Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs Competitors: AI and Performance Take Center Stage in 2025 Flagship Battle

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs OnePlus 13: Which flagship could win?

Make no mistake. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and OnePlus 13 will be vying for the best phones of the year. But which should you be planning on pre-ordering? Here's what we know about how the two stack up so far... The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is already one of the most expensive non-folding handsets around, with prices starting at $1,299 and increasing if you need more storage. The best case scenario is that the Galaxy S25 Ultra manages to keep the same starting price, but with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite reportedly pushing costs upwards, it wouldn't be surprising if we saw a $1,349 or even $1,399 MSRP. OnePlus, on the other hand, has made a virtue of trying to keep flagship costs down. The OnePlus 12 starts at $799, and with the Chinese version of the new handset coming in at 4,499 yuan (around $632), we're hopeful that $799 remains the asking price in 2025. Both the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and OnePlus 13 are handsets for people who like big phones. The OnePlus 13 packs a 6.82-inch display -- a tiny bit bigger than the 6.8 inches we're expecting the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra to be (unless the rumor about it growing to 6.9 inches comes true). This will make them weighty, too. We know the OnePlus 13 will tip the scales at either 210 or 213 grams (7.4 to 7.5 ounches) depending on the model, and while we don't know if Samsung has reduced the weight of the S25 Ultra yet, its predecessor was 232 grams (8.1 ounces). Both have 120Hz OLED panels for infinite contrast and buttery-smooth animations. Resolution is expected to be pretty similar too, with a 3,168 x 1,440 panel on the OnePlus 13 and an expected 3,120 x 1,440 display for the Samsung model, if it remains unchanged from the previous generation. Design wise, both are set to look pretty 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. 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 will be powered by the impressive Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, and though it looks like you'll have the option of adding up to 24GB of RAM on the OnePlus 13, most people simply won't notice the difference. But there are two advantages that the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra will have over the OnePlus 13 -- one certain, and one very likely. The latter of these is the 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, and it looks like it's going to be even more important with a rumored Bixby overhaul. OnePlus has its own 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. And then there's the S Pen. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra should come 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. Both the OnePlus 12 and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra feature on our list of the best camera phones, (albeit with Samsung having a clear edge) so we have high hopes for their successors. In the case of OnePlus, this is thanks to year-on-year photography improvement, aided by the company's partnership with Hasselblad. This time around, we're looking at a triple camera array with the main, ultrawide and telephoto lens all packing 50MP sensors. The latter of these offers up to 3x optical zoom. Samsung has historically thrown everything but the kitchen sink at the Ultra's camera array, and it looks set to be the case again with the ultrawide lens getting a rumored boost from 12MP to 50MP and the possible introduction of a variable aperture for improved zooming on the telephoto lens. That would take the set up to a 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. While numbers and on-paper specs aren't everything, it's hard to see how OnePlus can compete with that. While the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra has a lot of unique features going for it -- including the bundled S Pen, Galaxy AI, and that appealing quad-camera array -- it's hard to get past its enormous predicted MSRP. Even if prices remain static, the S24 Ultra is set to be around 60% more than the OnePlus 13, which is undoubtedly a big ask, given many of the specs are identical (or, in the case of RAM, potentially weaker). But the Galaxy S Ultra series has always delivered on performance, features, camera quality and looks, and there's no real reason to doubt that'll be the case again with the S25 series. For those who want the most power Android can offer, and don't mind paying extra for it, we expect the Galaxy S25 Ultra to be the one to watch overall. And the OnePlus 13 should be the value pick for shoppers.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs iPhone 16 Pro Max: the next big flagship phone battle could be all about AI

As has been the case with the past few Galaxy S-series phones, Samsung has gone for iteration over major evolution. However, the Galaxy Ultra has seen bigger changes in terms of design from its smaller stablemates. It's adapted design cues from the now-defunct Galaxy Note phones, first taking on an integrated S Pen and then being flatter and more angular generation-to-generation, and killing off the curved display edges with the current Galaxy S24 Ultra. And going by the rumors so far, I don't expect this to change much with the Galaxy S25 Ultra. However, major evolution in the iPhone Pro models hasn't exactly been huge either; arguably, Apple has been even more iterative than Samsung. Sure, Cupertino makes great phones, provided you're happy in the iOS and wider Apple ecosystem, but the iPhone 16 Pro was hardly a must-have phone over the iPhone 15 Pro or even the iPhone 14 Pro. Have a look at the table below for a quick comparison of the rumored Galaxy S25 Ultra specs versus the iPhone 16 Pro Max. But do read on for more on how I think the Galaxy S25 Ultra could take on the iPhone 16 Pro Max and be one of the best Android phones ever. If you go and read our roundup of the rumored Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra specs and Galaxy S25 Ultra cameras, you'll get a more granular look at what's expected to change. But in short, we expect the Galaxy S25 Ultra to perhaps have a slightly larger display thanks to narrower bezels, a potentially improved ultra-wider camera, and access to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. It's the chip upgrade that I reckon will be the most significant upgrade here. Sure, each Galaxy S-series Ultra model comes with a more powerful and more efficient chip than its predecessors. But the crux here is twofold. First off, Qualcomm has made significant progress in making its flagship chips snap at the heels of Apple's in-house A-series chipsets, While the A17 Pro brought in some silicon slapdown, which was then built upon by the A18 Pro, Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon chip tore through benchmarks and promises some big gains in AI power and GPU grunt. Now, modern smartphones are hardly slow, and generation-to-generation upgrades don't yield noticeable jumps in performance in terms of real-world use. But a lot more power could make for a Galaxy Ultra phone that could genuinely work as a do-everything machine able to double up as a computer when using DeX that has enough onboard power to feel slick and responsive. And for gaming, that power could see Samsung tap into its previous relationship with Microsoft to bring some of the best Xbox games natively to the Galaxy S25 phones without the need to rely on streaming via Xbox Cloud Gaming. That could nip at an advantage Apple arguably has, given its A17 Pro and A18 Pro-equipped iPhones can run true console-quality games like Death Standing, albeit not at super-smooth framerates. The second advantage could come down to artificial intelligence power and implementation. Alongside the Snapdragon chip, the Galaxy S25 Ultra has been tipped to sport 16GB of RAM, an uptick from the 12GB in the Galaxy S24 Ultra. That could mean a whole lot of power for running AI workloads on-device without the need for cloud-based support. If that comes to fruition, we could see far snappier responses from Galaxy AI features, and perhaps new AI-powered tools altogether. And then if Samsung works to integrate them into One UI in a seamless fashion - something it arguably didn't do with its current iteration of One UI - we could see the Galaxy S25 Ultra come with a big advantage over the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which didn't have Apple Intelligence features at launch and is pretty much getting then drip fed to it. This means the iPhone 16 suite isn't quite the family of Apple AI phones we were hoping for. So there's an opportunity for Samsung to school its rival here. Mix smart and responsive AI features, with the strong hardware Galaxy Ultra phones have always had, plus the flexible rear-camera system and the Galaxy S25 Ultra could be a very smart and very capable smartphone to kick 2025 off with. If Samsung does manage to achieve this, then perhaps I could even be tempted back to Android after some three years playing in Apple's walled garden.