iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Pixel 10 Pro XL vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra： Camera and Battery Test

The iPhone 17 Pro Max has a brand new design, but how does it stack up against the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Pixel 10 Pro XL? Today, I'm testing everything, cameras, battery life, and performance. All of three phones are massive, but the Galaxy is the lightest phone out of the three, while the iPhone is the heaviest. This year, iPhone went back to the aluminum frame due to the better thermals. The Pixel is also made out of aluminum, but the Galaxy is titanium. The Galaxy and iPhone are both 6.9 inches, while the Pixel is the only one that is 6.8 inches. The displays are all 120Hz with variable refresh rate. The Galaxy and Pixel have ultrasonic fingerprint scanners for unlocking the phone, while the iPhone only has face unlock with the dynamic island. The phones are all super bright under sunlight. The S25 Ultra and iPhone 17 Pro Max have anti-reflective properties, but based on my experience, the one on the Galaxy is better. The Galaxy S25 Ultra is housing four cameras, since there is a 3x and 4x telephoto lens, while the iPhone and Pixel have three cameras. The main camera on all three phones has more or less the same specs. The only noticeable difference is that the Galaxy is 200MP, which can be useful if you ever wanna crop the photo. With the main lens, here the Galaxy photo is raising the shadows on my face. The iPhone is a bit darker, and the Pixel is something in between. On Tanya's face, the Galaxy has a more balanced skin tone. The iPhone has a warm orange tint, and the Pixel has a magenta one. On this picture of Albertina, you can see the white balance difference clearly. For this indoor shot, the Galaxy again is raising the shadows. The iPhone is retaining the highlights, but the picture is darker, and the Pixel has a magenta tint. On the main lens, at least I would say the difference is more in the processing, but the quality of the cameras is very close. What iPhone does better though is selfies, where the phone now has a rectangular sensor. This means you can change between horizontal and vertical mode. That's really a game changer for vlogging, or simply adding more people to your selfie without the need of rotating your phone. The main telephoto cameras of the phones have a similar sensor size, but the fsf of the Galaxy is higher, meaning you get less background blur and light. I took this video of Tanya with a Sony A7C Mark II as a reference in F4. Apart from the color science, you can see on the telephoto lens, you get a slightly more background blur on iPhone and Pixel compared to the Galaxy. For colors, the Galaxy and iPhone are close, but the Pixel, in my opinion, in making Tanya's skin a bit unnatural on this telephoto shot. I find the Galaxy's skin tone more balanced. iPhone also sometimes is a bit too warm. On the other hand, I do find iPhone photos to return highlights more, since Galaxy is usually raising the shadows. For zoom pictures up to 30 times, they are of a similar quality, I would say, and there is no crazy difference between them. But the Pixel has this AI-enhanced zoom after 30 times, which makes the picture look better and is sometimes fun to play around with it. Galaxy also, in my opinion, is doing a better processing for zoom than the iPhone. For the ultra-wide shot here, I find the iPhone picture to be the best. Both the Galaxy and Pixel are too dark, but overall, the quality is more or less the same across the phones on the ultra-wide camera. For the portrait shots, though, Galaxy and iPhone are doing better processing, while Pixel is cutting Tanya's hair too aggressively. The Galaxy and iPhone can take 4K 120 frames per second slow-motion video, whereas the Pixel can take only up to 60 frames per second. I find the quality on the iPhone the best here. The Pixel doesn't have enough frames, and Galaxy is wobbling. What Pixel has, though, is this video boost feature, where the phone upscales the image to 8K and also process it to look better. The Galaxy can also take 8K footage natively, and that's nice for cropping the video. Let's also check the mark quality with Tanya singing on the main camera. For night photos, they are doing very different processing. The Galaxy is raising the shadows a lot. The iPhone is trying to retain the highlights, while Pixel is in between the two. The Galaxy is now running One UI 8 on top of Android, the iPhone iOS 26 look with Glass, and the Pixel is running Android 16 Pixel Edition. The look and feel of each of them are unique. Especially with Apple's Liquid Glass, there is a clear design language distinction between Android and iOS. There are some things that I do feel iOS is still behind. For example, the lack of a universal back gesture, which to this day drives me insane. All phones have AI features, more or less, and Apple is gradually trying to catch up. For example, you can hold the power button on all of them and connect to Siri or Gemini, or you already saw the Android Seeker to Search feature, where you can circle around anything on the screen and search for the picture on the internet, which is very useful for me. On iPhone, you have the same feature now, more or less. You have to take a screenshot first and then scratch the part of the picture you wanna search for. One of the main visual differences in the screen and UI is the dynamic island. For example, when you are playing music, you can see your music playing on top and interact with it. You can do the same with the Now bar on One UI, but for Pixel, you have to drag the notification bar. If I wanna tell in a sentence, get the Galaxy for customization and options, iPhone for connectivity to other Apple devices, and Pixel for its simplicity. The battery capacity of the phones is close to each other, but often, the iPhone lasts longer in the same conditions. To test the battery life, I put a 5G SIM card on all phones and updated the software to the latest version. I first ran five hours of YouTube on Wi-Fi. I then captured the video for an hour with all three phones, and by the end of it, the Galaxy was at 56%, the iPhone, 64%, and Pixel, 53%. Before continuing with the battery test, I also ran two benchmarks. The Galaxy is supporting the Snapdragon 8 Elite Galaxy Edition. The iPhone is running on Apple A19 Pro, and Pixel is running Google Tensor G5. To test the performance, I ran Geekbench first, and on both multi-core and single-core, Apple came first, Galaxy second, and Pixel third with a big difference. To test the graphics, I ran Geekbench, where the Galaxy got the best score here of 39.7 frames on average. The iPhone got 34.8, and Pixel only 19.4. To continue the battery test, I disconnected all phones from Wi-Fi, so they stayed on 5G connection and connected all of them together using Google Meet. By the end of it, the Galaxy was at 30%, the iPhone, 40%, and Pixel, 25%. I then went out, I took some pictures, and when I came back, the Galaxy was at 26%, the iPhone, 36%, and Pixel, 22%. The total screen-on time was around seven and a half hours. One main difference between the three phones is that the iPhone and Pixel both have magnets on the back, meaning you can easily attach MagSafe accessories like this power bank here, whereas for the Galaxy, you need a case. I put the link of my favorite accessories in the description. The Galaxy, on the other hand, has wireless reverse charging. Also, there's, of course, an S Pen in the phone that, for me personally, is worth more than the magnets. All phones are IP68 water and dust resistant, and they have a great build. Based on the EU label, the Pixel and Galaxy are Class A in durability, while iPhone is Class B. I always put a case on my phones, and one single time that I didn't, the back of my iPhone 16 Pro Max cracked. I do recommend getting the dbrand TAN case, the sponsor of today's video, for your iPhone Pro. It is rugged and good looking and has super strong magnets. Another great option is their transparent ghost case, which is minimalistic, lightweight, and protects your phone just in the right places, since iPhone 17 Pro is prone to getting dents. It is also zero yellowing. The case works great with MagSafe accessories, and you don't need to worry about it. For both cases, the buttons are super clicky and satisfactory to play with, and also the camera cutout doesn't look like cheap cases, and feels even smoother than the actual camera control. You can also protect your screen by adding the prism, which makes it super simple to apply a screen protector, and comes with two units. If you use the link in the description, you can get 42% off the prism by bundling it with a case of your choosing. Thanks to dbrand for sponsoring this video. Overall, I find the Galaxy S25 Ultra a decent choice. It is one of my two phones besides my old iPhone 11. I love the S Pen, the anti-reflective display is a goat, and I generally like the One UI experience. The iPhone 17 Pro Max, though, definitely has better battery life. The selfie camera is simply superior, and it works better with my other Apple devices like MacBook and MacStudio. The Pixel is a unique phone, and has interesting software features like the video boost. It gives you a very clean Android experience without distraction, but the processing power is limited. If you wanna see how the Pixel 10 Pro XL compares to the Galaxy S25 Ultra in a day-in-the-life, you can watch this video next. Thanks for tuning into Techmo, and I will see you in the next one.