iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Which flagship will win?

The iPhone 17 Pro Max has been officially unveiled by Apple, and it looks set to be one of the best phones of 2025, even if the new 2TB size will cost a small fortune.

Our iPhone 17 Pro Max review will be up soon, but in the meantime, just how does it compare to its luxury Android rival, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra? Here’s how it stacks up in terms of performance, design, camera flexibility and more.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Specifications

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Price and release date

The iPhone 17 Pro Max is available to pre-order now, with the handset hitting early adopters’ pockets on Friday, September 19. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, meanwhile, has been available since February 7.

The phones are similarly priced, and they aren’t cheap. For the iPhone 17 Pro, $1,199 gets you the 256GB model, with 512GB, 1TB and 2TB versions priced at $1,399, $1,599 and $1,999, respectively. The Galaxy S25 Ultra, meanwhile, starts at $1,299 for 256GB with 512GB and 1TB options available for $1,419 and $1,659.

While the two have similar MSRPs, Samsung’s eight-month head start means the Galaxy S25 Ultra may be the value option, especially if you’re prepared to look at the pre-owned market, where prices have naturally dipped over time.

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

When it comes to design, Samsung has stuck with broadly the same Galaxy Ultra design it’s had since the S22 Ultra, while Apple has mixed things up a bit with the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Gone is the square camera block in the top left, replaced with a Pixel-style camera bar, and Apple has even introduced some more standout colors with a bright orange and dark blue replacing the more plain stylings of previous generations.

Both phones have large 6.9-inch 120Hz panels, making them great for power users. However, in terms of sharpness, there’s a slight advantage to Samsung with its higher resolution of 3,120 x 1,440 beating the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s 2,868 x 1,320. That’s around 498 pixels per inch versus 460.

And Samsung has another ace up its sleeve here: the S Pen. Samsung’s clever stylus sits inside the phone, letting you doodle and annotate things to your heart’s content. The Apple Pencil remains incompatible with iPhones, so advantage Samsung on that score.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Performance and battery life

We won’t know for sure until we run the benchmarks for ourselves, but on performance, Apple is almost certain to have the edge.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy that powers the S25 Ultra is nearly a year old now, and — graphical output aside — things were pretty close against Apple’s last-generation mobile chip, the A18 Pro:

Leaked A19 Pro benchmarks suggest the iPhone 17 Pro Max will take the lead again here, and there’s talk of the phone matching the M2 MacBook Pro for graphical grunt.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max is also reportedly getting a bump in RAM, taking it up to 12GB. That’s the same as the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, but it is new to iOS loyalists, who have previously seen their handsets max out at 8GB.

Even more important, however, is the huge boost to battery capacity Apple has deployed with the iPhone 17 Pro Max. While its predecessor had a 4,685mAh cell, the new model packs a massive 5,088mAh battery (or 4,823mAh in versions with a SIM-card slot sold outside the U.S.)

Once again, our battery tests will reveal how big a step up this is in real terms, but it’s likely to be decent. While the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra has a 5,000mAh battery, it was already beaten by the iPhone 16 Pro Max in our testing, with the former scoring 17 hours and 14 minutes to the latter’s 17 hours and 35 minutes.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Cameras

Camera performance looks set to be a fascinating battle. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra currently tops our list of the best camera phones with its excellent quad array comprising a 200MP main sensor, a 5x 50MP periscope lens, a 3x 10MP telephoto snapper and a 50MP ultrawide camera. But Apple is bringing the big guns to the table with the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

The phone will feature a 48MP telephoto lens with 4x optical zoom, which will offer 8x zoomed images via cropping at 12MP. Not only that, but Apple says the phone’s camera has a 56% larger sensor, meaning that low-light performance should be given a big boost.

Will it be enough to knock Samsung off top spot? We’ll know when we’ve put it through its paces, so watch this space.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Outlook

Even with a few known unknowns, the iPhone 17 Pro Max feels like a huge step forward for Apple. The new 48MP telephoto lens should be a huge improvement for camera buffs, the larger battery should boost its already impressive stamina, and the extra 4GB RAM is extremely welcome too.

But it’s not a slam dunk against Samsung’s flagship. On paper, these improvements are really just bringing the specs in line with the S25 Ultra, rather than eclipsing it. And with the bundled S Pen, Samsung probably still has the productivity edge.

It’s also worth remembering that while the iPhone 17 Pro Max is brand new, its Samsung rival is over halfway through its life, with the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra expected in early 2026. It’s likely that any performance advantages the iPhone 17 Pro Max has will be reversed then.

For now, though, we should know if Apple’s improvements make it the ultimate winner very soon. Keep an eye out for when our iPhone 17 Pro Max hands-on review gets updated to a full one, with benchmarks and camera samples to test whether Apple’s marketing promises hold water or not.