Build and Design
Samsung has been known for its premium build quality and design elements and the Galaxy S20+ is a prime example of it. The S20+ has a typical glass sandwich design with extremely slim bezels on all four sides. The back is glossy, and the cameras are housed in a square module on the left corner. The OnePlus 8 Pro also follows a similar design language with glass on either side, but with a frosted look compared to the glossy look on the S20+. The camera module is located on the center in a vertical alignment. While the design and looks on both smartphones are different, the build quality and materials used are similar and it all comes down to personal preference as to which one you like better.
Display
While Samsung popularized curved displays with its Edge series of devices, the S20+ gets rid of the curved edges on the display for a flat look which a lot of people seem to prefer. The display itself is a 6.7-inch Quad HD+ panel with a 120Hz refresh rate and a punch-hole camera at the center. Samsung is known for its best-in-class displays and the AMOLED panel on the S20+ is right up there at the top. The OnePlus 8 Pro, on paper, offers a very similar display experience with a 6.78-inch Quad HD+ 120Hz AMOLED display with a punch-hole cutout on the left. The major difference here is that the display on the OnePlus 8 Pro is curved on the edges, unlike the S20+. Again, this comes down to personal preference as to whether you like a flat panel or a curved one.
Performance
Both the OnePlus 8 Pro and the Galaxy S20+ come with the Snapdragon 865 mobile platform (the S20+ also comes in an Exynos 990 variant depending on your location) and if we’re comparing the Snapdragon variants of both phones, there wouldn’t be much to tell apart. The Exynos 990 falls behind SD 865 in terms of performance and battery efficiency so keep that in mind. Both phones get UFS 3.0 storage and LPDDR5 RAM. The OnePlus 8 Pro ships with OxygenOS whereas the Galaxy S20+ runs on OneUI. OxygenOS is known for its fluid nature and snappy animations which might make it seem slightly faster than the Galaxy S20+. OneUI, on the other hand, has been polished and refined quite a lot of late and performs really well while offering a host of features. Personally, we would pick Samsung’s OneUI 2.0 on the Galaxy S20+, but OxygenOS on the OnePlus 8 Pro offers a cleaner experience.
Cameras
Both the Galaxy S20+ as well as the OnePlus 8 Pro have a quad-camera setup on the rear. The Galaxy S20+ has a 12MP primary shooter with an f/1.8 aperture accompanied by a 64MP telephoto lens with 3X hybrid zoom, a 12MP ultra-wide lens and a 0.3MP ToF camera. The telephoto camera on the S20+ can shoot up to 8K video. The front-facing shooter on the S20+ is a 10MP unit with an f/2.2 aperture. The OnePlus 8 Pro, on the other hand, has a 48MP IMX 689 primary sensor with an f/1.78 aperture, a 48MP ultra-wide-angle camera with the IMX 586 sensor, an 8MP 3X telephoto lens, and a 5MP colour filter camera. Video recording on the OnePlus 8 Pro is limited to 4K. The front-facing camera is a 16MP unit. We’ve seen Samsung outperform a lot of phones in the camera department, but OnePlus seems to have revamped their camera setup this time and it sure does look promising.
Battery and Charging
The Galaxy S20+ has a 4500mAh battery with support for up to 25W wired charging and up to 15W wireless charging. The OnePlus 8 Pro has an ever so slightly larger 4510mAh battery with support for up to 30W wired and wireless charging through Warp Charge which is surely much faster than the Galaxy S20+. Both phones also support reverse wireless charging.
Which one to buy?
If you’re a fan of curved displays and want faster charging, you should go with the OnePlus 8 Pro. If performance is your major priority, again, the OnePlus 8 Pro is a better pick especially against the Exynos variant of the Galaxy S20+. If you do not want the curved display, though, and prefer Samsung’s brand value over that of OnePlus’, the Galaxy S20+ is the way to go. You won’t be disappointed with either phone as both of them offer very compelling specifications and there’s not much to differentiate the two.
