The art of smartphone photography has now advanced to the point that it’s flirting with traditional camera quality. It’s not there yet, but the iPhone 17 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra produced the strongest cases yet for leaving the bulky big camera and lens behind.
Naturally, though, there’s a question of which phone to take (or buy). If you’re a photography buff or even just someone who appreciates a good still image, these two flagship phones and their arrays of cameras and lenses do not make things easy.
I decided to do a somewhat limited test just to see how the two phones handle the basics. No adjustments or tapping on the screen to enforce focus or exposure; just find the subjects, point and shoot with both phones. I did sometimes choose specific lenses for certain scenes, but otherwise I left well enough alone.
So who wins? It’s complicated because both smartphones are capable of excellent photography. There are more megapixels than ever and tons of controls. This test, though, is for all the people who don’t fiddle with settings; they just pull the phone out of their pocket, point, and shoot. In that scenario, one phone rises ever so lightly above the other.
First, a reminder about the cameras on the two phones:
iPhone 17 Pro Max:
- Main: 48MP f/1.78
- Ultra-wide: 48MP f/2.2
- Telephoto: 48MP (4x optical) f/2.8
- Selfie camera: 18MP
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
- Main camera: 200MP f/1.7
- 5x telephoto: 50MP (also provides the 10x zoom through a sensor crop) f/3.4
- 3x optical: 10MP f/2.4
- Ultra-wide: 50MP f/1.9
- Selfie camera: 12MP
This was an opportunistic challenge, meaning I shot what I saw when I saw it. I generally did not go hunting for moments; I just looked at what was around me, aimed the cameras, and took the shots.
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That’s why this first image is a macro shot of a pollen-covered bee on a flower. For each photo, I got as close as I could to the bee with the ultrawide lenses, while remaining in focus and not getting stung. I captured these two remarkable images.
A few things jump out immediately. The S25 Ultra’s contrast is quite strong, but there’s also a lack of dynamic range. While there is an exquisite level of detail in the bee and pollen, the bug is also lost a bit in the dark business of its surroundings.
Apple‘s macro here is warmer, and the steps from deep black on the bee’s back to the white flowers are far more subtle. The green leaves look more sunlit in the iPhone 17 Pro Max image. While in the S25 ultra, we get a vibrant green but lose the sunlit color information.
Winner: iPhone 17 Pro Max
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While not a perfect match, I often compared the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s 48MP 4x optical zoom to the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s 50MP 5x optical zoom.
In this flowerpot shot, the S25 Ultra again pushed the contrast, but in this instance, it works in its favor. Samsung’s flowerpot looks far more striking than the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s somewhat over-exposed version.
At 100% both images have a bit more graininess than I prefer, but the detail is strong across each one. Still, I prefer Samsung’s approach here. It maintained the color truth while adding enough contrast to make the entire scene pop.
Winner: Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
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I took the same shot with each phone’s main camera and got similar results. Although I had better luck finding the focus point on each. For the iPhone 17 Pro Max, it picked the nearest flower in the vase. The Galaxy S25 Ultra chose a flower on the top left. That focus point gave each photo a bit more depth and clarity.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max shot still looks a little overexposed, at least compared to the S25 Ultra, which offers a better range from deep black to vibrant yellow. While the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s depth of field is a bit deeper, the use of contrast in the Samsung image also helps everything look more well-defined.
Winner: Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
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I looked up and spotted these buds and three-petaled dogwood flowers against an almost cloudless, azure sky. They were too far away for the main camera, so I used the 4x zoom on the iPhone 17 Pro Max and the 5x zoom on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
No doubt, most people would be very pleased with either image, but I did spot some differences.
On the Samsung S25 ultra image, the colors are a bit unnatural. The sky is too blue, and the pink petals are too bright. In fact, the entire bunch of buds and flowers has an odd glow and looks a little like a cutout against the sky. Speaking of which, I can spot some stair-stepping pixelation in the sky with some tiny darker blue spots mixed in with the lighter blue.
By contrast, the iPhone 17 Pro Max image looks real and true. The flowers are against the sky background, but seem fully a part of the scene. The colors are clear, bright, and accurate, and the sky is a lovely combination of light and deep blue, with no visible stair-stepping between the color variations.
Winner: iPhone 17 Pro Max
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Not all selfie cameras are made equal
Samsung’s front-facing camera is a 10MP sensor. Behind Apple’s new Center Stage front-facing camera is a new square, 18MP sensor. Apple isn’t always using all those megapixels to capture an image. In fact, the new landscape mode, which does not require rotating the phone, is clearly a sensor crop (that’s the mode I used for this test shot). Even so, the megabyte difference between my iPhone and Galaxy selfies is notable. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra selfie defaulted to a roughly 4K 2.3MB image, while the iPhone 17 Pro Max captured a nearly 5K 4.1MB image.
As with other images, the Galaxy S25 Ultra leans into contrast, which makes all the colors a bit less warm. My skin tone and the detail are excellent, and there’s a nice contrast between my face and the shadows. Where the S25 Ultra stumbled a bit is in colors. In shadow, my gray sweatshirt turns a dark blue. Plus, the texture of my hat is almost distracting.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max makes it clear that the light source is sunlight; one half of my face is bathed in a warm, yellow glow. The side that’s in shadow is, I think, the perfect skintone color and level of detail. The iPhone 17 Pro Max also did a much better job of maintaining the sweatshirt color. It’s light gray in the sunlight, and a dark, truthful gray in the shadow.
I didn’t adjust the image or try to turn it into a portrait mode shot, but I noticed that the iPhone 17 Pro Max automatically did a better and more visually pleasing bokeh than the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which left the background a little too sharp and oversaturated, distracting from the selfie.
Winner: iPhone 17 Pro Max
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Samsung and Apple both offer sensor crop options that essentially double their telephoto efforts without introducing a ton of digital garbage.
For the Galaxy S25 Ultra, a sensor crop on the 50MP 5X zoom results in a 10x-like zoom. Similarly, Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro Max sensor crops the 48MP 4X zoom to achieve an 8x approximation. Neither is pure optical, but by taking the center pixels and doing some image pipeline work, both phones produce surprisingly good 200mm lens approximations.
I like testing these capabilities on skies and clouds because I think they’re some of the most challenging photography subjects.
Both of these images look good, but where the iPhone 17 Pro Max produces a clear blue and quite smooth sky, the Galaxy S25 Ultra struggles with the blue expanse. I can see pixelation and stair-stepping between lighter and darker blues.
Where Apple’s clouds are smooth, detailed, and wispy, the S25 Ultra’s cloud formations devolve into some jarring pixellation. Again, these are not issues you’ll notice unless you look at the images, as I did, at 100%. Honestly, the level of clear detail in the 17 Pro Max image is remarkable.
Winner: iPhone 17 Pro Max
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For this last image set, I focused the primary zoom lenses (4x on the iPhone and 5x on the Galaxy) on some pigeons on my roof.
The quality differences here are minimal. Both phones capture the full range of pigeon colors, including the splash of pink on the bird’s neck. The blue sky looks perfect in each image.
Where the iPhone 17 Pro Max nudges ahead is on some of the feather details and, more noticeably, on my eaves. While I wish they were as white and clean as depicted in the S25 Ultra image, I know they’re as dirty and mottled as they appear in the iPhone 17 Pro Max frame.
Shadows and other details are more or less a wash.
Winner: iPhone 17 Pro Max
There you have it. Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro Max edged out the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra in five of my seven image tests, but it’s by no means a slam dunk. I’m sure the majority of people would be pleased with any of the S25 Ultra images. It’s only in direct contrast with the 17 Pro Max photos that we see the relatively minor shortcomings.
In the end, though, if you want the best smartphone photography, it’s clear the iPhone 17 Pro Max should be at the top of your list.
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lance.ulanoff@futurenet.com (Lance Ulanoff)
