Xiaomi 15 Ultra vs iPhone 16 Pro Max vs S25 Ultra - The ULTIMATE 2025 Smartphone - video Dailymotion

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Xiaomi 15 Ultra vs iPhone 16 Pro Max vs S25 Ultra - The ULTIMATE 2025 Smartphone  #Xiaomi15Ultra #iPhone16 #S25Ultra

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00:00If you Google the top three smartphone manufacturers right now, you'll find that Apple,

00:04Samsung and Xiaomi are at the very top. So, how do their flagship phones actually compare?

00:10Well, here I've got the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, the S25 Ultra and the iPhone 16 Pro Max. And me and my

00:16team have been putting these through some serious testing, from their design and materials, to their

00:21display and brightness in various different scenarios, to their cameras, performance,

00:25machines, batteries and so much more, in order to find out which one is the ultimate 2025 flagship.

00:32But before you start this comparison, if you're looking for the ultimate protection for your S25

00:36Ultra, you can get that with Spigen's range of cases and accessories. Found out more later in the video.

00:43Okay, so I want to start off with their design, as they're all very different and iconic in their own

00:48way. The iPhone has this recognizable triangular camera module that Apple has been using since

00:53the iPhone 11 series, with a really smooth frosted glass back that I'm a big fan of.

00:58The frame is made out of titanium, and it also rounds off a bit towards the edges, which does

01:03make it quite comfortable in the hand, whilst also being super grippy. The S25 Ultra also comes with a

01:08very recognizable design that Samsung's been using since the S22 series now, with its vertical camera

01:14style bump. It's also got a very smooth frosted glass back, just like the iPhone, and also a titanium frame.

01:21Now, it is more squared off, both in terms of the frame and also in terms of the corners,

01:25which I do overall find to be less comfortable compared to the iPhone.

01:29And then we've got the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, which has its own recognizable design that hasn't really

01:34changed since the Xiaomi 13 Ultra, with its gigantic circular camera module right in the middle.

01:39Now, unlike the other two, the Xiaomi does actually not have a titanium frame, or even a glass back,

01:45if you go with a silver chrome color at least. Instead, you get this dual-tone look that kind of

01:49resembles a classic photography camera. The back part here is made out of faux leather,

01:54while the silver part is actually made out of plastic. And I gotta say, using the 15 Ultra

01:58definitely feels the least comfortable to me out of the three, as that huge camera module,

02:04whenever I'm trying to use it, it gets in the way of my fingers. So, yeah, I'm not a huge fan of

02:09this. So, comfort-wise, I would say that the iPhone 16 Pro Max is the best, followed by the S25 Ultra,

02:14and then the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. Although, design-wise, for me at least, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is definitely

02:20my favorite. I absolutely love that dual-tone look and that centered camera module, but that's

02:25just me. I'm definitely curious to hear your own preference. Tell me both. Also, if you're looking

02:30for the widest range of colors available, we've got three with the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, four with the iPhone

02:3616 Pro Max, and seven with the S25 Ultra if you order from Samsung's online store. Which brings me

02:42to their displays. And honestly, these are some of the very best displays that you can find on any

02:47smartphone right now, with excellent color reproduction, very smooth 120Hz refresh rates,

02:54always-on functionality that actually keeps the wallpaper visible at all times on all of them,

02:58and super high brightness levels as well. But there are some differences between them. The S25 Ultra

03:04and the iPhone have the biggest screens at 6.9 inches, while the Xiaomi has the smallest at 6.73.

03:10Although, when it comes to watching content, the S25 Ultra is by far the best, as not only does it

03:15have a super small front camera cutout, as opposed to the much larger dynamic island on the iPhone,

03:21but it also has those more squared-off corners, which do give you slightly more screen real estate.

03:26Now, both the Samsung and the iPhone have a fully flat display, whereas the Xiaomi has a curved display,

03:31one that also has the thickest bezels out of three. Personally, I do prefer the way a curved screen

03:37looks, although here, I have to go with the iPhone and the Samsung, as the Xiaomi doesn't curve enough

03:42to see any content on that S screen. In fact, most of the curvature is taken up by its bezel.

03:48Which brings me to their brightness. On paper, the Xiaomi has the brightest screen, at 3200 nits,

03:53as opposed to 2600 on the Samsung, and 2000 on the iPhone. But in real-world usage, this story is very different.

04:01As you can see here, the Xiaomi is actually the dimmest, followed by the iPhone, and then the Samsung,

04:07which is the brightest. And this is why you should never take the advertised brightness values at face value,

04:12as those usually refer to the peak HDR brightness on a small window, rather than the full-screen brightness

04:18that you'll actually get outdoors. I should also mention that the S25 Ultra has a matte display coating,

04:23which drastically reduces reflections outdoors. This is also why the S25 Ultra is noticeably more

04:29visible than the other two. Now, if we take a look at their HDR brightness indoors when playing a video,

04:34they're all stunning here, with some super bright and vibrant colors. Although here, the Samsung and

04:39the Xiaomi do seem to be a bit brighter than the iPhone. And it's also worth mentioning that if you watch a

04:44lot of content at night, the Samsung can go dimmest, followed by the iPhone, and then the Xiaomi,

04:50which is actually the brightest one here. Now, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra does support 1920Hz PWM dimming,

04:56which means that its display flickers much less compared to the other two. So, if your eyes usually

05:02hurt after using your phone at night, then this should not happen with a 15 Ultra. Also, Xiaomi is the

05:07only one that can show up to 68 billion colors, as opposed to 16 million on the other two. And if you go

05:14into its display settings, you can also tweak a ton of things, such as switch between sRGB and P3

05:20color space modes, and even tweak those further. Although, weirdly enough, when I tried viewing a

05:25P3 image, only the iPhone displayed it correctly. The Samsung did as well, but only in its own browser,

05:31not in Chrome, whereas Xiaomi did not, no matter which browser I used, despite it being set to its

05:37display P3 color space. Surprisingly, the Xiaomi was actually the brightest in this case, and that was

05:42also the case when I was reading content. It's just strange that this does not apply when watching HDR content

05:48or outdoors. So, overall, I have to give the display win to the S25 Ultra, as for me, other visibility is the most

05:54important, which, combined with the fact that it's also got the biggest display, with the thinnest bezels, just makes the

06:00S25 Ultra absolutely incredible for viewing content. Which brings me to their cameras. And here, on paper, the Xiaomi

06:07S25 Ultra has, by far, the best specs. It's got a massive one-inch main sensor, as opposed to the much

06:14smaller ones on the S25 Ultra and 16 Pro Max. And from the teardown videos, you can literally see just

06:19how gigantic the sensor is. It's also got dual telephoto modules, just like the Samsung, but its

06:25main telephoto uses a gigantic sensor, 200 megapixels resolution, as opposed to the 50 megapixels on the

06:31Samsung and the 12 on the iPhone. And this telephoto is almost as big as the S25 Ultra's entire main

06:38200 megapixel sensor. Xiaomi has also collaborated with Leica to use their lenses for increased clarity

06:44and reduced reflections. This phone is kind of like a camera that just happens to be a phone, whereas the

06:50Samsung and the iPhone are both the other way around. In fact, the camera island on the Xiaomi is so

06:55massive compared to the other two, that it almost doubles the thickness of the phone. And just take a look

07:00at how much it makes the phone stick out when laying flat on the table. But okay, specs are one

07:05thing, the result is another. So let's see how they both compare. But okay, before we find out which

07:10device is the best here, let's open up this super special package from Spigen. Okay, first of all,

07:16take a look at how cool this packaging looks. And inside, we get... Oh, take a look at this. The

07:22Ultra Hybrid MagFit Neo 1 case is back, and this is actually the first time this has come to the Galaxy

07:28Series. Such a stunning looking case. Just take a look at that. Okay, so let's see what's underneath.

07:35Oh, this is the classic Ultra Hybrid MagFit Zero case. I don't even know which one to pick between, as these

07:42both look so good. Let me know which one is your favorite down below. Okay, next up, we've got what looks

07:49to be the brand new Valentinus MagFit card wallet. This has now been redesigned and improved for the

07:57S25 Series, and it simply snaps on like that. Super easy and very, very secure, as you can probably tell.

08:05And the final thing in the box seems to be Spigen's brand new Tough Armor AI MagFit case. And really,

08:13a major reason why I do recommend these cases is because of Spigen's MagFit, which makes mixing and

08:19matching accessories so easy. So, if you guys want to try out any of these awesome cases for the S25

08:25Ultra, check out Spigen by using the links below. Starting off with the main camera, the biggest

08:30differences are in terms of the sharpness and the color. Zooming into the grass, the iPhone and the

08:35Xiaomi capture the most detail. It's also worth noting that the iPhone shoots at 24 megapixels by default

08:40compared to 12 on the other two. In terms of color, Xiaomi is the most vibrant, Samsung is in the

08:45middle, and the iPhone is the least vibrant. Overall, I do prefer Xiaomi's result here, although

08:50the window is blown out, whereas on the Samsung and the iPhone, they both handle the exposure

08:55correctly. In this other shot, with more drastic lighting, the iPhone crushes the shadows, losing

09:00quite a lot of detail, while the Samsung and the Xiaomi handle the exposure much better. And between the

09:05two, I do prefer Xiaomi's result for its greater detail and lower noise. If we take a look at a

09:09close-up shot, all three phones have fairly large sensors, which means that we do get this natural

09:15depth of field without having to use portrait mode. However, Xiaomi's one-inch sensor provides

09:19much stronger natural depth of field, and the image is also cleaner and with less sharpening too.

09:26Here's another example which clearly shows this difference. The Xiaomi has a very clear

09:30focus fall-off in both the foreground and the background, while the other two phones,

09:35especially the iPhone, keeps almost everything in focus. Moving on to night shots, they're

09:39surprisingly similar, with the iPhone being the brightest. Now, if we zoom into the house,

09:44the results are almost identical, which is a bit unexpected given Xiaomi's very large one-inch

09:49sensor. Now, the Xiaomi does have less noise in the sky, but the fans, for example, the details here

09:54are the best on the iPhone, and actually the worst on the Xiaomi. And the Xiaomi does also show

09:59noticeable lens flares, despite its Leica lenses, which are meant to reduce reflections. And there's

10:04an even bigger difference in this example. The iPhone and the Xiaomi are brighter, while the

10:08Samsung is more contrasty, which I do personally prefer. Now, zooming in, the iPhone has the least

10:13detail, Samsung has more, but it does look over-sharpened, while the Xiaomi looks to have the most natural

10:19detail, although the difference is not as big as I expected. So, main camera-wise, the Xiaomi is the

10:24best one overall, especially when it comes to daytime shots and when it comes to its depth of

10:28field. But the difference is far less noticeable at night, which is a bit surprising. Moving on to

10:33the telephoto modules, at 3x, the Xiaomi captures the most detail, followed by the Samsung, and then

10:38the iPhone, which is not the best, as it does lack a dedicated 3x module. Moving on to 5x, the images

10:44are closer, but when we zoom in, the iPhone does lose a lot of detail. Samsung is a bit better, and then

10:50the Xiaomi, this one stands out with the least amount of noise, it's also got the most vibrant

10:54colors, and also a bit of natural background separation. At 10x, the differences are even

11:00larger, the iPhone is very noisy, the Samsung is better, and then the Xiaomi is definitely

11:04the cleanest with superior colors as well. At 20x, all phones process heavily, yet Xiaomi

11:10remains the best, although it is slightly over-processed. At 30x, the Xiaomi is still superior if you take

11:16a look at the lamp details, but the Xiaomi does capture the tree trunk way better.

11:20So, how do their telephoto modules fare at night? Well, at 20x, the S25 Ultra does perform

11:25the best. Samsung's heavier AI processing does make a significant difference compared

11:30to Apple and Xiaomi, both of which tend to process images far less.

11:34Same applies to 30x, with the S25 Ultra once again leading, although surprisingly the iPhone

11:39this time around is not that far off. Although Xiaomi is, which is very strange. In summary,

11:46the Xiaomi has the best telephoto during daytime, but the S25 Ultra excels at night.

11:51Moving on to portrait mode, when it comes to people portraits, they've all got some very

11:55good background separation, as they were all able to individually separate my hairs, although

12:00Samsung and Xiaomi were slightly better here.

12:03As for the color and the detail, there's just a massive difference between the three.

12:07The iPhone being super low-res, with completely messed up colors, the Samsung's much better,

12:12although my coat does look blue here, while the Xiaomi is far better and also more detailed

12:17if you take a look at the tree. Although my face is a bit too saturated for my taste.

12:22For pet portraits, they're all good. Samsung has the best edge detection and also with clear

12:27separation of Rens' hairs, while Xiaomi has the most appealing colors to my eyes. If you

12:33take a look at object portraits, the iPhone looks lower-res compared to the other two and

12:37also lacks any depth compared to the two. Xiaomi captures the most detail, but interesting enough,

12:42Samsung provides the strongest depth of field, which I think was probably just achieved through

12:48post-processing rather than the more natural depth of field that we've got on the Xiaomi.

12:53Moving on to their ultra-ride modules, Xiaomi once again comes out best. The iPhone looks overly

12:57sharpened and washed out. Samsung is slightly better, but Xiaomi delivers much cleaner images

13:03with more natural detail and also better colors. On top of that, Xiaomi also leads when it comes to

13:08its dynamic range. We can also see a pretty big difference in dynamic range between the three

13:13in this image as well, with the Xiaomi being the best. At night, they're all pretty poor,

13:18with the iPhone's image falling apart completely here. The Samsung's is quite blurry,

13:22and then the Xiaomi is the most detailed, although it is quite dark.

13:26In this brighter night scene, all of them perform much better. Xiaomi has the most natural detail,

13:31although I do prefer Samsung's processing here, as some extra sharpening does actually help in

13:36this case. As for macro, Samsung and Apple use their ultra-ride modules to achieve it,

13:40while Xiaomi uses its 3x telephoto. And here, while you can get closer with the other two,

13:46the image quality coming out of the Xiaomi is just night and day. The colors, the details,

13:51everything really. Although you do have to be very careful with the Xiaomi because if you're too close

13:55to the subject, then the image will be out of focus and it will end up looking blurry and definitely

14:00inferior to the other two. If you are careful, then it will look really nice, although I would

14:04say if you want consistently good macros, then the iPhone is the best one for that.

14:09As for video, they're all very good here in 4K60. The iPhone tends to be the brightest,

14:14and the Xiaomi is definitely the least processed and the most natural looking. But I'm pretty sure

14:19you'll all be very happy with either of them here. They can also all do 4K120, and here,

14:24the iPhone does seem to have the best dynamic range, with much more shadow detail than the other two.

14:28And while the Xiaomi does look pretty good here as well, it does soften its detail quite a lot

14:33in some parts. Samsung and Xiaomi can also shoot in 8K30, which does give us a lot more resolution

14:39to play with for cropping in. And here, I do prefer the Xiaomi's more contrasty look,

14:44although Samsung's footage does appear slightly higher res. All three can also shoot in log,

14:49although I do find the iPhone and the Samsung to offer better dynamic range, especially the iPhone,

14:54whilst also being a bit clearer than the Xiaomi. As for night video, I was really surprised to see

15:00that for the very first time ever, we have a phone with a better low light video performance

15:05than the iPhone. And that's of course the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. As you can see here, the noise is reduced,

15:10and the entire image is quite a bit clearer than the iPhone's is, with the leaves being more defined,

15:15and the same goes for the ground texture. That one end sensor definitely makes a difference here.

15:19Moving on to the front camera, the images are very similar in daytime with the Xiaomi having the

15:24widest angle. Color-wise, the iPhone's actually the best here, as it's got my coat looking black

15:30as opposed to the other two where it's more washed out or even blue in the case of the Xiaomi.

15:35As for detail, they're all very good here, although the S25 Ultra seems to have the most

15:40natural detail here. If we switch to front night, there's just a massive difference between the

15:46three. Just take a look at how much clearer Xiaomi's photo is, whereas the other two

15:50are very blurry. So yeah, massive difference here.

15:53But of course, camera quality also matters, and here I do prefer Samsung's and Xiaomi's.

15:58Both apps are quite minimal, yet feature-packed, whereas Apple's has duplicate settings,

16:04sometimes forcing you to go into the system settings just to adjust formats and resolutions.

16:08Overall, Samsung's camera app, especially its powerful and easy-to-use expert raw mode,

16:12is my favorite. Xiaomi's interface, especially the Pro mode, feels a bit too crowded,

16:18whereas Apple's literally lacks a Pro mode entirely.

16:21But right, if you want the best camera out of the three, then that is definitely the Xiaomi.

16:26Although, surprisingly, that was mostly in daytime shots, as in nighttime,

16:30it wasn't actually always the best.

16:31Which brings me to their performance. And here, the Xiaomi and the Samsung are basically identical.

16:37As in, they both come with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, with 12GB of RAM, which can go up to

16:4216GB if you buy at least the 512GB model on the Xiaomi or the 1TB on the S25 Ultra.

16:47The only difference being that the S25 Ultra comes with the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip,

16:52which is a slightly higher clocked version. At least if we take a look at the performance core

16:56cluster, this runs at 4.47GHz as opposed to 4.32.

17:01And this definitely shows, with the S25 Ultra scoring 6% higher in single-core performance,

17:06and a pretty significant 12% higher in multi-core. The iPhone, on the other hand,

17:11comes with Apple's A18 Pro chip with 8GB of RAM. And while its single-core performance is the

17:16highest, its multi-core is actually the lowest out of the three.

17:21But okay, with that being said, how do they each perform in day-to-day use?

17:24Well, in Genshin Impact, they all run extremely well, essentially at fully maxed-out graphics on

17:30all of them, and none of them break a sweat. However, the iPhone does have one major advantage here,

17:36which is that it can actually play Genshin Impact at 120fps with all the settings set to max. The other

17:44two phones are limited to 60. And on the iPhone, we can also play true AAA titles, like Assassin's

17:50Creed Mirage, Resident Evil Village, and many more, none of which are playable on the other two.

17:56We've also tested video editing in Premiere Rush by exporting our OnePlus Watch 3 video in 1080p 30.

18:02This took the iPhone 1 minute and 20 seconds, the Xiaomi 2 minutes and 57 seconds, and surprisingly,

18:07the Samsung 3 minutes and 35 seconds, despite having the overclocked 8 Elite chip.

18:13Now, for my own day-to-day use, I much prefer using the S25 Ultra. Literally everything I do

18:18on this phone just feels buttery smooth, and I haven't had any performance issues whatsoever.

18:22The Xiaomi also feels great, but I'm just not a big fan of their HyperOS skin, I much prefer Samsung's

18:28One UI.

18:28As for the iPhone, iOS 18 on the 16 Pro Max for me has literally been a nightmare. Constant bugs,

18:35camera freezes pretty much on the daily. I'm not even kidding when I say that this is

18:40the buggiest phone that I've probably used in the past 10 years. Like, it's literally that bad.

18:46So, for me, the S25 Ultra is my pick when it comes to the overall performance and just how it feels to use it.

18:51Which brings me to some features that are unique to each phone.

18:55For the Xiaomi, that's this photography kit. So, this is a $200 accessory that gives you a camera grip,

19:01plus a number of controls for switching between lenses, also for recording videos and taking photos,

19:07and you can even install an ND filter or a polarizer on the front here if you want.

19:12So, yeah, this thing is actually really, really cool.

19:14The Samsung's most unique feature is, of course, the famous S Pen, which lets you draw or take notes,

19:20and, uh, guess what? It is also free, you do not have to buy it separately.

19:25Although, personally, I haven't really used it. I always kind of forget that it's even there.

19:30Well, the iPhone surprisingly has the most unique features. From Face ID, rather than the

19:34fingerprint reader on the other two, to its Dynamic Island, which shows you important app

19:39updates at a glance, especially for Uber rides. We've also got a capture button for quickly launching

19:43the camera and also controlling it, although the controlling part is basically a gimmick for me,

19:48as using the touchscreen is always way faster. And then, we've also got this programmable

19:53action button that you can set to do pretty much anything. As for the speakers, here's a quick test.

19:59To me, the S25 Ultra sounds the loudest, but the iPhone and the Xiaomi have the richest sound.

20:19Slightly richer on the iPhone, but let me know your thoughts as well.

20:22But okay, these are all 2025 flagships, which means that AI is a huge part of their experience. So,

20:28which one has the best AI features here? Well, right off the bat, I have to say that Apple is

20:33by far the worst here. Siri is just as bad as always, since that big, contextually aware Siri

20:39update has been delayed until 2026 or even 2027, and other than that, we just get the usual AI

20:45features like writing tools, voice transcriptions, and just all of that generic stuff. Your cleanup tool

20:51is just as bad and barely even works, and while we do get some unique AI features like Genmoji,

20:56Image Playground, and Notification Summary, the only one that I find useful is Notification Summary.

21:01Samsung and Xiaomi, on the other hand, are a completely different story. They both have

21:05Gemini, which is years ahead of Siri at this point. Gemini Live also lets you speak to it in natural

21:10language, which works extremely well as well. And on top of this, their image editing features work

21:15very well too, especially Samsung's, which has the best cleanup feature I've ever seen on a phone.

21:22Xiaomi's is almost as good, and it does have some extra options like removing reflections,

21:26expanding the image without the need to crop it like you have to on a Samsung, it can also replace

21:30the sky and also do a couple of more edits, all of which work really well. So overall, I do actually

21:35prefer Xiaomi's AI over the other two. As for the battery, the Xiaomi has the largest battery

21:41at 5,410 million powers, compared to Samsung's 5000 and Apple's 4685. From my usage, they all lasted

21:48for a full day of use, but while the iPhone would die at the very end of that day, both the Xiaomi and

21:53the Samsung could be pushed until mid-next day. Samsung and Xiaomi also have the fastest charging to

21:59around 70% in just 30 minutes, as opposed to around 50% on the iPhone. As for wireless charging,

22:04the Samsung is the slowest here at 15W, the iPhone supports 25W if you use Apple's own MagSafe charger,

22:10while Xiaomi supports 80W as long as you're also using Xiaomi's own first-party wireless charger.

22:16Oh, and if you're looking to give your new devices a fresh coat of paint, the best place to look is

22:21in our app Wallpapers, where we've just dropped Rings Ripple by our latest designer Bold, which makes

22:27any device look incredibly premium. We've also recently dropped Round Reflections by Atif, which is

22:34both vibrant and minimal for that low-key aesthetic, while Heavenly Hills by Ali is more dreamy which

22:40I think it suits tablets and desktops perfectly. There are more amazing packs coming in March and

22:45a massive backlog for all of you to enjoy, so feel free to download Wallpapers for over 1000 high-quality

22:528K Wallpapers. And you can try the first designs in any of these packs for free. So that's over 150 free

23:008K Wallpapers by using the links below for iOS and Android. But okay, having said all of this,

23:06which one should you really go for? Well, you cannot actually buy the Xiaomi 15 Ultra in the US.

23:12So here in the UK, the Xiaomi costs £1300, and that's for the 16GB of RAM model

23:18and 512GB of storage. The S25 Ultra costs £1250 for the 256, 12GB of RAM, or £1350 if you go for the

23:26512, whereas the iPhone costs £1200 for the 256 or £1400 for the 512. So if you really need the 512,

23:33then the Xiaomi is going to be the cheapest. But if you just want to get the base versions,

23:38then the iPhone is going to be the cheapest. As to which one you should pick, well, if you are a

23:43model gamer, I would definitely go with the iPhone here. If you care massively about the camera,

23:48then that would be the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, although that's mostly in daytime and not nighttime. And

23:54lastly, if you want an incredible display for viewing content, especially outdoors, that's where the

24:00S25 Ultra shines. But yeah, let me know which one is your pick down below. Check out our app Wallpapers

24:06for some awesome designs like this one behind me. And yeah, stay tuned for the next one. I'm Daniel,

24:12as soon as I can, I'll see you guys in the next one. So if that can send me out. Cheers.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra vs iPhone 16 Pro Max vs S25 Ultra - The ULTIMATE 2025 Smartphone

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