I’ve had the Galaxy S25 Ultra for a week, but I already miss my OnePlus 13

In case you haven’t heard, Samsung’s latest Galaxy S25 series has arrived. And, as usual, that means my SIM is moving from one flagship to the next. Usually, I don’t mind that constant change — I’m always excited to try something new. This time, though, I find myself longing for the phone I just finished reviewing. Despite having the Galaxy S25 Ultra for a week, I really miss the OnePlus 13. Here’s why.

As they say, the more things change, the more they tend to stay the same. Unfortunately, in Samsung’s case, I’m not sure that the Galaxy S25 Ultra makes enough changes — nor do I think they’re for the better. See, I knew that when Samsung’s latest top-tier flagship arrived, it would be absolutely massive. I had no misgivings about how large a 6.9-inch display would feel in my pocket, especially after the discomfort of the previous generation’s 6.8-inch panel. Yet, somehow, the Galaxy S25 Ultra feels less comfortable to carry and use than its predecessor.

Unlike the previous Galaxy S24 Ultra, which had side rails that curved slightly from front to back, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is flat from front to back. It’s the type of shape you could practically build a house out of, and a very expensive one at that. Sure, Samsung probably changed the shape to better match its smaller Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus, but it seems to have ignored how uncomfortable it would be making its top-end flagship device. Personally, I have a little trouble wrapping my hands around the absolutely massive titanium frame, which, in turn, makes it hard to want to use the Galaxy S25 Ultra for long stretches. It feels like it’s digging into my palm, and it doesn’t make me appreciate the S Pen any more than I already didn’t.

Outside of the far less comfortable frame, the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s design works, I guess. The rounded corners mean the bezels are practically nonexistent, and the S Pen sits almost flush with the titanium frame, making it even easier to ignore. Even the bezels around the three main cameras add some peace of mind should you drop the phone. However, I’d bet you can’t find a single person who’s excited by Samsung’s latest design. To me, it’s reached a point of being so generic that it looks like Apple’s stand-in Android phone when it needs a dummy to dunk on.

Perhaps what has me so put off by Samsung’s lack of change is that the OnePlus 13 looks and feels so, so good. It’s not massively different from the previous 6.82-inch OnePlus 12 in terms of its overall size and the massive, circular camera bump, yet it benefits from changes that make the phone more enjoyable to use. One of those changes is the optional swap from glass to eco-leather, which feels much softer and more comfortable in the palm of my hand, unlike Samsung’s frosty glass. OnePlus’s Midnight Blue leather doesn’t gather fingerprints, either, which is a small improvement but one that goes a long way when I’m using my phone without a case.

Opposite that soft leather back is an upgrade that brings OnePlus on par with pretty much everyone else: A flat AMOLED panel. Of course, only the touch-sensitive part of the OnePlus 13’s display is actually flat — the sides of it still slope gently into the slim aluminum frame, but the result is a large phone that really doesn’t feel so big in my hands. Somehow, it’s something that OnePlus and Google both understand, yet Samsung is chasing iPhone-like frames from a few years back.

Quite simply, it’s just far more enjoyable to pick up and use the OnePlus 13 for long stretches like when flying home from CES or while adrift on a cruise out at sea. Even now, when I could be watching YouTube or streaming Max on the TV in my apartment, I’ll often catch myself using my phone instead. More surprisingly, when I have that choice, I tend to reach for a device with a rounded frame over something as sharp and blocky as the Galaxy S25 Ultra, even though it has a slightly bigger display.

Also, while I know I shouldn’t judge premium flagship phones purely based on their aesthetics, it’s hard not to give the OnePlus 13 a little nod. All three of its colorways have something that makes them unique. From the eco-leather I just mentioned to the Black Eclipse faux woodgrain to the Arctic Dawn shimmer, they’re just more fun to look at — especially without a case. Compare that to Samsung’s massive, almost uninterrupted slab that comes in a dull rainbow of faded blues and grays, and I’ll reach for the OnePlus 13 every time.

One of the other perks I didn’t expect to like about the OnePlus 13 is its use of magnets. Cleverly, they’re not in the phone itself but rather in a series of first-party cases that allow the OnePlus 13 to be MagSafe or Qi2 compatible even though the phone isn’t actually certified. That means you can attach a series of magnetic wallets, phone holders, and other accessories to your OnePlus 13, then pull them off for a slim, sleek look whenever you want to go caseless.

Unfortunately, as I’ll explain in a second, none of those magnetic accessories are even optional for the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which means I’ve had to go back to carrying a bulky wallet in my pocket while I review an already massive phone. I’d much rather use my foldable Peak Design wallet that I’ve had since the iPhone 15 launched, but then I’d have to live without the Ultra’s defining productivity feature.

Also, while I expected to be underwhelmed at best by the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s design, I didn’t expect OnePlus to make up ground in other ways, too. We listened to rumors bounce around for a while that OnePlus would be the first to adopt Qi2 wireless charging on the OnePlus 13, and then when that didn’t happen, it became Samsung’s turn to win the magnetic charging race. But, as we all know, magnets tend to interfere with the S Pen, which quickly dashed our hopes of magnetic wireless charging coming to the Galaxy lineup.

However, just because the OnePlus 13 doesn’t officially have Qi2 wireless charging doesn’t mean that OnePlus sat by with the same AirVOOC charging as previous generations. Instead, those first-party cases I mentioned above make the phone compatible with magnetic charging and a brand-new, fan-cooled magnetic AirVOOC charger. So, if you want your OnePlus 13 to charge wirelessly at blistering 50W speeds, it’s an option — otherwise, it’ll still reach 80W speeds with the SuperVOOC charger that still comes in the box.

Unfortunately for Samsung, charging seems to be a race that it’s just not interested in winning. Like the several Ultras before it, the Galaxy S25 Ultra continues to top out at just 45W wired charging speeds from compatible USB PD PPS chargers. That means it still takes around 55 minutes to fill its 5,000mAh cell, a solid 20 minutes behind the 35 minutes that the OnePlus 13 requires for its 6,000mAh battery, as seen in the graph below. Granted, it’s still about 10 minutes faster than the previous Galaxy S24 Ultra, but that’s likely due to improved cooling rather than a change in the charging itself.

And yes, I know, a difference of 20 minutes isn’t completely life-changing — especially if you tend to charge overnight and wake up with a full cell each morning. However, I can admit that I’m forgetful, and I’ve had more than my share of winter mornings when I’ve woken up to run and realized that I forgot to charge either my OnePlus 13 or my Galaxy S25 Ultra. On those mornings, I usually only have enough time to scramble and charge my phone while I drink my coffee — give or take 10 minutes. With that time, I can get a solid 50% charge out of my OnePlus 13 and its SuperVOOC charger, more than enough to last into the mid-afternoon. The Galaxy S25 Ultra, on the other hand, chugs its way back to about a 30% charge, which is still good but not necessarily enough for me to trust it through an entire day of work, especially when I’m pushing it harder for the purposes of a review.

Even if you don’t run, tossing the OnePlus 13 on a MagSafe pad for a last-minute charge for a few minutes before an appointment you forgot about can be a huge relief. I’ve reached a point where all of my important data is on my phone, so I’d like to be able to do everything from check-in to payment to scheduling my next appointment all from my phone. Could I do that with the last 5% remaining on my Galaxy S25 Ultra before it dies? Probably, but I feel a lot better about using a phone that fills half of its battery before I’ve had time to say, “Ahh.”

Of course, I’ll still throw out a small complaint about the overall state of charging accessories. It’s a bummer that the OnePlus 13 comes with a USB-A block and the same flimsy excuse about the likelihood of finding a USB-A port in a hotel room, but I suppose that’s better than Samsung skipping a charger altogether, especially when USB PD PPS support isn’t a guarantee in 2025. I’m not trying to have my cake and eat it too, but I sure do miss the days when OnePlus upgraded to a USB-C charger.

Although most of my time with the Galaxy S25 Ultra so far has had me itching to put my SIM back into the OnePlus 13, there’s one thing I haven’t quite figured out yet: Which flagship camera phone is the better one? Honestly, this is often the part of my reviews that takes the longest, and this time, both phones seem set up to compete pretty well.

Like previous generations, the Galaxy S25 Ultra has four cameras on its massive back panel, compared to the OnePlus 13’s three. This year, though, most of its hardware love has gone to the ultrawide camera, shifting from a 12MP sensor to a whopping 50MP version but keeping the same 120-degree field of view. Otherwise, the 200MP primary and 10MP and 50MP telephoto sensors are essentially the same as they were on the Galaxy S24 Ultra.

Not to be outdone, the OnePlus 13 also underwent some megapixel shuffling, moving to a trio of 50MP sensors rather than the 50MP, 64MP, and 48MP setup of the OnePlus 12. It also features the fifth generation of Hasselblad tuning, which has drastically improved OnePlus’s color science over the years — not to mention a dedicated stage mode that helps the OnePlus 13 shine at concerts.

I’m still gathering camera samples in various lighting conditions, but so far, the OnePlus 13 might be the new king of camera zoom. I already put it up against the Pixel 9 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro, and now that I’ve grabbed the quick set of shots you see below with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, I have to say that I’m not terribly impressed by Samsung’s showing.

Sure, the images from 1x to about 10x look pretty good — they should; they’re almost entirely hardware-based, but the Galaxy S25 Ultra falls off very quickly as it moves to 30x zoom and 100x zoom. The maxed-out 100x zoom looks especially bad, taking on the low-poly character of an old video game rather than the sharp, clean lines of a crane across the harbor.

Of course, I will continue gathering camera samples at much closer focal lengths, but I’m still more impressed by what OnePlus has pulled off with its cameras so far.

At the end of the day, one thing is for sure — the Galaxy S25 Ultra is a good phone. It should be for a $1,300 device with four cameras, an overclocked Snapdragon chipset, and premium materials like top-shelf Gorilla Glass and titanium. It’s as good as the Galaxy S24 Ultra before it and the Galaxy S23 Ultra before that. And yet, it feels like I’ve seen this movie before. As much as I like what Samsung manages to do in terms of AI features, long-term software upgrades, and overall camera science, it doesn’t feel like it’s interested in reaching new heights.

The OnePlus 13, on the other hand, is an excellent phone from top to bottom. It nearly matches the Galaxy S25 Ultra in terms of raw processing power and then outduels it with faster charging, more reliable zoom cameras, and a more eye-catching design. Sure, I’ve also had it for a month longer, which means I’ve had more time to explore OnePlus’s latest features, but I feel confident that I got more out of my first few days with the OnePlus 13.

Oh, and the OnePlus 13 manages to stay within striking distance of the Galaxy S25 Ultra in terms of everything but software updates while also costing $400 less. It’s more affordable than Samsung’s middle child, the $1,000 Galaxy S25 Plus — which it beats even easier in terms of specs like charging and camera zoom.

Maybe I’ll warm up to the Galaxy S25 Ultra over time. Perhaps it’ll even pull itself level with the OnePlus 13 as it starts to pick up seamless updates, but for now, it’s hard to see a familiar Samsung flagship beating the best OnePlus phone in years.