The much-rumored but still unofficial Samsung Galaxy S25 series is expected to be revealed in mid-January, and the leader of the pack will likely be the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. The current Galaxy S24 Ultra is a powerful phone and one of the best phones, but so is the iPhone 16 Pro Max, currently my phone of choice. So, I've been thinking about how the Galaxy S25 Ultra could take on the flagship iPhone.
As has been the case with the latest Galaxy S series phones, Samsung has opted for iteration over major evolution. However, the Galaxy Ultra has seen bigger changes in terms of design compared to its smaller peers. These are design cues adapted from the now-defunct Galaxy Note phones, first incorporating an integrated S Pen and then becoming flatter and more angular from generation to generation, and eliminating the curved edges of the screen with the current Galaxy S24 Ultra. And based on rumors so far, I don't expect this to change much with the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
However, the great evolution in the iPhone Pro models has not been huge either; Apple has arguably been even more iterative than Samsung. Sure, Cupertino makes great phones, as long as you're happy with iOS and Apple's broader ecosystem, but the iPhone 16 Pro wasn't a must-have phone against the iPhone 15 Pro or even the iPhone 14 Pro.
Take a look at the table below for a quick comparison of the Galaxy S25 Ultra's rumored specs with those of the iPhone 16 Pro Max. But read on to learn more about how I think the Galaxy S25 Ultra could compete with the iPhone 16 Pro Max and be one of the best Android phones of all time.
| Header cell: column 0 | Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Rumored Specs | iPhone 16 Pro Max specifications |
|---|---|---|
| Show: | 6.9-inch AMOLED | 6.7 inch AMOLED |
| Resolution: | 1440 x 3120 pixels | 2868 x 1320 pixels |
| Update frequency: | Adaptive 1-120Hz | Adaptive 1-120Hz |
| Chipset: | Snapdragon 8 Elite | Apple A18 Pro |
| Rear cameras: | 200 MP wide angle, 50 MP ultra wide angle, 10 MP telephoto lens (3x zoom) 50 MP telephoto lens (5x zoom) | 48MP wide angle, 48MP ultra wide angle, 12MP telephoto lens (5x zoom) |
| Front camera: | 12 megapixels | 12 megapixels |
| RAM: | 16 GB | 8GB |
| Storage: | 128GB, 256GB, 512GB | 256GB, 512GB, 1TB |
| Battery: | 5,000 mAh | 4,685 mAh (unofficial) |
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs iPhone 16 Pro Max: what will be Samsung's secret sauce?
If you read our roundup of the rumored Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra specs and Galaxy S25 Ultra cameras, you'll get a more granular look at what's expected to change. But in short, we expect the Galaxy S25 Ultra to perhaps have a slightly larger screen thanks to narrower bezels, a potentially improved ultrawide camera, and access to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset.
It's the chip upgrade that I think will be the most important upgrade here. Sure, each Galaxy S-series Ultra model comes with a more powerful and efficient chip than its predecessors. But the crux of the matter here is twofold.
Firstly, Qualcomm has made significant progress in making its flagship chips follow on the heels of Apple's in-house A-series chipsets, while the A17 Pro brought some failure from the silicon, which was then developed by the A18 Pro. Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon chip surpasses benchmarks and promises big gains in AI power and GPU performance.
Now, modern smartphones are not slow and generation-to-generation upgrades do not produce noticeable jumps in performance in terms of real-world usage. But a lot more power could make for a Galaxy Ultra phone that could truly function as a do-it-all machine, capable of functioning as a computer when using DeX, and that has enough built-in power to feel sleek and responsive.
And for gaming, that power could see Samsung leverage its previous relationship with Microsoft to bring some of the best Xbox games natively to Galaxy S25 phones without the need to rely on streaming through Xbox Cloud Gaming. That could arguably reduce an advantage Apple has, given that its A17 Pro and A18 Pro-equipped iPhones can run true console-quality games like Death Standing, although not at super-smooth frame rates.
The second advantage could come down to the power and implementation of artificial intelligence.
In addition to the Snapdragon chip, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is designed to have 16GB of RAM, an increase from the 12GB of the Galaxy S24 Ultra. That could mean a lot of power to run AI workloads on the device without needing cloud-based support.
If that becomes a reality, we could see much more agile responses from Galaxy AI features and perhaps new AI-powered tools. And then, if Samsung works to integrate them into One UI seamlessly, something it arguably didn't do with its current version of One UI, we could see the Galaxy S25 Ultra have a big advantage over the iPhone 16 Pro Max. which had no Apple Intelligence features at launch and is practically being drip-fed.
This means that the iPhone 16 suite is not the Apple AI family of phones we expected. So there is an opportunity for Samsung to teach its rival here.
Combine smart and responsive AI features, with the powerful hardware that Galaxy Ultra phones have always had, plus the flexible rear camera system, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra could be a very smart and very capable smartphone to start 2025. If Samsung manages to pull this off, so maybe I might even be tempted to return to Android after about three years playing in Apple's walled garden.