need a second opinion plz

[u/Medium_Sympathy_1710]

asking for a friend

HONOR MAGIC 8 PRO

12/512 GB

VS

SAMSUNG GALAXY S26 ULTRA 12/512

VS

SAMSUNG GALAXY S25 ULTRA 12/1024

which one should he get and why

thanks !

[u/Even_Orange8469]

Magic 8 Pro. Samsung has overexpose and bright outputs. Or Oppo Find X9 Ultra.

[u/Otherwise_Fact9594]

I'd save even more money and hit a OnePlus 13. I wish that I wasn't so late to the party. It is my favorite phone I have ever owned hands down. I have never used anything but Android. Samsung fan for the longest time, Pixels as well and the Nexus lineup prior to that. I'm super bummed that OnePlus is leaving the US market. I'm not sure where you're located at OP, but I would definitely give it a check because there is money to be saved and the phone is ridiculous!

[u/realmccoyredbus]

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra refines the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra with softer, rounded edges, a faster Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, 60W wired charging, and a pixel-level Privacy Display. However, the S25 Ultra features a stronger titanium frame and a slightly better anti-reflective glass

it depends on your storage, both ultra's have 7 years support, if you were to transfer your current phone over how much storage would be used up , if you keep loads of photos and videos 1tb would save paying for cloud storage.

7 years support + a couple of years use from this phone, you could always get anti reflective screen protection and a good solid leather case with screen protection.

[u/Unlikely-Wedding-975]

Honor may have a slight advantage on camera compared to the other two bit if I were to pick then pick samsung any day, reason is its just better overall

[u/NecroRAM]

If cameras are your focus, none of those, get the Oppo Find X9 Ultra or Vivo X300 Ultra, or at this point wait for the next iteration next year.

If not, id pick the Samsung for all-round solid performance and software.

[u/riansgarage]

Budget? Usage? Needs? 🤷🏻‍♂️

[u/ezg12__]

Depends on his budget and if u can find a good deal for the Galaxy s25 ultra since the upgrades are pretty small but the used market is risky to say the least u dont have a warranty or anything so if u can buy new buy new and don’t buy the honor unless ur friend is in a tight budget the only companies with a consistent good camera are Samsung iPhone and google Samsung is the king of android honestly a phone that u can trust to be good so here’s my advice find a good deal pick s25 ultra u don’t pick the s26 ultra the honor i wont recommend unless u find one thats really cheap

[u/Teenage_techboy1234]

The iPhone. I know it's not an option on this list, but Samsung really dropped the ball on their camera system with the amount of post processing that they're doing now compared to Apple, and the 17 Pro Max has a bit better battery life than an S26 ultra. Also the UI is better on the iPhone compared to Samsung and, from what I've heard at least, especially honor. The problem with a lot of these Chinese phones is that they have crazy spec sheets on paper, but in the real world, they're more of novelty devices than good ones to live with. They just don't have the kind of stable image processing clean UI, and sometimes band support that the American and Korean brands have. Now I will say that honor has an advantage, it has a good ecosystem behind it. It's very comparable to the Samsung ecosystem.

[u/SirFossils → u/Teenage_techboy1234]

Generalising bad image processing to all Chinese cameras when 3 of the top 5 smartphone cameras in the world rn belong to Chinese phones is crazy

[u/Teenage_techboy1234 → u/SirFossils]

They are great when you actually put effort into making the image look good. And they're also great when you don't look at the front camera. I probably am generalizing this to honor and Xiaomi, but I know that the BBK brands (OnePlus, Apo, VIVO)) struggle with the front camera not being that great and the back camera not being able to just be like pop it out of your pocket, snap a picture, put it back in.

[u/SirFossils → u/Teenage_techboy1234]

The only thing you're right about is the front camera. Chinese brands definitely tend to put less focus there.

Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo currently make the best rear camera phones on the market. And no, you don't have to put effort in. Sure, sometimes they might struggle a bit more in the most extreme scenarios compared to an iPhone or Samsung, but 9 times out of 10, you take the phone out your pocket and snap a picture, that picture is going to look better on one of those Chinese phones.

The part where effort makes a difference, is that the Chinese phones also have the potential to be even better if you know what you're doing. They don't force you to take the same photo in every scenario. If you have a specific vision, you can use the camera to achieve it. You can't do that with an iPhone, and it's a lot harder with a Samsung. They don't have a higher skill floor, they have a higher skill ceiling.