Oneplus 9 vs Galaxy S21 - The Ultimate Comparison By Jonathan Casey

This video is sponsored by motion if you use Final Cut Pro, and you're looking to step up your content with amazing templates transitions, 3d models or other effects make sure to check them out check out the description below for the links to all the plugins that I used in this video. In one corner we have the galaxy, s21, Samsung's, entry-level, flagship device, packing high performance and extensive features in a compact size. In the other corner, we have the OnePlus 9 OnePlus the latest entry level, flagship with nearly identical performance, tons of customization options and features with a cheaper price tag in this video, I'm taking these two devices, and I'm putting them head to head in a six round match each round will be focused on a specific category. These categories are design performance, software, entertainment battery and camera at the end of each round I'll designate a winner and give that phone a point at the end of the video I'll tally up all the points and whichever phone has the most points will declare the winner alright. So before we dive into the video any further, I need you all to do me a huge favor if you're not subscribed yet go ahead, and do that now follow that up by clicking the bell icon to be alerted when more videos like this go live one more thing. If you could please leave a comment down below that would be amazing.

It could be anything you'd like just keep it Disney rated due to YouTube's algorithm and how strict it is with engagement. It's the only way for videos like this to be pushed out to other people, and you know, hopefully help them out alright. So with that out of the way, let's do this yup ring that damn bell? The design of these two phones is surprisingly, very different. In a time when most manufacturers are using frosted glass, OnePlus decided to go a more traditional route, with a glossy style of glass on the back of the OnePlus 9. This, of course, is despite them being one of the first manufacturers to ever embrace the matte glass.

Backside. Samsung, however, went with a polycarbonate material on the back of the s21, which retains matte like properties. It's not a new design move from Samsung, but something I really haven't spent a lot of time with. It has a strange feeling to it that it doesn't quite replicate the feeling of glass but at the same time, doesn't feel like cheap plastic, even though it is plastic. I, like both phones, have aluminum frames, which is typical and are resilient to drops.

For the most part, both phones also utilize flat displays, which is great for typing and for third-party screen protectors. The difference in terms of glass durability comes down to the OnePlus 9, having gorilla glass 5 on the front and back whereas the galaxy s21 features, gorilla, glass, Vitus on the front, technically speaking, gorilla glass 5 might be slightly more resilient to light scratches, however, Vitus is going to be more durable for drops, cracks and deeper scratches. Both phones are also waterproof. To a certain extent. The s21 features an ip68 rating, regardless of carrier and model.

The OnePlus 9 is a bit tricky. Only the T-Mobile variant has an actual ip68 rating. Honestly, I won't worry too much about it, since I'm sure every single OnePlus 9 has gone through the same manufacturing process, and this is just a way for OnePlus to save some money on the certification process. Ergonomically, both phones are quite good. The OnePlus 9 is a bigger foam, it's wider taller and heavier, but thanks to its curved backside, it does fit in the hand really well and is quite comfortable to use over long periods of time.

That said, in my opinion, the galaxy s21 is slightly better in the hand due to the size being a little more manageable. Of course, this is subjective, and it's all going to come down to your personal preference and, of course, your hand size if you're looking for a phone that is easily operable with a single hand, the galaxy s21 may be a better choice. Aside from the size and the curved back of the OnePlus 9, the button placement is slightly different on each of these phones. The s21 keeps the volume rocker and power button on the right-hand side, whereas the OnePlus 9 places the volume rocker on the left side and the power button on the right side. Personally, I prefer the s21 layout only because I'm used to it, and I'm also right-handed, so it's a little easier for me to adjust the volume or access the power button without having to shimmy my hand up the phone when it comes to physical features, both once again are pretty similar for security, both utilize, an in-display fingerprint scanner.

The OnePlus 9 uses an optical fingerprint scanner, which works very fast and is slightly more responsive than the s21. With fewer rejections, the s21 uses an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, which is a bit more secure, still extremely fast and can even be used if your fingertips are wet. The OnePlus 9 has one of my favorite features on any smartphone, and that is the alert slider. This offers quick, switching between sound vibrate and silence. Even the iPhone only offers sound and vibrate.

So, in my opinion, the OnePlus approach is much more practical. Samsung offers the s21 in many more colors versus the OnePlus 9. So if you're not into cases or skins, you'll likely find a color that speaks to you more with the s21. So at the end of round one, we have a close match for durability, I'm going to give it to the s21. Even though the back side of the s21 is polycarbonate or plastic, it technically makes it more flexible, which reduces the chance of a crack appearing when you drop your phone combine that with gorilla glass victim on the front and the s21 offers slightly better drop resilience.

Overall ergonomics is going to be a draw since it's so subjective. The s21 for me, is a better sized phone, and it's a little easier to use, but for left-handed people with larger hands, the OnePlus 9 may be more well-suited for you. While I appreciate Samsung offering the s21 in more color variations at the end of the day, most people will probably put a case on their phone or, at the very least, a skin. So having multiple color options, in my opinion, isn't as useful as the alert slider on the OnePlus 9 being that both fingerprint scanners do a phenomenal job. The toggle switch is the defining factor for me when it comes to features and with that said, I'm going to give design to the OnePlus 9 for being just a little more practical.

Next up we're taking a look at performance for this, I'm looking at app opening speeds, ram management, gaming, day-to-day performance and compute performance. First up is app opening speeds. In a nutshell, once the first app is fully opened, I move on to the next app. The first app is the clock app in order to start a stopwatch, and then I open the following: the camera, app calculator, Ida, 64 shadow knight game, binge 5 into the dead, 2 CPU, grim velour and finally, I reopened the clock app to stop the timer. Surprisingly, the OnePlus 9 was the most consistent phone I have ever tested when it comes to app opening speeds, and it beats out the s21 9 out of 10 times for brand management.

I bring a similar test. Both the s21 and OnePlus 9 can store 20 plus apps easily in my testing, so ram management on both phones is great. I then ran the CDT test to determine SSD and ram speeds. Interestingly enough, the OnePlus 9 has significantly faster SSD speeds and ram speeds. As you can see here, gaming on both devices is great.

Both phones offer their own gaming performance modes and modifications to enhance the gaming experience. Both phones also stay relatively cool during gameplay, but I did notice. The back of the OnePlus 9 gets slightly warmer over time versus the s21. When running some tests using game bench, I noticed that the OnePlus 9 has significantly more power draw, which I'm sure has to do with the higher resolution display also there's quite a few games that are not fully optimized to take advantage of the OnePlus 9 hardware, such as grim velour, which tops out at 60 frames per second instead of the 120 frames per second like the s21 was able to achieve dead. Trigger 2, however, was able to achieve 121 frames per second, so that shows you as long as the game is optimized.

High frame rates are possible on the OnePlus 9. Ultimately, both phones performed exceptional. The OnePlus 9 will only get better as more games. Add support, whereas the s21 is already supported on most games. Considering it's been out longer.

Day-To-Day performance on both phones is great. You could expect an extremely smooth and fluid experience. Swiping and scrolling through pages, is excellent. Thanks to the 120 hertz displays on both phones. The phones are also extremely responsive and exhibit minimal to no lag for most day-to-day applications like checking, email, social media and web browsing.

That said, there's just something about the OnePlus and the way they tweak their software and optimize it. That makes it feel slightly faster overall, especially for day-to-day tasks. Finally, I ran a series of benchmark tests, including 3dmark geek bench, VLC and tops, in order to test out compute performance feel free to pause the video and take a look at the results for yourself. In short, the OnePlus 9 outperformed the s21 in nearly every test. Although the differences are pretty minimal, a win is still a win, so at the end of the performance round, I have to give it to the OnePlus 9.

Not only does it open apps slightly quicker, but it provides a snappier day-to-day experience with better compute performance. Overall gaming is extremely similar on both phones and really. The only reason why the OnePlus 9 takes this round is due to having a higher resolution display. Ram management on both devices is excellent and should not be a deciding factor when trying to pick between these two phones. However, SSD performance could be something some may take into consideration and if you're one of those people, the OnePlus 9, does outperform the s21 here as well.

Moving on to software, both phones offer a unique and highly customizable experience that I think fans of either company are really going to enjoy. Let's start with software performance again, both of these phones are extremely snappy. Swiping through the home screen app drawer and scrolling to the menus is silky smooth on both, but I do have to give the OnePlus 9 a slight edge, as I previously said, there's just something about it. That makes it feel a little faster. Maybe it's the quicker SSD speeds, or maybe it's just the software optimization.

I don't exactly know. I just know that I can definitely notice a difference whenever doing the typical day-to-day mundane stuff feature-wise. Once again, both of these are loaded. Many features are shared through the experience such as the Google feed to the left of the home screen. Another example is having a private and secure place to store files.

OnePlus refers to this as a hidden space, and you also have app locker deep within the settings and then Samsung has secure folder. The OnePlus 9 offers something called shelf which allows you to access information like the weather steps or your parking location, as well as other tools and apps on the fly. Samsung's implementation of this is known as edge screen, which offers even more information and is highly customizable. Samsung also offers Samsung free, which gives users free TV movies, podcast news and games, but this will come down to the model of phone. You have in the location that you're in both phones support, NFC based payments and various multitasking tools, such as split screen and running parallel apps.

However, this is one area I feel. Samsung is king. First, Samsung pay is still the best form of mobile payment. In my personal opinion, even if they removed MST support the rewards and perks alone make it worth it over. Google and apple.

If you ask me, Samsung also offers better and more extensive multitasking controls such as pop-up view, which works alongside split view. You can technically have like several windows open at once and really bounce back and forth to multitask. Of course, you can't forget about DEX, which practically turns your galaxy device into a Chromebook that alone trumps. Anything the OnePlus can do when it comes to multitasking. Now, where I feel Samsung dominates and features, OnePlus really gives users complete flexibility in customization.

For starters, being able to use icon packs from the Google Play Store is dope. I also really enjoy the stock-like appearance of oxygen OS over one UI oxygen. Os also offers tons of customization when it comes to quickly launching tools and apps known as quick gestures, they've been around for a while, but OnePlus has seemed to really perfected them, and they work really well. There's also various ways to change the look of the OS by adjusting things like the accent: color icon shapes horizon lights, fingerprint animations ambient displays and, of course, the new canvas mode which I talked about in my tips and tricks. Video up above the icing on the cake when it comes to customization on an OnePlus device, is the ROM community, since OnePlus encourages unlocking the bootloader and flashing different and various ROMs from the forms.

Samsung has a different approach to these things for customization. They do offer quite a bit, but it's mostly done through their own store, where you can purchase different themes, icon packs, wallpapers and always on display themes. Unlike OnePlus Samsung discourages bootloader, unlocking. In fact, they go as far as saying it can possibly void. Your warranty Samsung prides themselves on security specifically due to their Knox encryption and security platform, so by unlocking the bootloader you're technically disabling this.

That said, you can find plenty of extensive customization options through a downloadable, app known as good luck. This will give you a plethora of options that allow you to really dial in your galaxy device to your liking. At the end of the day, though, I personally feel OnePlus is better at giving users a highly customizable experience right out of the box. Last but not least, we have updates, and software support Samsung supports their flagship devices for three years when it comes to major android OS updates, with continued security updates. After that, OnePlus seems to be the same.

However, I've seen some reports stating that they allow for four years of major android OS updates versus the three from Samsung, since these are relatively the same, and I can't prove that OnePlus supports every device for four years. I'm gonna call this one a draw: okay, so to wrap up the software round. I think OnePlus is going to slightly take it, but depending on your needs, it could easily be a draw. The OnePlus 9 is a snappier experience overall, but it's not a huge difference. However, it also allows for greater control when it comes to customization.

The galaxy s21 has more software features that I think are more practical, especially when it comes to multitasking and getting things done, but these things may not be as important to others as they are to me. Not only that, but Samsung pay is awesome and something that I use all the time. Both phones are pretty equal when it comes to software supports and routine updates. So basically it comes down to the slight edge the OnePlus 9 has on the s21. When it comes to software performance.

Moving on to entertainment, this one is going to be pretty short and sweet. The OnePlus 9 has a better display overall, it's slightly bigger and has a higher resolution all while still retaining a 120hz refresh rate. The screen to body ratio is also slightly better. Both displays are extremely accurate, but I do have to give the s21 credit for slightly being better with color reproduction and for viewing angles. The OnePlus 9 can also get brighter coming in at 1100 nits versus the s21, which is between 960 and 970 nits for max brightness, of course, display quality translates to the overall content consumption experience being able to watch content in higher resolutions due to the OnePlus 9 supporting quads, HD plus content.

Natively makes it slightly better, in my opinion, than the s21, even though the s21 is no slouch, I mean technically speaking, 1080 versus quad HD content on displays that are this small is really not that different. Nonetheless, the larger display, with slightly smaller bezels in the OnePlus 9, makes for a better overall viewing experience. The speaker quality on both phones is also quite good. The OnePlus 9 gets slightly louder, but it doesn't have as much range I feel as the s21, which has a fuller, sound here's a quick example for you. I need to know everything who in the world know where I need everything, trust me.

I hear what you're saying I'm curious George. Furthermore, I hop in the Porsche 5 and a horse, I'm ready for war, I'm coming for froze to turn to a ghost. Furthermore, I need to know everything alright, so at the end of this round, once again, I'm going to give it to the OnePlus 9. , it offers a better overall entertainment experience due to having a slightly bigger and better display battery is something that's very subjective, and it's going to come down to how you use your phone and the areas that you tend to travel or where you live. For this, I'm going to base everything off of my own experience, but your miles may vary.

So that's just a quick heads up, I'm going to be looking at overall screen on time, daily usage charging speeds and any additional power. Ups. The galaxy s21 has a smaller 4 000 William hour battery versus the OnePlus 9's 4500 William hour battery. It also has a smaller and lower resolution display which equals less power draw. That said, I'm able, to average around seven to eight hours of screen on time on the s21 in between nine and ten hours on the OnePlus 9.

Both of these phones are definitely all-day devices, but I found myself able to go over a day without having to charge the OnePlus 9 versus the s21 dying on me overnight. Don't get me wrong, though the OnePlus 9 needed to be charged asap once I woke up, but it's still a longer lasting device when it comes to everyday usage. This brings me to charging speeds which the OnePlus 9 absolutely trumps. The s21, due to its 65 watt, charging the s21 takes over an hour to charge, whereas the OnePlus 9 can do it in roughly 30 minutes. Both phones offer respectable power-ups such as extensive power saving modes and reverse wireless charging.

So it's a draw when it comes to this category, so at the end of this round, the OnePlus 9 is going to take it once again. Not only does it offer better battery life, but it also has faster charging speeds, giving users the flexibility to top up when on the go. Last but not least, we have the cameras, since this isn't a dedicated camera video, I'm going to try to simplify this. The best that I can, if you want a more extensive look at the OnePlus, 9 or OnePlus 9 pro camerae, make sure to check out my friend Danny's videos, which can be found at the card up top. First off.

Let's take a look at the specs. The OnePlus 9 features three cameras on the back side. We have a 48 megapixel main camera, a 50 megapixel ultra-wide and a 2 megapixel black and white camera. That's used for additional information when the other cameras are being used on the front side. There's a single 16, megapixel camera, the galaxy s.21 also features three cameras on the back side: there's a 12, megapixel main camera, a 12 megapixel ultra-wide camera and a 64 megapixel three times telephoto camera. On the front.

We have a 10 megapixel front facing camera. Both phones have a plethora of features, but the s21 takes the cake here, offering more modes, more usable cameras and more settings that can be adjusted. An example of this is pro video mode which, on the s21 not only allows for manual control of video, but also unlocks several more aspect ratios and frame rates. In a nutshell, both phones are capable of taking excellent photos. The OnePlus 9 tends to be more color accurate, but in my opinion, the s21 is slightly more pleasing.

This brings me to the question: is color accuracy actually important anymore or is just having a pleasing looking image more important? Let me know in the comments. I noticed that the OnePlus 9 tends to have focusing issues, especially when using portrait mode nearly 50 of the images I've taken have been blurry or just slightly out of focus. This is the case when it comes to video as well. Here's a quick example of the rear-facing camera when recording 4k 30 frames per second, so here's a quick example of shooting 4k 30 frames per second on the rear facing cameras using the main sensor. Now this is without HDR video I'm going to go ahead and switch to HDR on the OnePlus, 9 and hdr10, plus on the galaxy s21.

To give you an example of what that looks like so here's another example using the facing cameras, 4k 30 frames per second main sensor, except this time on the galaxy s21 we have HDR, 10 plus enabled, and on the OnePlus 9 we have HDR video enabled. Let me know which one looks better to you. This is without a LUT, and then this is with a LUT or with some color correction. In order to you know, you know iron out any over saturation or flatness from the HDR video going back to photos. The s21 has an overall brighter image, with better shadow detail and more vibrancy, while the OnePlus 9 tends to have more realistic, colors and better highlight retention.

Of course, whether you like one or the other is going to come down to personal preference. Dynamic range is great on both phones, but sometimes when shooting in extreme dynamic range scenarios like this, you can see. The OnePlus is just much more natural versus the s21's, almost cartoon look skin tones are better on the s21, in my personal opinion, they're much more pleasing, although sometimes they are slightly waxy versus the OnePlus 9 low light on both phones is pretty good, but I have to give the edge to the s21 overall for just having a more consistent camera when shooting in regular, auto mode when switching to night mode, the OnePlus tends to actually produce better results, most of the time with less noise. But it's not consistent once again for video, both phones can shoot 4k up to 60 frames per second, which looks great during the day. Both phones also shoot 8k video, the s21 does this in 24 frames per second, when using the auto video mode, whereas the one plus defaults to 30 frames per second well.

The OnePlus scores points, though, is with its ultra-wide 8k video support and that's awesome for vlogging. Okay. So now I'm shooting 8k video main sensor on the galaxy s21, which is of course way more cropped in than the OnePlus 9, because I'm able to use the ultra-wide on the OnePlus 9 to shoot 8k video, I have to say that's pretty boss. I'm definitely liking that another cool feature on the OnePlus 9 is that it supports 4k super steady video which the s21 tops out at 1080p. Here's a quick example.

So this is a quick test using the super, stable or super steady video modes on both phones. The OnePlus 9 actually supports 4k super stable, whereas the galaxy s21 only supports 1080p. So I'm going to go ahead and run at night. Video definitely takes a hit, but that's to be expected. OnePlus does offer a night mode for video, but it's only a slight improvement, and sometimes it tends to mess up colors, or it just really smears the image.

If I had to pick a winner for low light video, it would go to the s21 simply because it's cleaner, and it has a more consistent experience. Overall. The OnePlus 9 is a good camera when it comes to quality. Despite being slightly inferior to the s21, but this is specifically when referring to image quality, the experience is an entirely different story and a very frustrating one. When I was gathering photo and video samples for this video, the OnePlus 9 overheated on me well over 15 times.

Not only did I miss shots because of this, but it also cut off several videos. While I was in the middle of recording it's been years since I had a phone actually overheat on me to the point where I can't record or take photos now, don't get me wrong, I'm used to the screen, you know dimming like on the galaxy s21 or on the iPhone, but the OnePlus 9 not only dims the display, but it literally makes the camera unusable until it cools down. This is a huge problem for people like myself that live in warm environments. It could be because the black color on the foam- and if that is the case, you may want to consider going with the other colorway. Once I hear back from OnePlus on this overheating issue, I'll be sure to include it in my full review, as well as update you all on my twitter, so make sure to follow me over there.

Obviously, due to the experience alone, the galaxy s21 is going to take the camera around alright. Alright, let's wrap this up. The OnePlus 9 takes five rounds, while the s21 takes one. This makes the OnePlus 9 the winner of this comparison, but- and this is a big, but this doesn't make the s21 a worse phone. In fact, personally, I would take the s21 over the OnePlus 9, simply because the camera is extremely important to me and my experience with the OnePlus 9 in this department has been terrible.

Hopefully the overheating issues can be fixed with an update, but we'll have to wait and see if it's even possible. In any case, both of these phones are excellent, and it's been fun testing them out. If you have anything to add to this, video feel free to leave it in the comment section below. If you enjoyed this video, please consider giving it a thumbs up subscribe for. More videos, just like this, and I'll see you beautiful and handsome people in the next one.

Source : Jonathan Casey