. 

Camera Is Where the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Wins

Both of them offer a great set of cameras. I won’t complain with any of them. But since we are talking about the best of the best, I had to nitpick to find the differences. 

Ultra is better than the OnePlus 13 even though OnePlus has partnered with Hasselblad. The Samsung color science looks more natural and that 200MP main shooter helps. The 50MP main lens on the OnePlus 13 certainly gives a tough time to the S25 Ultra’s main lens but only in well-lit conditions. 

The thing with the 200MP main shooter on the Ultra is that it is a big lens and absorbs more light as compared to a smaller 50MP shooter. It is sharper and captures more detail. If you do a lot of cropping while editing your photos, S25 Ultra’s cameras are the way to go. 

As for the videos, Samsung offers slightly more control. You can record 8k at 30fps and super slow-motion videos in 4k (you can’t do that on OnePlus). The colors are slightly better on the S25 Ultra. The front camera has more pixels on the OnePlus 13, but that’s just it. The videos from the front camera look better on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

All in all, if you need a phone majorly for photo/videography, the S25 ultra would be your safe bet. 

Design to OnePlus 13 and Display to Ultra

I like the OnePlus 13 design. It is more comfortable to hold and subjectively speaking, I prefer it more to the boxy design of the S25 Ultra, which  is a pain in the hand without the case. Its edges are poking-ly sharp. 

Honestly, I am mad at Samsung for not innovating the design. It has been almost the same design since the S22 Ultra. The reason for being mad is partially because of the price. I am paying 1,300 bucks for the same design that hasn’t been changed for 3-4 years. This doesn’t make sense. 

Okay, let’s get back to the OnePlus 13. It has a round symmetrical camera bump with either glass or vegan leather on the back, which I like the most. It is soft to the touch, doesn’t leave any fingerprints, and overall, it is just nice. 

I bashed the S25 Ultra a lot. Crediting where it’s due: it’s again one of the best displays I have ever seen on a smartphone.

The bezels are even thinner, the anti-reflective coating makes the content consumption even better, and it, I think, has the highest ever screen-to-body ratio at 92.5%. It’s just so gorgeous. The only thing left to absolutely crack the display game is that punched-hole camera. If somehow it can be hidden underneath without affecting the pixels, it will be a game-changer. 

Should You Buy the Galaxy S25 Ultra or the Oneplus 13?

If you don’t care about being value for money then Ultra is the best of the best. If you need bang for your buck, OnePlus 13 is the way to go as it offers everything that should be in a flagship with few compromises.