Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra / Apple iPhone 15 Plus

The Samsung Newsroom release is dated 23 January Korea time; the event was 22 January in US time.

Samsung notes memory options may vary by market and usable storage is lower because of preloaded software. There is no card slot.

Samsung quotes 40% NPU, 37% CPU and 30% GPU gains over the previous generation. This version is tuned for Galaxy with higher clocks than the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite.

The vapor chamber spreads heat from the chip into the body, helping clocks hold longer in extended gaming.

The viewable area is smaller than the diagonal because of rounded corners and the camera hole. Refresh that drops to 1 Hz saves power on static content; Vision Booster adjusts tone mapping in bright light.

Dynamic Island uses the front camera cut-out as an area for notifications and Live Activities. Apple does not list ProMotion for this model; the display is not 120 Hz. Because the corners are rounded, the actual viewable area is slightly smaller than the 6.69-inch rectangle.

Used on the front only. Corning says it survived drops of up to 2.2 m onto a concrete-like surface in internal lab tests; this is not a durability guarantee for any given phone.

Titanium is used only on the frame, excluding the volume and side keys.

Per Samsung, 3× and 5× are optical; 2× and 10× are “optical quality” zoom made by sensor cropping. OIS is optical image stabilisation.

The 2x telephoto is not a separate lens; it uses the centre of the 48 MP main sensor (Apple says it is “enabled by quad-pixel sensor”). Photos can be 24 MP or 48 MP; digital zoom goes up to 10x.

Log records a flat profile for colour grading; results depend on the editing workflow. Audio Eraser can reduce layers such as voices, music, wind and crowd separately in videos.

Action mode crops the image to apply strong digital stabilisation when running or in a vehicle, which is why it tops out at 2.8K.

The 45 W adapter is sold separately. Samsung quotes up to 31 hours of video playback. Wireless PowerShare charges earbuds or a watch from the back of the phone.

According to Android Central’s one-year report, the phone received One UI 8 (Android 16) ahead of schedule.

5G/LTE availability depends on market and carrier.

Water resistance is not permanent and may diminish over time.

Colour availability varies by country and carrier.

The outdoor peak is used briefly in strong sunlight; the HDR peak applies to HDR video and photos.

Ultra Wideband shows the direction and distance of a nearby item or friend in Find My; availability varies by region. This UK page does not list mmWave 5G.

Satellite features work only in certain countries and in open areas without mobile or Wi-Fi coverage.

Apple quotes 6 hours more video playback than the iPhone 15.

Although the port is USB-C, data speed is USB 2. Native DisplayPort output over USB-C mirrors video up to 4K HDR. No power adapter is included; a USB-C charge cable that supports fast charging is in the box.

The SIM tray is on models sold outside the US; eSIM use depends on carrier support.