Galaxy S25 vs. iPhone 16 Professional

So, you’re available in the market for a formidable compact flagship telephone, and you are prepared to dig deep for your pocket for probably the most international’s heavy-hitters, the Samsung Galaxy S25 and the Apple iPhone 16 Professional? In case, after all, you don’t seem to be essentially invested in both ecosystem.

Neatly, the 2 gadgets are very other in the case of {hardware}, instrument and worth. The one commonplace floor they proportion is footprint. Those are the newest and biggest compact top rate answers from Samsung and Apple, so it is only herbal to position them face to face.

Desk of Contents:

For starters, you’ll examine your entire specifications sheets or without delay proceed with our editor’s evaluate within the following textual content.

Dimension comparability

If portability is a best precedence, then the Galaxy S25 is the transparent solution right here. Certain, it properties a reasonably smaller reveal, 0.1″ smaller, however it is significantly extra compact in actual existence. It is shorter, narrower and thinner, so it appears like a way smaller instrument in hand. To not point out lighter.

The Galaxy S25 is greater than 30 grams lighter than its competitor, and despite the fact that that does not sound like a lot, it is a massive distinction in hand.

Construct quality-wise, the iPhone has a slight benefit because it options the newest and biggest Apple can be offering (titanium body and Ceramic Defend glass), whilst the Galaxy S25 is a step down from the S25 Extremely with an aluminum body and Gorilla Glass Victus 2.

Ingress coverage is matched at IP68, even though Apple certifies their gadgets to resist immersion at a far better intensity than Samsung (6m vs 1.5m).

Show comparability

Each gadgets be offering very good shows and are very equivalent in dimension too. Then again, the iPhone takes the lead with Dolby Imaginative and prescient reinforce, reasonably upper solution (no longer that it issues a lot) and may be brighter. Do not get us mistaken, the S25’s panel is completely high-quality even within the brightest of days, however the iPhone 16 Professional’s max brightness is difficult to forget about – mid 1,700 nits vs. virtually 1,400 nits.

Remember the notch, even though. Even if Apple makes use of it as a function, it takes significantly extra display screen actual property than the punch-hole for the selfie cam at the S25.

Battery existence

If we strictly take a look at the Energetic Use Rating, one may just argue the iPhone 16 Professional has handiest marginally larger battery existence. The Galaxy S25 even has an extended name runtime and reasonably larger gaming rating, however the 16 Professional outperforms the S25 in internet surfing/social community scrolling by means of a landslide whilst providing a reasonably larger video streaming rating too, that are arguably the primary two makes use of for modern day smartphones.

Charging pace

Neither instrument has an outstanding charging price, and it is usually exhausting to decide the winner right here. In keeping with our checks, the Galaxy S25 is the transparent winner of the overall charging cycle by means of outpacing the iPhone 16 Professional by means of round 21 mins.

Conversely, the iPhone 16 Professional beats the S25 to the primary two checkpoints at 15 and half-hour by means of a couple of percentages. Nonetheless, we would give the Galaxy S25 the win since it is meaningfully quicker on the end, whilst the iPhone is handiest negligibly faster within the first half-hour.

Speaker check

The Galaxy S25 and the iPhone 16 Professional industry blows on this class, with the previous successful within the loudness comparability and the latter by means of providing larger tuning or sound high quality, alternatively you prefer to name it.

We discover the iPhone 16 Professional’s tuning hotter with extra expressive bass, so tracks sound fuller and livelier.

Efficiency

The Galaxy S25 will depend on Qualcomm’s newest and biggest Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, with the “for Galaxy” designation suggesting reasonably upper clocks at the major CPU cores and the GPU in comparison to the usual chipset utilized in different Android telephones.

The iPhone 16 Professional, then again, runs on an in-house designed chip, Apple A18 Professional, which traditionally has outperformed its competition, however no longer this yr.

Each gadgets be offering 128GB of inside garage by means of default, which is beautiful low for a high-end smartphone, however whilst the S25 can come up with 512GB at best possible, the 16 Professional has a 1TB model. The 16 Professional’s NVMe garage is particularly quicker than the S25’s UFS 4.0 too. The 128GB model of the Galaxy additionally most likely makes use of slower garage than that as UFS 4.0 is handiest to be had in sizes 256GB and up.

Particularly, all iPhone 16 Professional configurations have 8GB of RAM, whilst the S25 runs on 12GB, regardless of the garage.

Benchmark efficiency

As we identified previous, Apple’s silicon has traditionally been extra tough than its friends, however this yr, Qualcomm outdid itself and presented a considerably extra tough chip. The Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy outperforms the A18 Professional in multi-core eventualities by means of 21%, no less than on this explicit comparability between the Galaxy S25 and the iPhone 16 Professional. In GPU-heavy workloads like 3DMark’s Wild Existence Excessive, the S25 beats the iPhone 16 Professional by means of round 38%.

Digicam comparability

The 2 gadgets function very other digital camera {hardware}. Judging only by means of the specifications sheet, the iPhone 16 Professional is the transparent winner right here. It has a larger major 48MP sensor, a 12MP telephoto digital camera with 5x optical zoom, and a stronger 48MP ultrawide digital camera.

The Galaxy S25 sits within the reverse nook with a 50MP major digital camera, 10MP telephoto shooter with 3x optical zoom and 12MP ultrawide snapper.

The selfie sport of each handsets is superb – 12MP front-facing shooter with autofocus for the Galaxy S25 and 12MP selfie, autofocus-enabled unit for the iPhone 16 Professional.

Symbol high quality

Off to the real digital camera comparability, we see a equivalent high quality with a slight benefit of the iPhone 16 Professional. In virtually all circumstances, the iPhone 16 Professional provides you with sharper stills with somewhat extra element and a much broader dynamic vary. That is true in each sunlight and low-light eventualities. And that’s the reason even prior to you flip at the 24MP mode.

Galaxy S25: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x • 5x

iPhone 16 Professional: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x • 5x

The one case during which the S25 outperforms the iPhone 16 Professional is within the 3x zoom, which is to be anticipated for the reason that the iPhone must crop from the primary digital camera, whilst the Galaxy S25 has a devoted 3x telephoto unit. However, the 16 Professional has a 5x digital camera, which produces nicer pictures at its corresponding focal duration. We had been stunned by means of the Galaxy S25’s talent to shoot in 5x, even though, because it will get beautiful on the subject of the iPhone 16 Professional in sunlight eventualities.

Galaxy S25: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x • 5x

iPhone 16 Professional: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x • 5x

Video high quality

Beneath, we have now a couple of framegrabs from the movies taken by means of the 2 telephones at every focal duration so it is more straightforward to match to each other.

Galaxy S25 video framegrabs: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x • 5x

iPhone 16 Professional video framegrabs: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x • 5x

Video recording is the place the iPhone 16 Professional excels. The 16 Professional delivers noticeably larger movies night time and day except for for the ultrawide digital camera, the place the 2 gadgets produce relatively equivalent movies and within the 3x zoom mode, the place the Galaxy S25 has an edge because of its bodily zoom cam.

Galaxy S25 video framegrabs: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x • 5x

iPhone 16 Professional video framegrabs: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x • 5x

Verdict

The Galaxy S25 and the iPhone 16 Professional are undoubtedly one of the best compact flagship telephones available in the market. Then again, the iPhone 16 Professional turns out like the simpler telephone general, with its brighter reveal, larger digital camera gadget, longer battery existence and better-sounding audio system. However it is usually the costlier telephone too. It sells for a bit of over €1,000 in Europe and $1,000 in the United States, so it prices up to a Galaxy S25+ (whilst you equate for garage), whilst the Galaxy S25 asks €800/$800. That is a 200 greenbacks distinction, which is able to rarely pass overlooked.

Along with the defined benefits, the iPhone has UWB reinforce, satellite tv for pc messaging and a extra top rate construct. Those don’t seem to be essentially game-changer options, however a few of you might admire them.

However, the Galaxy S25 is lighter and extra compact than the 2, it is reasonably quicker to price, packs extra uncooked horsepower beneath the hood and is particularly inexpensive. And in case you are into that AI stuff, you’ll revel in lots of the options on Samsung’s One UI instrument immediately, while Apple is but to ship all of its deliberate AI-powered options, let by myself liberate them in Europe.