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

[Saturn007]

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.

💯% agree. Make it a real blind “taste test”, switching A-B randomly, and have MR readers vote on each.

Follow-up a week later with a report in the results!

nothing beats samsungs zoom.

Any old zoom digicam from 10-15 years ago does!

P.S. Time for some company to put out a modern smart phone built around a travel zoom digital camera. With a bigger, yet still pocketable, device, it could have a larger battery and multi-day battery life.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Just think if Apple decided to make a camera as good as they can that can also cover telephony functions and apps instead of only making a phone that is trying to also be a good camera.

That's not saying REPLACE iPhone with iCamera... but adding iCamera. Stop fighting the laws of optical physics colliding with the marketing wants of "thinner" and thus make it the thickness it needs to be to take breathtaking photos.

Those still wanting the "as is" can keep getting the "as is" and those wanting a camera more than a phone could buy the camera and take/make occasional calls just I do by subbing in cellular iPad mini as my "phone": buds with VOIP app.

 

[J53119]

P.S. Time for some company to put out a modern smart phone built around a travel zoom digital camera. With a bigger, yet still pocketable, device, it could have a larger battery and multi-day battery life.

I don't think smartphone cameras will advance until Apple and Samsung stop rushing to be the slimmest design of the year.

I would happily take a smartphone "tank" for a superior camera.

 

[Mousse]

I don't think smartphone cameras will advance until Apple and Samsung stop rushing to be the slimmest design of the year.

Some Chinese phone manufacturers have 1" sensors on their phones: Xiaomi 13 Pro and Vivo X90 Pro for example. Samsung and Apple aren't the only game in town. Oh wait, they are in the US.😑

 

[sherwinzadeh]

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.

I'm saying as a reference to rate what the photo *should* look like. We're being asked to rate which photo is better but we don't have what to base the decision on.

 

[Zindre]

Thanks for a good camera comparison!

Off topic, but cool: You may be able to see the article video and photos in 3D! I guess it was not intended from the editors. But look at it cross-eyed if you are able to. Both the photos and the video of the narrator will be in 3D as it seems they are shot simultaneously with the 2 different phones side-by-side.

 

[Abazigal]

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.

It’s supposedly coming to the EU in April, together with a bunch of other countries (including Singapore).

Apple Intelligence Rolling Out in the European Union Starting in April 2025

Apple plans to roll out Apple Intelligence features to iPhone and iPad users in the European Union starting in April 2025, according to information...

www.macrumors.com

Also, not all AI is created equal. Depending on how it works, that could explain whether it contravenes the terms of the DMA or not.

 

[Octavius8]

Iphone camera has not fixed the green dots in night video since iphone x?, which means that Apple actually is not coing much with the cameras.

 

[9081094]

I would like macrumors to do a unbiased comparison between the two flagships. Something like this: