Samsung S25 Ultra vs OnePlus 13: Everyone Asked For It!

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Need-To-Knows

• Marginal difference when it comes to performance
• The S25 has a slightly better camera
• OnePlus 13 has a longer battery life
• OnePlus 13 is significantly cheaper: £899/$899 (for the base)

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When I compared the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra to the iPhone 16 Pro Max on YouTube, some people enjoyed it, others didn’t, and there were the usual impossibly boring skirmishes between Android and iOS supporters in the comments section.

However, what caught my eye was the number of requests for a comparison of a different kind. Many people wanted to see me compare Samsung’s latest flagship with the OnePlus 13.

I can see why. The OnePlus 13 is considerably cheaper than the S25 Ultra yet is powered by the same chip and, in some cases, actually beats the Samsung in Smartphone Spec Top Trumps.

However, I’m not going to focus on specs today. Smartphone specs are impressive but immeasurably boring these days, and I’d much rather view both of these devices at face value and suss out which one is right for you. Because, that’s why you came here, right?

Pricing differences

This is how the pricing stacks up between the OnePlus 13 and the S25 Ultra.

OnePlus 13

• 16GB RAM + 512GB: £999/$999
• 12GB RAM + 256GB: £899/$899

S25 Ultra

• 256GB: £1,249/$1,299
• 512GB: £1,349/$1,419
• 1TB: £1,549/$1,659
• All tiers have 12GB RAM

You cannot buy an S25 Ultra for OnePlus 13 money. What’s more, the latter has a higher RAM tier of 16GB, if you opt for the 512GB storage option. Unlike Samsung, OnePlus doesn’t offer a storage tier above that, but at the 512GB sweet spot, the OnePlus 13 has more RAM and costs £350/$420 less.

This presents a very big question: can the OnePlus 13 go one step further and be better than the S25 Ultra in the key areas of smartphone ownership?

Which has the best design and display?

When it comes to design, the S25 Ultra feels more significant in the hand, compared to the OnePlus 13. Because it is. Although, curiously, not by much; place them display-to-display and they’re almost the same size.

Part of the reason for the S25 Ultra having more presence is that Samsung has opted for a chiselled, squared-off design which looks more purposeful and slightly more flagship than the OnePlus 13. The latter is, however, arguably more eye-catching and unique in its appearance.

The OnePlus 13 also has polished, rounded edges, versus the S25 Ultra’s matte-finish flat profile. The former uses vegan leather on the back which results in a slightly less slippery device but also adds a touch of class. They are, basically, both very nice-looking phones, but for me, the S25 Ultra just edges it in terms of simplicity and presence.

Oh, and the OnePlus 13 doesn’t have a stylus. But you probably don’t care about that.

Moving onto the display: they are both wonderful. The OnePlus 13 display is slightly brighter than the S25 Ultra’s which is noticeable when you crank it up. However, the presence of that brilliant anti-reflective coating on the S25 Ultra means you rarely have to worry about screen brightness while out and about.

Those who don’t like curved displays will prefer the S25 Ultra over the OnePlus 13, but it should be noted that they both share slightly rounded corners (that are less pronounced on the S25 Ultra), of which I’m a fan.

We’ve reached a point where most Android displays are utterly lovely, and that’s certainly the case with these two phones, but if I had to pick one, it would still be the S25 Ultra which has, in my opinion, the best smartphone display on the market.

Which has the best operating system?

One UI 7 and OxygenOS 15 feel very similar because they’re both based on Android 15. I appreciate people have their favourite flavours of Android, but I stand by the fact that they all feel pretty similar with only minor user interface design tweaks and AI features separating them.

In the battle of the S25 Ultra vs the OnePlus 13, this particular stage becomes even more of a moot point due to the fact they’re both powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. Sure, Samsung’s has been fettled specifically for its device, but in real-world testing, that has no impact on usability; they’re both fluid, buttery smooth, and a joy to use.

If I had to pick one – and I appreciate I do in this instance – it would be One UI 7. It’s the most polished mobile operating system Samsung has ever released, and I like the addition of the Now Bar and the Now Brief, which you don’t get on OxygenOS 15. Samsung also has a better AI suite – just. The OnePlus 13 can do much of the same AI trickery, but Galaxy AI is ahead of the pack with this stuff. Samsung did get there first, in fairness.

Which has the best camera?

This is the most subjective part of any phone comparison. I always have to note that before I get started with my own opinions on camera performance, but it still appears to fall on deaf ears for a small proportion of my audience.

I’ll let you be the ultimate judge of which phone takes the better photos out of these two, but here are a few completely random thoughts from yours truly having studied them all.

The OnePlus 13 produces far more contrasty images, which works nicely for me in certain scenarios such as cityscapes where it adds a bit of drama and more perceived detail to the buildings.

The OnePlus 13 also appears to be more consistent with background blur, both in portrait mode and non-portraits. The bokeh produced is pleasing and just seems to appear more of the time, compared to the S25 Ultra’s efforts.

Colour reproduction on both phones is almost identical (and nicely accurate), although the S25 Ultra does tend to saturate blue skies a little more. Conversely, the OnePlus 13 images are often slightly warmer in colour temperature. Oh, and the selfies on the S25 Ultra are a bit sharper, although again lack some of the aforementioned bokeh that can be achieved with the OnePlus 13.

See? It’s never clean-cut this stuff, is it?

Both phones have ridiculous zoom ranges, which are only usable in most conditions up to about 10x. At that length, the OnePlus 13 just about wins, but beyond that, both devices rely on AI a little too heavily to fill in the gaps. I still don’t know which situations call for a 100x digital AI-ified focal length. I’ve certainly never encountered one.

Both phones have great dynamic range (better than the iPhone 16 Pro Max, in my experience), and night shots were comparable – although the S25 Ultra just pipped it in my London bus movement test.

The biggest test for me these days, however, is how reliable a smartphone is at capturing portraits of my fast-moving two-year-old son. This is the stuff that matters, and the S25 Ultra and OnePlus 13 both produced great images of him, but the S25 Ultra’s photos were slightly more natural-looking.

Overall, both devices feature brilliant camera systems. The S25 Ultra just nudges it overall for me, not least because it has an incredibly usable 5X optical camera.

Video-wise, they both produce similar image quality (it’s great), but the S25 Ultra has slightly better stabilisation and less lens flare when shooting into the sun.

Which has the best battery life?

The OnePlus 13 has a 6,000mAh battery, which is a full 1,000mAh up on the one nestled inside the S25 Ultra. So, it has an immediate head start over the more expensive flagship competitor.

I could do what I normally do at this stage of a smartphone comparison and give you an untested opinion on which one has slightly better battery life. Instead, I called on my mate Ben, from Lover of Tech (go check him out – he’s brilliant), to provide his expert opinion, following many hours of intense testing.

His real-world tests are conducted on mobile cellular data with WiFi turned off to provide a no-holds-barred view of device stamina in the most challenging of environments. Ben charges both phones up fully and then runs eight popular applications over nine tasks, each for one hour.

The OnePlus 13 outlasted the S25 Ultra by around 30 minutes, finally turning itself off after seven hours and 37 minutes. That’s close, granted, but thirty minutes is a hefty amount of time if you’re out and about and need your phone.

In Ben’s charging test, the OnePlus 13 reached 100% from dead in 42 minutes and 26 seconds, whereas the S25 Ultra took just under an hour to reach full capacity, despite having a smaller battery.

One might argue that the differences between the two aren’t that much considering the considerable battery capacity advantage enjoyed by the OnePlus 13. That’s largely because Samsung has worked hard to drive efficiency improvements, while also leaning on the capabilities of the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip.

Despite this, the OnePlus 13 is clearly the better battery performer overall, and that’s further bolstered by the fact that it has faster wired and wireless charging capabilities, too.

Conclusion

The simple conclusion is that if you buy either of these phones, you’re not going to be disappointed. They are both brilliant devices and confirm what I’ve long suspected – it’s very hard to buy a bad Android phone in 2025.

You’ll have noticed lots of uses of phrases above like “just nudged it”, “just pipped it”, and “slightly better”. That’s because there really isn’t much to separate the S25 Ultra and the OnePlus 13, beyond brand preference, design preference, and photo style.

If you’re a Samsung person, you’ve already made your decision. But if you’re on the fence between these two phones, it’s impossible not to look past the OnePlus 13; it costs less, performs the same, and has better battery life.

Which one are you going for?