Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs Google Pixel 9 Pro XL

Google’s Pixel 9 Pro XL is a few months old now and has to face a brand new Galaxy Ultra. Meanwhile, Samsung’s latest S Pen-wielding flagship has lost some of its S Pen capabilities and doesn’t bring major generational improvements. Is this battle between Android juggernauts all going to come down to subjective preference, or are numbers also going to have a say in it? We’ll try and find out if there are any real winners between these two.

Table of Contents:

For starters, you can compare the complete specs sheets or directly continue with our editor’s assessment in the following text.

Size comparison

Samsung did some fine tuning with the dimensions this year, and the S25 Ultra is a little narrower and a little thinner than last year’s model. The Pixel also lost a few tenths of a millimeter from its thickness compared to the old one, but remains slightly thicker than the Galaxy, but it’s still narrower by a whole millimeter. Both are equally tall.

What the raw numbers don’t tell you, but the pictures might (and we’ll try to explain just now), is that the Galaxy is tangibly blockier and will tend to be that little bit more prone to eat out a hole in your jeans given enough time. Yes, the new Ultra does handle well, but the Pixel’s more fluid shapes feel more natural and organic.

The Galaxy uses newer and potentially more durable materials in its build. Both of its panels are made of Gorilla Armor 2, while the Pixel uses Gorilla Glass Victus 2, and the Ultra’s frame is made of titanium, next to the Pixel’s aluminum rails.

There’s every chance that the Samsung will survive some of the drops that may bring an end to the Pixel’s life. Both phones are IP68-rated for dust and water resistance and should be fine for immersion up to 1.5m for as long as 30 minutes.

Color options on the two phones aren’t exactly flashy, with all sorts of inoffensive and subdued hues available on both. The Pixel’s polished frame is the most flair you’ll get out of either handset, and there’s also a bit more character and personality to the Google phone’s camera assembly, next to the decidedly more utilitarian Galaxy cluster of circles.

Display comparison

The Galaxy’s modest display size increase to 6.9 inches this year gives it a few extra sq. cm of advantage over the Pixel 9 Pro compared to the already marginally larger S24 Ultra. It’s not a difference that you’ll easily feel, and both phones will offer you plenty of screen estate.

Both are high-res OLED panels with 120Hz maximum refresh rate, so you’ll be enjoying sharp texts, vivid colors, and smooth scrolling. What you won’t be getting on either one is Dolby Vision support – it’s HDR10+, instead. Also, both phones are marketed to have 8-bit panels, which is so 2016.

There is one sort of major difference though. The Pixel’s display proved a lot brighter in our testing – by almost 1,000nits in adaptive mode (2,365 vs 1,417nits) and over 500nits in manual operation (1,333 vs 784nits). It’s not that the Galaxy is strapped for nits, it’s just that the Pixel has a lot more of them.

Battery life

Pixels don’t normally make it to the top of our battery life charts, while the latest Galaxy Ultra doesn’t bring anything in terms of capacity upgrades. That said, the S25 Ultra is still better than the 9 Pro XL in three of our four tests – and by a wide margin, too. The Pixel’s sole consolation comes from its 1-hour advantage in web browsing and social network scrolling. Overall, we’d say the Galaxy should be the better option for long days away from a power source.

Charging speed

Neither of these is particularly quick to charge in the grand scheme of things, but between them the differences aren’t too big, or at least not too meaningful. Sure, the Galaxy will get to 100% some 20 minutes sooner than the Pixel, but in the more important first thirty minutes, the Galaxy’s 72% aren’t a whole lot more than the Pixel’s 67%. Still, though, the Galaxy does win this.

Both phones support wireless charging, though there are differences. The Galaxy is Qi 2.1 compliant, so you can get cases for it with magnets and use those for coil alignment, plus upcoming in-car chargers may support automatic alignment for the S25 Ultra. On the other hand, the Pixel’s rated for up to 23W with the Pixel Stand (which drops to 12W with third-party solutions), while the Galaxy maxes out at 15W regardless of peripherals. Both support reverse wireless charging.

Speaker test

Good stereo speakers are the norm in this class, and both of these phones tick that box. That said, while both have earned ‘Very Good’ ratings for loudness in our testing, the Galaxy is that one bit louder and, more importantly, better sounding in practice. The Ultra has more presence in the low end and generally sounds larger and a little nicer.

Performance

The Galaxy S25 Ultra is powered by the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset – in a ‘for Galaxy’ spec, so it should be that one extra tiny bit better than the others. The Pixel 9 Pro XL, meanwhile, relies on a Google-designed Tensor G4 chip -Tensors tend to be lagging behind in benchmarks to begin with, and this one is sort of a generation (and a half) behind the Elite, so you can expect significantly different raw power results from the two phones.

The latest Pixel Pros come with 16GB of RAM, which is a lot of RAM and should be helping them with all the on-device AI that’s sort of the main reason to pick a Pixel over anything else. The Galaxy is also big on AI but makes do with just 12GB of RAM, outside of an elusive 16GB/1TB version that’s only available in China for now.

On the flipside, the Pixel’s 128GB base storage is borderline insulting, while the Galaxy starts at 256GB (which isn’t too generous either, but it’s alright).

Benchmark performance

As expected, benchmark scores on the Pixel are underwhelming – the Galaxy outperforms it more than two-fold in multi-core CPU performance, and more than 2.5x in graphics benchmarks. Both phones feel fluid and snappy in operation, of course, but if you’ll be doing some serious number-crunching (for whatever reason), perhaps the Galaxy is the better option.

Both phones come with a promise for 7 years of software support (both major OS releases and security updates). We wouldn’t expect these devices to provide meaningful performance so many years down the line, but even if your plans for either phone aren’t nearly as long-term, the Pixel is easily more likely to be getting those new OS versions quicker than the Galaxy.

Camera comparison

The two phones take somewhat different approaches to their camera systems, the Pixel relying on computational photography to cover the gap between its main camera and its 5x telephoto, while the Galaxy has a dedicated 3x camera for those in-between photo-ops.

There are more differences, too, of course. While the main cameras use the same size sensors, the Galaxy’s 200MP might be giving it certain advantages over the Pixel’s 50MP unit. Both handsets have more or less the same ultrawides, and the Pixel’s 5x telephoto camera uses about the same size sensor as the Galaxy’s 5x unit. The Pixel’s zoom camera isn’t too keen on focusing close though – the Galaxy does better in that area (25cm vs. 75cm is quite the difference).

Image quality

Main camera photos from the two phones are more similar than they are different. Perhaps the most obvious difference is that the Pixel tends to be more aggressive in its highlight recovery, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing (or a good one either). It’s hard to say that one is superior here.

Daylight photo samples, 1x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • Pixel 9 Pro XL

At 2x zoom, the Galaxy fares a little better in some scenes, but we’re looking at ties on other occasions – it’s not universally better, despite the MP count.

Daylight photo samples, 2x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • Pixel 9 Pro XL

You’d expect the Galaxy to be vastly superior at 3x, but in fact the 9 Pro XL holds up very well. Apparently, the Ultra’s combination of a small-ish sensor and 10MP to 12MP upscaling isn’t that much better than the Pixel computing its way to 3x.

Daylight photo samples, 3x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • Pixel 9 Pro XL

Neither one of these is our favorite 5x zoom camera, but the Galaxy’s unit appears to be outperforming the Pixel’s telephoto with relative consistency. It’s not dramatically better in general, just a little bit, but it does win for closeups – the Pixel can’t really do those.

Daylight photo samples, 5x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • Pixel 9 Pro XL

The Galaxy has a bit of an edge at 10x, though at this zoom level you should have more modest expectations to begin with.

Daylight photo samples, 10x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • Pixel 9 Pro XL

There’s a relatively more pronounced difference between the ultrawides, stemming from the fact that the Pixel’s lens is noticeably wider – to a pretty extreme degree. Detail is about the same between the two, and the brand specifics in color rendition and dynamic range remain.

Daylight photo samples: Galaxy S25 Ultra (0.6x) • Pixel 9 Pro XL (0.5x)

The Galaxy’s relatively ordinary 12MP 26mm selfie camera isn’t half bad, but the Pixel, on the other hand, is sort of unique and probably our pick between the two if selfies are important. its 42MP sensor is paired with an unusually wide lens (17mm equivalent) for adding more context in your shots or simply more people.

Selfie samples: Galaxy S25 Ultra • Pixel 9 Pro XL

In the dark, the Galaxy’s main camera does conservative processing and leaves plenty of noise alongside its detail. The Pixel does the opposite and smooths things out more, for better or worse. We do tend to prefer the Pixel’s approach of lifting the shadows next to the relatively gloomy dark areas on the Galaxy, though the Google phone has a bit of negative tendency to bleach warmer lights.

Low-light photo samples, 1x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • Pixel 9 Pro XL

The Galaxy snatches somewhat of a victory at 2x where it manages to remain sharper than the Pixel (the first scene is a bit of an outlier from the Galaxy, we’re not exactly sure what happened there).

Low-light photo samples, 2x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • Pixel 9 Pro XL

At 3x in the dark, the Pixel is trailing the Galaxy in sharpness and definition, but we’d say it’s doing better than expected.

Low-light photo samples, 3x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • Pixel 9 Pro XL

At 5x, the Galaxy offers significantly better detail definition. The Pixel’s brighter shadows look nicer from afar, but it’s once again not stellar with its treatment of warm light sources.

Low-light photo samples, 5x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • Pixel 9 Pro XL

Neither phone will get you truly good 10x zoom results, if you’re after pixel-peeping. At fit to screen magnification, both are passable, with perhaps the Galaxy scoring points for color fidelity.

Low-light photo samples, 10x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • Pixel 9 Pro XL

The ultrawides handle darkness differently, with the Pixel’s take being somewhat unnatural with its tonal development – we can’t say we hate the bright exposures, though they’re not exactly very ‘photographic’. The Galaxy is notably more realistic in its colors and dynamic range. Detail is comparable in absolute terms, but arguably more naturally rendered on the Samsung.

Low-light photo samples: Galaxy S25 Ultra (0.6x) • Pixel 9 Pro XL (0.5x)

Video quality

Below we have a few framegrabs from the videos taken by the two phones at each focal length so it’s easier to compare to one another.

The two phones are showing quite different results in video recording, the Pixel’s overly contrasty output being a little over the top. Detail is comparable between the ultrawides and the main cameras at 1x, but the Galaxy takes a significant lead at 2x (main camera vs. main camera), which becomes all the more apparent at 3x (dedicated camera vs. main camera).

Daylight video samples: Galaxy S25 Ultra (0.6x) • Pixel 9 Pro XL (0.5x)

Daylight video samples, 1x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • Pixel 9 Pro XL

Daylight video samples, 2x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • Pixel 9 Pro XL

Daylight video samples, 3x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • Pixel 9 Pro XL

At 5x and 10x zoom, the Galaxy also has the upper hand.

Daylight video samples, 5x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • Pixel 9 Pro XL

Daylight video samples, 10x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • Pixel 9 Pro XL

In the dark, the Galaxy’s video out is thoroughly better. There’s somewhat of a parity between the ultrawides, but other than that the S25 Ultra is the better option, particularly for anything beyond 1x zoom.

Low-light video samples: Galaxy S25 Ultra (0.6x) • Pixel 9 Pro XL (0.5x)

Low-light video samples, 1x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • Pixel 9 Pro XL

Low-light video samples, 2x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • Pixel 9 Pro XL

Low-light video samples, 3x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • Pixel 9 Pro XL

Low-light video samples, 5x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • Pixel 9 Pro XL

Low-light video samples, 10x: Galaxy S25 Ultra • Pixel 9 Pro XL

Verdict

The Galaxy S25 Ultra may not be a huge upgrade compared to its predecessor, but the Ultra lineup is so thoroughly capable and feature-packed that it can easily eclipse a Pixel even without much innovation.

Indeed, the Pixel 9 Pro XL is struggling to keep up with the Samsung in terms of computing power – the gap is pretty staggering. The Google phone is not entirely competitive in the camera department either with particularly bad lapses in telephoto close-focusing and video quality. The ultrawide selfies are somewhat of a consolation, if a small/niche one.

The Galaxy is, of course, an obvious choice if you have any use for a stylus. It’s also built tougher, if the marketing is to be believed. And while not an industry-leading cameraphone, it’s generally better than the Pixel at what the Pixel used to be the best at.

One final consideration that could very well be the deciding factor is price – the Pixel is several months old now and can be had for some 30% less than the Galaxy. Maybe the S25 Ultra is worth that premium for you, and maybe the Pixel is good enough for the money.