Samsung Galaxy S25 vs iPhone 16: Different, but somehow the same

Historically, many Android enthusiasts and iOS fans have taken critical views of each other. The ecosystems compete directly, but each operating system has clearly taken cues from the other at various points. With software refinement peaking and hardware innovation plateauing, the smallest high-end phones from North America’s top two companies paint an interesting picture.

Samsung’s vaunted One UI interface frequently sees comparisons to iOS, which only got stronger as version 7 introduced features closely mimicking popular Apple interface considerations. Coupled with Samsung’s iPhone-reminiscent, stark design, it’s surprisingly hard to separate these two supposed competitors. The result is a pair of phones that would probably satisfy lovers of either platform.

Price, availability, and specs

Galaxy S25 preorders began shipping ahead of schedule, shortly after their announcement at 2025’s first Galaxy Unpacked event. Initial offers include the 128GB model for $800, with $100 in Samsung credit, or a nearly free upgrade to the 256GB variant, which comes with $50 to spend on Samsung accessories. You can get it from Samsung or the carrier or major third-party retailer of your choice, but the online-exclusive colors are only available from the manufacturer.

Apple launched the iPhone 16 in September 2024 for the same $800 sticker price. You won’t see many discounts or bundled deals on Apple’s new phones, and they’re not typically sold by official partners on Amazon, but they’re readily available from the OEM, carriers, and Best Buy. Let’s glance at the hardware, which couldn’t be more different.

• 	Samsung Galaxy S25	Apple iPhone 16
  SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy	Apple A18
  Display type	LTPO AMOLED, 120Hz	OLED, 60Hz
  Display dimensions	6.2″	6.1″
  Display resolution	2340 x 1080	2556 x 1179
  Storage	128GB, 256GB, 512GB	128GB, 256GB, 512GB
  Charge options	USB-C Wired, Qi wireless	USB-C, Qi2, MagSafe
  Ports	USB-C	USB-C
  Operating System	Android 15 and One UI 7	iOS 18
  Front camera	12MP f/2.2	12MP, f/1.9
  Rear camera	50MP f/1.8 main, 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide, 10MP f/2.4 3x telephoto	48MP, f/1.6 main; 12MP, f/2.2 ultrawide
  Wi-Fi connectivity	Wi-Fi 7	Wi-Fi 7
  Bluetooth	Bluetooth 5.4	Bluetooth 5.3
  Dimensions	146.9 x 70.5 x 7.2 mm	147.6 x 71.6 x 7.8mm
  Weight	162g	170g
  IP Rating	IP68	IP68
  Colors	Silver Shadow, Navy, Icy Blue, Mint	Black, White, Pink, Teal, Ultramarine
  Price	$800	Starting $799

Design: when competitors converge

Harder to tell apart than you’d expect

For better or worse, neither device will particularly stand out in a sea of flashy, modern electronics. Most people wrap their expensive phones in cases, so each one’s relatively bland colors shouldn’t turn a ton of buyers off. Visually, the Galaxy S25 and iPhone 16 sport almost no frills, eye-catching elements, or identifying marks. That’s not necessarily a negative, but it hints that Samsung is somewhat taking Apple’s design lead.

In the hand, both small phones feel excellent. They sport aluminum frames with just enough grip, and high-end glass front and back. Samsung employs Gorilla Glass Victus 3, which Apple counters with its own, proprietary Ceramic Shield formulation. It’s an upgrade over previous base model iPhones and performs similarly to Corning’s industry-leading glass.

You can tell them apart without difficulty, but the similarities are striking, and the differences are few. The iPhone has more rounded corners and prominent housing around its camera array, but they’re both comparatively featureless slabs otherwise. Some of the iPhone’s colors pop a little more, too, with Ultramarine, Teal, and Pink looking more enticing than anything but the Galaxy’s online-exclusive Coral red.

Display: the biggest non-software difference

The Galaxy trounces the iPhone in two key areas

Apple devices have long ridden their premium displays’ performance to success. The 460ppi Super Retina XRD OLED panel doesn’t disappoint in terms of clarity, color, contrast, or black levels. It reaches up to 2,000 nits in high brightness mode and supports HDR10 and Dolby Vision. It looks great, but two things are missing.

The base model iPhone 16 and its larger Plus variant still max out at 60 hertz. It doesn’t look or feel choppy by any means, and some users will hardly notice. But anybody who’s used another Android flagship in the last couple of years will. It might not functionally affect usage, but it’s a slightly surprising decision these days.

Then there’s the less-heralded but arguably more useful, always-on-display. At first glance, AOD might seem unimportant and like a waste of battery. But users repeatedly find it more useful than expected, as it streamlines phone interactions, keeps you more thoroughly updated on notifications, and can even reduce the time you spend staring at your phone. It also barely requires any power. The Galaxy S25 offers AOD functionality, and the iPhone 16 doesn’t.

Outside those two wins, the Samsung’s display just about meets or exceeds the iPhone’s everywhere else. Its pixel density is right there, neck and neck, and the brightness is even better. The screen spans a slightly larger portion of the body for an extra tenth of an inch diagonally and has marginally slimmer bezels. The S25 doesn’t offer Dolby Vision support like the iPhone 16 does, but a 6.2-inch phone isn’t ideal for watching 4K HDR films in the first place.

Ultimately, consistent users of previous base model iPhones might not care about the 16’s lack of high refresh rate and AOD support. But if you’ve become accustomed to them, you probably will.

Software: who’s copying whom?

Here’s where things get a little weird

Once upon a time, an Android vs. iPhone comparison would center around how wildly different the two platforms are. The opposite is true of these two compact handsets. The hardware ecosystems remain worlds apart, but the operating systems mimic each other in easy-to-see ways.

On Apple’s side, it introduced features Android users take for granted, like home screen arrangement, on top of a wide variety of customization options that are sure to shock longtime iPhone devotees. What it didn’t introduce is any particularly notable AI toolset. Apple Intelligence does exist (well, not in the EU just yet), but users report rarely using it, and seeing subpar results when they do.

Samsung leaned heavily into some fan-favorite Apple features with One UI 7, which the S25 series showcases more than any other changes. The Now Bar, for example, clearly stems from the Dynamic Island’s popularity, something Android lovers have clamored for since Apple introduced it. It and the Now Brief function leverage AI and all the connected apps and services on your phone to provide a more gestalt, life-integrated experience than we’ve seen on Android yet. Even One UI’s more rounded icons clearly imitate iOS.

However, Samsung also seems to have trouble forcing AI tools into the mainstream. Circle to Search, by far the most popular AI-related feature, is really just an image recognition algorithm tied to a dynamic search engine. Samsung’s slate of Galaxy AI tools holds promise and offers significantly more utility than Apple’s barely-there AI implementation.

Easily Galaxy AI’s finest work to date.

However, the entire AI framework has yet to take consumers by storm, and Samsung plans to charge a subscription for many AI tools after 2025 ends. That makes Galaxy AI only a major selling point if the feature breadth and effectiveness continue improving and if you find it worthwhile enough to pay a recurring fee. Most users probably won’t.

Another interesting consideration is Samsung’s continued development of its own ecosystem. Everybody knows owning an iPhone, iPad, and Macbook makes for ultra-simple cross-device connectivity and management. The Galaxy Tab S series generally leads the Android tablet pack, and Galaxy Book laptops aren’t too shabby, either. It’s yet another way Samsung is taking cues from Apple’s encouragement of total ecosystem adoption.

Performance: Qualcomm steals Apple’s processing crown

Apple’s in-house A18 can’t quite hang with Snapdragon

In another interesting turn, we can’t write off Android devices as categorically lower-performing than iPhones anymore. Apple’s custom silicon has had an edge over Android chips for years, but at this point, its only advantage is how little the A18 costs the manufacturer. Benchmarks aren’t everything, but they are something, and the Snapdragon 8 Elite roundly defeats the A18 in nearly every area.

The Apple chip just barely squeaks out a single-core win in some configurations, but just by a hair. The Qualcomm chip handily beats it in multicore scores, and the integrated Hexagon NPU offers up to 52 TOPS compared to the A18’s 25 TOPS rating. That will come into play if and when Samsung keeps expanding on-device AI processing.

From iFixIt’s iPhone 16 teardown.

The Galaxy will technically perform better in most situations, especially multitasking and anything else that relies heavily on multicore operations. In average day-to-day use, though, they’re both great performers. Apple has a history of tailoring updates for efficiency later on in devices’ lifespans, and Samsung’s hardware will undoubtedly run fine years from now, after multiple Android updates. In the end, there’s no meaningful performance gap between the S25 and iPhone 16 that should drive you to one or the other.

Battery life: one’s more all-day than the other

And let’s complain about charging speeds a little

The Galaxy S25 offers no major battery life upgrades over the S24, although the new SoC manages better efficiency at times. Any improvements are welcome, and the S24 already had great battery life, routinely delivering 8 hours of screen-on time. The S25 should perform slightly better, including over the long term.

The iPhone 16’s battery life is fine, but in line with the roughly 6 hours of SOT found on many flagships. It’s not poor, by any means, and shouldn’t scare you off the device. But if extended battery life is really important to you, the Galaxy clearly comes out on top.

Neither phone makes any major advancements in charging speed. Countless users and outlets (including Android Police) have complained repeatedly about Samsung’s smallest S series’ 25W rate lagging behind competitors. Those complaints have a point, but they’re also sometimes overblown. For that matter, iPhones have never exceeded 27W charging, and users don’t really seem to notice.

The iPhone 16 refuels from empty to 50% in about a half-hour using a 30W charger. The Galaxy reaches the same mark a few minutes faster. Both reduce charging rates as the battery fills. The Samsung takes just over an hour to reach 100%, and the Apple about an hour-and-a-half.

I’ll just say it: those charging speeds are absolutely fine for most people, and our frequent criticism of them comes partly from the fact that we (like Android Police readers) are pretty demanding of new, high-end devices. With competitors like the OnePlus 13 offering comparatively mind-boggling wattages, the two most popular flagships in North America feel like they’re held back slightly. It’s far from the end of the world, but if you agree with the many pundits who bemoan Samsung’s lackluster charging speeds, the iPhone 16 won’t make you any happier.

Finally, Qi2 supposedly makes an appearance in the S25 series, but iPhones are still the only high-end phones with integrated magnets. Samsung’s Qi2 Ready designation simply assures consumers it’ll work perfectly with Qi2 accessories when used with an approved Qi2 case. Readers frequently remind me that most people use cases, but more people rock a naked phone than we enthusiasts might expect. If you’re among those brave souls and want to utilize any of today’s great magnetic phone accessories, the iPhone’s the right choice.

Camera: a rollercoaster of pros and cons

Samsung, we are begging you, please fix the cameras

iPhones excel at the user-forward photo and video experience. They don’t leverage the most cutting-edge hardware, but Apple’s imaging algorithm is hard to beat. Photos often look great on the first shot, and excellent motion handling makes videos easy to watch. There’s a reason iPhones have been used to record actual feature films. But if you take a lot of pictures outdoors, you’ll notice its lack of a telephoto lens.

The iPhone does, however, bring a considerably useful Camera Control button that Android manufacturers would be smart to improve on. A single press opens the camera app, while half-presses and swipes on the button let you manipulate features like zoom levels. It’s a great idea, but hopefully it sees some refinement, as the control scheme proved a little unwieldy in our testing.

Samsung’s camera implementation has gotten better over the last few years, but still has room for improvement. It works OK much of the time, but takes blurry pictures with unfortunate regularity. It’s a far cry from the many Android flagships that excel at capturing images.

On the other hand, the S25 sports 3× telephoto zoom. While it only captures 10MP, it’s a powerful imaging tool not often found in such compact phones. Video capture works great, too, with effective stabilization and motion handling. And you can take advantage of Instant Slow-Mo using on-device Galaxy AI processing.

Neither will fully satisfy the eager picture-taker like, for example, a Pixel 9 Pro might. Both work well, but don’t lead the pack, with the iPhone 16 boasting a more straightforward experience despite the S25’s arguably higher potential. If Samsung manages to somehow fix issues like shutter lag and periodic blur via software updates, the S25 could take a huge leap over the base model iPhone.

Which is right for you?

A harder question to answer than ever

In years past, a relatively simplistic “whichever operating system you prefer” would come here, but not this time. iOS is more customizable, and One UI 7 is more streamlined than its predecessors. The comparable design languages also don’t set them apart.

The biggest reason for the Galaxy S25’s slight edge actually turns the last few years of Android vs. iPhone arguments on its head. Samsung’s seven-year update promise actually exceeds Apple’s typical 6-year phone lifespan, and the S25 has better hardware to back it up. Other than the camera issues, the Galaxy’s few drawbacks don’t significantly detract from its usefulness. And the overarching hope is that Samsung can bring the cameras up to par via updates.

If you’re looking for a relatively small Android phone, there aren’t really any other new options. And Samsung’s attention to its entire hardware ecosystem offers integration with the company’s leading smartwatches and tablets that you can’t get anywhere else.

But when we said a “slight edge,” we meant it. The iPhone 16 is the latest Apple phone that could potentially sway longtime Android users. If you’re already pairing an Android phone with other Apple devices like a Macbook, you’d have no trouble diving fully into the ecosystem and adopting iOS 18. Other than the 60Hz display and lack of an always-on display (which plenty of users turn off, anyway), you might not even miss Android if you do.