Apple iPhone 16 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S24: Tiny but mighty
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Intro
Apple's all-new iPhone 16 Pro is now finally up to a hardware and software parity with the larger iPhone Pro Max, finally giving you a fair choice as far as size is considered. Unlike last year's iPhone 15 Pro Max/iPhone 15 Pro situation, the iPhone 16 Pro is just as capable as the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which is great news for all those who don't really feel like lugging the large device around.
It has a larger display, a nifty titanium build, a more powerful A18 chip built on a 3nm, a more powerful telephoto camera, Apple Intelligence support, and finally, an unchanged price tag, which is another great news/
One of the main rivals of the iPhone 16 Pro is the well-established and pretty solid Android trooper in the face of Samsung's Galaxy S24 compact flagship.
This one has been around for the better half of 2024. It comes with a pretty decent specs sheet for a compact phone, making it one of the better devices to consider if you are an Android fan looking for a bargain compact phone. It's about to be
iOS 18.2 is now out for the iPhone 16 Pro, along with Genmoji and Image Playground. Users can also make use of the new ChatGPT integration in Siri, a few new Writing Tools, and a slightly redesigned Mail app that now has categories.
How do these compare in detail?
iPhone 16 Pro vs Galaxy S24 differences:
| iPhone 16 Pro | Galaxy S24 |
|---|---|
| Titanium design with improved Ceramic Shield at the front | Aluminum design, Gorilla Glass Victus 2 up front |
| The second-gen 3nm Apple chip, the A18 Pro | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy chipset |
| 48MP Fusion camera, 48MP ultra-wide camera | 50MP main camera, 12MP ultra-wide camera |
| 12MP with 5X tetraprism optical zoom | 10MP 3X telephoto lens |
| Camera Control, Action Buttons | The standard hardware key setup, no extra buttons |
| 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB | 128GB, 256GB storage |
| 8GB of RAM on board | 8GB of RAM on board |
| Apple Intelligence support (Will arrive at a later date) | Galaxy AI already available with AI summaries, transcripts, live translate, generative editing |
| Visual Intelligence with Camera Control | Google Lens, Circle to Search |
| Large 6.3-inch Super Retina XDR display | 6.2-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen |
| 1.2mm display bezels | 1.5mm display bezels |
| ProMotion 120Hz refresh rate | 120Hz refresh rate |
| Wi-Fi 7, Snapdragon X75 | Wi-Fi 6 |
| 27-hour video playback battery life | 29-hour video playback battery life |
| 25W wired charging | 25W wired charging |
| 25W MagSafe wireless charging | 15W wireless charging |
Table of Contents:
Read more:
- iPhone 16 release date, price, and upgrades
- Samsung Galaxy S24 Review: Compact powerhouse with a sprinkle of AI
- Apple iPhone 16 Pro review: One Big Upgrade for the small iPhone Pro
- iPhone 16 Plus vs Galaxy S24 Plus: Another battle of the pluses
- Samsung Galaxy S25 vs Apple iPhone 16 Pro
Design and Size
Compact and mighty
This year's catwalk stars (Image by PhoneArena)
From a design perspective, the iPhone 16 Pro employs the same general design language that has been around on iPhones for years. The new phone scores a titanium frame, like the iPhone 15 Pro, but it's slightly taller and wider, while simultaneously utilizing much thinner bezels in comparison.
This boosts the screen size from 6.1-inch all the way to 6.3-inch, a more than welcome upgrade in mostly the same-sized package. A win-win situation.
The iPhone 16 Pro also retains the Action Button that debuted on the iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max, but also scores a new button called Camera Control. It unlocks a whole new level of interacting with the camera, but isn't very ergonomic to use. It's positioned weirdly in both landscape and portrait mode, so you'll never feel truly comfortable using it.
A shared design language (Image by PhoneArena)
The Galaxy S24, on the other hand, employs an aluminum frame and has the same flat and modern design as the iPhone 16 Pro. It's Samsung's most compact flagship, barring the Galaxy Z Flip 6, and judging from the leaked iPhone 16 Pro dimensions, it seems like the Galaxy might be a more compact device––thinner, lighter, shorter, and narrower.
And the verdict is in: the Galaxy S24 is a drastically more compact device, especially when we factor in the weight. You will definitely feel the difference in your pocket.
Here's how the two devices compare in terms of size and weight.
| iPhone 16 Pro | Galaxy S24 | |
|---|---|---|
| Height | 149.6mm | 147mm |
| Width | 71.5mm | 70.6mm |
| Depth | 8.25mm | 7.6mm |
| Weight | 199gr | 168gr |
Both phones have IP68 water- and dust-resistance, as well as USB-C ports at the bottom.
The iPhone 16 Pro is available in a range of classy colors: Black Titanium, White Titanium, Natural Titanium, and Desert Titanium. The Galaxy S24 is available in Onyx Black, Marble Gray, Cobalt Violet, and Amber Yellow. The Jade Green, Sapphire Blue, and Sandstone Orange colors are available when you buy the phone through Samsung.com.
Display Differences
The best of OLED on both the Galaxy and iPhone (Image by PhoneArena)
The iPhone 16 Pro scores a larger 6.3-inch screen, as we mentioned. Part of this upgrade is courtesy of the bezel reduction: the iPhone 16 Pro has those tiny 1.2mm-thin bezels, a pretty strict diet in comparison with the iPhone 15 Pro's 1.71mm bezels. The Galaxy S24 has slightly thicker 1.5mm bezels.
Aside from that, the rest of the iPhone 16 Pro display specs are mostly the same. We get a Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion 120Hz refresh rate, the same 2,000-nit peak brightness as the iPhone 15 Pro, and the Dynamic Island cutout.
New here are only the new sturdier Ceramic Shield glass up front and the lowered minimum brightness, which can now hit a single nit, great for late-night viewing.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy S24 has an ever-so-slightly smaller 6.2-inch OLED screen. It also supports 1-120Hz refresh rate and has pretty high peak brightness. It's a decent and pretty standard OLED display, as usual with Samsung's previous flagships.
Display Measurements:
In our display benchmark tests, the iPhone 16 Pro and the Galaxy S24 are mostly tied when it comes to overall display properties. The default color temperature is the same, as well as the gamma and color accuracy. The minimum brightness is below a single nit on both phones, but the big difference here is the maximum brightness, which is higher on the Galaxy S24.
The Samsung phone has a pretty small punch-hole display, which houses the single front-facing camera, while the iPhone 16 Pro gets the Dynamic Island punch-hole, which is a universal iPhone feature… and an acquired taste for sure.
The Galaxy S24 also has superfast biometrics thanks to the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner embedded inside the display. The iPhone 16 Pro relies on Face ID, which is equally fast and accurate.
Performance and Software
More power than you can handle
A18 Pro vs Snapdragon power (Image by PhoneArena)
The iPhone 16 Pro comes with a second-gen 3nm A18 Pro chipset, manufactured by TMSC. This chip also made its way to the iPhone 16 Pro Max; however, the more affordable iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus got a slightly less powerful, "regular" A18 chip.
The Apple A18 Pro utilizes dual 4.05 GHz performance cores and four efficiency cores, and also boasts a 6-core GPU (whereas the iPhone 16/iPhone 16 Plus have a pentacore GPU on deck). There's also a sixteen-core Neural Engine NPU on board to handle on-device Apple Intelligence processing.
The iPhone 16 Pro also has an enhanced inner structure, which improves thermal management and will potentially boost the overall performance by minimizing thermal throttling.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy S24 comes along with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy chipset. It's arguably the best chipset available for Android devices right now. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 achieves a pretty decent performance, though we expect the A18 Pro to outdo that.
In our in-house benchmark tests, the iPhone rules in the CPU-heavy Geekbench 6 benchmarks, where it dominates both the single-core and multi-core tests. However, the situation is a bit different in the graphics-heavy 3DMark Extreme test.
The iPhone 16 Pro inches forward with a higher peak score, but throttles faster, allowing the Galaxy S24 to deliver better minimum score. This essentially means the iPhone will initially deliver higher FPS, but will eventually throttle to lower FPS in comparison with the Galaxy S24.
Memory-wise, the iPhone 16 Pro has 8GB of RAM, which is apparently the minimum needed for Apple Intelligence to be supported, while in terms of storage we're getting 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB versions, just like last year.
The iPhone 16 Pro will also eventually support Visual Intelligence with the Camera Control button. Just point the phone to a specific point of interest, click the new button, and then you get relevant information delivered straight to you thanks to Apple Intelligence.
The iPhone 16 Pro also gets Wi-Fi 7 support, as well as a new Snapdragon X75 5G chip. The US version of the Galaxy S24 has the hardware support for Wi-Fi 7, but Samsung has seemingly disabled that in order to align with the international version of the Galaxy S24, which doesn't support Wi-Fi 7.
This makes the iPhone 15 Pro a quite versatile device in terms of storage options. The Galaxy S24 also arrives with 8GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB of storage, a bit less impressive loadout. If you require more storage, then you will likely have to rely on external storage solutions, like an SSD or a cloud-based storage service.
The Galaxy S24 comes with One UI 6.1 based on Android 14 currently, but One UI 7 based on Android 15 is coming very soon. The Samsung flagship enjoys seven years of software updates and security patches, so until 2031. In Apple's camp, the minimum is five years of updates, but we usually get seven to eight years of support. Thus, both phones will get supported until the end of the decade.
The iPhone 16 Pro comes with iOS 18 out of the box, however, iOS 18.1 is now here with a large chunk of Apple Intelligence features. This software update brings major improvements to customization and revamps some core apps. Sure, the intriguing Apple Intelligence bits and pieces are still not here, and coming in at later dates as part of Apple's staggered Apple Intelligence release, but it's a start.
iOS 18.1 and Apple Intelligence
Here's what to expect from iOS 18.1.
- Writing Tools – A powerful new feature in iOS 18.1 allows you to proofread and rewrite text within nearly any app. You can review suggested edits individually or apply them all at once. It also offers options to summarize text into bullet points or tables, make lists, and more, making it one of the most useful additions to iOS;
- Siri – Although a more advanced version of Siri is expected in early 2025, the iOS 18.1 update brings a visual upgrade with a glowing overlay when activated, visible across iOS, macOS, and CarPlay. Additionally, you can now type commands instead of speaking them, and Siri will have improved context-awareness, enabling it to follow along if you alter your query mid-sentence;
- Mail – The default email app now offers Smart Reply for quick, suggested responses and will summarize emails. Important messages will be marked as high priority, with notifications to ensure you don’t miss them;
- Messages – Smart Reply is also coming to the Messages app, enabling you to send quick, relevant responses with minimal effort;
- Photos – The stock Photos app gets a major redesign along with new AI-powered features. Memory Movies lets you create personalized movies from your library based on a typed prompt. There’s also a Clean Up tool for removing unwanted objects from images;
- Focus Modes – A new Reduce Interruptions focus mode will use Apple Intelligence to filter only important notifications, helping you stay focused;
- Notifications – iOS 18.1 introduces an AI-generated summary of your notifications, presented directly on the lock screen;
- Phone – You’ll now be able to record phone calls and have them automatically transcribed into the Notes app for easy reference;
- Safari – The Safari browser gains a new summarize feature, allowing you to quickly distill information from web pages.
iOS 18.2
iOS 18.2 in action, with Genmoji and Image Playground
iOS 18.2 is currently available in the developer beta channel and comes with the second wave of Apple Intelligence features for iPhone 15 Pro/iPhone 15 Pro Max and the iPhone 16 series. It is expected to get released to the public this December. The new features include:
- Image Playground––This one allows you to create custom images based on text description. You can either use your indexed portrait from Photos or count on Image Playground to create something cool for you. Here's our overview of Image Playground;
- Genmoji––The Genmoji feature enables the creation of unique emojis based on a text prompt. Use either a generic emoji or your indexed portrait from the Photos app;
- ChatGPT integration in Siri––Apple's smart assistant can now tap into ChatGPT's powers when you ask it to, giving you the full array of artificial intelligence capabilities of the most popular AI chatbot out there. You can also log with your own account information;
- Additional Writing Tools options––"Compose" and "Describe your change" have been added to the Writing Tools suite;
- Visual Intelligence for iPhone 16 users––By pressing the new Camera Control button, iPhone 16 users can now snap a picture and search the web for information about what's captured;
- Image Wand––You can turn your rudimentary sketches into complete graphics with this new feature;
- Mail––The stock Mail app now has categories to sort your mail and keep it well organized.
iOS 18.3
We don't know when iOS 18.3 will arrive for certain, but given Apple's usual release schedule, we should probably expect it a couple of days after the official iOS 18.2 release this December.
We expect the iOS 18.3 to bring a host of new Apple Intelligence features, chief among which could be the revamped and much more capable Siri assistant, which was demoed on stage at WWDC'25. Then, Apple boasted that Siri will be able to swiftly execute multistep requests within your apps, without any input required from the user.
Camera
Major changes to the iPhone
The iPhone wins by a hair's width (Image by PhoneArena)
The iPhone 16 Pro camera has scored some pretty notable upgrades over last year's iPhone 15 Pro. The main camera remains a 48MP Fusion one, but scores a larger and more capable sensor.
Meanwhile, the ultra-wide camera is also pretty new. It gets a high-res 48MP camera with a wider aperture that should make ultra-wide scenes look way more detailed than before and deliver better low-light image quality. Finally, and most importantly, the 3X telephoto camera has been upgraded to a tetraprism 5X telephoto, similar to the ones on the iPhone 16 Pro Max and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Meanwhile, the ultra-wide camera is also pretty new. It gets a high-res 48MP camera with a wider aperture that should make ultra-wide scenes look way more detailed than before and deliver better low-light image quality. Finally, and most importantly, the 3X telephoto camera has been upgraded to a tetraprism 5X telephoto, similar to the ones on the iPhone 16 Pro Max and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
The iPhone 16 Pro is equipped with enhanced Photographic Styles, which give you a much better customization of the color and overall style that is output.
Another important upgrade to the iPhone 16 Pro camera is the new Camera Control button, which enables you to control the whole camera experience with a simple click and swipe, without ever taking your finger off the Camera Control button.
The iPhone 16 Pro also scores 4K@120fps video recording, which can be edited on the phone straight through the Photos app. There is a four-mic array on deck, along with intelligent noise reduction thanks to Audio Mix.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy S24 utilizes s a 50MP f/1.8 main camera, joined by a 10MP telephoto with 3X optical zoom and a 12MP ultrawide. This camera setup is mostly similar to the one on the Galaxy S23, with Samsung mostly relying on software optimizations to improve the intergenerational image quality, without any major hardware shakeups.
Another important upgrade to the iPhone 16 Pro camera is the new Camera Control button, which enables you to control the whole camera experience with a simple click and swipe, without ever taking your finger off the Camera Control button.
The iPhone 16 Pro also scores 4K@120fps video recording, which can be edited on the phone straight through the Photos app. There is a four-mic array on deck, along with intelligent noise reduction thanks to Audio Mix.
In the dedicated PhoneArena Camera Score test, the iPhone 16 Pro inches forward with its better ultra-wide and zoom cameras, but the Galaxy S24 has better main and selfie cameras. This allows the iPhone 16 Pro to grab the prize in the photo test by a little. In the video test, the iPhone is once again victorious, courtesy of its much more capable zoom camera, while the Galaxy S24 is actually better in regular video.
PhoneArena Camera Score:
Main camera
When the daylight is burning, it's the Galaxy S24 that gives us more appealing images, with more vibrant colors that just pop out. The dynamics are also slightly more pleasing with the Galaxy. However, it's the iPhone that delivers a more realistic image in this scene, with a proper sky that's not "candy blue", as well as a more grounded color palette.
The same can be said about the second scene: while appealing to the masses, the Galaxy's overly vibrant colors look a bit garish in comparison with the iPhone's realistic colors.
Zoom Quality
At 3X, which is the Galaxy S24's native telephoto zoom, the Samsung phone performs slightly better, giving us clearer detail and more pronounced sharpness.
It's the other way around in the 5X zoom, which is native to the iPhone's newly-scored telephoto. The Galaxy also delivers a decent image, but detail is clearer with the iPhone (just check the signs in the foreground and the foliage).
At 10X, the iPhone performs better, as its telephoto comes in pretty handy in that scenario. The Galaxy is starting to struggle and the detail looks softer.
Ultrawide camera
Both phones are the polar opposites in this ultrawide scene. The iPhone is too flat and lifeless, this photo doesn't really stand out with anything. The Galaxy, on the other hand, has oversaturated all colors so much that this photo is too artificial looking.
Selfies
The iPhone once again relies on a more realistic and not very enticing scene rendition. We can't say we really like that one too much, but hey, it looks true to life. The Galaxy has imbued a bit more life in its selfie, making it slightly more palpable!
Battery Life and Charging
The Galaxy might have lead
The iPhone inches forward in our battery test (Image by PhoneArena)
The iPhone 16 Pro arrives with a massive 3582mAh battery, a notable increase in comparison with last year's 3290mAh battery. Thanks to this great increase over the previous model, as well as the efficient and faster Apple A18 Pro chip, the iPhone 16 Pro's battery gets ahead of the Galaxy.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy S24 with its efficient Snapdragon chip and large 4,000mAh battery delivered pretty decent battery life that punched above its weight. It definitely beat the iPhone 15 Pro in terms of battery life (check out the battery life comparison here).
In the custom PhoneArena Battery test, the iPhone 16 Pro beats the Galaxy S24 by half an hour in our Battery Life estimate. Apple's iPhone triumphs in the browsing test, which aims to replicate a regular browsing workflow, as well as by a hair's width in the video playback test, which loops a video playlist until the phones turn off. The Galaxy S24 emerges victorious in the 3D gaming test, where it lasts more than an hour against the iPhone 16 Pro.
PhoneArena Battery and Charging Test Results:
The iPhone 16 Pro doesn't score a wired charging speed boost, so you can assume it will charge at around 27W when charged with a 30W wall adapter. That's right up the alley of the Galaxy S24, which also has 25W wired charging.
We also found out that when charging the iPhone and opening an intensive app or a game, the power surge will increase to roughly 39W, but fall back to around 27W otherwise. This will ensure an equal charging speed, regardless of what you're doing with your phone.
Apple has also improved the speed of the MagSafe wireless charging from 15W to 25W, while the Galaxy S24 remains a phone that charges at maximum 15W wirelessly. Oh, and the iPhone 16 Pro is also Qi2-compatible and future-proofed in this regard.
Specs Comparison
The iPhone 16 Pro vs Galaxy S24 specs comparison is available right here, but we've summarized the essentials below:
| Specs | Apple iPhone 16 Pro | Samsung Galaxy S24 |
|---|---|---|
| Size, weight | 149.6 x 71.5 x8.25mm, 199gr | 147 x 70.6 x 7.6mm, 168gr |
| Screen | 6.27" OLED HDR 120Hz ProMotion, Ceramic Shield | 6.2" OLED HDR 120Hz, Gorilla Glass Victus 2 |
| Processor | A18 Pro 3nm | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy 4nm |
| RAM, Storage | 8GB/128GB 8GB/256GB 8GB/512GB 8GB/1TB | 8GB/128GB 8GB/256GB |
| Cameras | 48MP main 48MP ultra 12MP 5X telephoto 12MP front | 50MP F1.8 main 12MP F2.2 ultrawide 10MP F2.4 3X telephoto 12MP front |
| Battery | 3,582mAh | 4,000mAh |
| Charging | USB-C 25W wired 25W MagSafe | USB-C 20W wired 15W Fast Wireless |
Summary
Best compact phones of their respective ecosystems (Image by PhoneArena)
Overall, the clash between these two is yet another episode in the endless Apple-Samsung confrontation that doesn't seem to have a peaceful resolution in sight. With each and every generation, it's back and forth between the flagships of these two giants on the smartphone market.
Presently, it appears that the iPhone 16 Pro might have a leg up in the competition due to the sensible upgrades, though we are yet to confirm that courtesy of our upcoming tests. The longer telephoto, larger screen, faster chip, Apple Intelligence, and the new Camera Control button could be a decent reason to upgrade for seasoned iPhone fans.
However, the Galaxy S24 is a pretty decent, no-nonsense flagship device of its own. It might lack showstopping features, but is appealing thanks to its straightforwardness and simplicity. It also has a great camera, awesome performance, good battery life, and provides access to the Galaxy AI suite of features. A prime choice for Android fans.
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