OnePlus 8 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra vs iPhone 11 Pro – Is The ‘Flagship Killer’ New Flagship King?

After OnePlus 8 Pro, it seems OnePlus is done being the ‘Flagship Killer’ but producing its own Flagship phone. But when it put against giants like Samsung (Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra) and iPhone(iPhone 11 Pro), where does it stand? Is it still an outsider trying to compete with the biggies? or is it at a level to not just stand against but also challenge the Kings of the Premium Smartphone department? Let’s find out in this detailed comparison of the flagships from OnePlus, Samsung, and Apple.

Display

The moment you hold the phone, the first thing you are going to notice is the display of the devices.

The OnePlus 8 Pro features a curved 6.78-inch Quad HD+ Fluid AMOLED Display with a pixel density of 513ppi, a color range of 1B colors, and a refresh rate of 120Hz. It also has an aspect ratio of 19.8:9, a resolution of 1440 x 3168 pixels, and a screen to body ratio of 90.8%. The protection on the screen is a Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The screen has a punch-hole camera on the top-left.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra has a very similar display as that of OnePlus 8 Pro, as the phone features a curved 6.9-inch Quad HD+ Dynamic AMOLED Display with a pixel density of 511ppi, a color range of 16M colors, and a refresh rate of 120Hz. It also has an aspect ratio of 20:9, a resolution of 1440 x 3200 pixels, and a screen to body ratio of 89.9%. The screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 6 and has a front camera cut-out on the center.

While iPhone 11 Pro features a 6.5-inch Full-HD+ OLED display with a pixel density of 458ppi, a color range of 16M colors, and a refresh rate of 60Hz. It also has an aspect ratio of 19.5:9, a resolution of 1242 x 2688 pixels, and a screen to body ratio of 83.7% thanks to the huge central notch. The phone has a Scratch-resistant glass with oleophobic coating.

On paper, Apple stands nowhere close to its competitors in terms of display. Although the reality is no different, the iPhone 11 Pro does perform better than what it seems by numbers. But the two Android devices thanks to the QHD+ screen and a refresh rate of 120Hz makes the overall experience much better.

Samsung does have some interesting features like the Always-on display while OnePlus’s screen is brighter and vibrant. One downside with S20 Ultra is the fact that you cannot use QHD+ resolution along with a 120Hz refresh rate but has a Dynamic AMOLED panel which is rated slightly better than the Fluid AMOLED. However, both the phones have so similar displays it’s hard to go wrong amongst either of the two here.

Software And Performance

This is the category wherein lies the biggest and most controversial debate in Technology, Android Vs iOS. There is no clear answer to this and the answer varies according to every individual. But let’s see what’s inside these 3 smartphones.

The OnePlus 8 Pro runs on Android 10 along with OxygenOS 10.0 out of the box. It is powered by an Octa-Core Qualcomm SM8250 Snapdragon 865 SoC. The GPU in place is the Adreno 650. All this is coupled with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.0 internal storage.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra runs on Android 10 with OneUI 2. The S20 Ultra comes in 2 chipset variants- Qualcomm SM8250 Snapdragon 865 (Available only in the US) and Exynos 990 (Available in other markets). Both are Octa-Core processors. The GPU is also different for the two versions. The Snapdragon variant comes with Adreno 650 while the Exynos variant has Mali-G77 MP11. The phone has 16GB of RAM and 512GB of UFS 3.0 internal storage.

The iPhone 11 Pro runs on iOS 13 out of the box. The phone is powered by the latest Apple’s proprietary A13 Bionic Chipset. It is a Hexa-Core Processor with Apple’s 4-Core Graphics GPU. The device comes with 4GB of RAM and 512GB NVMe internal storage.

When it comes to software specifications the iPhone is the only one running on a Hexa-Core processor as compared to Octa-Core on its peers. Despite that, The A13 Bionic launched last year, on Benchmark tests is the clear winner over the other two. The Exynos powered S20 Ultra performs better than OnePlus 8 Pro on single-core, but in multi-core, it is clearly behind others. Despite low RAM in place, iPhone 11 Pro performs as good and at times even better than the other two even on Benchmark scores as well as actual gaming and daily use.

Camera

One of the most important aspects while selecting a smartphone is camera quality. OnePlus have come a long way from producing mediocre camera in the past to the one in place in this device which can even compete against these flagships.

The OnePlus 8 Pro has a Quad camera setup ay the back. The Primary camera is a 48-Megapixel sensor with an aperture of f/1.8. The lens also has an omnidirectional PDAF and Optical Image Stabilisation(OIS) The lens can be used for up to 30x optical zoom. The phone has a 48-Megapixel Ultrawide camera with an aperture of f/2.2 and a field of view of 116˚. The telephoto camera in place is an 8-Megapixel sensor with an aperture of f/2.4 and 3x optical zoom. And finally the 5-Megapixel, f/2.4 aperture Color Filter camera. The front camera on the device is a 16-Megapixel sensor with an aperture of f/2.4. Coming to videos, the camera can take 4K videos at 30/60fps while using the front camera you can take 1080p videos at 30fps.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra also has a Quad camera setup on the back. The primary camera is, however, a 108-Megapixel sensor with an aperture of f/1.8. The lens also has PDAF and Optical Image Stabilisation(OIS) The lens can be used for up to a whopping 100x optical zoom. The Ultrawide lens in place is a 12-Megapixel sensor with an aperture of f/2.2. The phone has a Telephoto camera having a 48-Megapixel sensor with an aperture of f/3.5 and a 10x hybrid zoom. Lastly the 0.3-Megapixel depth sensor for better portrait shots. On the front is a 40-Megapixel camera with an aperture of f/2.2. The video capability on the phone is up to 8K videos at 24fps and 4K videos at 30/60fps on the back and 4K videos at 30/60fps from the front.

The iPhone 11 Pro has a triple rear camera setup. The Primary camera in place is a 12-Megapixel sensor with an aperture of f/1.8, 10x optical zoom, Dual Pixel PDAF, and Optical Image Stabilisation(OIS). The phone has a 12-Megapixel, f/2.4 aperture Ultrawide sensor. And the third camera is also a 12-Megapixel Telephoto sensor with f/2.0 aperture and 2x optical zoom. For selfies, the device has a 12-Megapixel camera with an f/2.2 aperture on the front. Coming to videos on iPhone 11 Pro, the back, as well as the front camera, can take 4K videos at 24/30/60fps.

The cameras on all three devices can take stunning pictures using all the lenses they have. Even in night conditions, all three can take exquisite pictures. The OnePlus on one hand has automatic Macro detection and so takes very detailed macro shots which the other two cannot. While S20 Ultra’s dedicated depth sensor camera helps it in taking brilliant portrait snaps. Overall, all three phones have amongst the best camera setup on a smartphone. But because of a few minute quirks like 8K video, and 100x zoom, the overall camera system on Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is better than the other two.

Battery

All these huge and high-resolution displays need a huge battery to run. But we have often seen numbers not being deterministic in battery life. Also, coming to charging, a game which OnePlus used to rule at one point, how does it stand with other flagships today?

The OnePlus 8 Pro has a 4,510mAh non-removable Li-Po battery. The phone supports 30W wired Fast charging which the company claims can charge 50% of the device’s battery in just 23 minutes. It’s the first time that an OnePlus phone has Wireless Charging that too a 30W Fast Wireless Charging which OnePlus claims can charge half the battery in 30 minutes. The phone also supports 3W Reverse wireless charging.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra has a 5,000mAh non-removable Li-Po battery. The phone supports 45W wired Fast Charging. The phone also supports 15W Fast Wireless Charging and 9W reverse wireless charging.

The iPhone 11 Pro has a 3,969mAh non-removable Li-Po battery. The phone supports 18W wired Fast charging. Apple claims using it, the phone can be charged to 50% in just 30 minutes. The phone supports Qi wireless charging and reverse wireless charging as well.

While comparing the battery backup of the three devices one thing to note is the fact that iPhone 11 Pro only supports FHD+ and 60Hz display as compared to high power-consuming QHD+ and 120Hz display on the other two devices. In a video by the YouTuber ASBYT wherein he used all the three phones at the same resolution, wallpapers, and usage from 100% charge on all three, the results he got were when S20 Ultra had just 1% charge remaining, the 8 Pro had 5% left while iPhone 11 Pro was at 7%. But when it comes to charging, all the three do support Fast Charging. And despite just an 18W charger for Apple, they do claim the phone can be charged half in just 30 minutes but the trickle charging is very slow making it the slowest to charge amongst the three.

Connectivity

The OnePlus 8 Pro in terms of connectivity supports 5G, 4G-LTE, Wi-Fi 6 802.11, Bluetooth 5.1, NFC, and USB 3.1 Type-C. The phone does not have a headphone jack or external MicroSD card slot. It does have a dual nano-SIM slot.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra supports 5G (Snapdragon Variant), 4G-LTE, Wi-Fi 6 802.11, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, and USB 3.2 Type-C. The phone doesn’t have a headphone jack. It though does have a MicroSD slot but it is a hybrid SIM slot. Enabling the user to either use two SIMs or 1 SIM and 1 SD card. The device does have e-SIM support.

The iPhone 11 Pro supports 4G-LTE, Wi-Fi 6 802.11, Bluetooth 5.0, and NFC. The phone doesn’t have a headphone jack or a MicroSD card slot. The phone has a single nano-SIM slot with e-SIM support.

The only clear difference amongst the three is the 5G compatibility of OnePlus 8 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra.

Pricing

The OnePlus 8 Pro is priced in India at Rs. 54,999 to Rs. 59,999.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is priced in India at Rs. 97,999.

The iPhone 11 Pro is priced in India at Rs. 1,17,100 to Rs. 1,31,900.

Verdict

It’s very difficult to pick any one of them as all the three offer complete a package and are probably the best smartphone you can buy. Bringing the pricing in to picture makes OnePlus 8 Pro hard to resist. It has almost everything that its peers have to offer at a much more competitive price. In fact, it is half the price of the iPhone 11 Pro. If you are looking for a better camera phone of them then S20 Ultra is the phone to go ahead with. And for any user having a MacBook or iPad and looking for a smartphone with requirements like file transfer and compatibility then iPhone 11 Pro is the go-to device.

But OnePlus with the OnePlus 8 Pro has surely marked its entry to the Flagship smartphone sector challenging the flagships of Apple and Samsung and potentially edging them as well.