iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra: Apple and Samsung's Best Phones Compared

We are just hours away from Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event, where we expect to see the Galaxy S26 Ultra launched. That likely means you'll soon find deals and discounts on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which, with a starting price of $1,300, is one of the most expensive phones you can buy (if you don't count foldables). Even without its wallet-breaking price, the S25 Ultra is absolutely one of the best phones you can buy today.

The S25 Ultra has an antireflective screen to make scrolling feeds, reading messages or watching videos more compelling by reducing distracting light reflections. It has one of the most versatile phone cameras available, with not one, but two telephoto lenses. And its secret weapon: an S Pen stylus.

But look out, Samsung, because Apple has an "ultra-killer" in its iPhone 17 lineup in the form of the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Starting at $1,199, the 17 Pro Max is the company's priciest iOS handset. It can go toe-to-toe with the top Android phones, including the Galaxy S25 Ultra, with features like a unibody aluminum design, cameras that consistently take great images and 4K video recording that's good enough for motion picture directors named Steven: Spielberg and Soderbergh.

How do the 17 Pro Max and S25 Ultra compare to each other? With nearly 7-inch screens, advanced cameras and the most powerful specs to date, they have a lot in common. But Apple and Samsung follow slightly different approaches for assembling the most premium phone on the market.

Here's how the iPhone 17 Pro Max specs match up to the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Looking to order the iPhone 17 Pro Max? Check out our deals guide to learn if you can get it free and other great offers.

Want to buy the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra? Find out which carriers and retailers have the best deals on Samsung's slim phone.

Watch this: Review: My Thoughts After 2 Weeks With Samsung's Galaxy S25 Ultra

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iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra price comparison

• iPhone 17 Pro Max (256GB of storage): $1,199
• Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra (256GB of storage): $1,299

The iPhone 17 Pro Max is $100 cheaper than the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which has been the same price gap between these phones in prior years. Samsung's phone does have a notable hardware extra with its S Pen stylus (stored within the handset), but it's also far more likely to go on sale than Apple's big handset, assuming prior years' trends continue.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra design and displays

• iPhone 17 Pro Max: Heat-dispersing focus. This year's Pro Max reverts to an aluminum frame and introduces a vapor chamber to better vent heat.
• Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Best screen yet. The display's new antireflective coating on the Ultra may be its best feature.

These are the biggest and densest phones beyond foldables, so they stack up pretty well, at least on the outside. 

The iPhone 17 Pro Max has a 6.9-inch OLED display, while the Galaxy S25 Ultra has a 6.8-inch screen (both have 1-120Hz variable refresh rates). In January 2025, when the Ultra was released, CNET Managing Editor Patrick Holland called it "the best I've seen" on a phone, thanks to its new antireflective coating that makes the phone more usable under direct light, along with 2,600-nit top brightness. For its part, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is easier to see in daylight with its 3,000-nit maximum brightness (up from 2,000 nits in last year's iPhones).

Thanks to its titanium frame, Samsung's phone is slightly lighter at 218 grams and potentially more durable than the aluminum frame on Apple's premium phone (which is heavier at 233 grams). 

But interestingly, Apple seems to have reverted the iPhone 16 Pro Max from a titanium frame back to aluminum, in favor of better thermal regulation. To handle heat even better, the iPhone 17 Pro Max has a vapor chamber filled with deionized water sitting over the CPU and other chips to disperse heat away from the silicon. The S25 Ultra has its own vapor chamber (40% larger than its predecessor's, Samsung said).

The S25 Ultra also has the advantage of its own stylus that tucks into a dedicated slot on the phone's underside. However, it's not as smart as the S Pen of previous S-series Ultra models. Samsung removed the remote Bluetooth controls, which the company said were only used by barely 1% of Ultra owners, but it's still disappointing to see tech revert.

Like all iPhones since last year's models, the iPhone 17 Pro Max has a Camera Control button on its right side. This button launches the Camera app, allows you to take photos and tweaks settings while shooting. The button can also activate Visual Intelligence, which lets you do a Google image search or prompt ChatGPT using what the camera is pointed at.

Comparing iPhone 17 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra cameras

• iPhone 17 Pro Max: Nearly all cameras are now sharper. Everything but the main camera got a megapixel upgrade. 
• Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Better ultrawide camera. The 50-megapixel ultrawide captures more light and detail.

From the outside, not much looks different with either phone's array of cameras compared with their predecessors, although the iPhone 17 Pro Max's rear camera bump has been extended across the width of the phone. But the big changes are packed inside that "plateau," as Apple calls it, with improvements to nearly all of its cameras.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max's 48-megapixel main and ultrawide cameras are largely untouched, but the telephoto camera is now also 48 megapixels (up from 12 megapixels in last year's Pro Max). All three are "dual fusion" cameras that can zoom in twice at 12-megapixel resolution using sensor cropping. This effectively means the telephoto can go to the equivalent of 8x optical zoom, or up to 40x digital (up from 25x). 

There's the big upgrade for selfie lovers: The front-facing camera is now 18 megapixels (up from 12 megapixels in last year's model), which is nice but less important than the larger sensor behind the lens. It's square in shape, which allows users to switch between taking selfies in either horizontal or vertical orientation without rotating their phone. It also enables Center Stage, the video chat feature that first debuted on iPad Pro and Mac devices, which keeps the focus on the user even if they move around, and can adjust the orientation if more people enter the frame.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra retains its four-rear-camera setup, fronted by an impressive 200-megapixel main shooter. But it's the 50-megapixel ultrawide camera (up from 12 megapixels in the S24 Ultra) that delighted CNET reviewer Holland, who felt the larger sensor afforded crisper shots with more light in very wide and close-up macro shots. The phone also has a 10-megapixel 3x optical zoom paired with a 50-megapixel 5x optical zoom for different levels of telephoto shots, topping out at 100x "Space Zoom."

Both phones have dueling AI-assisted tools for video. The iPhone 17 Pro Max has the Audio Mix feature introduced in its predecessor that isolates desired audio sources (like subjects talking) and cancels other ambient noise. The Galaxy S25 Ultra has its own tool, Audio Eraser, which trims away wind, music, street noise or other disturbances. As a last difference, the Galaxy S25 Ultra can shoot footage in 8K while the iPhone 17 Pro Max tops out at 4K video.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra specs compared

• iPhone 17 Pro Max: Better specs, bigger battery. The Pro Max gets a new chip, better performance and longer battery life.
• Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Great performance. The S25 Ultra boasts better performance than any other phone we tested.

Both phones are at the absolute top of their lineups and are in the running for the most powerful phone on the market anywhere in the world. Unsurprisingly, they're pretty competitive in terms of specs and performance, with each edging out the other in specific ways.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max packs a new A19 Pro chip that, combined with the improved heat management, results in 40% better sustained performance than last year's Pro Max, Apple said during the new phone's launch presentation. Apple has continued not to state how much RAM the phone packs (conventional wisdom suggests at least 8GB to run AI features).

The iPhone 17 Pro Max comes with configuration tiers for 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and the new 2TB option. That max storage pushes the iPhone 17 Pro Max's overall price to about $2,000. The 17 Pro Max has a 5,088-mAh battery compared to the S25 Ultra's 5,000-mAh capacity. 

In CNET's battery tests, the iPhone 17 Pro Max scored better than any phone we've tested, including the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It has a top wired charging speed of 40 watts or wireless at 30 watts, and built-in MagSafe magnetic attachment capability.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra packs a Samsung-customized Snapdragon 8 Elite chip and 12GB of RAM, both of which enable more on-device AI that runs smoother than the hybrid and cloud AI tools used in prior Galaxy Ultra models. In benchmark tests, the Galaxy S25 Ultra outperformed other leading smartphones, including the OnePlus 13 and last year's iPhone 16 Pro, but we'll have to wait for our tests on the iPhone 17 Pro Max to truly compare both. Samsung's premium phone has 256GB, 512GB and 1TB storage options.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra supports 45-watt wired charging and Qi2 wireless charging up to 15 watts, although it doesn't support magnetic attachments (unless you get a case with built-in magnets).

Both phones have their own suites of generative AI technology. Apple didn't introduce any new features this year, relying on the Apple Intelligence suite of assistive tech that debuted with last year's iPhone 16 series. Samsung's phone has its own suite of Galaxy AI features, like answering requests with info from apps and Google's Circle to Search feature that can now recognize audio in videos and social media posts (or even tunes you hum yourself, supposedly).