Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs iPhone 16 Pro Max: the next big flagship phone battle could be all about AI

The much-rumored but still unofficial Samsung Galaxy S25 series is tipped for a mid-January reveal, and leading the pack will very likely be the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. The current Galaxy S24 Ultra is a powerhouse of a 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 past few Galaxy S-series phones, Samsung has gone for iteration over major evolution. However, the Galaxy Ultra has seen bigger changes in terms of design from its smaller stablemates. It’s adapted design cues from the now-defunct Galaxy Note phones, first taking on an integrated S Pen and then being flatter and more angular generation-to-generation, and killing off the curved display edges 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, major evolution in the iPhone Pro models hasn’t exactly been huge either; arguably, Apple has been even more iterative than Samsung. Sure, Cupertino makes great phones, provided you’re happy in the iOS and wider Apple ecosystem, but the iPhone 16 Pro was hardly a must-have phone over the iPhone 15 Pro or even the iPhone 14 Pro.

Have a look at the table below for a quick comparison of the rumored Galaxy S25 Ultra specs versus the iPhone 16 Pro Max. But do 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 best Android phones ever.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs iPhone 16 Pro Max: what will be Samsung’s secret sauce?

If you go and 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 display thanks to narrower bezels, a potentially improved ultra-wider camera, and access to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset.

It’s the chip upgrade that I reckon will be the most significant upgrade here. Sure, each Galaxy S-series Ultra model comes with a more powerful and more efficient chip than its predecessors. But the crux here is twofold.

First off, Qualcomm has made significant progress in making its flagship chips snap at the heels of Apple’s in-house A-series chipsets, While the A17 Pro brought in some silicon slapdown, which was then built upon by the A18 Pro, Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon chip tore through benchmarks and promises some big gains in AI power and GPU grunt.

Now, modern smartphones are hardly slow, and generation-to-generation upgrades don’t yield noticeable jumps in performance in terms of real-world use. But a lot more power could make for a Galaxy Ultra phone that could genuinely work as a do-everything machine able to double up as a computer when using DeX that has enough onboard power to feel slick and responsive.

And for gaming, that power could see Samsung tap into its previous relationship with Microsoft to bring some of the best Xbox games natively to the Galaxy S25 phones without the need to rely on streaming via Xbox Cloud Gaming. That could nip at an advantage Apple arguably has, given its A17 Pro and A18 Pro-equipped iPhones can run true console-quality games like Death Standing, albeit not at super-smooth framerates.

The second advantage could come down to artificial intelligence power and implementation.

Alongside the Snapdragon chip, the Galaxy S25 Ultra has been tipped to sport 16GB of RAM, an uptick from the 12GB in the Galaxy S24 Ultra. That could mean a whole lot of power for running AI workloads on-device without the need for cloud-based support.

If that comes to fruition, we could see far snappier responses from Galaxy AI features, and perhaps new AI-powered tools altogether. And then if Samsung works to integrate them into One UI in a seamless fashion – something it arguably didn’t do with its current iteration of One UI – we could see the Galaxy S25 Ultra come with a big advantage over the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which didn’t have Apple Intelligence features at launch and is pretty much getting then drip fed to it.

This means the iPhone 16 suite isn’t quite the family of Apple AI phones we were hoping for. So there’s an opportunity for Samsung to school its rival here.

Mix smart and responsive AI features, with the strong hardware 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 kick 2025 off with. If Samsung does manage to achieve this, then perhaps I could even be tempted back to Android after some three years playing in Apple’s walled garden.

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• Samsung Galaxy S25 vs iPhone 16: As rumors heat up, could Samsung best Apple this year?
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Roland Moore-Colyer is Managing Editor at TechRadar with a focus on phones and tablets, but a general interest in all things tech, especially those with a good story behind them. He can also be found writing about games, computers, and cars when the occasion arrives, and supports with the day-to-day running of TechRadar. When not at his desk Roland can be found wandering around London, often with a look of curiosity on his face and a nose for food markets.