iPhone 17 Pro vs. Samsung S25 Ultra – Which is Like a $10K Camera?
I’m Daria Koso, a fashion photographer who’s based in Miami, and I usually do fashion photoshoot campaigns with a $10,000 camera.
However, I decided to leave that behind for a day and compare the photographic capabilities of two phones, the iPhone 17 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. Both have promised to deliver professional-grade, portrait-level photographs, and I wanted to determine which one really performs like a professional camera.
iPhone 17 Pro and Samsung S25 Ultra Specifications
The iPhone 17 Pro has three cameras, wide, ultra-wide and zoom, while its main camera shoots 48 megapixels. Meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra has four cameras, a crazy 200-megapixel main one and ultra-wide, telephoto and periscope cameras.
But remember that more megapixels don’t always mean better photos. That’s because each of those 200 megapixels on the Samsung is naturally smaller and, as a result, receives less light. And the bigger megapixels on this iPhone result in more light in those photos and brighter images.
Spec | iPhone 17 Pro | Galaxy S25 Ultra |
Sensor | ~1/1.3″ 48 MP main | 1/1.3″ 200 MP main |
Pixel Size | 1.22 µm (2.44 µm binned) | 0.6 µm (2.4 µm binned) |
Focal lengths | 13 / 24 / 28 / 100 mm | 13 / 24 / 70 / 111 mm |
Color profile | Smart HDR 6, Photonic Engine 2 | AI ISP Gen 3, ProVisual Engine |
RAW format | Apple ProRAW 2 (~14-bit) | Expert RAW (16-bit DNG) |
Testing the Phones in Real Life
I wanted to try out these phones with portrait photography, but first my focus was on architectural photography and macro shots of streets, buildings, objects and nature.
Generally, I found that Samsung photos were a little more in colder tones while my iPhone shots appeared in warmer tones. But what most caught my eye was that there’s more information in the highlights of the photos that I took with my iPhone. This is very important.
My focus then was to find someone who’d be a great fit for street photography. That would really help me compare the iPhone 17 Pro with the Samsung S25 Ultra.
That’s when I saw my friend, Anna Danilov, and she agreed to be my model for this street-style fashion photoshoot that I wanted to do with these two devices.
Photos in the Shade
First, we took some photos in the shade with similar settings for the two phones. For example, the RAW format was set at 48 megapixels for the iPhone and 50 for the Samsung. Next was focusing on the zoom lens, 4x on the iPhone and 5x on the Samsung. I also began testing these devices against the sun.
Anna said that the colors and skin tone were better, more natural, in the photos that were taken by the iPhone. She added that there are more contrasts between the colors there, such as between the browns and greens.
As we were testing these phones, we also got some artistic shots that I was especially pleased with, including one in which we were in the middle of the street, and Anna walked towards me and, at the end, tossed her bag at me and at the phones’ cameras.
I thought we nailed it. But I had to be careful to not drop the phones!
Next was testing the video mode in the front cameras, and I noticed that the iPhone’s was zoomed out a little more, allowing what’s going on around the focal point to be better captured, while the Samsung’s video feature was more so a close-up.
Heading to the Sun
At this point, I wanted to test these cameras in a sunny location.
As I did that, I saw that the Samsung was bringing higher contrast while the iPhone had a better dynamic range. For me, I preferred the iPhone’s lower contrast and to instead add any necessary contrast during the post-production process, but I did like some of the Samsung’s color temperatures. It oftentimes looked cleaner.
Anna’s Opinion
Anna said that she preferred the iPhone, adding that she liked its calmer colors; Samsung tends to have more contrast and saturated images, which she said aren’t necessary. And she liked that there appears to be less editing that needs to be done when using the iPhone for a photoshoot.
But she added that for those with the talent to effectively adjust their images, both phones would work well.
And, with that, the time spent testing these phones on the streets and my time with Anna had come to an end. I was so glad to have spent time with her, and it was so nice to hear her tell me how much of a pleasure it was to work with me again.
My Opinion
Working with these photos in the post-production process and thinking further about what I’d experienced on this day allowed me to come up with some more takeaways from this experiment.
Once again, looking at the Samsung photos, the higher contrast stood out right away. The blues were more bluish, and the greenery was more vibrant. These images were oversaturated while I thought that the iPhone shots looked much smoother and were more natural with their colors.
Also, looking at one of the images of Anna, the skin tone in the Samsung photo was redder and pinker than I’d like it to be. But this photo did look sharper, like the veins are more easily seen there. More details on the fabric and her purse also popped out. However, I did notice that Samsung appeared to have adjusted some of the details by her ponytail.
Another thing that I noticed during the post-production process was how one Samsung photo had an over-blurred background while the same image that was taken by the iPhone had a much-less-blurred background . However – a pro tip – keep in mind that you can switch your aperture to a higher number when shooting in portrait mode in order to create a more natural-looking blurred background.
All of that said, I was surprised that the macro shots that I took with both cameras turned out much better on the Samsung. Yes, I’d love to tone down the oversaturation of the greenery in those images, but this was overall better than the iPhone’s midtones and white balance having shifted to yellow.
In any case, both phones provided similar-looking photos in the end with quite a lot of detail.
Dynamic Range
The iPhone tends to have way more information in the highlights and shadows, giving me much more ability to work with the dynamic range as compared to the Samsung. Also, the changes that I need to make to the images are minimal for the iPhone photos as compared to the Samsung shots.
However, I was able to use the details that Samsung had provided for one of the photos and ended up with a nice blue sky, the part of that image that I was adjusting since the sky there had been overexposed.
When I compared this process with the iPhone’s identical image, I found that the sky there already looked good without any adjustments. I then briefly worked with the dynamic range to adjust just a little bit of blowout on the clouds.
So, the main difference is that if you know how to adjust photos during post-production, how to work with dynamic range, you can have Samsung photos that end up looking good. However, with the iPhone, you don’t have to do that extra work, such as recovering information from the highlights.
My Verdict
For me as a Miami-based fashion photographer, the iPhone 17 Pro feels more natural and cinematic and is perfect for editorial tones. And the post-production process will usually be easier with its photos.
Conversely, the Galaxy S25 Ultra offers crisp sharpness and vibrant images that pop right out of your camera, and is ideal for creators who love that punch contrast.
Both are powerful tools that offer their own unique personalities, and that’s what makes photography interesting. And both allow you to create magic.
