Phone Comparisons: OnePlus 7T vs Samsung Galaxy S20

Samsung’s new flagships had been announced recently, and it’s time to compare the most affordable of them with one of OnePlus’ newest smartphones. In this article, we’ll compare the OnePlus 7T vs Galaxy S20.

The OnePlus 7T Pro is the company’s most powerful smartphone, technically. The same goes for the Galaxy S20 Ultra on Samsung’s side. Still, the OnePlus 7T is more popular, and more widely available than the 7T Pro, while many people will be interested in Galaxy S20.

The Galaxy S20 is considerably more affordable than the S20 Ultra, while it is almost equally powerful. It is also considerably smaller than its siblings, which makes it a great phone to compare to the OnePlus 7T.

As per usual, we’ll compare these devices across a number of categories. We’ll kick things off with their specifications, and then move to the design, display, performance… and various other categories. That’s it, let’s compare the OnePlus 7T vs Galaxy S20, shall we.

OnePlus 7T vs Samsung Galaxy S20: Specs

OnePlus 7T vs Samsung Galaxy S20: Design

These two phones are somewhat similar in terms of the design. They do use the same build materials, their frame is made out of metal, while the glass is on the front and back. Both phones are curved on the back, quite a bit, and both include fairly thin bezels.

The Galaxy S20’s bezels are a hair thinner than the OnePlus 7T’s. The side bezels seem like they don’t exist at all, but that’s just the effect of the Galaxy S20’s slightly curved display. The OnePlus 7T has a really thin waterdrop notch at the top of its display, while the Galaxy S20 includes a display camera hole.

The OnePlus 7T sports a rather large round camera module on the back, which is centered. That camera module protrudes on the back, and it contains three cameras. The Galaxy S20 also offers three cameras on the back, though its cameras are located in the top-left corner.

Both companies include their brandings on the back, while non such brandings are visible on the front. Both phones have physical buttons on the right side. These two designs look great in their own regard, the only question is which one do you prefer.

The OnePlus 7T is heavier, and larger than the Galaxy S20, even though it’s not huge. Considering how compact the Galaxy S20 is, though, the OnePlus 7T does look large next to it. The Galaxy S20 is both shorter, narrower, and thinner than the OnePlus 7T, on top of being lighter. It does include a smaller display, though. So, it’s basically up to you, as both phones are really well built, and look great overall.

Winner: Tie

OnePlus 7T vs Samsung Galaxy S20: Display

Both of these phones have great displays. The OnePlus 7T probably has the best fullHD+ display in the business, one of the best for sure. The Galaxy S20 does beat it with its new panel, though.

The Galaxy S20 features a 6.2-inch QHD+ (3200 x 1440) 120Hz Dynamic AMOLED display. The OnePlus 7T has, in comparison, a 6.55-inch fullHD+ (2400 x 1080) 90Hz Fluid AMOLED display.

OnePlus actually did a great job with the OnePlus 7T’s display, as it reduced blue light emission quite a bit. The display seems way crisper because of it. Both of these panels look great, even side-by-side. Both are extremely bright, sharp, and offer great color reproduction and contrast.

Samsung’s panel has a higher refresh rate, though, and on top of that, higher resolution. A higher resolution is almost unnoticeable (with a naked eye, anyway), but the refresh rate is if you really pay attention. Both of these are high refresh rate displays, but Samsung pushed it a level further with this new display. It will be interesting to see how will it compare to the upcoming OnePlus 8 series.

The bottom line is, both displays are great, but the Galaxy S20 takes the cake. If you prefer flat displays, though, and larger ones at that, the OnePlus 7T is a great choice, that’s for sure.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S20

OnePlus 7T vs Samsung Galaxy S20: Performance

What about performance? Well, both are second to none. These are amazing performers, through and through. Both phones include fast, UFS 3.0 storage on the inside, and a ton of RAM to back that up. On top of that, both ship with really powerful SoCs. Truth be said, the Galaxy S20 includes a faster processor, but the difference in performance is really not visible.

Software optimizations play a huge part in the equation, and OnePlus is well-known for doing a great job in that regard. The thing is, both are blazing fast in day-to-day tasks such as opening / closing apps, multitasking, and even gaming. No matter what you throw on these two phones, they’ll chew threw it like champs.

On top of all that, those high refresh rate displays only play in the phones’ favor. Everything seems extra smooth because of them. The difference between 90Hz and 120Hz is not that apparent, but it is noticeable if you try a bit harder. All in all, both are amazing performers, and the OnePlus 7T keeps the pace despite the fact it has an older SoC.

Winner: Tie

OnePlus 7T vs Samsung Galaxy S20: Battery

In terms of battery, well, both are pretty good. Neither of these phones has the best battery life we’ve ever seen, but they’re certainly above average. The OnePlus 7T includes a 3,800mAh battery on the inside, while the Galaxy S20 comes with a 4,000mAh unit. Do note that we did not have a chance to fully test the Galaxy S20’s battery, though, so we’re working off of what we can say about it.

We’ve spent some time with the Galaxy S20, and the battery life seems to be on the same level as the one on the OnePlus 7T. Both phones should be able to get you past that 6-hour screen-on-time mark every day. That’s at least our experience, more or less. Your mileage will vary, though, of course. It depends on how you use your phone. The Galaxy S20 has a slightly larger battery, and a smaller display, but due to its higher refresh rate, and other aspects, the battery life does not differ all that much.

Both phones support fast battery charging. The OnePlus 7T comes with 30W fast wired charging. The Galaxy S20 supports 25W fast wired charging, in addition to fast wireless charging, and reverse wireless charging. The OnePlus 7T only offers wired charging, by the way. These two phones are on the same playing field when it comes to battery life, that’s for sure.

Winner: Tie

OnePlus 7T vs Samsung Galaxy S20: Cameras

The OnePlus 7T is the best camera smartphone OnePlus has ever released, in addition to the 7T Pro, of course. That being said, the Galaxy S20 takes things up a notch. Samsung really did a great job with the camera setup on the Galaxy S20 series as a whole. The Galaxy S20 Ultra sits a bit above the S20 and S20+, but those two devices are great in their own way.

The main sensor in the Galaxy S20 is much larger than the one in the Galaxy S10. Samsung really upped the game in both hardware and software departments, as far as the camera is concerned. So, even though the OnePlus 7T can take some really nice pics, the Galaxy S20 is a step above it.

Pictures coming from the Galaxy S20 were sharper, and even a bit richer in terms of color. The dynamic range was really good on both, as was ultrawide photography. When it comes to macro photography, the OnePlus 7T has an advantage. The Galaxy S20 did a better job in low light, though. It is more consistent in that regard, and it really managed to do a great job balancing out the images.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S20

OnePlus 7T vs Samsung Galaxy S20: Audio

In terms of audio quality, you’ll be really happy with either of the two phones. Both devices come with stereo speakers. The main speaker sits at the bottom of both devices, while the secondary one is placed behind the earpiece grille on the front. Speakers on both phones are really good. Samsung’s are tuned by AKG, but in general use, there’s not much difference between them.

Speakers on both phones are able to provide really crisp and loud sound. Distortion is really minimal at high volumes. Neither of the two phones has a 3.5mm headphone jack, but you can hook up your earphones / headphones via a Type-C port or via Bluetooth. Presuming you have a solid set of headphones, you can get some really nice audio quality here. Sound output is really good across the board, no matter what you’re listening to, as long as you’re not expecting miracles.

Winner: Tie

The overall winner

The Samsung Galaxy S20 is the winner of this comparison. That is not surprising, as it is a newer device, and a flagship at that, while Samsung really did step up. The OnePlus 7T is not far behind, though, at all. If you consider that the OnePlus 7T is almost half the Galaxy S20’s price, it is definitely worth considering. The Galaxy S20 does have an advantage in the camera and display departments, more in the camera, than in the display section, though. But if you prefer a larger phone with a flat display, the OnePlus 7T is a great option as well.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S20