Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus vs OnePlus 13 camera comparison

Despite smartphones like the Oppo Find X8 Pro, Apple iPhone 16 Pro, and Galaxy S25 Ultra costing more, the $1,000 price point has still proven to be the ultimate fighting challenge of the smartphone industry.

While some companies offer smartphones above this price, these are dubbed as ultra-premium flagship smartphones, and the flagship smartphone market is determined by the best that a company can offer at, or lower than, the magical $1,000 price point.

Two companies that have excellent offerings at this price are Samsung and OnePlus. The latter launched the OnePlus 13 a few weeks ago, and last week, Samsung unveiled its answer: the Galaxy S25 Plus. However, while the OnePlus 13 features several improvements over last year’s OmePlus 13, Samsung’s latest smartphone is nearly identical to its predecessor.

The Galaxy S24 Plus offered an excellent all-around experience, but with a competitor that we dubbed brilliant, does the nearly-identical Galaxy S25 Plus offer enough? Specifically, is its unchanged camera still one of the best? Let’s find out in this brief camera comparison.

Samsung Galaxy S25+ vs OnePlus 13 camera specs

Before we dig into showing the differences between these two cameras in real-world performance, let’s take a quick look at the camera specs of each phone:

By far the biggest difference is each company’s approach to the camera. Samsung has opted to retain its current strategy of three cameras with three different resolutions, whereas the OnePlus 13 follows the Oppo Find X8 Pro by opting for the same resolution sensor across each camera.

As we’ve previously covered, this helped the Find X8 have the best smartphone camera I’ve used right now — and that was without the second telephoto of its Pro sibling — so does the OnePlus 13 continue the same trend?

Galaxy S25 Plus vs OnePlus 13: Zoom Tests

The Galaxy S25 Plus is not the Galaxy S25 Ultra so it doesn’t have the same claims of 100X zoom, but the 3x telephoto lens is a key reason to buy one of Samsung’s smaller Galaxy S25 cameras. Meanwhile, the OnePlus 13 promises excellent zoom performance on the OnePlus 13, and on paper, it should offer better resolution thanks to the higher resolution camera. It also offers more than 30x zoom — allowing it to compete with the Galaxy S25 Ultra — whereas the Galaxy S25 Plus is intentionally limited to 30x.

However, better hardware doesn’t always translate into better performance, so how does each camera perform? Let’s look at a few zoom tests at each focal length on these cameras.

There’s no doubt that the Galaxy S25 Plus camera is significantly inferior to the OnePlus 13 here. In particular, I find many of the zoom lengths on the Galaxy S25 Plus to be barely usable, whereas the OnePlus 13 is usable even at 100X zoom. Also, the Galaxy S25 Plus is limited to just 30x whereas the OnePlus 13 is more akin to the Galaxy S25 Ultra in its capabilities.

Of course, you may not be interested in zooming into buildings and balconies, but what about taking photos of a cruise ship? This test shows the detail that each phone can capture at the highest zoom levels, but again, the Galaxy S25 Plus is much poorer than the OnePlus 13. In many ways, the Galaxy S25 Plus is akin to a camera from a few years ago, whereas the OnePlus 13 can challenge any smartphone at a similar price point.

I conducted several other Zoom tests, but they all ultimately ended in the same way, with the Galaxy S25 Plus photos significantly inferior to the OnePlus 13. However, is it the same when capturing lowlight photos?

This test surprised me, more so because the Galaxy S25 Plus exceeded my expectations, at least based on its performance in daylight. At first, I thought this was likely due to the OnePlus 13 underperforming, but I think the Galaxy S25 Plus is far more capable in low light than it is during bright lights.

Other tests yielded similar results, meaning this isn’t just a one-off and rather is indicative that Samsung’s optimizations for lowlight have yielded great results, but at the detriment of daylight performance.

Galaxy S25 Plus vs OnePlus 13: Portrait Mode Test

One of my favorite features on a Samsung phone camera is the portrait mode. Samsung was one of the first companies to enhance the portrait mode capabilities on its smartphones, and as a result, there’s a host of different background effects you can choose from. The best thing? You can change the background effect after you’ve taken the photo.

Meanwhile, the OnePlus 13 takes a different approach. OnePlus has focused on making its background blur effect the best it can be, but much like Huawei and Oppo, it allows you to change the aperture — and therefore, the depth of field — before or after you take the photo.

With that said, performing a direct comparison of all the features isn’t possible, but it is possible to use the default out-of-the-box portrait mode option and see how each phone compares.

Both phones are fairly equal here with selfie shots and while the brightness is better on the OnePlus 13, I think the detail and background is slightly better on the Galaxy S25 Plus. Samsung also has more options in the camera allowing you to get truly creative with your portrait photos.

What about selfies? Here’s how each phone performed with a quick selfie test in daylight.

Samsung has outperformed the OnePlus 13 here as the latter has a strange hue across the photo, whereas the Samsung has great color and background detail reproduction. Alongside the better detail and color, I also love that Samsung lets you use all of its portrait mode options with the front camera, as well as the rear camera.

Galaxy S25 Plus vs OnePlus 13: Video Zoom Tests

Part of the reason to buy the Galaxy S25 series is the super smooth video zoom, which makes it easier to transition between different lenses, especially when exploring the max zoom lengths. To test this, I conducted the same video zoom test on both the OnePlus 13 and the Galaxy S25 Plus. Which is better?

Let’s take a look, starting with a daylight zoom test on the Galaxy S25 Plus.

Now let’s take a look at the same test on the OnePlus 13.

Of course, it’s not just during the day that you may be tempted to try Zoom, so how does each perform when there’s significantly less light? Let’s take a further look at them, starting with the Galaxy S25 Plus.

Now let’s look at the OnePlus 13:

Unsurprisingly, neither phone is particularly good at zooming in lowlight, and I would just avoid using either for lowlight zoom video. That said, at the lower zoom focal lengths, the OnePlus 13 appears much sharper and clearer, and while each fails at the highest focal lengths, the OnePlus 13 appears to be more usable before it reaches that point.

What about the Galaxy S25 Ultra?

The OnePlus 13 beats the Galaxy S25 Plus in many of the camera shootouts, especially when considering the former’s performance in our zoom tests, but what about Samsung’s ultra-flagship? This features a secondary telephoto lens that offers 5x optical zoom and is more akin to the dual telephoto setup on the OnePlus 13’s cousin, the Find X8 Pro.

As it turns out, even a secondary camera and a higher price tag aren’t enough for Samsung to topple the OnePlus 13, which reaffirms how impressive OnePlus’s latest flagship smartphone is. We’ve got a more detailed comparison in the works, but here are a few examples of how the OnePlus 13 stacks up against the Galaxy S25 Ultra at each of the different zoom focal lengths outlined in the camera viewfinder.

Here’s the cruise ship example from above, also captured on the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

It’s worth noting that most of these are the same, but the OnePlus 13 has a 6x option while the Galaxy S25 Ultra uses a 5x option, but only the latter offers optical zoom at this focal length. Despite this difference, I would pick the OnePlus 13 for its camera versus Samsung’s bigger flagship, which is a statement I didn’t expect to make as this year’s smartphones were all unveiled. This is a much closer contest than against the Galaxy S25 Plus, which shows the capabilities of the OnePlus 13 and its positioning against Samsung’s latest lineup.

Which smartphone camera should you use?

Going into this comparison, I expected it to be fairly close, but I’m quite surprised at just how improved the OnePlus 13 is. The Galaxy S25 Plus is as capable as the Galaxy S24 Plus, but the biggest challenge for Samsung is that the competition has become much tougher.

The OnePlus 13 has nearly identical camera specifications, but OnePlus has solved its camera woes of previous years, and the result is a knockout victory. While the Galaxy S25 Plus offers slight improvements thanks to the improved ISP in the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy processor, the same processor — and better overall hardware — delivers a vastly superior camera experience on the OnePlus 13.

If you’re looking for a $1,000 smartphone and have narrowed down your choices to these two phones, and the camera is the most important factor, look no further as the OnePlus 13 is the camera that I would choose. Of course, battery life and charging are also extremely important, but it turns out that the OnePlus 13 beats not only the Galaxy S25 Plus but even the more expensive flagship Galaxy S25 Ultra in this regard.