The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra could be even more powerful than the iPhone 16 Pro Max

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Thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra playing Call of Duty Mobile
The Galaxy S25 Ultra should be well capable of playing demanding mobile games like Call of Duty (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Apple’s iPhone chipsets are almost always the most powerful smartphone chipsets available, scoring significantly higher than Android rivals in benchmarks. However, things could be different this year – or rather early next year, as that’s when we’re expecting the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra to launch – with a new benchmark leak suggesting Samsung's top-end S25 phone could have Apple beat.

A Geekbench result for the phone was shared by leaker @UniverseIce on X, and it achieved a single-core score of 3,011 and a multi-core result of 9,706. To put that in perspective, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has an average single-core score of 2,142 and an average multi-core score of 6,693. So this would make for a huge upgrade on the current model.

Not only that, it would also likely outperform the A18 Pro chipset in the iPhone 16 Pro Max, at least for multi-core results.

There haven’t been enough tests of the A18 Pro yet for Geekbench to display its average scores, but in our own tests we found the iPhone 16 Pro Max had a single-core result of 3,386 and a multi-core result of 8,306 – that's still better than Samsung in single-core tests, but way behind the Galaxy S25 Ultra for multi-core.

Now, there are a few things to bear in mind here. First of all, this is just one benchmark, and an early one at that, so it’s very possible that it won’t end up being representative of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra’s actual performance.

The power of Snapdragon

Plus, this is a model with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset, and it’s possible that in some regions the S25 Ultra will get an Exynos chipset instead. That’s quite likely for some models in the Samsung Galaxy S25 line anyway, based on past form.

On the other hand, many other Android phones will probably also have a Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset, so it could be that quite a few upcoming Android phones can rival or beat the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s performance.

We should have a clearer idea soon, as the likes of the OnePlus 13 and Xiaomi 15 will probably be equipped with this chipset, and those phones are likely to land before the end of the year.

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James Rogerson
James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.