Samsung Galaxy S25 vs Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.2-inch Samsung Galaxy S25 (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite) that was released on January 22, 2025, against the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max, which is powered by Apple A19 Pro and came out 8 months after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S25
  • Delivers 40% higher peak brightness (1393 against 993 nits)
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • 13% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (2920K versus 2590K)
  • Better grip in hands – the body is 7.5 mm narrower
  • CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
  • Weighs 71 grams less
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max
  • Has a 0.7 inch larger screen size
  • Shows 38% longer battery life (33:14 vs 24:10 hours)
  • Comes with 1088 mAh larger battery capacity: 5088 vs 4000 mAh
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v6.0)
  • The rear camera has a 4x optical zoom
  • 11% higher pixel density (460 vs 416 PPI)
  • Supports higher wattage charging (40W versus 25W)
  • 31% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 3940 and 3012 points
  • The phone is 8 months newer

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S25 and Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
DeviceFacts Score
Final comparison evaluation
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Value for money (Beta)

To get an accurate value-for-money index, update the default prices with actual prices from your country’s retailers (for the selected memory configs) and press the "Calculate" button.
Currency
12 / 128 GB
VS
12 / 256 GB
46.4
(Average)
Value Index
39.5
(Mediocre)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED OLED
Size 6.2 inches 6.9 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2340 pixels 1320 x 2868 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 19.5:9
PPI 416 ppi 460 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (1-120 Hz) Yes (1-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 2600 nits 3000 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR - 1600 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, Dolby Vision
Touch sampling rate 240 Hz -
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus 2 Ceramic Shield 2
Screen-to-body ratio 91.1% 91.6%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
Display tests
RGB color space 97.4% 99.9%
PWM 240 Hz 240 Hz
Response time 2 ms 1 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Screen space comparison
iPhone 17 Pro Max
6.9″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 18.1 in2
Galaxy S25
6.2″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 14.6 in2
~23% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
Galaxy S25 +40%
1393 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 146.9 mm (5.78 inches) 163.4 mm (6.43 inches)
Width 70.5 mm (2.78 inches) 78 mm (3.07 inches)
Thickness 7.2 mm (0.28 inches) 8.75 mm (0.34 inches)
Weight 162 g (5.71 oz) 233 g (8.22 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber Vapor chamber
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Black, Silver, Gray, Blue, Green, Pink Silver, Blue, Orange
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display No
Repairability Good (3.23/5) Good (3.04/5)
Drop resistance Excellent (A) · 270 drops Very good (B) · 180 drops
Screen-to-body ratio
91.1%
91.6%

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy S25 and Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Apple A19 Pro
Max clock 4470 MHz 4260 MHz
CPU cores 8 (2 + 6) 6 (2 + 4)
Architecture - 6 cores at 3.53 GHz: Oryon (Phoenix M)
- 2 cores at 4.32 GHz: Oryon (Phoenix L)
- 4 cores at 2.6 GHz:
- 2 cores at 4.26 GHz:
L3 cache 8 MB -
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 3 nanometers 3 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Apple Neural Engine
GPU
Graphics Adreno 830 6 core Apple GPU
GPU shading units 1536 768
GPU clock 1100 MHz 1620 MHz
FLOPS ~3379.2 GFLOPS ~2488.3 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy S25 and Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
3012
3940
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
9766
10434
Compute Score (GPU)
19829
46450
Compute Score (GPU) 19829 46450
Single-core score 3012 3940
Multi-core score 9766 10434
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
Galaxy S25 +13%
2920032
CPU 899843 788283
GPU 1139434 922741
Memory 330975 226010
UX 549780 653533
Total score 2920032 2590567
Samples [44 tests] [14 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
2216
2487
Stability 59% 76%
Graphics test 16 FPS 18 FPS
Graphics score 2216 2487
3DMark Solar Bay
10045
10999
Graphics test 38 FPS 42 FPS
Section 1 48 FPS 47 FPS
Section 2 37 FPS 42 FPS
Section 3 29 FPS 36 FPS
Graphics score 10045 10999
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability 51% -
Graphics test 33 FPS -
Graphics score 5664 -
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
Web score 21815 -
Video editing 8619 -
Photo editing 34466 -
Data manipulation 17708 -
Writing score 27109 -
AnTuTu 11 Ranking List (#126th place)

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy S25
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-10-12 (Niki)AnTuTu 123324487
📘 2026-09-24 (Icecream)AnTuTu 123297029
📘 2026-09-18 (S25 owner)AnTuTu 123476989
📘 2026-08-23 (S25 owner)AnTuTu 113149606
📘 2026-08-14 (Atharva0999)AnTuTu 113027002
Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-09-21 (Md.Imran Shafiq)AnTuTu 112602137
📘 2026-07-31 (xon1005)Geekbench 6 CPU4028 / 10579
📘 2026-06-15 (Domi)AnTuTu 112427596
📘 2026-06-09 (Cristiano)AnTuTu 112258714
📘 2026-05-29 (Joker)AnTuTu 112433128

Memory

RAM
RAM size 12 GB 12 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5X
Memory clock 5300 MHz -
Channels 4 4
Storage
Storage size 128 GB 256 GB
Storage type UFS 4.0 NVMe
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 15 (Can be upgraded to Android 17) iOS 26 (Can be upgraded to iOS 27)
ROM One UI 9.0 -
OS size 30.1 GB 20 GB
OS updates 7 years 7 years
Security updates 7 years 7 years

Battery

Capacity 4000 mAh 5088 mAh
Max charge power 25 W 40 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes (25 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes
Bypass charging Yes No
Fast charging Yes (56% in 30 min) Yes (65% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:17 hr 1:12 hr
Battery cycles 2000 cycles 1000 cycles
Battery life tests
Web browsing 09:09 hr 12:36 hr
Watching video 17:15 hr 22:25 hr
Gaming 05:32 hr 08:17 hr
Standby 108 hr 154 hr
General battery life
24:10 hr
33:14 hr

Main camera

Matrix 50 megapixels 48 megapixels
Image resolution 8160 x 6120 8064 x 6048
Zoom Optical, 3x Optical, 4x
Flash LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 30FPS No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 120FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 120FPS
Slow motion 240 FPS (1080p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 120° 120°
Lenses 1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Telephoto: 10 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
1) Standard: 48 MP
2) Telephoto: 48 MP
3) Ultrawide: 48 MP
4) Depth
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 50 MP 48 MP
Aperture f/1.8 f/1.78
Focal length 24 mm 24 mm
Sensor Samsung ISOCELL S5KGN3 Sony IMX903
Sensor size 1/1.56" (≈ 0.64 inch) 1/1.28" (≈ 0.78 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1.22 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 10 MP 48 MP
Aperture f/2.4 f/2.8
Focal length 67 mm 100 mm
Sensor Samsung ISOCELL S5K3K1 Sony IMX973
Sensor size 1/3.94" (≈ 0.25 inch) 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 0.7 micron
Stabilization Optical Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 12 MP 48 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 13 mm 13 mm
Sensor Sony IMX564 Sony IMX972
Sensor size 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch) 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch)
Pixel size 1.4 micron 0.7 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital

Selfie camera

Megapixels 12 megapixels 18 megapixels
Image resolution 4000 x 3000 4896 x 3672
Aperture f/2.2 f/1.9
Focal length 26 mm 20 mm
Sensor Samsung S5K3LU Sony IMX914
Sensor size 1/3.2" (≈ 0.31 inch) -
Pixel size 1.12 micron 1 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus
Stabilization Digital Optical
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No Yes

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5.4 6.0
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 3.2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort Yes, DP 1.2 Yes
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 1 -
Type of SIM card Nano eSIM
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness
Galaxy S25 +12%
91.7 dB

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced January 2025 September 2025
Release date February 2025 September 2025
Launch price (MSRP) $799 $1199
Successor - Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus (Snapdragon) -
SAR (head) 1.29 W/kg -
SAR (body) 1.36 W/kg -
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Face recognition sensor
Bundled charger Not included Not included
Further details
Notes on Galaxy S25:
    - Supports up to 2 eSIMs. The international model has 2 physical SIM slots, while the U.S. model has 1.
Notes on iPhone 17 Pro Max:
    - Battery is 5,088 mAh on the eSIM-only model (vs 4,832 mAh on the Nano SIM + eSIM version).
    - The Chinese model alone includes dual Nano SIM slots and 15 W wireless charging.
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
57 (69.5%)
25 (30.5%)
Total votes: 82

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