OnePlus launched its first-ever compact flagship smartphone OnePlus 13s in India on Thursday with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 processor and a slew of AI features. With an effective price of ₹49,999 (including bank offers), the OnePlus 13s is poised to compete with premium flagship phones from Samsung and Google. Let’s take a look at how the new device holds up against its challengers.
OnePlus 13s vs Samsung Galaxy A56 vs Google Pixel 9a:
Display:
Samsung Galaxy A56 features a 6.7-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 1200 nits of brightness in high brightness mode (HBM), protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+.
The Pixel comes with a 6.3-inch Full HD+ OLED display offering a 120Hz refresh rate, HDR support, and 1800 nits brightness in HBM. It uses the older Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for protection.
OnePlus 13s, on the other hand, packs a 6.32-inch 1.5K LTPO AMOLED display with 1600 nits of brightness in HBM and support for Dolby Vision. Its higher-quality panel can intelligently adjust the refresh rate between 1Hz and 120Hz depending on the content, leading to improved battery efficiency.
The OnePlus 13s stays ahead of the two devices also because it features a higher-resolution panel with especially smaller bezels — an area where both its rivals fall short.
Performance:
Galaxy A56 runs on the Exynos 1580 processor which is paired with LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage. Similarly, the Pixel comes powered by the Google Tensor G4 chipset with LPDDR5x RAM and UFS 3.1 storage.
While the two processors are not bad by any standards they pale in comparison to the flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite processor on the OnePlus 13s which also powers most flagship phones launched this year. The OnePlus also features support for LPDDR5x RAM and faster UFS 4.0 storage.
Battery:
Galaxy A56 comes with a 5,000mAh battery with support for 45W wired charging. Meanwhile, the Pixel 9a packs a 5,100mAh setup with support for 23W of wired fast charging and 7.5W of wireless charging.
The OnePlus simply outshines the two devices with not only its bigger 5,850mAh battery setup but also an 80W charger which comes supplied inside the box. However, there is no wireless charging support on the OnePlus 13s.
Software:
Both the OxygenOS 15 on OnePlus 13s and stock Android on Pixel 9a come with no ads and bloatware and offer an overall clean software experience. However, Galaxy A56 running on a toned down version of the OneUI 7 comes with a lot of ads and pre-installed apps making it one of the worst offenders in this category.
In terms of software support, OnePlus is offering 4 years of OS updates and 6 years of security patches with the OnePlus 13s while Samsung and Google offer longer software support with 6 and 7 years of OS updates respectively.
Apart from that, all three UIs have their pros and cons but these are generally considered to be the best options one can find on Android.
Camera:
Since we don’t have all the three phones in hand, it isn’t possible to quantifiably judge which phone possesses the best camera setup but we can surely do a specs comparison for them to get a better idea of things.
Pixel 9a comes with a 48MP Samsung GN8 primary shooter with OIS and a 13MP ultra-wide angle lens with Sony IMX712 sensor. On the front is a 13MP selfie shooter with support for 4K 30fps video recording.
The A56 features a 50MP primary shooter with OIS, a 12MP ultra-wide angle lens and a 5MP macro sensor. The phone is equipped with a 12MP shooter on the front. Sadly, Samsung hasn’t publicly disclosed the name of sensors it used on the A56 so it’s hard to make straight comparisons.
OnePlus 13s comes with a 50MP Sony LYT-700 primary sensor with OIS and a 50MP 2x telephoto lens. There is also a 32MP Galaxycore GC32E autofocus front facing shooter.
Which phone is best under ₹50,000?
OnePlus 13s takes a lead ahead of the Galaxy A56 and the Pixel 9a with a better quality display, flagship processor, bigger battery and faster charging along with the higher resolution selfie camera.
However, the IP65 splash and dust resistance rating on OnePlus 13s compared to the IP67 and IP68 ratings on the Samsung and Google devices goes in their favour.
Moreover, the OnePlus 13s does not come with an ultra-wide angle lens (though, it matches it with a telephoto shooter) which could be a major pain point for some users.
