Looking for the biggest and most powerful smartphone you can get your hands on? Well, look no further than the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra – or Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro Max?
With the Samsung Unpacked 2025 event now behind us, we now have two current next-generation smartphones on the market: the new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro Max.
Should you finally leave the Apple ecosystem behind? Or is it still the way to go with iOS over Android? Let’s take a look at what Samsung announced and then compare the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
Galaxy S25 Ultra vs iPhone 16 Pro Max: Specs
Both the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the iPhone 16 Pro Max are powerhouses. The Galaxy S25 Ultra is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite and the iPhone is powered by Apple’s A18 Pro chip. Both are designed for maximum performance and processing power as they are built with each smartphone’s new AI feature in mind.
In Mashable’s previous hands-on comparison of the previous two generations of smartphones, Galaxy S24 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro MaxThe iPhone came out ahead of the Galaxy phone in performance tests. While we wait to get our hands on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, we’ll say this: both smartphones are so powerful that the vast majority of users won’t be able to tell the difference. In fact, many users of either will likely never use the full processing power of either.
There is a variable here where the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra could come before the iPhone 16 Pro Max. The former comes packed with 12GB of memory compared to the latter’s 8GB. Yes, Apple chips are known to make the most of whatever RAM is included with a device. However, for multitaskers, this might be something to keep an eye on when it comes to the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. iPhone 16 Pro Max: Camera
The cameras are the areas where you really see differences between the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
On paper, the Galaxy S25 Ultra has the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s number. The Galaxy S25 Ultra has 200MP wide, 50MP ultra-wide and 50MP telephoto cameras. The iPhone 16 Pro Max only has 48MP wide, 48MP ultrawide and 12MP telephoto cameras, respectively. More megapixels often equates to more detailed and higher resolution photos.
But, again, while that sounds good on paper, there’s more to a good photo than megapixels. Other factors also play a role, such as the camera’s lens and sensor.
Mashable’s Speed of Light
As we mentioned before, Mashable compared the Galaxy S24 Ultra and the iPhone 15 Pro Max before. But we also did something broader camera test comparison and the resulting snapshots from both previous generations as well. We found that more often than not, most of us thought the iPhone 15 Pro Max produced a better photo with richer colors, despite the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra having more megapixels.
Will the Galaxy S25 Ultra surpass its predecessor in the camera department? It is possible! However, it will likely come down to individual taste as to which smartphone produces the best quality photos.
Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. iPhone 16 Pro Max: Battery
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra has a slightly larger battery at 5,000 mAH when compared to the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s 4,685 mAH battery.
Regardless, the same is true of their predecessors, Mashable found that the iPhone 15 Pro Max had a slightly longer battery life than the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
The chip that powers each device plays a role here, so it’s quite possible that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chip and its reported efficiency could beat the iPhone 16 Pro Max here on battery life.
Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. iPhone 16 Pro Max: Price
Interestingly, one has the upper hand here for being a slightly more affordable option.
Both Samsung and Apple’s entry-level devices, the Galaxy S25 and iPhone 16, start at $799. However, for the premium models of the current generation of smartphones, these prices vary.
The base iPhone 16 Pro Max with 256GB of storage costs $1,199. That’s $100 less than Samsung’s $1,299 price tag for the base Galaxy S25 Ultra with the same amount of storage.
As I’ll get into, if one of your top priorities is getting the best bang for your buck, the Galaxy S25 Ultra might not have much compared to the iPhone 16 Pro Max to warrant spending the extra $100.
Which one to get?
Both the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the iPhone 16 Pro Max are among the most powerful smartphones on the market. So which one should you get?
This will really depend on your personal preferences. Apart from their differences, the two smartphones also have many similarities. For example, both the Galaxy S25 Ultra and iPhone 16 Pro Max have 6.9″ displays and are designed with processing power specifically with AI capabilities in mind.
Are you ready to jump out of Apple’s walled ecosystem of iOS and start over on a more open Android device or vice versa? Do Apple’s Intelligence or Samsung’s AI features speak to you more? At the end of the day, the decision between the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the iPhone 16 Pro Max will be less about the actual hardware and more about the operating system that runs and the software available on each device.