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The much rumored but still unofficial Samsung Galaxy S25 The series is tipped for a revelation in mid-January, and who will lead the pack will be very likely Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. The current Galaxy S24 Ultra is a power of a phone and one of the better phonesbut it is so iPhone 16 Pro Max – currently my phone of choice. So, I thought 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 it went through iteration over major evolution. However, the Galaxy Ultra has seen bigger changes in terms of design than its smaller counterparts. It adapted design cues from the now defunct Galaxy Note phones, first assuming an integrated S Pen and then being flatter and more angular from generation to generation, and killing the curved edges of the display with the current Galaxy S24 Ultra. And going by the rumors so far, I don’t expect this to change much with the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
However, the major evolution in the models of the iPhone Pro has not been exactly huge; undoubtedly, Apple it has been even more iterative than Samsung. Of course, Cupertino makes great phones, as long as you’re happy within the iOS and wider Apple ecosystem, but the iPhone 16 Pro it was just a must-have phone over the iPhone 15 Pro or even the iPhone 14 Pro.
Take a look at the table below for a quick comparison of the rumored Galaxy S25 Ultra specs versus the iPhone 16 Pro Max. But read on for more on how I think the Galaxy S25 Ultra could take on the iPhone 16 Pro Max and be one of the the best android phones ever
Swipe to scroll horizontally
| Header Cell – Column 0 | Specs rumored for Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra | iPhone 16 Pro Max specifications |
|---|---|---|
| Display: | 6.9-inch AMOLED | 6.7-inch AMOLED |
| Resolution: | 1440 x 3120 pixels | 2868 x 1320 pixels |
| Refresh rate: | Adaptive 1-120Hz | Adaptive 1-120Hz |
| Chipset: | Snapdragon 8 Elite | Apple A18 Pro |
| Rear camera: | 200MP wide, 50MP ultrawide, 10MP telephoto (3x zoom) 50MP telephoto (5x zoom) | 48MP wide, 48MP ultra-wide, 12MP telephoto (5x zoom) |
| Front camera: | 12MP | 12MP |
| RAM: | 16 GB | 8 GB |
| Storage: | 128GB, 256GB, 512GB | 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB |
| 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 go and read our roundup of rumors Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra specifications and Galaxy S25 Ultra Camerasyou’ll get a more granular look at what’s expected to change. But in short, we expect the Galaxy S25 Ultra to have perhaps a slightly larger display thanks to narrower bezels, a potentially improved ultra-wide camera, and access to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset.
It’s the chip upgrade that I think will be the most significant upgrade here. Of course, every Galaxy S-series Ultra model comes with a more powerful and more efficient chip than its predecessors. But the reason here is twofold.
First of all, Qualcomm has made significant progress in getting its flagship chips to nibble on the heels of Apple’s in-house A-series chipsets, while the A17 Pro brought some silicon slapdown, which was later built from the A18 Pro, Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon chip has been tearing up benchmarks and promises some big gains in AI power and GPU grunt.
Right now, modern smartphones are pretty slow, and generation-to-generation upgrades don’t make noticeable leaps in performance when it comes to real-world use. But much more power could make for a Galaxy Ultra phone that could really work as a machine to do everything capable of doubling as a computer when in use. DeX which has enough power on board to feel slick and responsive.
And for games, that power could see Samsung touch on 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 via Xbox Cloud Gaming. That could hit an advantage that Apple undoubtedly has, given that its iPhones equipped with A17 Pro and A18 Pro can run true console-quality games such as Death Standingalthough not at super-smooth framerate.
The second advantage could come from the power and implementation of artificial intelligence.
Alongside the Snapdragon chip, the Galaxy S25 Ultra has been granted to sport 16GB of RAMan increase from the 12GB in the Galaxy S24 Ultra. That could mean plenty of power to run AI workloads on the device without the need for cloud-based support.
If it comes to fruition, we could see much snappier responses from Galaxy AI features, and perhaps new AI-powered tools altogether. And then, if Samsung works to integrate in a UI in a perfect way – something that it probably did not do with its current iteration of One UI – we can see that the Galaxy S25 Ultra comes with a big advantage over the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which did not have Apple Intelligence features at launch and is practically to be fed drop by drop.
This means the iPhone 16 Suite is not quite the family of Apple AI phones we hope So there is an opportunity for Samsung to school its rival here.
Combine intelligent and responsive AI features, with the strong hardware that Galaxy Ultra phones have always had, plus the flexible transverse camera system and the Galaxy S25 Ultra could be a very smart and very capable smartphone to start 2025. If Samsung succeeds to achieve this, then maybe I might even be tempted to go back to Android later about three years playing in Apple’s walled garden.
