iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Samsung S25 Ultra: Which flagship reigns supreme?
The Samsung S25 Ultra emerges as the better value flagship over the iPhone 17 Pro Max due to its lower price and the innovative Samsung DeX feature, despite the Pro Max’s slight edge in video performance and Apple’s superior laptop ecosystem. Picture: Vanessa Carvalho / Brazil Photo Press / Brazil Photo Press Via AFP
Image: Vanessa Carvalho / Brazil Photo Press / Brazil Photo Press Via AFP
If you’re choosing between the iPhone 17 Pro Max and the Samsung S25 Ultra, which device is the better value depends on what you want out of a phone.
Before that though, the price has to be the first consideration for most people. Starting at around R21,392 (Takealot) for the S25 and R31,299 for the Pro Max - it’s not a contest.
If price is at all a factor, there’s no question you should go for the S25.
Both phones are similar in a number of important quality-of-life aspects, like battery life, as both run for around two days.
Samsung DeX: The Game-Changer Feature of the S25 Ultra
In video, the Pro Max performs slightly better, while the S25 is better for still photography and has much better digital zoom. With the severe loss in quality when using digital zoom though, this category is almost irrelevant.
It’s also debatable which ecosystem is better, as Samsung also produces excellent laptops and tablets.
Apple though, in my opinion, makes far and away the best laptops on the market - with the MacBook Air M4 probably the best laptop in the world around the R20,000 mark at the moment. So if you’re already stuck in the Apple ecosystem, going for the Pro Max is the logical choice.
However, there’s one feature of the S25 that makes it a clear winner. That is Samsung DeX, which allows you to connect your phone to a monitor with a USB-C to HDMI cable, and it switches to ‘laptop’ mode. It means you can effectively use your phone as a desktop PC, which is an incredible feature.
Apple is yet to offer such a feature, and the best it can offer is screen mirroring, which I can’t see anyone actually using for any meaningful use case scenarios.
As for AI, it's not contest as Apple is still quite terrible in this department while Samsung is more than handy.
Therefore, with the price and Samsung DeX - the S25 Ultra is my choice as the objective winner. And that’s saying something from an iPhone owner.