I put the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs OnePlus 13 through a 7-round face-off — here’s the winner

January has already been a big month for the best Android phones. After the OnePlus 13 kicked things off with its global arrival to begin the new year, Samsung followed suit with the Galaxy S25 release, highlighted by the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Make no mistake — a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. OnePlus 13 showdown is going to determine which device is the worthier best phone champion. In our Galaxy S25 Ultra review, we specially call out the new Galaxy AI features that make it a worthwhile phone. Meanwhile, the longer last battery and much improved camera performance are standouts in our OnePlus 13 review.

So which should you plan on getting? We've put them through our rigorous testing to see how two phones stack up.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. OnePlus 13: specifications

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. OnePlus 13: price and release

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is one of the most expensive non-folding handsets around, with prices starting at $1,299 and increasing if you need more storage. That's the same as last year, which we're pretty happy about.

Despite a price increase over its predecessor, the OnePlus 13's $899 starting cost for the 12GB model with 256GB of storage still undercuts Samsung. That's at $400 cheaper than the S25 Ultra — and noticeably less than the $999 Galaxy S25 Plus.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra went on sale February 7, 2025, and it's available in four colors: Titanium Silverblue, Titanium Black, Titanium Gray and Titanium Whitesilver. The OnePlus 13 launched earlier on January 7 in U.S., but only available in three colors —white/silver, black, and blue.

Winner: OnePlus 13

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. OnePlus 13: design

Design-wise, both are look pretty somewhat similar to their predecessors, albeit with some of the angles softened into curves for the S25 Ultra. That said, with its raised circular camera array, the OnePlus 13 still has a distinct look in the world of smartphones — even if it’s barely changed from the previous generation.

Both the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and OnePlus 13 are handsets for people who like big phones. This makes them weighty, too. The OnePlus 13 tips the scales at either 210 to 213 grams (7.4 to 7.5 ounces) depending on the model, while the Galaxy S25 ultra comes in at a slightly heavier 218g (7.68 ounces).

OnePlus has made an effort to deliver a more durable phone, as its new flagship uses a Ceramic Guard material to protect the screen from damage. An IP68/69 water resistance rating means the OnePlus 13 can be dunked and sprayed with no concerns about damage.

Samsung has upgraded the display glass on the S25 Ultra to Gorilla Glass Armor 2, which promises to be even stronger and more durable — plus it has the same titanium frame as the Galaxy S24 Ultra before it.

Between the two, the OnePlus 13's design still stands out for its distinctive design.

Winner: OnePlus 13

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. OnePlus 13: display

The OnePlus 13 packs a 6.82-inch display — a tiny bit smaller than the 6.9 inch AMOLED we’re getting from the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Even though both look flawless watching video with their wide viewing angles and deep colors, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is much more suitable for outdoor use because of its brighter screen. There's a big difference, too, because the Galaxy S25 Ultra reaches a peak brightness of 1,860 nits. In contrast, the OnePlus 13 peaks at a meager 1,104 nits.

Both phones have 120Hz OLED panels for infinite contrast and buttery-smooth animations. Resolution is pretty similar too, with both handsets offering QHD+ resolution — though the exact pixel count will differ thanks to the variance in size.

Winner: Galaxy S25 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. OnePlus 13: cameras

Thanks to some camera improvements, the OnePlus 13 ranks high on our best camera phones rankings. Certainly, hardware improvements on the OnePlus 13 helped, as the ultrawide lens on the new phone boasts a higher resolution than before. (The resolution on the telephoto lens, meanwhile, see a slight downgrade from 64MP to 50MP.) But the real star here is OnePlus' ongoing partnership with Hasselblad, which results in better color on images, plus noticeable improvements in night and zoom photography this time around.

Samsung has historically thrown everything but the kitchen sink at the Ultra’s camera array, and it's yet the same case again with the ultrawide lens getting boosted from 12MP to a 50MP sensor, and with the added introduction of a virtual aperture capable of switching anywhere between f/1.4 and f/14, gives it a bit of utility.

That sets up the quad array with a 200MP main sensor, a 10MP telephoto camera (3x zoom), a 50MP periscope telephoto lens (5x zoom), and a 50MP ultrawide snapper for the S25 Ultra. While numbers and on-paper specs aren’t everything, we've put their cameras through extensive testing in our 200 photo Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. OnePlus 13 shootout — which technically ended up in a tie.

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Under daytime situations, both deliver outstanding results from their main cameras, While the OnePlus 13 gets the credit for matching the Galaxy S25 Ultra when it comes to the details, it frequently adds more contrast to make the colors look more vibrant. This also results in a balanced exposure across the frame and deeper colors.

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Another area of strength for the OnePlus 13 is how it's better for macro photographs. Even though you can technically capture macro shots closer with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, there's better definition in the shots from the OnePlus 13. Take a look at the first shots of the bagel to see how the Galaxy S25 Ultra applies an over-sharpening effect, which results in making it look overprocessed. In comparison, the OnePlus 13 captures better details and definition.

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You'll get richer, more detailed selfies from the Galaxy S25 Ultra compared to the softer looking shots from the OnePlus 13's front-facing camera. There’s clearly better definition in all of the selfies above, like the textures around the jacket and his facial features.

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Due to how it casts the more even looking exposure across the entire shot, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is better suited for panoramas. The problem with the OnePlus 13 is that areas can appear overblown.

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In most instances, the OnePlus 13 produces the brighter picture under low light conditions. However, it comes at the expense of applying an unrealistic greenish hue. The Galaxy S25 Ultra produces the more true-to-life colors of the scene, but it does apply a bit of sharpening to draw out more details.

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Despite having the longer 5x optical zoom camera, the OnePlus 13's 3x optical zoom paired with newer image processing algorithms draws out a lot of detail in nearly every range we tested beyond 3x zoom. It really shines at 5x zoom, where it retains more definition. At 30x zoom, we see the OnePlus 13 holding up nicely — especially when it comes to words on signs, which seem to get treated to more definition.

As much as we love how the OnePlus 13 is greeted by marked improvements, the Galaxy S25 Ultra continues to be the more suitable camera phone. While both phones offer manual modes and 8K video recording, it's the extra editing tools of the Galaxy S25 Ultra that add to its package.

You get features like the flatter color profile of LOG video recording, audio eraser that gives you better control of the audio in videos you shoot, and all the other photo editing features powered by generative AI — like generative edit, instant slow-mo, and more.

Winner: Galaxy S25 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. OnePlus 13: performance

In day-to-day use, you’ll likely be hard pushed to tell the difference between the S25 Ultra and OnePlus 13’s performance. Both phones lean on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset.

However, Samsung does get a custom chipset in the form of the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy — and as a result gets a slight performance boost in many synthetic benchmark tests. You can see how it posts better scores in GeekBench 6 in the chart below,

The same boost to the Galaxy S25 Ultra can be seen with its GPU performance, as it delivers the slightly smoother frame rates in 3DMark's Wild Life Original Unlimited test. We also ran several games, but while the benchmarks indicate the Galaxy S25 Ultra is better, we don't see much difference in terns of their real life performance playing graphically intensive titles.

Winner: Galaxy S25 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. OnePlus 13: software and AI

The Galaxy S25 Ultra bring two advantages over the OnePlus 13 — with a notable edge on artificial intelligence. There are too many Galaxy AI features to go over here, but Samsung has added its artificial intelligence in a thoughtful way that is well integrated and genuinely helpful.

Bixby has had an AI upgrade to boost on-device Ai processing capabilities, while Google Gemini lends a helping hand with cloud-based features. Impressively, cross-app actions shows the true power of Galaxy AI because you'll be able to perform a voice command and the S25 Ultra will take the appropriate actions.

One of the best examples of how intuitive it is when you press the side button on the S25 Ultra and say “Look up the date and time of the next Yankees game and add it to my calendar and then text it to Mike.” It will take all the necessary actions all for you and it works rather well. The only limitation for now is that it still needs more support for third party apps.

As for the OnePlus 13, the company introduced more AI features like Magic Editor-style photo editing and writing summary features, but it feels more basic than Samsung’s offering at the time of writing. The AI features on the OnePlus 13 are nowhere close to the amount that Samsung offers.

And then there’s the S Pen. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra comes with the bundled stylus, which is excellent for note taking and doodling. It’s the successor to the Samsung Galaxy Note in all but name, and while not everyone will get much use out of the clever custom stylus, those that do swear by it.

Another important software feature to mention is Samsung DeX, which gives the Galaxy S25 Ultra the ability to deliver a PC-like interface when the phone's connected to an external monitor. All of these features gives the Galaxy S25 Ultra more utility.

Winner: Galaxy S25 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. OnePlus 13: battery life

Even though they're almost similar in size, the OnePlus 13 has the larger 6,000 mAh battery — versus the 5,000 mAh one in the Galaxy S25 Ultra. This difference propels the OnePlus 13 to surpass the Galaxy S25 Ultra in our battery benchmark test, reaching an average time of 19 hours and 45 minutes, making it the second best finish in our best phone battery life guide. The Galaxy S25 Ultra does admirably as well with its time of 17 hours and 14 minutes.

In addition to its long lasting battery, the OnePlus 13 posts some of the fastest recharging speeds as well. After 15 minutes, it achieves a battery capacity of 56% — reaching 92% in 30 minutes. These results easily pull away from the Galaxy S25 Ultra's slower times of 37% in 15 minutes and 71% in 30 minutes.

Winner: OnePlus 13

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. OnePlus 13: verdict

With $400 separating these two phones, it comes down to how much utility you crave. If power and endurance are more your thing, the OnePlus 13 can't be matched with its class-leading battery life performance and much-improved cameras. We still can't believe how its telephoto camera is better than Samsung's. Best of all, its $899 cost saves you more money in the process. The only area it's lacking is around the software and AI features.

That's not a problem with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which really sells itself as a phone that showcases the power of AI. Quite simply, it offers a much more robust set of AI features that actually work very well — while the S Pen and Samsung DeX shows the kind of depth this phone offers. However, you're spending $1,299 to gain all of them. Although, we'd argue that it's worth every penny.

Then again, there's nothing wrong with choosing the OnePlus 13, especially when its camera performance finally rivals Samsung.

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