Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra / Apple iPhone 16

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.

Typical brightness is 1000 nits, 1600 nits HDR and 2000 nits peak outdoors, with a 1-nit minimum. 2,000,000:1 contrast, P3 wide colour and True Tone. Apple does not list a refresh rate; ProMotion and always-on display are on the Pro models.

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 2× view comes from the centre of the 48 MP sensor rather than a separate lens. There is a 4× optical zoom range and up to 10× digital zoom; the ultra-wide camera can shoot macro.

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.

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.

Ultra Wideband availability varies by region. Emergency SOS and Roadside Assistance via satellite are supported, with service duration and country coverage set by Apple.

Water resistance is not permanent and may diminish over time.

Splash, water and dust resistance is not permanent and may decrease over time; liquid damage is not covered by warranty.

Colour availability varies by country and carrier.

Apple says the A18, built on second-generation 3 nm technology, is up to 30% faster in CPU and 40% in GPU than the A16 Bionic and supports hardware ray tracing. The A18 Pro in iPhone 16 Pro is a different chip.

Apple says it is 50% tougher than the first-generation Ceramic Shield. The back is colour-infused glass and the frame is aluminium.

Apple says Camera Control combines a tactile switch for clicks, a force sensor for light presses and a capacitive sensor for swipes. It opens the camera, takes photos and starts video recording.

SIM layout may vary by country model.

Wired data transfer is limited to USB 2 speed, so moving large video files by cable is slower than on the Pro models.

Reaching 50% in 30 minutes over MagSafe needs a 30 W or higher adapter. There is no adapter in the box, only a USB-C cable.

Measured under Apple’s test conditions; real results vary with use and settings. Apple does not publish the capacity in mAh.

The high-g accelerometer is used for Crash Detection.