Apple has unveiled the top-end iPhone 17 Pro Max – but how does it compare to one of the best Android phones around, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra?
There’s a lot to like about this year’s premium iPhone; it not only sports a new design with a wider camera housing, or plateau, as Apple refers to it, but it also packs better performance, upgraded front and rear cameras and some of the best battery life on any iPhone yet.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, on the other hand, represents the pinnacle of Android smartphone tech with its 6.9-inch QHD+ AMOLED screen, versatile cameras, Snapdragon 8 Elite performance and Galaxy AI smarts.
The question is, which is the best? While we’re yet to go hands-on with Apple’s latest flagship, here’s how the iPhone 17 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra compare on paper.
Pricing and availability
The iPhone 17 Pro Max starts at the same £1199/$1199 as last year’s equivalent, albeit with a boosted 256GB of storage at the entry level. It’s going up for pre-orders on Friday, with release set for 19 September.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra launched back in January at £1249/$1299, but as it has been on sale for nearly nine months, it’s now found a little cheaper at retailers.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max has a more eye-catching design
Apple has refreshed the look of its Pro-level iPhones with the iPhone 17 range, with the Pro Max sporting a striking horizontal camera bar and a combination of glass and aluminium on the rear. It’s a significant departure from the small square camera housing we’ve seen on iPhones for quite some time.
What’s more, the new orange and dark blue finishes stand out from the muted shades of previous Pro iPhones. The glass on the rear is made from Apple’s Ceramic Shield tech that makes it 4x more resistant than the previous glass, while the Ceramic Shield 2 protecting the screen is 3x more resistant than the first-gen glass.
Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra represents more of a refinement of an existing design; it softens the once-boxy silhouette with rounded corners, while retaining a heavier – but still sturdy – titanium chassis. The rear is also quite minimalist compared to Apple’s new alternative, with lenses embedded directly into the rear without a housing.
It’s also capped with Gorilla Armor 2 glass for improved durability, and along with the iPhone 17 Pro Max, both offer full IP68 dust and water resistance.
Essentially, both offer a high-end build, but their overall look and feel differ.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max could compete with the S25 Ultra’s zoom prowess
One of the most significant upgrades offered by the iPhone 17 Pro Max is in the camera department.
For the first time, Apple’s top-end iPhone features a triple 48MP Fusion Camera setup, including a new 48MP telephoto lens that offers 4x optical zoom, all the way up to 8x, for a more versatile shooting experience. It also features a 56% larger sensor than before, improving low-light performance and making it a viable option for challenging lighting conditions.
Combined with the other 48MP lenses, you’re provided with an improved eight levels of digital zoom in the camera app.
Samsung’s alternative offering comprises a 200MP main camera, a 50MP 5x periscope, a 10MP 3x telephoto, and a 50MP ultrawide camera, with impressive results extending beyond the 10x mark, all the way up to 100x with Samsung’s signature moon shots.
Samsung certainly has the edge in megapixel count – but as we all know, there’s much more to a good camera than the number of pixels. It doesn’t quite match Apple’s offering in the video department however; Apple offers unique elements like 4K@120fps video, Dolby Vision recording and new ProRes RAW video capture.
Still, these are both superb camera offerings that should make for an interesting camera comparison in the coming weeks.
Apple’s screen might have the edge
Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra has one of the best screens around; it’s not only pixel-packed with a QHD+ resolution, but the AMOLED screen offers high-end staples like a 120Hz LTPO-enabled refresh rate, a high 2600nit peak brightness and an anti-reflective coating that makes it easier to use outdoors than any other phone on the market.
Well, it looks like Apple is here to bring the fight to Samsung with the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s screen. It measures in at the exact 6.9 inches as Samsung’s alternative, with a similarly dense resolution and impressive 3000nit peak brightness – but it packs a more advanced seven-layer anti-reflective coating that should reduce glare and distractions, just like Samsung’s alternative.
It’ll certainly be interesting to see which panel comes out on top when we go hands-on in the coming weeks.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max’s A19 Pro should give it a performance edge
Apple has traditionally led the way in smartphone performance – that was until the Snapdragon 8 Elite found within the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra came along and beat the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s equivalent A18 Pro chipset in most benchmarks. It’s not hard to see why, with the top-end Qualcomm chipset offering a staggering 30% boost to CPU speeds and 40% faster GPU performance.
Well, the new 3nm A19 Pro chipset is here to try and restore balance – in Apple’s eyes, anyway. The new chipset packs a 6-core CPU and 6-core GPU for boosted performance, along with a new liquid vapour chamber to help sustain performance. Apple claims that there’s 40% better performance from this year’s chipset as a result.
It’s not just speed though; it also packs Apple’s custom N1 network chip that powers elements like Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread, as well as improving Hotspot and AirDrop performance.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max could have better battery life
Throughout the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s reveal, Apple made sure to emphasise that many of its design changes were aimed at incorporating a larger battery. In fact, it claims that the phone has the best battery life of any iPhone ever, with the phone able to provide 37 hours of video playback on a single charge – and eSIM-only models go even further at 39 hours.
Interestingly, the 5000mAh cell within the Galaxy S25 Ultra is only good for up to 31 hours of video playback according to Samsung, suggesting that the iPhone could have the upper hand in battery life.
It should also charge faster than before with support for 40W charging along with 25W MagSafe charging, though the former is slightly behind the S25 Ultra’s 45W.
Early thoughts
The iPhone 17 Pro Max is shaping up to be the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra’s biggest competitor. This year’s iPhone brings with it bolder design changes, a whole host of camera improvements on both front and rear, stronger performance and much better battery life.
That said, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra remains a fantastically specced phone, boasting a standout 6.9-inch AMOLED screen, four rear cameras, Galaxy AI smarts, and Snapdragon power.
We’ll reserve our final thoughts until we’ve spent some time with the new iPhone and used it side by side with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, so check back soon.
