Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs iPhone 16 Pro Max: The world's most interesting phones

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Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs iPhone 16 Pro Max: The world's most interesting phones

Intro


As we bid farewell to 2024, all eyes are already fixed on 2025, a year that promises exciting new entries in the world of tech. Kicking off the new year, Samsung is set to take the lead with the launch of its Galaxy S25 lineup on January 22.

At the forefront of this release will be the Galaxy S25 Ultra, a device poised to showcase Samsung’s most advanced hardware and software innovations. Naturally, this premium powerhouse is bound to be compared to Apple’s latest top-tier device, the iPhone 16 Pro Max, continuing the long-standing rivalry between two of the tech industry’s biggest players.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max, now running iOS 18.2, boasts a suite of new Apple Intelligence features that raise the bar for smartphone AI capabilities. From Genmoji avatars and the creative Image Playground to a tighter integration of ChatGPT within Siri, Apple’s latest advancements push boundaries in both productivity and fun.

Once again, it’s a tale of two titans. Samsung and Apple are bringing their A-game, each aiming to outshine the other in this perennial battle for smartphone supremacy. Who will come out on top? Let’s dive into what makes each device stand out in this clash of tech giants.

Galaxy S25 Ultra vs iPhone 16 Pro Max differences:



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. 

However, unlike older Galaxy S Ultra flagships which had mostly flat frames at the bottom and top, giving the devices a very posh and business-like look, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is expected to feature a curved frame at the bottom and top, similar to the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus

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. 

The iPhone 16 Pro Max is available in Desert Titanium, Natural Titanium, Black Titanium, and White Titanium colors, which is a slightly more interesting selection than last year's iPhone 15 Pro Max hues. The Galaxy S24 Ultra will likely be available in similar colors, as well as some more intriguing ones, exclusively sold on Samsung.com

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. 

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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 Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, likely slightly factory overclocked to suit Samsung's needs, will most certainly make its way to the Galaxy S25 Ultra. We expect the chipset to feature dual performance cores clocked at 4.47GHz and six mid-range cores clocked at 3.53GHz. The chip has already been allegedly benchmarked, delivering a pretty promising performance. 

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. 

In terms of software, we will get Android 15 with One UI 7 running the show. Samsung has confirmed its next One UI version will be released with the Galaxy S25 series––the beta is already live, and we've previewed it right here. Meanwhile, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is currently running on iOS 18, with iOS 18.1 and Apple Intelligence coming soon. Early in 2025, we should also get a much more capable Siri assistant. 

Galaxy AI and Apple Intelligence


Artificial intelligence plays and will play a major part on both devices. Samsung has a vast suite of Galaxy AI features, which are processed both on-device and in the cloud. In

Apple, late to the party as usual, has teased its Apple Intelligence for the larger part of 2024, but is yet to release it to the public.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max currently comes with iOS 18.1, which introduces new features including Writing Tools for proofreading and summarizing text, and AI-powered features in Mail, Messages, Photos, and Safari. Meanwhile, in iOS 18.2, Image Playground and Genmoji arrive, allowing you to create custom images and emojis from text prompts. 

Siri now integrates with ChatGPT, and the Mail app has been redesigned with categories. This software update arrived in early December 2024. iOS 18.3, on the other hand, will likely come with the more capable Siri, which will be capable of executing more complex multistep user queries––we expect this one to arrive later in December. 

Here's what came with iOS 18.2:

  • Image Playground––Allows you to generate custom images based on text description. Read our full Image Playground overview here;
  • Genmoji––Enables you to create unique emoji based on a text prompt. Genmoji can either use your own photo or a generic emoji. Read more about Genmoji in our dedicated review here; 
  • 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 AI 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––This new feature lets you turn your rudimentary sketches into complete graphics;

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.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 16 Pro Max officially supports up to 20W of wired charging, but faster chargers can bump that to around 27W. Interestingly, with the new iPhone 16 series, if you fire up an intensive app while charging the phone, the power draw will quickly jump above what's advertised. 

We measured up to 39W of charging speeds while playing a game when charging the iPhone 16 Pro Max, compensating for the increased energy needs of the hardware. The reason for that could be consistency: regardless of what you do with your phone, it will always charge for a similar amount of time. 

Specs Comparison


Here's how the Galaxy S25 Ultra vs iPhone 16 Pro Max specs will likely pan out. Of course, the Galaxy S25 Ultra are unofficial and not yet set in stone, have that in mind. 


Summary


Best of the best, that's what the iPhone 16 Pro Max and Galaxy S25 Ultra are shaping up to be. Without a doubt, we expect the Galaxy S25 Ultra to be the best Android phone in early 2025, while the iPhone 16 Pro Max is already your best bet if you want the best Apple has on the market at the moment. 

Which one will be better? Remains to be seen. The Galaxy 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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