Samsnung Galaxy S25 Ultra versus iPhone 16 Pro: a new king?

The new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra has finally landed, giving us Samsung’s take on a flagship smartphone for 2025. It has all the typical improvements you’d expect out of an upgrade like this, including a large 6.9-inch display, Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, and a list of AI features so long that it would take a thousand words just to name them all. But when it comes to its cameras, there’s really only one improvement – the new 50MP ultra-wide sensor which also doubles as the macro camera. Samsung’s Ultra-lineup has needed an ultra-wide sensor upgrade for years and it looks like this one kits the spot.

Save up to $1,200 on the Galaxy S25 Ultra

Unfortunately, Samsung hasn’t given us any upgrades for the other sensors on the phone, but we do finally get LOG video capture (up to 120fps on the main and ultra-wide cameras). For content creators who rely on their smartphones to record video, this is quite significant.

For those of you curious as to how the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra‘s cameras fare when compared to the iPhone 16 Pro, we’ve put together a detailed camera comparison that shows more than 100 side-by-side photos and videos from the two devices in different lighting conditions. Take a look at the video and image gallery below and let us know what camera you like best.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra camera specifications

200 MP, f/1.7, 24mm (wide), 1/1.3″, 0.6µm, multi-directional PDAF, OIS
10 MP, f/2.4, 67mm (telephoto), 1/3.52″, 1.12µm, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom
50 MP, f/3.4, 111mm (periscope telephoto), 1/2.52″, 0.7µm, PDAF, OIS,
5x optical zoom
50 MP, f/1.9, 120˚ (ultrawide), 0.7µm, dual pixel PDAF, Super Steady video
Selfie: 12 MP, f/2.2, 26mm (wide), 1/3.2″, 1.12µm, dual pixel PDAF
Video: 8K@24/30fps, 4K@30/60/120fps, 1080p@30/60/240fps, 10-bit HDR, HDR10+, stereo sound rec., gyro-EIS

Apple iPhone 16 Pro camera specifications

48 MP, f/1.8, 24mm (wide), 1/1.28″, 1.22µm, dual pixel PDAF, sensor-shift OIS
12 MP, f/2.8, 120mm (periscope telephoto), 1/3.06″, 1.12µm, dual pixel PDAF, 3D sensor‑shift OIS, 5x optical zoom
48 MP, f/2.2, 13mm (ultrawide), 0.7µm, PDAF
TOF 3D LiDAR scanner (depth)
Selfie: 12 MP, f/1.9, 23mm (wide), 1/3.6″, PDAF, OIS
Video: 4K@24/25/30/60/100/120fps