Intro
It’s yet another yearly chapter in the never-ending Samsung vs Apple story, with both companies bringing their best to the brawl.
Galaxy S25 Ultra vs iPhone 16 Pro Max differences:
Galaxy S25 Ultra | iPhone 16 Pro Max |
---|---|
Titanium design with a revamped style (rounded corners) | Explain |
6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X, anti-reflective coating, 1-120Hz | 6.9-inch Super Retina XDR, 1-120Hz ProMotion |
Quad camera setup with 200MP main | Triple camera with 48MP main |
12MP ultrawide likely | 48MP ultrawide |
Two telephoto cameras (50MP 5X, 10MP 3X) | One telephoto camera (12MP 5X) |
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 4nm | Apple A18 Pro 3nm |
12GB RAM | 8GB RAM |
Galaxy AI | Apple Intelligence |
One UI 7, Android 15 | iOS 18 |
S Pen stylus included | No stylus |
No customizable extra buttons | Dedicated Camera Control button, customizable Action Button |
5,000mAh battery | 4,685mAh battery |
45W wired charging | 25W wired, 25W Qi2 MagSafe wireless charging |
Table of Contents:
Design and Size
Changes on both fronts
We’re generally expecting the Galaxy S25 Ultra design language to remain mostly the same, with a large titanium frame sandwiched between glass up front and at the back.
This would bring cohesion to the Galaxy design language, but also means that the Galaxy S25 Ultra will lose some of its unique styling as it tries to fit in with its little brothers.
Fortunately, signature staples like the large and lovely display and integrated S Pen will remain on board. The Galaxy S25 Ultra isn’t expected to feature any custom buttons aside from the standard volume rocker and power button, so nothing too fancy.
Meanwhile, the iPhone 16 Pro Max has also scored some pretty decent design upgrades of its own as well. Apple has not only minimized the bezels in contrast with the previous generations, but has also increased the screen size from 6.7 to 6.9 inches. At the same time, the titanium body of the iPhone 16 Pro Max has only grown a little, so it’s a win-win-win, a triple-win situation.
Aside from the slightly larger screen and the thinner bezels, the iPhone 16 Pro Max rocks the same old design language that is universally recognized known. If you’ve seen any iPhone Pro Max ever, you’ve essentially seen all of them.
New about the iPhone 16 Pro Max is a whole new multi-function button on the right-hand side of the phone. Called Camera Control, this new button lets you interact with the iPhone’s camera without ever touching the display of the phone itself. It’s an okay addition to the iPhone formula, but not something we’d call a “must-have”; quite the contrary, you’ll either love or hate the Camera Control button.
Other staples like the customizable Action Button and the Dynamic Island screen notch are once again available here as well.
Display Differences
No major changes in the Galaxy S25 Ultra screen formula are expected!
Thus, it’s more than certain the phone will have a 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen with smooth 1-120Hz refresh rate, superb HDR support, high peak brightness, and most importantly, the same anti-reflective screen coating that debuted with the Galaxy S24 Ultra. The latter is probably one of our favorite new features of 2024, as it largely eliminates reflections.
As we mentioned, the iPhone 16 Pro Max has scored a display size increase to 6.9 inches, which is usually a rarity with iPhones. However, the jump isn’t that stellar, merely 0.2 inches in comparison with most previous Pro Max devices.
As far as the rest of the specs go, we still get a 120Hz ProMotion display, giving us a smooth experience, as well as the now signature Dynamic Island punch-hole.
One area in which the two will differ will be the peak brightness. The Galaxy S25 Ultra will certainly hit higher maximum nits of brightness, as the Galaxy S24 Ultra is already beating the iPhone 16 Pro Max right now, and we don’t expect Samsung to downgrade.
Another one in favor of the Galaxy could be the anti-reflective coating, which will boost its legibility. The iPhone 16 Pro Max doesn’t have a novel way of dealing with reflections.
Performance and Software
More power than we can handle
The Galaxy S25 Ultra will most certainly pack the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 inside. Sure, there has been some talk about MediaTek potentially making an entrance, but at this point, it’s highly unlikely that Samsung and Qualcomm will part ways.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max comes with the latest Apple 3nm chip, the A18 Pro. It’s a pretty capable chip, as we’ve come to expect from Apple. The insides of the iPhone 16 Pro Max have been redesigned in order to improve the thermal management and drive away the excessive heat.
Memory-wise, Apple has had to resort to putting 8GB of RAM inside the iPhone 16 Pro Max because of artificial intelligence. The Galaxy S25 Ultra will likely start with 12GB of RAM. Storage-wise, both devices will share the same versions: 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB.
Camera
Samsung will likely come up on top
We don’t expect any major changes with the Galaxy S25 Ultra‘s camera setup, so we expect the Galaxy S24 Ultra setup to be inherited. Of course, Samsung might apply a slew of software enhancements and algorithm improvements to the mix, so we might still get slightly better image quality without any major hardware changes.
We expect the Galaxy S25 Ultra to come with a 200MP main, 50MP telephoto with 5X optical zoom, an auxiliary 10MP telephoto with 3X optical zoom, and finally, a 12MP ultrawide camera. A very versatile and capable setup judging by the Galaxy S24 Ultra‘s camera performance.
Meanwhile, the iPhone 16 Pro Max arrives with a 48MP main camera and a 12MP telephoto with 5X optical zoom. The 12MP ultrawide usually found on iPhones has been substituted for a 48MP ultrawide camera, but the jump in image quality is more of a hop, a little one at that.
New on the iPhone 16 Pro Max are the enhanced Photographic Styles, which let you fine-tune the appearance of your photos by giving you way more control over tones, undertones, contrast, etc.
The new Camera Control button is also an important addition to the iPhone mix, though we wouldn’t call it groundbreaking: it’s useful in certain scenarios, but requires some getting used to, and we wouldn’t call its position terribly ergonomic either.
Still, as a whole, the iPhone 16 Pro Max performs very well, though it’s worth noting that it lost to the Galaxy S24 Ultra in the PhoneArena Camera score test. We only expect Samsung to turn things to eleven and come up on top once again.
Battery Life and Charging
iPhone for the win?
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is expected to come with a 5,000mAh battery, just like most of its predecessors. That’s the upper limit for Samsung flagships these days, and likely the most we are going to get in these form factors for the foreseeable future. Still, with the faster and therefore more efficient Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chip, the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
At the same time, the iPhone 16 Pro Max actually comes with the largest battery on an iPhone so far, a large 4,685mAh one. The iPhone performs well in our custom battery tests, beating the Galaxy S24 Ultra in our web browsing and video-streaming test, but losing in the 3D gaming test. We expect that the Galaxy S25 Ultra will try its best to bridge that gap.
Charging-wise, we highly doubt that Samsung will move away from the 45W wired charging it has been feeding us for the past few years. It’s not terribly slow, but it’s not mind-bogglingly fast, either. The Galaxy S25 Ultra will possibly come with Fast Wireless Charging 2.0, which might still be limited to 15W.
Specs Comparison
Galaxy S25 Ultra | iPhone 16 Pro Max | |
---|---|---|
Size, weight | – | 163.0 x 77.58 x 8.26 mm, 227gr |
Screen | 6.8″ Dynamic AMOLED 2600 nits peak brightness 1-120Hz Anti-reflective coating |
6.9″ OLED 120Hz ProMotion Dynamic Island |
Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 | A18 Pro 3nm |
RAM, Storage | 12/256GB 12/256GB 12/1TB LPDDR5 |
8GB/256GB 8GB/512GB 8GB/1TB |
Cameras | 200MP main 12MP ultrawide 50MP 5X telephoto 10MP 3X telephoto 12MP front |
48MP main 48MP ultra 12MP 5X zoom LiDAR scanner 12MP front |
Battery | 5,000mAh | 4,685mAh |
Charging | USB-C 45W wired 15W wireless |
USB-C 25W wired 25W MagSafe |
Summary
Which one will end up being better? Remains to be seen. The Galayx S25 Ultra will possibly beat the iPhone in overall camera performance, but the Apple flagship could still have the upper hand in overall performance and battery life.
Objectively, either phone is or most certainly will be the best one in its respective ecosystem, so we are in for an intense face-off.
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