The Samsung Galaxy S10+ and OnePlus 7 Pro are amongst the hottest smartphones in the market at the moment. These are flagship offerings from their respective companies, and many of you are probably wondering which one to get.
The OnePlus 7 Pro is considerably more expensive than the OnePlus 6T, was, and is much closer to Samsung’s flagship in price than any other flagship was before it. Still, the OnePlus 7 Pro is more affordable than the Galaxy S10+, and some would say even a better choice.
If you’re trying to decide which one to get, maybe we can help. Before we begin, do note that these are our opinions, and you may disagree, of course. As per usual, we will compare the two devices across a number of categories, starting with their specifications.
Specifications
Design
Both of these flagships are made out of metal and glass, and yet, they do feel a bit different in the hand, plus they look different as well. The Galaxy S10+ is not exactly a light phone by any means (175 grams), but it is lighter than the OnePlus 7 Pro (206 grams). Do note that we’re talking about a glass variant of the Galaxy S10+, not the ceramic model.
The Galaxy S10+ is a bit narrower, shorter and thinner than the OnePlus 7 Pro as well, but not by much. Both devices include extremely thin bezels, and curved displays, along with curved backplates. The OnePlus 7 Pro, however, does not include a pill-shaped display camera hole like the Galaxy S10+, that hole actually hosts two cameras. OnePlus opted for a pop-up selfie camera, which makes the OnePlus 7 Pro’s much cleaner-looking from a design standpoint.
The rear-facing camera setup on the OnePlus 7 Pro also looks nicer compared to the Galaxy S10+. The OnePlus 7 Pro’s cameras are vertically aligned, and an LED flash lies right below them, underneath the glass on the back. The Galaxy S10+ does ship with a heart rate sensor, and its cameras are horizontally-aligned… all in all, that setup does not really look as appealing.
Considering everything, we have to give this category to the OnePlus 7 Pro, as it does look sleeker from both the front and the back. You may, of course, be willing to tolerate the Galaxy S10+ punchole not to deal with a pop-up selfie camera, that is perfectly understandable, but it’s hard to deny that the OnePlus 7 Pro is the better-looking phone.
Winner: OnePlus 7 Pro
Display
This is an extremely difficult category to compare when it comes to these two phones. Both devices offer beautiful displays, and are amongst the best out there in this regard, that’s for sure. In fact, both of these displays are manufactured by Samsung.
The Galaxy S10+ features a 6.4-inch QHD+ (3040 x 1440) Dynamic AMOLED display, while the OnePlus 7 Pro includes a 6.67-inch QHD+ (3120 x 1440) Fluid AMOLED panel. Both panels are curved, and both are HDR10+ certified. The OnePlus 7 Pro panel does have one rather obvious advantage, though, a higher refresh rate, 90Hz vs 60Hz on the Galaxy S10+.
Such high refresh rate makes things look even smoother when it comes to animations, scrolling, and so on. On the flip side, the Galaxy S10+’s display has a more natural transition between blue and green colors, and can get brighter than the OnePlus 7 Pro’s panel.
Both devices offer great contrast, vivid colors, deep blacks, and both are extremely sharp. These two displays are basically on par, though if you don’t mind the extra battery consumption, leaving the OnePlus 7 Pro’s display at 90Hz will make you enjoy it far more, and arguably more than the Galaxy S10+’s panel. Despite that refresh rate, however, we’ll tie this category, the Galaxy S10+’s panel does have its own advantages, and no matter the way we look at it, both displays are top notch.
Winner: Tie
Performance
From the hardware standpoint, both of these phones are true beasts. Both devices are fueled by the Snapdragon 855 64-bit octa-core processor by Qualcomm, though European and Indian models of the Galaxy S10+ ship with the Exynos 9820, which is on par with the Snapdragon 855, more or less.
Both devices have plenty of RAM on board, and run the latest version of Android, Android 9 Pie. The OnePlus 7 Pro does also include liquid cooling for those long gaming sessions, but otherwise, that does not really impact performance in regular use.
Both devices are really fast and responsive, no doubt about that, which is not surprising considering their hardware setup. Still, it’s hard not to notice that the OnePlus 7 Pro feels a bit smoother, a bit more responsive.
The phone’s display with a high refresh rate may have something to do with that, of course, it most certainly does, but OxygenOS as a whole is much lighter than One Ui, and does have an upper hand in terms of sheer performance. That being said, the Galaxy S10+ is a beast in terms of performance as well, and these slight differences should not bother, at least not at this point in time.
Winner: OnePlus 7 Pro
Battery Life
This is yet another rather interesting category for comparison, as the two phones do offer same battery capacities, but the way they’re made impact battery consumption differently, and there are some vast differences when it comes to charging here.
The Galaxy S10+ offers solid, but not stellar battery life (on full resolution). At first, the device was a true road warrior, but then we started noticing that its battery is not that great, despite the fact it has a 4,000mAh unit on the inside. Don’t get us wrong, though, the Galaxy S10+ does offer really good battery life, but not on the level of the Huawei P30 Pro.
The OnePlus 7 Pro is in the same ballpark, when its 90Hz display is on, that is. If you switch that to 60Hz, you will start seeing the difference, and even though some people suggested that the difference is not that noticeable, that’s just not true. The OnePlus 7 Pro can offer really great battery life when set to 60Hz, even better than the Galaxy S10+, though it’s possible that will change down the road, as it did with the Galaxy S10+.
So, if we set them side-by-side, they’re in the same ballpark, in full resolution, and with 90Hz refresh rate enabled on the OnePlus 7 Pro. If you put them on the same level with 60Hz refresh rate, the OnePlus 7 Pro will have an advantage, at least in our tests. Usage is different from one person to the other, though, and we’ve seen so many different reports from reviewers and people, that it almost renders comparing phones in this category not worth it, as we’re sure that some of you are getting completely different results.
In terms of charging, well… things are quite interesting. The Galaxy S10+’s wired charging is barely comparable to the OnePlus 7 Pro’s. The Galaxy S10+ offers 15W wired charging (Quick Charge 2.0), which is quite obsolete at this point in time, and it’s quite surprising that Samsung did not up the ante with the Galaxy S10+. The OnePlus 7 Pro, on the other hand, supports 30W Warp Charge fast wired charging, which is much faster than what the Galaxy S10+ has to offer.
If you prefer wireless charging, however, the Galaxy S10+ is the only choice. The Galaxy S10+ supports 15W wireless charging, and 9W reverse wireless charging, while the OnePlus 7 Pro does not have any of that. All things considered, we’ll tie this category as well, there are many variables to consider here, and each of the two devices is better in some aspects.
Winner: Tie
Cameras
Camera performance was always one of the weak spots when it comes to OnePlus’ smartphones. The OnePlus 7 Pro does offer better camera performance than its predecessor, but at the time of writing this article, we’re not impressed. OnePlus did promise a huge camera update soon, in order to fix some issues, especially in low light, but at the moment, low light images do not look great, especially indoors.
The Galaxy S10+, on the other hand, did receive a new update (in some regions) recently, which tends to the camera, and improves low light output considerably by boosting its night mode. Truth be said, night mode hasn’t even arrived to the US at the time of writing this article, and carriers are to blame.
In daylight, the two cameras are comparable. Both offer wide-angle and telephoto lenses, which are capable of providing really solid results. All things considered, it’s difficult not to proclaim the Galaxy S10+ a winner in this category, as its camera output is simply better than the OnePlus 7 Pro’s at the moment, though that may change once OnePlus releases the aforementioned update.
Winner: Samsung Galaxy S10+
Conclusion
We did not get a chance to talk about audio in any of the categories above. So, if you’re into audio, the Galaxy S10+ does seem like a better choice. Both phones offer stereo speakers, but the Galaxy S10+’s sound better, in our humble opinion.
Once you plug your earphones in, the Galaxy S10+ does offer a more balanced output, and the phone does include a 3.5mm headphone jack, so you will not need a dongle. That is not something we can say about the OnePlus 7 Pro, though, as it does not have a headphone jack, but still, once you do use a dongle, sound output through earphones is quite solid.
The Galaxy S10+ has yet another advantage over the OnePlus 7 Pro, an official rating for water resistance. The Galaxy S10+ is IP68 certified for water and dust resistance, and even though the OnePlus 7 Pro can handle some rain and what not, it does not have an official rating.
So, what else is there to say? The OnePlus 7 Pro did win two categories, we had to ties, and the Galaxy S10+ won in one category. If you consider the audio aspect, and rating for water and dust resistance, however, that brings these two phones on the same level, at least in our book.
Winner: Tie