OnePlus 13 proves that Samsung is sleeping at the steering wheel

We are almost through the second month in 2025, and we have already seen two of the biggest smartphone launches of the year. OnePlus kicked things out in January with OnePlus 13and earlier this month, Samsung Galaxy S25 -Series Debuted.

Although OnePlus 13 and Samsung’s Galaxy S25 trio received positive reviews, the two launches could not have been different. OnePlus 13 is a significant improvement in relation to OnePlus 12, and offers meaningful internal and external changes that make it a thoroughly impressive upgrade from the previous year. Meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy S25 series is about as flat of an update over S24 as you can request.

It’s not to say that Samsung’s Galaxy S25 phones are bad (they are not), and Samsung’s strategy for Tepid Yoy smartphone changes is nothing new. But in light of how good OnePlus 13 is and how the Tam Galaxy S25 series is, it has never been clearer that Samsung is sleeping at the steering wheel.

Last year’s OnePlus 12 was great. There was a solid upgrade over OnePlus 11 before it and gave OnePlus a strong foundation to work from for OnePlus 13. OnePlus 13 is not a radically different phone from OnePlus 12, but there are probably small but meaningful changes that make it feel like a .

For me, it all starts with the design. OnePlus 12’s hardware was strong, with a beautiful “liquid emerald” green color and a distinctive camera. OnePlus 13 has the same bones as OnePlus 12, but is engraved tremendously in every way. This year’s “Midnight Blue” color is one of my favorites of all time. The deep blue contrasts beautifully with the white camera shock and silver accents, creating one of the most handsome phones I’ve ever seen. I am also a sucker for the vegan leather finish, which is poignant and immune to fingerprints.

OnePlus also apparently listened to Fan/Critic feedback and replaced OnePlus 12s drastic curved display with a much flatter on OnePlus 13. Combined with the flat frame, it makes OnePlus 13 as functional as it is beautiful. The company could easily have held OnePlus 12’s design for another year, but it didn’t, and OnePlus 13 is better for it.

Another hardware improvement you cannot see, but one that is undoubtedly more important is OnePlus 13s IP68 and IP69 rankings -a massive upgrade over OnePlus 12’s small IP65 protection. OnePlus has long glimpsed on IP certifications for their phones, whether they release them completely or delivered less extensive than the competition. OnePlus is now a leader in the room, offering one of the only IP69 certified phones available today.

But it’s not just design/hardware that OnePlus got the right. OnePlus 13 has brand new Ultrawide and Tele cameras compared to OnePlus 12; The battery is significantly larger, the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Chip are outstanding, and OnePlus’s Oxygenos 15 is a massive improvement compared to earlier versions of the software – so much that it Oxygenos has become my favorite android -skin/interface. The fingerprint sensor is also better and goes from an old optical sensor to a newer (and faster) ultrasound.

These upgrades may not work so much on their own, but in practice they all come in a really special way. OnePlus 12 was a great phone, but OnePlus 13 is a remarkable-and a large part of it is thanks to the meaningful and well-made changes from the year from OnePlus 12.

There is no news for anyone that OnePlus 13 is fantastic. Now that we have seen Samsung’s Galaxy S25 series and its striking resemblance to the Galaxy S24 series, it makes OnePlus 13 stand out so much more. And at the same time it also shows how painfully safe Samsung played their cards this year.

It starts with Galaxy S25 Ultra. Samsung’s top-of-the-line flagship is an objectively great phone, and in a bubble you can even say that it is almost perfect. But the Galaxy S24 Ultra was also a great phone, and side by side is almost impossible to tell what is new. Seriously – look at the picture above. One of them is the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and one is Galaxy S24 Ultra. Can you tell what is which one?

Beyond the out of date, other changes are few and far between. The S25 Ultra’s battery and charging specifications are identical to S24 Ultra. The display is increasingly greater, but is otherwise unchanged. The camera layout is practically the same too, for a new 50MP Ultrawide camera. Samsung even made the confusing decision to downgrade the s pen, and removed the external Bluetooth functionality it has had since the 2018 Galaxy Note 9.

The Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus is in a similar boat. The designs? The same. Screens? Identical. Cameras? Unchanged. Battery capacity and charging speeds? LOS MISSION. All Galaxy S25 phones have Qualcomms new Snapdragon 8 Elite Chip, some new AI features, and … Well, it’s about it. It must be made that Samsung does not need to change as much with its phones every year because it usually starts at a higher point than OnePlus. It may have been true a couple of years ago, but it has hardly any weight today.

For $ 800 and $ 1000 smartphones, respectively, it is unforgivable that the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus’s Camera hardware are unchanged from the Galaxy S22 series. It is just as confusing that the Galaxy S25 has the same battery and charging specifications as the five -year -old Galaxy S20.

I don’t ask Samsung to reinvent the wheel every year, and I don’t think anyone else is. But it is also not like the Galaxy S series has been perfect and free of necessary upgrades in recent years.

The unfortunate conclusion of this argument is that I do not think there is one. We can all agree that OnePlus 13 is a phenomenal upgrade over OnePlus 12 and one of Best Android phones You can buy. We can also agree that the Galaxy S25 series is a boring, boring successor of the Galaxy S24 lineup. However, unless something drastic happens, it is difficult to see Samsung change its ways anytime soon.

Samsung has a commanding strength in the US smartphone market. The phones are in each carrier shop, the brand awareness is one of the highest, and it has matching sales figures to start. You and I know that OnePlus 13 makes the Galaxy S25 shame. But unless it starts to eat into Samsung’s bottom line – as it almost certainly won’t – Samsung has little reason to spend a lot of money and R&D talent on new designs, battery technology, etc., if it can continue to throw together with only minimum upgrades each year.

I want to see Samsung again be the driving force of smartphone innovation the repeated time has shown us that it can be. Samsung is able to create far better and more interesting phones than the Galaxy S25, and about because of OnePlus 13 or something else, I hope it starts to do it soon.