iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra: which will be the new flagship king?

The Galaxy S25 Ultra has held the top spot all this year ever since it was introduced back in January, earning that prestigious title of best phone over the iPhone 16 Pro Max. That’s why an iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra face-off is necessary to see if Apple can turn things around come this fall.

Despite new competition arriving on the scene, Samsung’s flagship phone continues to prove it’s just as formidable as ever — thanks in part to its excellent cameras, powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite performance, and battery longevity. No other phone has yet to match or eclipse its utility, which goes to show how high the bar’s been raised because of it.

For Apple, it really has to step up its game with the iPhone 17 Pro Max. While the iOS 26 release is looking to amplify the experience, it’ll be interesting to see if there’s going to be more Apple Intelligence features in its upcoming flagship phone. With a rumored September 9th event, it won’t be long before we get all the details around this upcoming phone.

We’ll take all the iPhone 17 Pro Max rumors and leaks to tell you how it stacks up against the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra: specifications

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra: Release and Price

We’ll likely know more about the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s price, which is presumably one of many new devices in the iPhone 17 lineup that should be introduced at Apple’s rumored September 9 event. Its pricing will largely depend on tariffs, with many reports hinting at an increase, but it’s difficult to say by how much. The iPhone 16 Pro Max launched at $1,199, which was the same cost as its predecessor.

Even if Apple does end up increasing its price, it would have to be substantial to make it more expensive than the Galaxy S25 Ultra. That’s because Sammy’s flagship debuted at a whopping $1,299 price when it launched on February 7, 2025. If Apple can stave off another year from increasing its price, the iPhone 17 Pro Max has a good shot at proving it has more value.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra: Design

Apple kept the design of its ‘Pro’ models largely unchanged ever since the iPhone 11 Pro, but that could change for the iPhone 17 Pro Max — which is tipped at getting a new, two-tone design according to early renders. The camera array is at the center of the debate, with the LED flash, microphone, and LiDAR scanner being pushed to the complete opposite side of the cameras. Plus, there’s still debate on whether the camera housing on the back will have a different color from the rest of the phone.

While the Galaxy S25 Ultra saw an iterative design, it was heavily criticized for being too iPhone-ish. That’s because it ditched the rounded edges and sharp corners of its predecessor for flat edges and rounded corners. Although the design is incredibly solid thanks to its titanium frame, the overall design lacks the charm and premium feel that Apple’s iPhones are recognized for.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra: Display

We’re confident that the iPhone 17 Pro Max display is going to look gorgeous, Apple still has room for improvement. The rumors still hint at a 6.9-inch Retina Display, but they also suggest that the Dynamic Island cutout could be narrower. Specifically, this “metalens” for Face ID would result in a smaller Dynamic Island because it would integrate the transmitter and receiver — reducing the size and its thickness.

Another rumor also suggests that it would offer a new “Low-Dialectric TEE display” that would add more durability, power efficiency, and boost its overall performance. Combined with another report about the panel being combined with “a super-hard anti-reflective layer,” it could greatly strengthen the display.

Impressively, though, the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2x display is really bright. In fact, it reached a peak brightness of 1,860 nits — a significant difference over the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s reach of 1,553 nits.

Not only does it make it practical to use outside, but the AMOLED panel continues to produce vibrant colors that make everything so delightful to watch.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra: Cameras

We put many of the best camera phones through a proper face-off to determine which one is better. In our 200 photo shootout with the Galaxy S25 Ultra vs. iPhone 16 Pro Max, it was Apple who came out on top — with one of the narrowest margins we’ve seen. According to the rumors, Apple could widen its gap in this area.

That’s because iPhone 17 Pro Max camera leaks hint at Apple giving its flagship a trio of 48MP cameras. The change would come to the telephoto camera, which would be up from the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s current 12MP sensor. However, this change could result in the zoom being ‘downgraded’ from 5x optical zoom to a 3.5x one. As we’ve seen countless times, Apple has leaned on different techniques to effectively enhance the performance of this telephoto camera. Meanwhile, the selfie camera is expected to be upgraded as well from the current 12MP shooter to a 24MP one.

Other new camera upgrades rumored to be coming include a variable aperture lens of some kind, but it’s unknown how much control Apple’s going to give shooters to adjust the aperture. Finally, Apple could finally give the iPhone the native ability to shoot video with the front and rear cameras simultaneously. This technically is a feature locked away and only accessible through third party apps, but this rumor suggests it could be natively offered through the iPhone camera app.

If that last feature sounds familiar, it should because the Galaxy S25 Ultra has offered dual capture for some time. The quadruple camera system on the back of the phone is still quite formidable, but Samsung definitely has an edge over Apple when it comes to the software. In fact, it has the most robust suite of tools and modes that cater to everyone — beginners to enthusiasts.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra: Performance

When the Galaxy S25 Ultra debuted, it certainly proved it had the muscle power to put it ahead of the iPhone 16 Pro Max in several categories. The Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC is no slouch, putting up a better score than the iPhone 16 Pro Max with its GeekBench 6 multi-core score of 9,829. It also delivered strong GPU performance that resulted in a much smoother average frame rate of 42.4 fps in 3DMark’s Solar Bay Unlimited test.

These synthetic benchmark tests all prove that the Galaxy S25 Ultra is a powerhouse, but you only need to use the phone normally with day-to-day tasks to see it’s legit. Not only is it smooth and responsive with basic actions like surfing the web and sending out emails, but it doesn’t slow down either when it’s multitasking upwards of three apps at the same time.

Naturally, Apple’s expected to outperform its rival whenever it debuts its next flagship model. The leaks hint at the A19 Pro calling the shots, which was earlier reported to be built using a 2-nanometer manufacturing process — but it has since been rumored to come to the iPhone 18 Pro instead.

Despite this, the A19 chips Apple is expected to use could be produced using an upgraded version of TSMC’s 3nm process. This should result in better power efficiency and increased performance. Other upgrades expected for the iPhone 17 Pro Max could include the introduction of a vapor chamber cooling system and 12GB of RAM, with the latter supposedly handling more on-device tasks with Apple Intelligence.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra: Software and AI

Apple has already introduced iOS 26, which is expected to be the software to launch alongside with the iPhone 17 Pro Max. There’s already a lot of buzz around Apple’s next mobile software, especially how it sees the biggest makeover in years courtesy of its Liquid Glass material design.

Aside from the visuals, iOS 26 is packed with rich new features such as Call Screening, expanded Visual Intelligence, Live Translation, and a redesigned camera app. There’s a lot more too that we discuss in our iOS 26 guide, but it’ll be interesting what Apple has in store specifically for the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

While the company did introduce a couple of new Apple Intelligence features with iOS 26, like the upgraded Image Playground and Genmoji, we were expecting a lot more. In fact, the Galaxy S25 Ultra arguably has the better AI features at this point — with new ones such as cross app actions and the Now Bar leading the way. And thanks to updates to the Gemini app, it gives the phone more multimodal AI features.

Beyond its extensive list of Galaxy AI features, the S25 Ultra is a productivity powerhouse that puts the iPhone to shame. Not only does it offer true multi-tasking, but it also has S Pen support as an added bonus and Samsung DeX for that desktop PC-like experience.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra: Outlook

Based on all the rumors so far, Apple really has a good chance at coming out on top in an iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra comparison. If the A19 Pro chip proves to be the juggernaut that the leaks hint it to be, while introducing more Apple Intelligence features to round out its software package, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is in good shape at being the phone to beat this fall. Other upgrades, like its rumored 48MP telephoto camera and display improvements, could only widen the gap over the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

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