Galaxy S25 vs. iPhone 16: Is Apple Falling Behind in the Flagship Race?

Comparison and evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S25 and Apple iPhone 16 flagship phones in 2025

Samsung has just released its entry-level flagship phone for 2025: the Galaxy S25. The phone has a slim body, a powerful chipset and a triple-camera system, which competes directly with the entry-level iPhone 16. Let's take a look at the comparison of these two flagship phones.

Price and time to market

The Galaxy S25 with 128GB of storage costs $799.99. Bookings for the smartphone are now available on Samsung’s official website and other retail partners such as Amazon and Best Buy. The Galaxy S25 will be officially launched on February 7, 2025. The price of Apple iPhone 16 (128GB) is also $799.

The Galaxy S25 is thinner and lighter than the iPhone 16

While both smartphones have compact body sizes, they differ in some key aspects. The Galaxy S25 measures 146.9 x 70.5 x 7.2 mm, which is slightly shorter, slightly narrower and thinner than the iPhone 16 with a size of 147.6 x 71.6 x 7.8 mm.

In addition, Samsung's latest flagship phone weighs 162 grams, 8 grams lighter than the iPhone 16 (170 grams). The similarities between the two phones include: an aluminum frame, rounded corner design, and IP68 dust and waterproof rating.

The Galaxy S25 uses Corning Gorilla Victus 2 glass on the front (probably the same on the back), while the iPhone 16 uses the latest generation of ceramic shield glass on the front and stained glass on the back.

In terms of color, the Galaxy S25 is available in ice blue, navy blue, mint green and silver shadow grey. The iPhone 16 comes in deep sea blue, pink, blue green, white and black.

The Galaxy S25 has a brighter and smoother screen

Galaxy S25 is equipped with a 6.2-inch FHD Dynamic AMOLED 2x screen and supports a "super smooth" refresh rate with variable refresh rates from 1 to 120Hz (not on iPhone 16). The frames around the screen are very narrow and there is a punch-hole front camera on the top.

Since Samsung does not mention the display brightness in the official specification sheet, we assume that the S25 uses the S24's peak brightness 2600 nits. The Galaxy S25 also has an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner below the AMOLED screen.

The iPhone 16 comes with a slightly smaller 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR screen and has long stuck with a 60Hz refresh rate. However, the panel can reach a peak brightness of 2000 nits in direct sunlight. The bezels around the iPhone 16 screen are symmetrical, but slightly thicker than the Galaxy S25.

To accommodate the front camera and Face ID sensor, the iPhone 16 uses a "dynamic island" (pill-shaped groove).

Comparison of Galaxy S25's Snapdragon 8 Elite processor and Apple's A18 chipset

Although both the Galaxy S25 and iPhone 16 use top-notch processors based on TSMC's 3nm process technology, there are some key differences between the two.

The Galaxy S25 is equipped with the eight-core Snapdragon 8 Elite "for Galaxy" version, and has improved in four key areas: CPU, GPU, NPU and cooling management. The chipset's CPU performance is about 37% higher than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

With the Vulkan Engine API and improved ray tracing technology, the Galaxy S25 can generate more realistic light, shadows and reflections in the game. The improved NPU can now fully localize cloud-based Galaxy AI features such as Generative Edit to devices.

Finally, Samsung has added a new heat dissipation mechanism to the device, using a larger steam chamber to maintain optimal temperature and performance.

Although the Apple A18 is a six-core chipset, it performs very well on the iPhone 16. Compared with the A16 Bionic chip, the A18's CPU speed is 30%, the GPU speed is 40%, and the NPU speed is 2 times. It can handle all tasks from daily tasks to high-demand workflows, such as multitasking, running. AAA-level gaming (with hardware-accelerated ray tracing) and various GenAI features provided as Apple Intelligence.

The early GeekBench 6 list showed that the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy scored 2721/9435 points in single-core/multi-core performance tests, respectively. By comparison, my iPhone 16 scored 3194/7738 points in single-core/multi-core performance tests, respectively. Based on these data, the Snapdragon 8 Elite should be slightly better at handling multithreaded tasks.

The Galaxy S25 supports 5G (sub-6 GHz and mmWave), Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth v5.4, while the iPhone 16 also offers the same connectivity options, except that the Bluetooth version is v5.3.

Comparison between Galaxy AI and Apple Intelligence

Samsung's goal is to integrate Galaxy AI into every aspect of the Galaxy S25 series One UI 7. The AI ​​agent used on this smartphone (developed in collaboration with Google) provides better natural language and context-awareness in interactions including text, voice, images or video.

For example, a user can describe the appearance of the image to Gemini and ask it to find it in the gallery. The AI ​​voice assistant also has access to Samsung and Google apps on the Galaxy S25, allowing you to issue sequential commands containing multiple apps.

The "Ring Search" feature now recognizes the phone number, email ID, and URL on the screen. While the idea of ​​a voice assistant taking over my smartphone screen scares me, this is for discussion later. Additionally, Galaxy AI can now leverage screen perception to provide context-sensitive advice and perform personalized actions.

Yes, the Galaxy S25 continues to offer seven years of Android and security upgrade policies.

On the other hand, Apple's iPhone 16 gets a lot of GenAI features, especially in the new iOS 18.2 upgrade. While my favorite Apple Intelligence feature is Genmoji (and to some extent visual intelligence), other features like image playgrounds, writing tools, ChatGPT integration in Siri (with a more natural response) and web snippets also work well .

The Photos app on iPhone 16 can now use the Cleanup tool to remove interference in the background, while also providing improved image search capabilities through text-based descriptions. Nevertheless, Apple's implementation of AI-based capabilities is not as broad and mature as Galaxy AI.

For example, Siri does not have screen-awareness yet. Recently, Apple had to pause the notification summary feature of entertainment and news apps because the results were inaccurate. On the positive side, long-term software support has never been a problem for the iPhone.

The iPhone 16 released in 2024 should be available for at least four to five years of iOS updates, and new features will be added from time to time.

The Galaxy S25's telephoto camera adds versatility

Galaxy S25 is equipped with a triple camera system, including a 50MP (f/1.8) main sensor with OIS, a 12MP (f/2.2, 120°) ultra-wide-angle camera and a 10MP (f/2.4) with 3 The third camera of the magnitude telephoto lens. With this setting, you can not only take great portrait photos, but also use the 30x space zoom feature to capture the subjects in the distance. In addition, you can also shoot 8K videos at 30fps.

The front camera of the Galaxy S25 is 12MP (f/2.2). While these specs may sound familiar (as they were borrowed from the Galaxy S24), the Galaxy S25 can now shoot low-light videos with less noise, offering the audio canceller features we saw in the Pixel series, and in Virtually controls the depth of field in the Expert RAW interface.

In addition, Samsung has upgraded the Portrait Studio, added new simulation filters, and enabled 10-bit HDR video recording by default.

The iPhone 16 comes with a 48MP (f/1.6) main camera with OIS and a 12MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide-angle camera. However, it is not obvious that the main camera allows 2x lossless zoom (12MP resolution), but the maximum zoom ratio is 10x. In addition, the ultra-wide-angle sensor is equipped with automatic focus function, which can realize macro photography. Like the Galaxy S25, the iPhone 16 also comes with a 12MP (f/1.9) selfie camera.

While the iPhone 16 has a maximum recording specification of 4K Dolby Vision Video with 60fps, it offers 4K movie mode, action mode, spatial video recording (related to Vision Pro users), and two of my favorite features: Wind Noise suppression and audio mixing. Photography features include Smart HDR 5, the latest generation of photography styles, night view modes and spatial photos.

Yes, the iPhone 16 comes with new camera control buttons, but this is only useful for people who take too many photos or those who want to use visual intelligence.

Different battery capacity, but similar performance

The Galaxy S25 will be equipped with a 4000mAh battery when shipped out of the factory, supporting up to 25W of wired fast charging, Fast Wireless Charging 2.0 (WPC compatible) and wireless PowerShare.

In comparison, the iPhone 16 has a much smaller battery capacity, with only 3562 mAh, and supports up to 20W of wired charging, up to 25W of MagSafe charging (using a 30W adapter) and up to 7.5W of Qi wireless charging.

Last year, the Galaxy S24 was slightly better than the iPhone 16 in Tom's Guide battery test. Given the S25's more powerful chipset (in its overclocked version), we expect it to last as much as the iPhone 16.

Which flagship phone is suitable for you?

The Galaxy S25 seems to be a better smartphone on paper at least. If you like the smoother, brighter display, excellent Galaxy AI integration, and an extra telephoto camera that the Galaxy S25 offers, you won't go wrong with choosing the Galaxy S25. I also recommend that anyone using an Android smartphone or flagship phone that is three to four years old.

But if you are used to iOS, like the new Apple Intelligence feature, prefer wireless charging over wired charging, and have already established an Apple ecosystem, then you can choose the iPhone 16. I also recommend that users using iPhone 11 or iPhone 12 choose this phone.

##### Samsung Galaxy S25

$800 $900 Save $100 The Samsung Galaxy S25 is a powerful and compact smartphone with a 6.2-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display and a 120Hz refresh rate. It is equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, 12GB RAM and a 4000mAh battery, and supports 25W super fast charging.

View on Samsung View on Amazon View on Best Buy View on Verizon View on Verizon

##### Apple iPhone 16

Apple's latest iPhone, with camera buttons, programmable action buttons and artificial intelligence capabilities.

View on Apple View on Best Buy

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