Today's top phones come with high performance specs across the board, and that includes the camera systems. With a great camera phone in your hand, you can take superb images that can help you on your way to Instagram stardom. Or whatever. The iPhone 17 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra are no exceptions. Both phones impressed us in their respective reviews, and both pack camera setups that offer stiff competition to the likes of Google and Oppo. But how do they compare with each other?
To find out, I took them out on multiple image-capturing missions around Edinburgh, testing them in a variety of conditions and then scrutinizing the results.
With phones at this level, there often won't be a "winner" in each test. Many results will come down to personal preference, as you'll see here.
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As a professional photographer, I prefer a more true-to-life image, with natural tones and rich contrast, that provides a good baseline for me to apply my own edits should I want to.
I also dislike over-processing, which can make an image look too digital and artificial. Some of you may disagree, preferring instead more vibrant images with strong saturation and clarity that can be shared directly to social without any extra effort on your part. Either stance is fine, but it's why tests like these need to be taken with a pinch of salt.
With that said, let's dive in and take a look at the images. All shots were taken in each phone's standard camera app in JPEG (or HEIF for some of the iPhone's images) and have been imported and resized in Adobe Lightroom, but with no additional edits or sharpening applied.
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iPhone 17 Pro vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra: Main camera tests
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