Samsung and Apple are two of the large names in the smartphone industry , but which company ’s sound is ripe for you ? We ’ve play off the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and iPhone 16 Pro head - to - head to determine which flagship phone occur out on top .
Samsung denote the Galaxy S25 line – led by the high - endGalaxy S25 Ultra – in January 2025 , four calendar month after Apple unveiled the iPhone 16 range , with theiPhone 16 Pro(and Pro Max ) sitting at the top .
We ’ve look back both phone , giving us full insight into the design , cameras , carrying into action , battery living and features . Now , it ’s clip to make up one’s mind which one is right-hand for you . Keep reading to study how Galaxy S25 Ultra vs iPhone 16 Pro compare in all the crucial areas .
Spec comparison
Price
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is available to purchase from Feburary 7 2025 , with preorders open now . terms start at £ 1249 for 256 GB and go up to £ 1349 for 512 GB or £ 1549 for 1 TB .
The iPhone 16 Pro launched in September 2024 , four months ahead of the S25 Ultra . Prices for the 16 Pro scratch line at £ 999 for 128 GB . Other configuration useable let in £ 1099 for 256 GB , £ 1299 for 512 GB and £ 1499 for 1 TB of storage .
Design and screen
When it come to their display , the Galaxy S25 Ultra has a large 6.9 - column inch active AMOLED 2X screen with a QHD+ ( 3200 x 1800 ) resolution , 120Hz refresh rate and 2600 nits of brightness . If you want a more pocket - sized S25 Series sound , you ’ll need to downgrade to the veritable S25 .
The display is more durable than theGalaxy S24 Ultra ’s filmdom thanks to Corning ’s in style Gorilla Armor 2 , tolerate the headphone to survive a head - tallness drop onto concrete . The iPhone 16 Pro offers its own durable display thanks to the Ceramic Shield .
The iPhone 16 Pro has a 6.3 - inch Super Retina XDR showing with a 120Hz refresh rate , 2622 x 1206 resolution and 2000 nit at peak brightness . If you require a enceinte 6.9 - inch display , you need to pay more for the iPhone 16 Pro Max .
One more unique feature on the iPhone 16 Pro is itsDynamic Island . This is an Apple - exclusive characteristic that repurposes the antecedently impeding notch into an interactive box for notifications and alerts . The Galaxy S25 sticks with a received holepunch notch .
move on to the design , the S25 Ultra has also pick up a design update that make it inadequate , slimmer and slender than its predecessor , which we found made it finger nicer in the helping hand . However , the S Pen has construe a downgrade , with the stylus no longer substantiate Bluetooth and thus lose its air gestures . That aver , the iPhone 16 Pro does n’t support a stylus , so at least the S Pen is still present .
The iPhone 16 Pro has n’t see a big redesign this time around , though the phone is slightly big and heavier than the iPhone 15 Pro . Like the S25 Ultra , we found the iPhone 16 Pro very comfortable to hold .
There is a new Camera Control button on the side of the phone , join the Action Button introduce on theiPhone 15 Pro . This button have it spry to start the camera , move between shooting options and capture photos and videos with the telephone set , though it can be quite fiddly . This is something that Samsung does n’t offer an equivalent to , though it is n’t all unique to the iPhone with theSony Xperia VIoffering a exchangeable function .
Winner : Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
Camera
The Galaxy S25 Ultra takes vantage of a quad camera frame-up , consisting of a large 200 - megapixel main sensor , 50 - megapixel radical - broad sensor and two telephotograph photographic camera – one 50 - megapixel and the other 10 - megapixel . This allows the phone to get hold of up to 5x optic zoom .
The iPhone 16 Pro , meanwhile , sport a 48 - megapixel main television camera , a 48 - megapixel ultra - wide camera and a 12 - megapixel telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom – the same rapid climb reach found on the S25 Ultra .
We found the computer hardware on the Galaxy S25 Ultra to be very familiar , but that is n’t necessarily a bad thing as the phone still takes some brilliant photos . There is some advance in the processing when it comes to the telephotograph lens , but there remains an award geographical zone between 3x to 4.9x before the higher - res telephoto camera beef in .
exposure snapped with the S25 Ultra are systematically expert , with vivacious colours that see heavy on societal media , but perhaps are n’t as precise as the vividness captured by rivalling handsets . Low - light shots offer hatful of particular and vibrance , while the new Galaxy Log documentation allows for more tractability when editing the 8K/30fps video appropriate by the phone .
ironware climb aside , some of our favourite advance on the iPhone 16 Pro were the fresh Photography Styles . These provide you to personalise the way images are process on your phone , from the warmth to the apparition , and position that style as default .
We witness shot from the principal tv camera to be colour - accurate with naturalistic pelt tones , making images look a bit more realistic than those shot with the S25 Ultra . The iPhone 16 Pro also perform well at Nox , though the nighttime fashion can be a fiddling dense . Video is especially good , with sustenance for silky 4K/120fps cook everything look very cinematic and new audio tools to reduce setting noise .
Winner : iPhone 16 professional
Features
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is powered by Qualcomm ’s late flagship chipset , theSnapdragon 8 Elite . More specifically , this is a adaptation custom - made for Samsung , which the company take can provide a 37 % boost in CPS performance , a 30 % uptick in GPU execution and a 40 % melioration in NPU performance compared to its precursor . The latter means improved AI performance , with more tasks being completed on - equipment as play off to in the swarm .
The iPhone 16 Pro , meanwhile , execute on Apple ’s ownA18 Prochipset . This is another hugely sinewy tradition - designed flagship chipset . In the past , Apple has blazed past the competition , but the Snapdragon 8 Elite has give way it some substantial competition with the second - gen Oryon CPU computer architecture helping it tooutperform the A18 Pro in benchmark mental testing .
The iPhone 16 Pro come out on top in our Geekbench 6 single - effect tests , while the Galaxy S25 Ultra took the lead in all other benchmarks , including multi - core and GPU tests . This puts the Samsung earpiece in the tether in terms of performance , though both earpiece are severely fast and capable of run AAA games and performing complex AI tasks .
When it hail to AI , Galaxy AI did feel jolly half - baked in our experience , with the Now Brief functionality bear our reviewer the weather and a shortcut to a Spotify playlist full of songs he had n’t heard of , as opposed to the range of information , photos and plans it claims to offer .
There are other feature like the composition supporter , text edition sum-up and Google Circle To Search but nothing that peculiarly stand up out for the Galaxy .
The iPhone 16 Pro is equipped with its own Apple Intelligence characteristic , though there was n’t much to speak of at the time of our revue . Headline features like ChatGPT integration , Genmoji and Image Playground had yet to arrive , and final result from the uninfected Up photo editing feature were poor . The Summaries pecker is also present , though it does n’t always infer the point of the conversation or pluck up on nuances such as satire .
Battery life
lastly , the Galaxy S25 Ultra packs a large 5000 mAh battery that is quite a morsel braggart than the 3582 mAh one in the iPhone 16 Pro . Despite this conflict , we found that both phone offered an all - day battery life , though you ’ll be bunk downcast by the evening with profound use of goods and services .
The Galaxy S25 Ultra features optimize buck compare to its predecessor despite both being 45W. The phone also charged faster than the iPhone 16 Pro ’s 30W charging in our test , though both earpiece charge fairly quick .
One perquisite to purchase an iPhone is itsMagSafecharging capacity . While the S25 Ultra does suffer Qi and Qi2 wireless charging , there ’s no MagSafe onboard for that added toilet facility .
Verdict
The Galaxy S25 Ultra and iPhone 16 Pro are two very potent flagship telephone set with similar camera capability , chipsets and AI capabilities . However , each still has its strength and helplessness .
bribe the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra if …
You want a bigger telephone with a more powerful chipset , quicker charging and a camera that catch vibrant social media - ready ginger snap .
Buy the iPhone 16 Pro if …
You require a more pocket - sized telephone with plenty of power , a customisable television camera , cinematic video capture and the convenience of MagSafe charging .
