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Camera Comparison: iPhone 16 Pro Max vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra

Hard to say without seeing it in living color by I like the contrast ratio of the iPhone (A) over the Samsung. In the past I have been impressed with Samsungs cameras though, their panoramic mode is very good.
 
Thought camera B was the iPhone for the front facing camera because it usually gives you a fisheye effect, most people do not disable that when they’re using it. :rolleyes:
 
Photos from both phones are good. Like the zoom of 25 Ultra. Hopefully with the 17 Pro Max rumored to get 48MP telephoto lens, 17 Pro/Pro Max can take 10x optical zoom like quality images
 
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HobeSoundDarryl said:
Good try MacRumors. May I suggest next time, hold the who's who for a followup article and maybe make this poll selections so people can click the favorite? This would be an ideal late week post to then not update until about TUE-WED of the following week.

And mix up the A & B, so the answer isn't so simply that "the favorite" is all A or all B.

Showing the answer so promptly would let some "cheat on the test." Consider locking the original voting thread before article #2, so that selections can't be edited after finding out who is who.

I'd love to see one of these where nobody can know until their selections are fully in and locked... a true blind test for all participants.
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I was thinking the exact same thing! This would be a very fun and objective experiment :)
 
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I chose correctly, but in all honesty they were pretty much evenly split for me with a slight tilt towards the iPhone. The good news? We have a decent camera in our pockets and purses regardless of which phone we choose.
 
Camera B in almost all of the cases. Camera A is a bit dramatic, sometimes so staturated, sometimes pale, a bit contrasty, has weird artefacts sometimes (low res?). Judging purely from that I guess that A is iPhone from experience.


And indeed it is, I know "my camera" well. *Some* of Android makers's flagships are better in photos for years now over their same-release-year Apple counterparts. Video seems still better or the same with iPhone. iPhone was a king by a longshot for so many years, not any more for some time but it's still much more than a decent camera every single year and it's amazing where we got from the beginning across the field.

I love how we benefit from the industry one-upping each other, year after year.
 
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I went with B for probably 80% of the photos.
I generally use RAW for what I consider my best photos so I'd really have to use them in that scenario to really see. Well played Samsung
 
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sherwinzadeh said:
I think all these comparisons should include a 3rd option which is a proper DSLR camera and both should be compared to that.
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Not to be rude but why?
I can't make calls from my DSLR and I don't carry it in my pocket. A DSLR will nearly always be better and more so if you have 10k of lenses.
 
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I think people on these types of forums feel they need to pick a brand and just be loyal to it regardless, but it clearly shows that the 2 cameras are very good and there is very little to pick between them. Some photos are marginally better on each. I am pretty happy with the camera on my 16 Pro Max and I have no doubt the S25 takes a very good picture too.
 
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Both of them are very good, especially when you frame them correctly and apply basic photography good lighting techniques. When you like to zoom in a lot, I think the Samsung has still the upper hand. But for everything else it is much a muchness and a preference.

PS. My camera with changeable lenses system is even better at zoom in and pixel peeping. Pixel peepers are never satisfied, me I just like a photo that tells a story. The most iconic ones ever were shot through jam jars compared to what we have in our pocket today.
 
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I just had to look at the photos of the guy in a cap, iPhone makes the skin tone red. Lately I also have seen that friends who not have iPhones gets more clarity in their photos and better sharpness. I see it in these examples too. Sadly I think that photos taken with a iPhone got really bad when Apple started to mess with "Computational photography".
 
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The Samsung could take a fake picture of the moon (HAHA) for all I care but until it runs on a different OS and not one ran by the evil google a data mining and collection company the iPhone is still my go to. I just don't trust google..
 
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But nobody is going to talk about how MacRumors got the specs on the iPhone's camera wrong? The 16 Pro lineup has a 48MP Ultra wide lens, not 12MP (and somehow MacRumors refers to 50MP instead of 48MP for the wide lens but I'll allow it). Not that it's the most important thing regarding the quality of the images, but for an Apple oriented blog I would assume the specs are at least correct and this way it would also make the Samsung look a tiny bit less impressive 😈
 
The Galaxy S25's cameras are technically better, but unfortunately it's still kind of let down by the image processing with the OneUI 7 camera software. It's the same issue that affects previous Galaxy S models. You're probably better off using a third party software to process the images taken by the Galaxy S25.
 
I quickly sussed A was the iPhone due to the excessive sharpening that's even a problem on my iPhone 13, which can lead to certain high-contract areas (such as the dude's shirt in the 3rd image) almost having a white outline round it. Seems they still haven't turned it off.
 
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To macrumors: can we have an AI comparison too?

I’ve read that all the AI on Samsung devices are able to work on older devices as well and also available in all common languages. It’s available in Europe too! Does Macrumors know why Apple AI isn’t available in the EU? If it involves the DMA the same would happen to Samsung. But it’s not.
 
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For being a site called "Macrumors", you would expect the writer to know the camera specs for the iPhone 16 Pro Max. The Main camera is 48MP (not 50MP), the Telephoto/Periscope is 12MP, and the Ultra-wide camera is 48MP (not 12MP).
 
In terms of picture quality, the differences between the two are negligible. They both take excellent pics. We are at a time where phone cameras on all flagships are beyond just being good. Anyone that tries to say the difference in picture quality in this comparison is a deal breaker, is a blind loyalist. Now the only thing that can be a deal breaker, that one does clearly better than the other is zoom. If you want more zoom, and it is an absolute must, then the S25U is the clear choice.
 
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Would be interesting to compare RAW photos, which I hope aren't processed with "AI" or anything. I use "auto" setup for 90% of my photos (or more), but to get some photos right I have to use Pro mode or even RAW. (Samsung)
 
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