iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: A premium flagship showdown

The iPhone 17 Pro Max is here, and it brings along the first major iPhone redesign in half a decade — but is that enough to beat Samsung's Galaxy S25 Ultra?

The two top flagships on the market have quite a bit in common, sporting 6.9-inch displays and the best chipsets on iOS and Android, respectively. It's now time to figure out whether the iPhone 17 Pro Max is enough to make longtime Android users switch, or vice versa.

Apple is changing things up with a switch back to aluminum and a new unibody chassis on the iPhone 17 Pro Max, while Samsung doubles down on titanium on the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Let's break down how these two phones compare to help you figure out which one is the right buy.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Design and display

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The design of the iPhone 17 Pro Max is radically different compared to any other iPhone model — though I'd forgive you if you thought the phone just looks like an iPhone 16 Pro Max with a rectangular camera bump. It's actually called the camera plateau now, according to Apple, and it's part of an aluminum unibody construction. The entire chassis is now one piece, with a single glass insert slotting into the back to facilitate wireless charging.

This new iPhone 17 Pro Max build is designed to enhance the smartphone's strength and reduce its temperature, addressing a few drawbacks of the prior models' titanium material. It's still IP68-certified, but now features Ceramic Shield 2 glass on the front with an anti-reflective coating. This takes clear inspiration from the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, which added a game-changing anti-glare screen earlier this year.

From a design standpoint, both the iPhone 17 Pro Max and the Galaxy S25 Ultra have 6.9-inch screens, but the latter has a flatter and thinner body. The Galaxy S25 Ultra measures just 8.2mm thick, while the iPhone is 8.75mm thick. Apple's smartphone is also 15 grams heavier, so in terms of form factor, the Galaxy S25 Ultra may feel better in the hand.

Both phones have OLED displays with 120Hz LTPO variable refresh rate support. Apple's phone is slightly brighter, with the iPhone 17 Pro Max capable of reaching 3,000 nits peak in outdoor settings. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra tops out at 2,600 nits, which will still be plenty bright.

Notably, the Galaxy S25 Ultra packs an S Pen inside, and you can use the stylus for quick drawings or note-taking. There are even a few Galaxy AI features that leverage the S Pen for ease of use, like Sketch to Image. Put simply, the iPhone 17 Pro Max has no equivalent, either on the first or third-party market.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Hardware and specs

The Apple A19 Pro and Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipsets are the two most powerful mobile processors on the market, and they're inside the iPhone 17 Pro Max and the Galaxy S25 Ultra, respectively. Both phones utilize vapor chambers to cool these blazing-fast chips and feature optimizations that balance performance and efficiency. They each feature 12GB of memory by default, but only the Galaxy S25 Ultra has a 16GB RAM option tied to the 1TB storage configuration.

While both handsets start with 256GB of storage, the iPhone 17 Pro Max introduces a 2TB storage configuration for the first time. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra can only be equipped with up to 1TB of storage. So, the top iPhone gets more storage, but the top Galaxy gets more memory.

Connectivity leans in favor of the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which supports Bluetooth 6 and Thread in addition to 5G and Wi-Fi 7. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S25 Ultra only supports Bluetooth 5.4. Samsung has the edge in biometrics, offering an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor and facial recognition.

Battery life and charging are starting to tip in favor of the iPhone for the first time. The iPhone 17 Pro Max has a 5,088mAh battery capacity, slightly higher than the 5,000mAh cell inside the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It can also charge up to 50% in only 20 minutes. While the Galaxy S25 Ultra supports Qi 2.1 Ready and needs a case to add magnets, the iPhone 17 Pro Max has them built-in and supports Qi2.2 25W.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra has the higher-spec USB-C port, supporting USB 3.2 Gen 1 compared to the iPhone 17 Pro Max's USB 3.0.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Cameras

The iPhone 17 Pro Max features a robust rear camera system comprising a trio of 48MP sensors, including a main, ultrawide, and telephoto lens. However, the telephoto camera is an upgrade in one way and a downgrade in another. It's a 48MP lens with 4x optical zoom, but that becomes 8x optical-quality zoom with sensor cropping down to 12MP photos. Last year's iPhone 16 Pro Max could do 5x optical zoom, but didn't have the sensor-cropping capabilities of the new higher-megapixel sensor.

Otherwise, the 48MP primary sensor can shoot 24MP and 12MP photos, with the 48MP ultrawide adding a 120-degree field-of-view to get more in the shot. Apple added a new 18MP front-facing camera sensor to the entire iPhone 17 lineup, and it's a square sensor rather than a typical 4:3 sensor. This means you can snap selfies in vertical or horizontal orientations without physically moving the phone, which is pretty neat.

On paper, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra has the more versatile rear camera system. You get a 200MP main camera sensor paired with a 50MP ultrawide lens, plus two telephoto lenses offering 3x and 5x optical zoom. That's more than the iPhone 17 Pro Max offers with physical lenses, but less if you account for the 8x optical-quality sensor crop.

Samsung's front-facing camera is a 12MP wide lens, and it doesn't have any of the fun tricks added by the iPhone 17 Pro Max's square sensor.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Which should you buy?

The iPhone 17 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra are both the best we've ever seen from the iOS and Android side of things, but they're also unlikely to sway longtime fans. For Apple users, the Galaxy S25 Ultra's lack of Qi2 support could be a deal-breaker. Android users probably won't be impressed by iOS 26 or the iPhone 17 Pro Max's new hardware changes, even if they're impactful for iPhone owners.

On paper, the Galaxy S25 Ultra has more versatility, with an inbuilt S Pen and five total cameras. The thinner and lighter build represents the best of Samsung's design and engineering, and even iPhone users can probably appreciate it. These are the greatest phones on each side of the walled garden, so it'll probably come down to whether you want to use iOS or One UI more.