I’ve been rocking the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra for the past couple of months, and man, Samsung really hit a home run with this one. Sure, the new 3nm processor and AI tricks are neat, but the camera? That’s what really got me. The shocking part is they barely touched the hardware from last year, but somehow my photos look absolutely amazing now.
It’s no surprise this puts Samsung’s latest and greatest head-to-head with the iPhone 16 Pro Max. We’ve all watched Samsung and Apple go at it for years, right? And this time, both companies clearly came to play.
It’s like clockwork – every year, these two giants battle it out for the top spot, trying to outdo each other with the latest bells and whistles. As a total tech nerd, I live for these comparisons. There’s nothing better than getting my hands on both phones and putting them through their paces.
Let’s dive in and see what makes each of these phones tick – and figure out which one is worth dropping your hard-earned cash on.
Design and Size
Samsung’s latest flagship takes an unexpected turn with the S25 Ultra, ditching its iconic flat edges for smoother, rounded titanium curves that make it look right at home next to the S25 and S25 Plus. While I’ll miss that distinct, professional Ultra look, I get why Samsung wanted to create a more cohesive family design.
The good news is they haven’t messed with what works – you still get that stunning display and the S Pen tucked right inside. It’s refreshingly simple with just the essential buttons, and they’ve managed to trim down those bezels to fit a bigger 6.9-inch screen, putting it neck-and-neck with the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
Speaking of Apple’s latest and greatest, they’ve been busy too. The iPhone 16 Pro Max now features thinner bezels around its 6.9-inch display, and thanks to its titanium build, the size increase has been kept pretty minimal – definitely a step in the right direction.
The iPhone retains its familiar design language, although Apple has added a new Camera Control button on the side. It’s meant to help with photos and videos without touching the screen, but honestly? It feels like one of those features you’ll either swear by or completely forget exists. You’ll still find the Action Button and Dynamic Island where you’d expect them.
Here’s what’s really impressive, though – Samsung has somehow made the S25 Ultra more compact than the iPhone 16 Pro Max while matching the screen size AND fitting in four cameras plus the S Pen. That’s pretty clever engineering!
For colors, Apple is offering the 16 Pro Max in Desert, Natural, Black, or White Titanium – definitely more interesting than last year. Samsung offers Titanium Silver, Blue, White Silver, Black, and Gray for the S25 Ultra. They also have special colors available only on their website.
Display Differences
Samsung’s latest flagship brings some welcome improvements to its already impressive display. The S25 Ultra now sports a slightly larger 6.9-inch screen, up from 6.8 inches on previous models. While that might not sound like much, any extra screen space is worth celebrating these days. They’ve kept the anti-reflective coating, too, which really helps with outdoor visibility.
The display specs are still excellent. You get a beautiful Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel with QHD+ resolution. It has a smooth 120Hz refresh rate and a very bright peak brightness of 2600 nits. Samsung has even borrowed some TV technology for this model. It has a new ProScaler feature. This feature improves low-resolution content and reduces artifacts by up to 40%. Pretty neat stuff.
Speaking of big screens, Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro Max is also jumping to 6.9 inches – a more substantial 0.2-inch increase compared to the Galaxy’s 0.1-inch bump. It keeps the 120Hz ProMotion XDR OLED display we know and love, along with that distinctive Dynamic Island cutout.
In our testing, the S25 Ultra really shines (literally). It beats out the competition with higher peak brightness and can dim lower when needed. Color accuracy is spot-on too – the Natural mode hits closer to the ideal 6500K temperature, and it handles the RGB spectrum better than its rivals.
Display Measurements:
| Bright max(20%APL)
Higher is better |
Bright max(100%APL)
Higher is better |
Bright min
Lower is better |
Color temp | Gamma | Delta E, rgbcmy
Lower is better |
Delta E grayscale
Lower is better |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra | 2373 (Excellent) |
1284 (Excellent) |
0.8 (Excellent) |
6515 | 1.98 | 2.84 (Good) |
5.56 (Average) |
| Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max | 2088 (Excellent) |
1046 (Good) |
0.93 (Excellent) |
6174 | 2.21 | 2.28 (Good) |
5.66 (Average) |
Performance and Software
Samsung’s latest flagship, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, is rocking Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite chip – and this time, everyone’s getting the good stuff. No more of that Exynos lottery, depending on where you live. Finally, right?
The performance bump is pretty impressive. Samsung’s claiming the new chip is blazing fast – we’re talking 37% faster processing, 30% better graphics, and a 40% boost in AI performance. Of course, all that power generates serious heat, but Samsung’s thought this through. They’ve added a vapor chamber that’s 40% bigger to keep things running cool under pressure.
Over in Apple’s corner, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is packing their new A18 Pro chip, also built on 3nm tech. Apple’s chips have always been powerhouses, and they’ve also done some clever redesigning under the hood to handle heat better.
So how do these beasts stack up? In our testing, it’s a bit of a split decision – the S25 Ultra crushes it in multi-core performance on Geekbench 6, while the iPhone still holds the crown for single-core tasks. Pretty much what you’d expect from these two heavyweights.
CPU Performance Benchmarks:
While synthetic benchmark scores show some differences, you probably won’t notice much variation in day-to-day use. That said, the Galaxy S25 Ultra might have a slight edge when running demanding apps that can effectively use all its processing cores.
Looking at our 3DMark Extreme stress tests, the S25 Ultra really shines. It outperforms the iPhone in the “high” test, which measures peak performance right out of the gate, and delivers noticeably better results overall.
When it comes to throttled performance, both devices are neck and neck, as shown in the “low” 3DMark test. You’ll get reliable gaming performance from either phone over long sessions, though the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra definitely packs more punch right out of the gate.
RAM-wise, Apple’s bumped the iPhone 16 Pro Max up to 8GB, likely to handle all the new AI features. Samsung’s gone bigger with 12GB across all Galaxy S25 Ultra models. Both phones offer the same storage options: 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB.
On the software front, the Galaxy runs Android 15 with Samsung’s One UI 7 skin. The iPhone 16 Pro Max will get iOS 26 this fall, and it’s a pretty dramatic overhaul with its new Liquid Glass look.
You can keep things looking normal if you want, or dive into the wild side with “Clear Look,” which turns everything transparent and weirdly reminds me of Windows Vista (not sure if that’s a good thing).
Beyond the flashy visuals, there are some genuinely cool features. I love the smart, dynamic wallpaper that adjusts the time display based on available space and moves aside for notifications – more thoughtful than most of my friends! The animated album art is a nice touch, too.
The Camera app’s gotten simpler – now just photo and video modes up front, with all the fancy stuff tucked behind a swipe. Thank goodness.
They’re finally fixing the Photos app, too, after the mess from the last iOS update.
The real improvements are in communication. There’s a new Call Screening feature to fight off those pesky telemarketers (yeah, like on Pixel phones – cue the inevitable iPhone vs. Android debates). It’ll filter spam messages too.
Live Translate for calls is another Android-inspired addition. We’ll see if it actually works well in real life, though.
Messages gets some overdue updates: typing indicators (finally!), custom chat backgrounds, and group polls for organizing brunches and hangouts.
Some smaller but nice touches include music lyrics translation and smarter Apple Maps that learns your routine and suggest alternate routes during traffic. Though honestly, my daily commute is so predictable, it doesn’t take AI to figure it out!
Galaxy AI vs Apple Intelligence
AI is a huge part of both phones, and Samsung’s really gone all-in with their Galaxy AI features. They’ve got this cool mix of stuff that happens right on your phone and in the cloud.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra brings some pretty neat new tricks to the table. There’s this Gemini-powered feature that lets you do things across different apps with just one command – like if you’re into sports, you can just ask it to grab your team’s schedule and boom, it’s all set up in your calendar. It works with pretty much any app you’ve got on your phone, kind of like what Apple’s cooking up with their new Siri stuff.
They’ve also added this thing called Now Brief, which is basically a smart daily rundown that changes throughout the day based on what you’re up to. Along with that, there’s the Now Bar at the bottom of your lock screen. It’s super handy – shows you what’s playing, how much battery you’ve got left, and has these little widgets you can use. It’s a bit like Apple’s Live Activities, but with that distinct Android feel to it.
Google just made their Circle to Search even more useful – now, when you circle something on your screen, it actually does what you’d expect. Circle a phone number? It lets you call it right away. Circle an address? Boom – straight to Google Maps. Pretty handy stuff.
Meanwhile, Apple’s been talking up its “Intelligence” features since the start of 2024, but we’re still waiting on the good stuff. Classic Apple, really. And Siri… well, let’s just say I’m not holding my breath for any major improvements anytime soon.
Camera
Let’s talk about the camera upgrades in Samsung’s latest flagship, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. The biggest change is a beefed-up 50MP ultrawide lens, while the rest of the setup stays familiar – you’ve got the impressive 200MP main shooter, a 50MP telephoto with 5X zoom, and that handy 10MP telephoto with 3X zoom.
Samsung’s really stepped up its game with the new ProVisual Engine. It’s not just fancy marketing – you’ll notice way less noise and blur in your shots, whether you’re capturing your kid’s soccer game or taking night videos. They’ve also upgraded to 10-bit HDR video, which means your footage will have more vibrant colors and better contrast.
For the video enthusiasts out there, Samsung’s added some cool new tricks. The Galaxy Log feature gives you more control over editing your footage later, and there’s this neat Audio Eraser tool that uses AI to help you manage different sounds in your videos – think separating voices from background noise or enhancing music while cutting down wind noise.
If you’re into manual photography, you’ll love the updates to Expert RAW mode, which now lets you play with virtual aperture settings from F1.4 to F14.
On the Apple side, the iPhone 16 Pro Max packs a 48MP main camera and a 12MP telephoto with 5X zoom. They’ve upgraded the ultrawide to 48MP from 12MP, but honestly, the improvement isn’t as dramatic as you might expect.
Apple has made some interesting additions, like more sophisticated Photographic Styles that give you better control over your photo’s look. The new Camera Control button is… well, it’s there. It’s useful sometimes, but the placement feels a bit awkward and takes some getting used to.
Overall, the iPhone 16 Pro Max takes great photos, but it couldn’t quite match the S24 Ultra in Joegadgetshub’s Camera tests. With these latest improvements, Samsung looks set to maintain its lead in the camera game.
Main Camera
Zoom Quality
Ultrawide Camera
Selfies
The selfies from both phones look fantastic, but I’ve gotta give the iPhone a slight edge when it comes to challenging lighting. You know those annoying situations where the sun’s blasting your face and typically ruins the shot? The iPhone somehow manages to keep those highlights under control, while my Galaxy tends to blow them out a bit. I noticed this especially when taking group selfies at brunch last weekend – the iPhone did a better job balancing the light on everyone’s faces. That being said, I actually find myself drawn to the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s selfies more often – there’s something really natural about how it captures details, like you can see every freckle and hair strand without it looking overly processed.Both phones take fantastic video, but I found the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra has a slight edge. The footage looks a bit sharper, handles bright and dark areas more naturally, and performs better when you’re zoomed in on subjects.
Both phones sound solid, though in different ways. I’ve noticed the iPhone does a better job letting you pick out individual instruments and creates more of a layered soundstage. The S25 Ultra can pump out higher volume, but I’d avoid maxing it out – the audio gets pretty muddy and loses its impact when you push it too far.
The haptics are great on both devices. Whether you’re typing away or tapping through apps, you get that nice, crisp feedback that makes the phones feel high-end and satisfying to use day-to-day.
Battery Life and Charging
Let’s talk battery life on these flagship phones. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra sticks with Samsung’s tried-and-true 5,000mAh battery – though there’s exciting news on the horizon with lithium-silicon tech that could seriously boost future models’ battery capacity.
Meanwhile, Apple’s gone big with the iPhone 16 Pro Max, packing their largest battery yet at 4,685mAh. In our real-world testing, it’s a pretty interesting matchup – the iPhone edges out the S25 Ultra in everyday tasks like web browsing and streaming videos, but Samsung’s phone is the clear winner when it comes to gaming.
Breaking it down further: The iPhone 16 Pro Max clocks in at about 8.5 hours overall, beating the S25 Ultra’s 8-hour mark. Apple’s phone really shines during web browsing (beating Samsung by nearly 2 hours) and video playback (pulling ahead by 1.5 hours). But if you’re a mobile gamer, the S25 Ultra is your best bet – it lasts a whopping 2.5 hours longer than the iPhone when running graphics-intensive games.\
Summary
Picking between these two is like choosing between chocolate and vanilla – they’re both fantastic, just different flavors. Your choice really comes down to which ecosystem you’re already invested in and what features matter most to you.
Samsung’s pulled ahead in the camera game with the S25 Ultra, though both phones are neck-and-neck when it comes to speed and battery life. They even look pretty similar these days, which doesn’t make the decision any easier.
Price-wise, you’re looking at $1,200 for the iPhone 16 Pro Max and $1,300 for the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. Though Samsung’s price tag is slightly higher, they’re usually pretty generous with trade-in deals and promotions – like the current free memory upgrade offer – which could actually make it the better value.
