The Samsung Galaxy S25 and Apple iPhone 16 are being sold at a similar price point but that doesn’t mean that the two have similar characteristics as well. While we have already compared their cameras in detail and found out that they cater to a different subset of users each, here’s a full comparison of the two devices which excludes the cameras but includes everything else, from display, to performance and software.
Build Quality & Design
The Samsung Galaxy S25 and the Apple iPhone 16 both carry a premium price tag, which means they have to have a premium build quality. As a result, both devices exude a premium feel in the hand, with flat frames, displays, and rear panels.
However, the Galaxy S25 is slightly more comfortable to hold in the hand, likely due to its narrower and thinner form factor. Furthermore, the Galaxy S25 looks much better from the front due to its thinner bezels and a smaller punch-hole compared to the iPhone 16’s thicker bezels and dynamic island.
While the build quality is equally good, and both are comfortable to hold, the design of the Galaxy S25 is much better in terms of functionality and even looks.
The iPhone 16 does have an advantage, though, and that is the extra two buttons: the camera control and Action buttons. The S25 has no other buttons apart from the usual volume rocker and power button. While some may not use these, they still serve as functional and useful buttons that the S25 lacks.
Display
The iPhone 16 has a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR panel that supports HDR, a 60Hz refresh rate, TruTone, and 1600 nits of peak HDR brightness.
The Galaxy S25 has a 6.2-inch FHD+ (2,340 x 1,080) Dynamic AMOLED 2x screen with a 120 Hz refresh rate. It supports HDR10+, has a Pixel density of 418 PPI, and is covered with a layer of Gorilla Glass Victus 2.
Once again, the Galaxy S25 takes the win here for obvious reasons. It has a less obstructive punch hole on the top, narrower bezels, slightly better colours, is brighter, and most importantly, supports a higher refresh rate of 120Hz, which is a deal breaker.
In our experience with the two devices, the Galaxy S25 panel was also more responsive to the touch in games and showed better colours in streaming apps like Netflix.
Speakers & Haptics
The Haptics on both the Samsung Galaxy S25 and Apple iPhone 16 are quite tight and feel premium, but the iPhone 16 does a better job in this area, with stronger vibrations that are slightly more precise when it comes to ringtones. They also sync better with the sound compared to Samsung’s haptics.
As for the speakers, the iPhone 16 speakers sound fuller, are louder, and have more bass, while Samsung’s speakers focus more on vocals with less bass. The sound tuning may be subjective, but in our opinion, the iPhone does have superior speakers in terms of audio quality.
Battery Life
The battery on the Galaxy S25 is a 4000mAh cell with 25W fast charging, while the iPhone 16 has an even smaller 3561mAh cell with unspecified charging speeds. However, Apple does claim the device will charge 50% in 30 minutes.
In our testing, the Galaxy S25 took about 1 hour and 15 minutes to charge from 0 to 100, while Apple’s iPhone 16 was nowhere close, taking up to 2 hours to charge from 0 to 100 with the same charger and cable.
Both devices support wireless charging as well.
As for runtimes, the iPhone 16, despite having a smaller cell, delivered better battery life. That’s because it doesn’t have Always-on display support and a 60Hz refresh rate, which is easier on the battery and not quite demanding. The device gave us up to 8 hours of screen-on time.
The Galaxy S25 was consistent with a 6 to 6.5-hour screen-on time, but with wallpaper AOD and 120Hz refresh, which is quite impressive. Both devices were able to last us a day, but the iPhone 16 lasted a little more on some days due to the reasons we mentioned above.
Despite the iPhone performing better in some cycles, we think the Galaxy S25 deserves to be the winner because it has a bigger battery and faster charging time and delivers a decent runtime with all the demanding features turned on.
Software & Performance
This is where the two devices are poles apart. It also sparks the traditional iOS versus Android debate, but we won’t get into that. We’ll focus more on the performance and features each device has and which is suitable for you. With that mind, the performance and smoothness of both devices are decent, but the Galaxy S25’s 120Hz refresh rate helps make the experience more fluid.
The animations feel far better, and with granular control available for a certain set of animations, things get even better. The feature set is vast in One UI 7, from multi-control to storage sharing between the Samsung ecosystem of devices. You’ll get the best experience if you prefer customisation on your device along with productivity.
Animations on the iPhone 16 feel less smoother but same as the S25, it hasn’t lagged once during our testing. It did have a lot of software issues at launch, as we noted in our review, but those seem to have been ironed out with updates. While the customisation on offer is decent, it doesn’t match One UI 7 at all. The experience is more towards the minimal side with iOS 18. Furthermore, if you are already in the Apple Ecosystem and have products like a Mac, Apple Watch, or an iPad, the iPhone 16 will definitely suit you better. Productivity features and security are also handled well on the Apple device.
Some extras are available with the iPhone, such as Apple Arcade, for those who prefer the service’s exclusive games. Speaking of gaming, both devices are quite good at handling high-end gaming and other demanding tasks. They do heat up if things get a little too demanding, but none of them show signs of throttling.
RAM management is good in both the Samsung Galaxy S25 and Apple iPhone 16 but the former is slightly better, likely because it gets a higher amount of physical RAM. Coming to the talk of the town, AI, Samsung is again in the lead with more features on offer that are better in quality. Gemini is still superior to Siri in terms of features and performance. The number of AI features on offer is higher in the Galaxy S25, and even their integration within the system is superior.
Overall, the experience on both devices was stable and smooth but the Galaxy S25 excels in this department due to multiple reasons, with one of the main ones being smoother and faster performance.
Verdict
In our opinion, the Galaxy S25 is the better smartphone out of the two, and we say that with experience. Yes, the iPhone 16 is decent, too, but it doesn’t match the quality of the software and the fluidity of the Galaxy S25. Being in the Apple ecosystem, liking the camera control or iOS could definitely be the factors that drive your decision towards purchasing the iPhone 16, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but if you are neither in Samsung’s ecosystem nor in Apple’s, then the Galaxy S25 is a better choice to opt for in comparison to the iPhone.
