iPhone 16 Pro Max Beaten by Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra in App Loading Speed Test

[MacRumors]

Apple's iPhone 16 Pro Max has been comprehensively beaten by the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra in a real world app speed test conducted by PhoneBuff, with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip and 12GB of RAM winning out over the A18 Pro chip and 8GB of RAM in Apple's smartphone.

The performance test measured how long it took each phone to open and process tasks across a series of apps. Each smartphone cycled through identical apps, including Facebook, Starbucks, Microsoft Office apps, Snapseed, and various games.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra established an early lead through productivity apps and maintained its advantage in image editing tasks, with Snapseed exports completing significantly faster than on the iPhone. Most notably, the Galaxy processed video in LumaFusion approximately 25% faster than the iPhone 16 Pro Max – an area where Apple's smartphones have traditionally excelled.

Even in gaming performance, which historically has been an iPhone strength, Samsung's flagship maintained its edge. The S25 Ultra matched or outperformed the iPhone in most games tested, including Subway Surfers and Flip Diving, but the iPhone did manage slim victories in Going Balls and Forward Assault.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra completed the first lap of app launches in 2 minutes and 18 seconds, a full 15 seconds ahead of the iPhone 16 Pro Max. In the second lap, which tests how well the phones maintain apps in memory, the iPhone managed to reduce the gap slightly, but the Galaxy still secured what PhoneBuff called Samsung's "biggest speed test win in years."

Samsung's impressive performance is likely a consequence of its overclocked Snapdragon 8 Elite chip and a 40% larger cooling system, combined with Android 15 and One UI 7 running with an extra 4GB of RAM available. Both devices demonstrate exceptional real-world performance, but the test results suggest Samsung has taken a significant lead in raw processing capability, despite the extra time Apple has had to optimize iOS 18 for its hardware.

Apple typically upgrades iPhones with faster and more efficient chip technology each year, so it will be interesting to see how the iPhone 17 performs when the new series debuts in September. Apple's A19 chip technology is likely to be built on an upgraded 3-nanometer process, which TSMC calls N3P, and the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are expected to include an A19 Pro chip.

Compared to earlier versions of 3nm chips, the N3P chips offer increased performance efficiency and increased transistor density. All iPhone 17 models will also reportedly include a vapor chamber heatsink to improve thermal performance.

Article Link: iPhone 16 Pro Max Beaten by Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra in App Loading Speed Test

 

[titanium69]

Every year iphones get faster and faster... yet iOS still slows down after 2 major OS updates where absolutely nothing changes apart from the OS skin & a few useless/minor feature changes (which only run when you use them). No other brands do this despite being all round cheaper/worse quality or just weaker. Geee I wonder why...

 

[peterharte]

How is this important? Who uses android?

 

[m4mario]

Oh No, now all iOS users are going to totally switch to Samsung to get that 0.5 millisecond speed boost.

 

[MacFarmer]

There are so many variables, that this test does not make sense. And who the hell cares about this stuff?! There are much more important things in life then to care about app loading speed.

 

[Vol Braakzakje]

Lol. That battery percentage of the Samsung. That’s almost 30% more battery consumption…
I’d rather have extra battery life than marginally faster phone.

 

[Quasselstripper]

Emberrassing! Apple always claims how many light years ahead their chips and software are, that’s what we pay the premium for.

 

[System603]

Who uses android?

According to some stats:

• 3.3 to 3.9 billion users globally, roughly 70% market share [1]
• 42–44% of the U.S. market [2]

Those aren’t rookie numbers—that’s the majority of the world. Of course, probably only a very, very tiny fraction of them use the S25 [3].

Edit: Some fellow forum members seem to disagree with the stats, but alas, there's nothing I can do about the numbers. Don't shoot the messenger. 👎🤷‍♂️

Sources: [1] [2]
[3] no source here, just my estimate based on S25 being both new and flagship-priced

 

[Quasselstripper]

Lol. That battery percentage of the Samsung. That’s almost 30% more battery consumption…
I’d rather have extra battery life than marginally faster phone.

It started at 71% and went down to 70%. iPhone from 81 to 80. Would say pretty even.

 

[vertsix]

Good. Hope this causes Apple to improve and optimize iOS. It's been largely neglected in the stability and performance front after iOS 12.

 

[Infinite Vortex]

How is this important? Who uses android?

I use Android. I'm faster on Android, even a $300 Android phone, than an iPhone doing the same things and each minute I'm in front of a phone I feel my life bleeding away. The iPhone always requires me to use 2 hands where Android, at least with Samsung's OneUI, I can do a lot of things using the phone in a single hand.

 

[enkiera]

How is this important? Who uses android?

Android has a 70% worldwide market share so...most people?

 

[Radin.Y]

It’s very difficult to compare these two, because they are released mid-cycle of the other one, so it never seems a fair comparison. Or at least that’s my view.

 

[m1mini]

i mean, they have literally caught up in processing power, actually they are about %10 ahead of apple in multicore performance.

 

[Koni17]

How will I ever get by in life, being seconds slower than a Samsung after opening 50 apps! /s
I know these performance tests just try to show a difference between competitors, but these tests are just so unrealistic for real world use. In the end, a 5 year old iPhone is still fast enough for most people, apps and use cases. Now let's wait patiently for the iPhone 17 Pro Max comparison, which beats the Samsung. Rinse and repeat.

 

[mxrider88]

Probably due to rubbish software on iPhone.

But funny to read the comments here above.
For almost 2 decades we had those tests with iPhone winning and although not by much, people were praising Apple and screaming about how great iPhone was. Now suddenly the speed is not relevant anymore and there are too many variables on those tests.

Apple really brainwashed the masses.


I was the biggest Apple fan on the planet but at some stage in front of so much lack of quality control and an ecosystem where not a single thing works smoothly as marketed and designed, one must wake up and admit that Apple’s golden days are far behind us.

 

[Radin.Y]

Every year iphones get faster and faster... yet iOS still slows down after 2 major OS updates where absolutely nothing changes apart from the OS skin & a few useless/minor feature changes (which only run when you use them). No other brands do this despite being all round cheaper/worse quality or just weaker. Geee I wonder why...

I don’t know if anyone recalls the iPhone 3G. “iPhone OS 4” literally bricked the phone. It would take 30 seconds to load anything, super choppy animations. I had to bench the phone and get a new one.
Ever since then, I am really cautious of updating, and simply skip if no new functions are interesting to me.

 

[j26]

Both are shockingly fast - either phone would be a fine choice. It's totally down to OS preference/familiarity/ecosystem at this stage.

 

[letsGoOn2]

I've been feeling like I can't get my morning latte fast enough recently, so maybe this is what convinces me to switch? /s

 

[System603]

It’s very difficult to compare these two, because they are released mid-cycle of the other one, so it never seems a fair comparison. Or at least that’s my view.

At this point, comparing as a customer and user almost feels unnecessary, because for quite a few years now, I’ve had the choice between at least two excellent devices (or device families) that I can rely on. Both Apple's and Samsung's flagships represent technological excellence, and my decision mostly comes down to my current personal preference.

It's interesting to see all these comparisons and it's great that it all pushes them to be better, to try to one up each other. That and my technical curiosity is where I see most of the value of these comparisons.

Samsung, Qualcomm, Google, and others have (usually?) lagged behind in computing power and efficiency. But now, it seems like they've caught up. That means Apple will have to push even harder to keep its SoC throne—or we might be hitting a plateau for a few years until some technological breakthrough gives one company a noticeable lead… before the others catch up again. Either way, as a consumer, I’m all for it.

 

[snipr125]

The reality is that Apple have lost their traditional 2 year advantage in single core CPU performance over Snapdragon etc. These new SD Elite chips really are a significant jump in performance for new Android flagships, and should be used in Tablets also (Galaxy Tab S8 range etc).

 

[Dr McKay]

Lol. That battery percentage of the Samsung. That’s almost 30% more battery consumption…
I’d rather have extra battery life than marginally faster phone.

I’m genuinely confused as to how you’ve arrived at this conclusion.

 

[anthogag]

I have seen android users do this when they’re bored. Open every single app in rapid succession. Laughing with a glee rarely seen in public.

 

[macfacts]

Every year iphones get faster and faster... yet iOS still slows down after 2 major OS updates where absolutely nothing changes apart from the OS skin & a few useless/minor feature changes (which only run when you use them). No other brands do this despite being all round cheaper/worse quality or just weaker. Geee I wonder why...

iOS is still indexing, here's a example of what happens when use it without waiting for it to finish indexing: can't find things when you use the built-in search(looking for apple AI settings in settings app):

 

[Vol Braakzakje]

It started at 71% and went down to 70%. iPhone from 81 to 80. Would say pretty even.

Did you even see the video? They both started at 100%... Dude...