At this point, we have a good picture about the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s cameras, especially when the latest Galaxy Unpacked rumors hint at a January 23 date for Samsung’s big event. That rumored launch date will be here in no time at all, bringing with it a big question: Can the Galaxy S25 Ultra could beat the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
I’ve been keeping an eye out on all of the Galaxy S25 Ultra camera rumors and want to highlight how they could help Samsung's flagship regain that title of best camera phone. Considering how the Galaxy S24 Ultra came up short last year, Samsung can’t afford to finish second best to the iPhone time.
One of the biggest criticisms people had about the Galaxy S24 Ultra was Samsung’s controversial decision of ditching its 10x optical zoom camera in favor of a 5x one with higher resolution. Needless to say, there’s room for improvement for the Galaxy S25 Ultra to turn things around — more so when my 200 photo face-off with the iPhone 16 Pro Max vs. Galaxy S24 Ultra yielded a win for Apple.
So far, the S25 Ultra rumors paint a picture of a 200MP main camera, 50MP ultrawide, 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom, and 50MP telephoto with 5x optical zoom. Few leaks mention much about the selfie camera, which we suspect would at least be the same 12MP front facing camera found on the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Here’s all the ways the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s camera could be a much more satisfying upgrade and a potential iPhone 16 Pro Max challenger.
Upgraded 50MP ultrawide camera with brighter lens
Out of all the camera rumors surrounding Samsung's upcoming phones, the one that’s probably most probable is that the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s ultrawide camera will feature the biggest upgrade of the bunch. Leaker Ice Universe shared details about this on X not long ago, reporting that the ultrawide camera on the new S25 Ultra be upgraded to a 50MP 1/2.52” sensor with 0.7µm pixels. Furthermore, it will sport an f/1.9 aperture lens, according to that rumor.
This combination would make it much more formidable than the S24 Ultra’s current 50MP shooter with a 1/2.55" sensor, 1.4µm pixels, and f/3.4 aperture. Compared to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which has a 48MP ultrawide camera with an f/2.2 aperture, the Galaxy S25 ultrawide could result in sharper images and improved low light performance. By having an f/1.9 aperture lens with the ultrawide camera on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, it would allow it to gather in much more light at lower ISO levels — which would lessen noise in the process.
4K 120fps with Instant Slo-Mo
The iPhone 16 Pro Max became a superior video camera with its ability to natively shoot at 4K 120fps, giving that phone the ability to apply a slow motion effect later on. It would only be logical for the Galaxy S25 Ultra to follow suit, but it could one-up its rival by getting a little bit of help from Galaxy AI.
As we’ve seen on the Galaxy S24 Ultra, Samsung introduced its Instant Slow-Mo feature that uses Galaxy AI to generate additional frames to convert any video into slow motion. It’s quite possible for the Galaxy 25 Ultra to produce 4K video shot at 240fps with this process.
Video object eraser
Even though rumors have not alluded to this, we can infer from the announcement of the Snapdragon 8 Elite that Samsung could bring a feature as part of its Galaxy AI package that erases objects in video footage captured by the cameras. Qualcomm already detailed how this is possible with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which would lean on the AI ISP of the chipset to deliver Magic Editor-style capabilities to video.
This would take a great deal of processing power to inspect every single frame to isolate the object, before using algorithms to intelligently remove and blend the background. It would be a neat trick that could make the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s camera more appealing than the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
Turbocharged photography
While the rest of the camera hardware on the Galaxy S25 Ultra looks to be very similar to the Galaxy S24 Ultra, another way Samsung could boost camera performance is to exploit the features of the Snapdragon 8 Elite clip. Not only will it offer helpful features such as AI-enhanced autofocus, auto exposure, and auto white balance, but Qualcomm has gone on the record to say that the Snapdragon 8 Elite can record from three 48MP sensors simultaneously.
Samsung could tweak this by giving photographers more utility by capturing and processing images from its main, ultrawide, and telephoto cameras. Implementing this into a burst shooting mode would mean that you could choose the best photo from the bunch, all without worrying if you captured the shot at the right moment.
Better low light recording performance for video
And finally, the Galaxy S25 Ultra camera could beat the iPhone 16 Pro Max by delivering improved low light video recording performance. We’ve seen how night mode enabled on the Galaxy S24 Ultra draws out more detail in low light situations, so the same method could apply to video recording with the S25 Ultra.
This one’s possible as well due to how Qualcomm says that the Snapdragon 8 Elite will support low light video capture at 4K 60fps. Typically, video shot in this resolution tends to be soft and noisy, but the S25 Ultra could tweak the video locally without having to upload video to the cloud for processing — much like how the Pixel 9 Pro XL currently does it with Video Boost mode.
Bottom line
These are just some of the ways that the Galaxy S25 Ultra could beat the iPhone 16 Pro Max when it comes to cameras. Of course, a lot of it has to do with AI and the hardware advantages of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which the S25 Ultra is reportedly going to be running under the hood. We're around a month away from a possible announcement, depending on when Galaxy Unpacked takes place, but all eyes will be on how Samsung improves the cameras on its premium phone.
More from Tom's Guide
- Galaxy S24 FE is the most underrated phone I’ve tested in 2024 — here’s why
- Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra — here's the biggest rumored upgrades
- Samsung Galaxy S25 release date rumors — here’s when we expect the big launch
