OnePlus 9 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra: Who is the King of Cameras?

During its launch, OnePlus made it very clear that the OnePlus 9 Pro is the best camera they have come up with in a phone. The claims seem to make a lot of sense due to the Hasselblad branding. Hasselblad is and has been famous for its cameras for a long time now. So when OnePlus announced the collaboration with the brand, expecting exceptional camera performance makes sense.

However, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra has been on the throne for the best camera phone for a very long time. Therefore, the main question is, can OnePlus 9 Pro beat that and claim the throne. It is time for OnePlus 9 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra when it comes to cameras.

There are a series of aspects and criteria on which the phones can be compared and this is a detailed camera comparison.

Software Features

When compared to the iPhone 12 Pro Max, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is a clear winner. It comes with multiple software features and modes. However, in the case of OnePlus 9 Pro, whatever Samsung can do on the software front, OnePlus can do it too. This is somewhere both the phones are equals and can do pretty much everything.

Macro

The camera module on the Samsung is built to give you options. The ultrawide camera on the Galaxy S21 Ultra doubles up as the macro lens. This can be done on the OnePlus 9 Pro too. The difference is that Samsung does it better. The details in the macro shots on the Samsung phone are better and the focus is more precise. OnePlus does a good job but can not be compared to the Samsung phone. The Samsung phone can also get two times closer to the subject which is the motive of a macro lens.

Zoom

The OnePlus 9 Pro goes up to 3.3x optical zoom which is impressive but the Samsung phone is built to zoom in to objects with the 3x and the 10x zoom feature. The zoomed-in pictures on both the phones are not of the best quality but the image on the Samsung looks like an image and not a UFO shot taken by NASA. Not a lot of people go all out with the zoom on their camera but Samsung just does it better.

Selfies

The selfies on both phones look good, and it all comes down to the personal preference of the user. However, the images on the OnePlus 9 Pro might not be colour accurate. The OnePlus image might show you colours that are not there in the real-life scenario. When it comes to selfie videos, the OnePlus has very mixed quality footage on the front camera. If you want to post on Instagram, this is a good phone, but it won't be a good option for someone to vlog on it. Samsung on the other hand, can be used as a vlogging alternative because of the stability in quality. You also can not record 4k footages on the front camera on the OnePlus 9 Pro so you can not use it for vlogging.

General Photography

During the launch event, OnePlus emphasized on the camera capabilities of the OnePlus 9 Pro in general photography because of "Hasselblad". Hasselblad has only been involved in the two main cameras of the phone, the wide and the ultrawide. The images on both the phone look very similar initially. However, one thing that OnePlus tends to do is crush the dark areas of an image. OnePlus tends to darken the photos in a challenging situation. The camera on OnePlus tends to sharpen the image whereas Samsung is happy to let the background be out of focus. Credit where credit is due, the shutter speed on OnePlus is blazing fast, and it takes photos very quickly. This also continues with the ultrawide shots. OnePlus claims that their camera reduces the distortions around the edges but does not actually do that.

Portrait

The portrait on both the phones look good but then again, OnePlus does fall short. The focus on the OnePlus 9 Pro shifts without any reason and the edge detection remains worse. OnePlus captures images faster so the images tend to come out crisper. Can not really put a finger on the better phone in this category so lets just call it a draw.

Video

The video on the OnePlus seems overexposed and does not always do a good job of showing colours accurately. The focus on the OnePlus camera takes a lot of time whereas the Galaxy phone is much faster to focus. It does it almost instantly. OnePlus also doesn't let you record zoomed-in videos at 4K with the telephoto lens. The nighttime videos on the OnePlus make the video very jumpy and distorted. The Galaxy S21 Ultra on the other hand maintains stability and makes videos look good.

Night Mode

By now, it might be a very concerning thought that does OnePlus excel anywhere. The answer to that is night mode. The Galaxy S21 Ultra smoothens the night-time images making sure that there is no grain in the images. OnePlus tries to maintain the essence of the ambience. Samsung's photos might look more accurate but OnePlus photos look better.

There it is, Samsung does come out on top. The Galaxy S21 Ultra is still the best camera phone out there. However, if you do not want to spend the extra bucks for just camera, OnePlus is a better pick any day. This is where the OnePlus 9 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra debate ends.