Samsung S21 Ultra vs OnePlus 9 Pro Camera Comparison-Finding the new champion

Samsung Galaxy S21 ultra is the current camera champion. It’s well ahead of iPhone 12 Pro Max also (See the comparison). Now we’ve got a new contender, the Hasselblad branded camera-centric Oneplus 9 pro. Before you buy an Oneplus 9 pro supposing its camera is the best due to Hasselblad’s brand name. Let’s compare it with Samsung high-end handset camera. Yes, we pitched the S21 Ultra camera vs OnePlus 9 Pro camera. And we have some interesting results provided you are looking for camera preference and you have some budget considerations too.

And yeah if the price is a factor then i must tell you that OnePlus 9 Pro is 899$ and 999$ respectively for 128 GB /8GB and 256Gb /12 Gb models. Whereas, you can get S21 Ultra 5G is at ablaut 1199 $ and upwards, depending on which variant you are buying.

Oneplus 9 Pro Hasselblad Camera vs S21 Ultra Camera – Specifications comparison

OnePlus 9 Pro Camera Specs	S21 Ultra Camera Specs
48 MP (main), f/1.8, 23mm (wide), 1/1.43″, 1.12µm, OIS	108MP (main) Phase Detection AF, OIS, F1.8, 0.8µm
8 MP, (3.3x telephoto) f/2.4, 77mm, OIS	12MP (ultra0wide) Dual pixel AF, FOV 120°, F2.2, 1.4µm (ultra-wide)
50 MP, (ultrawide) f/2.2, 14mm, freeform lens, 1/1.56″, 1.0µm	10MP (3x telephoto) Dual Pixel AF, Optical 3x, OIS, F2.4, 1.22µm (telephoto)
2 MP, f/2.4, (monochrome)	10MP (10x telephoto) Dual Pixel AF, Optical 10x, OIS, F4.9, 1.22µm (telephoto)
16 MP, f/2.4, (selfie)	40MP (selfie) Phase Detection AF, FOV 80°, F2.2, 0.7 µm
Video: 8k@30 (main), 4k@60 (rear), 1080p@60 (selfie)	Video: 4K@60 (all cameras) 8K@24 (main)

S21 Ultra vs Oneplus 9 Pro Camera-Did Hasselblad worked?

While pitching S21 Ultra vs Oneplus 9 Pro Camera, we did a comparison in 12 categories. That is how we chose one clear winner.

Samsung S21 Ultra camera has so many features giving it higher value these days. But almost every interesting thing that S21 Ultra’s camera can do like hyper lapses or portrait mode video, the OnePlus 9 Pro Hasselblad camera can do that too. Sometimes even better. So in terms of software features, they are pretty neck to neck. But the secret source to what makes the Samsung camera so fun is that it’s not just software. Entire hardware and every lens Samsung pitched here, it made sure to build the best. Now moving on to the comparison of both cameras by OnePlus 9 Pro and S21 Ultra.

S21 Ultra vs OnePlus 9 Pro Ultra-Macro Camera Comparison

Samsung has made a hyper close-up macro camera. Good news for OnePlus fans, that it does that too but not as good as Samsung. The quality of close-up is quite comparable as you can probably tell. But Samsung phone can get twice as close which is the entire objective of the macro camera. Seems like Hasselblad and Oneplus 9 Pro collab was not aiming at the micro camera.

Zoom Camera Feature

The OnePlus 9 pro has a pretty good 3x optical zoom camera. Whereas Samsung is built to zoom at extreme levels With both 3 times and a 10-time zoom camera so it should not surprise you.

Samsung can do further better imaging. If you put both handset side by side and slowly zoom in then as soon as you pass 10 times. Samsung S21 Ultra’s main telephoto camera kicks In and it’s in a completely different league. Though Samsung footage does start to look a bit of watercolor painting when you get 30x, it is still better. By the time you get 30x on OnePlus 9 pros, you can sadly count the pixel, as it starts breaking.

Selfie Camera

Samsung S21 ultra also takes better selfies. This is not an element of personal preference here but I can’t help. For Oneplus it’s like, it is inventing colours that weren’t there.

In a selfie video for some bizarre reason, the OnePlus 9 pro max out at 1080p of pretty mixed quality footage on the front camera. This means that if all you want is to take videos for Instagram, it’s fine. But unless 4k gets added in a software update, I pretty much can’t recommend this phone to anyone who is planning on doing any kind of vlogging.

If you are buying a flagship phone in 2021 you probably be using it till 2024 but I think by then 1080P footage is going to feel like a relic.

General Photography Test Of Hasselblad OnePlus 9 Pro camera vs Samsung S21 Ultra

Let’s come to general photography. Now, this is the OnePlus 9 pro camera big chance to come back. In all the teaser and promotional material for this phone, they’re overarching messages like. “we heard you didn’t like our past camera, we fixed it up. And oh did we tell you we collaborated with Hasselblad?

The only two cameras that have had Hasselblad involvement are the main two cameras, the wide and the ultra-wide-angle. So given that Hasselblad is almost regarded as an authority on photography let’s check if it’s good?

Well, when I first started pulling out side-by-side photos click of both phones. It made me skeptical that maybe I just opened the same photo twice. Both the OnePlus 9 pro camera and the Samsung S21 ultra Camera are stylistically aiming for the same kind of finish. But here I am for nitpicking. So when I started looking and noticing things closely I found a few flaws. Oneplus 9 Pro tends to crush dark areas. Black looked too black as if someone doodled a black silhouette on top. It’s not when you like putting OnePlus in a challenging situation it’s just the photo that is ok but a bit too dark.

OnePlus 9 Pro camera sharpening effect

Secondly OnePlus add a lot of sharpening. You notice it a lot in the background while Samsung S21 Ultra is perfectly happy to let trees behind you sort of blur away a little bit. While the OnePlus 9 Pro wants to keep everything in frame sharp. Mind you it’s not necessarily a bad thing. This extra sharpness is quite handy when you are in those lower light indoor situations where a photo starts to look a little soft otherwise. OnePlus also credit 9 Pro with a much faster camera. When you tap the shutter button you’re literally capturing the photo in half the time.

Samsung S21 ultra-consistent general photography

The only problem I am having is that I cannot trust Oneplus 9 pro Camera. When I clicked multiple shots side by side with both the phones, then in all the shots Samsung retained a fairly consistent look. While the OnePlus 9 Pro just completely flips the way the image comes out depending on where you’re standing. It’s better than their last phone but it not at the stage where I can just snap a photo and be confident in the fact that it comes out okay. This applied to the ultra-wide camera too.

It’s fairly acceptable that as you move between different camera lenses you are going to experience some color shift. Also, OnePlus did talk a fair bit about how their ultrawide removes distortion around the edges but honestly compared to Samsung 21 Ultra they are pretty comparable. In both camera images, the Oneplus 9 Pro image looks distorted.

Portrait Mode photography

Let’s talk about portrait mode now. It’s not like Oneplus has appeared in a wrong tournament but the Samsung S21 Ultra camera has the edge here too. Using Oneplus 9 pro we were able to get a perfect portrait on the third attempt only. Oneplus edge detection is always worse as here not only OnePlus color profile shift. In one of the imperfect portrait shots, it also decided the main subject as the background. To be clear I am not saying that Samsung is particularly good at portrait mode. It’s one of this phone’s main weaknesses too. I am saying OnePlus is even less consistent than Samsung.

Because of the fact that OnePlus 9 Pro camera is capturing faster, its portraits are much more irregular. Though, we’ve got two phones here having a telephoto camera. Yet for portrait mode, they insist on using the main camera and then digitally zooming in. We all are bound to call this category a draw.

Oneplus 9 Pro and Samsung S21 Ultra video shooting Camera test

Before we can crown either of these kings we’ve got to talk about video. So we recorded videos of the same scene with both Oneplus 9 pro and the Samsung S21 ultra camera to compare them.

Even though the OnePlus 9 Pro has a bunch of new features like the dole HDR camera. If we compare it with the Samsung S21 Ultra It still crushes the darker areas and sometimes overexposes the brighter areas. It’s not that OnePlus 9 Pro camera software is doing a bad job. This phone would hold it’s video against most 2021 smartphones but right now we are comparing it against the Samsung S21 Ultra. Probably the second-best phone camera for video after the iPhone. So at that level, Oneplus is way behind.

It does not seem to focus quite as well. When we were trying to set up a camera shot it took like a full minute for the Oneplus to lock focus on it. Whereas it was done within 5 seconds by the Samsung S21 Ultra camera software.

Furthermore, on Samsung S21 Ultra you can use your telephoto camera to take video to record a 3x zoom and 10x zoom at 4k. OnePlus doesn’t let you record which means as soon as you record a minor level video it’s just bad. One interesting feature when you get to low light you can turn on something called night scope video. It means brighter cleaner nighttime footage. I am little torn about it. On one hand, the OnePlus 9 Pro can make thing look prettier but on the other hand it seems to make the camera a very avast motion. This make the footage look little jumpy.

S21 Ultra vs OnePlus 9 Pro Camera- Slow-motion Video Comparison

You see the same tract echoing in the Slow Motion video. It looks like Oneplus 9 Pro is almost trying to compensate for the lack of resolution dialling up the contrast. Again it’s crushing the black. If someone takes this a little further, it gives you the option to record a short burst of super slow-mo. But to be humble given that we are now in 2021 and given that this feature has not dramatically, improved in quality in both phones.

I am sure with the power of the phones i.e.1080P footage at the frame rate of 960fps, it just feels like they don’t care about slow mo. Moreover, I tried walking while both phones were following me. I even tried legging it. Both phones seems to be similarly effected by motion.Though they’re both stable phone.

Oneplus 9 Pro camera beats Samsung S21 Ultra in Nighttime Photography.

You might be wondering is there anything that OnePlus wins at. Yes, there is. That’s my favourite category Night time photography. There’s just something satisfying watching the dark grainy scene and then watching your phone slowly piecing it together into something bright and cohesive. Samsung S21 Ultra camera goes for extreme smoothness in this case. As if it’s trying to make sure that there is not a single bit of grain in sight. This leads you to lose the texture of the object. While the OnePlus 9 Pro camera overtakes it in detail at night with the cooler tones on both the main cameras. The phones ability to better control the bright spots lends its photos a cleaner look.

I think the Samsung S21 Ultra images look more accurate but I think the OnePlus 9 Pro images look better. So in this category, the OnePlus 9 Pro white-washed Samsung S21 Ultra.

One Camera king

Samsung S21 Ultra camera and photography software has just beaten OnePlus by almost every single matrix. Still, there is something we need to bear in mind that yes whilst the OnePlus 9 Pro is the highest-end phone, yet it’s significantly cheaper. So, even though there’s very little that one can point and say that the Oneplus 9 Pro camera can do this better. There is some credit in the fact that it is as good or not but at a cheaper price.

Well Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra camera has the throne of the best camera here. Though Oneplus 9 pro is not the bad camera and photography software. I think it’s actually what a $200 gap does.

This was a thorough camera comparison between the Samsung S21 ultra and the Oneplus 9 Pro camera. Now you know what you are getting with the name of Hasselblad. Keep reading our articles and do subscribe to encourage us. We will bring you more soon.

Till then must read comparison of Samsung S21 ultra with Galaxy note 20 ultra.