Apple iPhone 16 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S24: Tiny but mighty

Intro

How do these compare in detail?

Design and Size

Distant cousins

From a design perspective, we don’t expect major changes with the iPhone 16 Pro design––it will look mostly similar to the all-titanium iPhone 16 Pro. It will be slightly taller and wider, while simultaneously utilizing much thinner bezels. This will boost the screen size from 6.1-inch all the way to 6.27-inch, a much greater screen in mostly the same-sized package.

Both phones have IP68 water- and dust-resistance, as well as USB-C ports at the bottom.

The iPhone 16 Pro will come in Space Black, White, Gray, and Desert Titanium colors, a safe albeit boring selection of colors. The Galaxy S24 is available in Onyx Black, Marble Gray, Cobalt Violet, and Amber Yellow. The Jade Green, Sapphire Blue, and Sandstone Orange colors are available when you buy the phone through Samsung.com.

Display Differences

The iPhone 16 Pro will score a larger 6.27-inch screen, as we mentioned. Part of this upgrade is courtesy of the bezel reduction: the iPhone 16 Pro will score 1.2mm-thin bezels, a major diet in comparison with the iPhone 15 Pro‘s 1.71mm bezels.

Aside from that, the rest of the iPhone 16 Pro specs are mostly the same. We will get a Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion 120Hz refresh rate, definitely higher peak brightness than previous devices, and the Dynamic Island cutout. The iPhone 15 Pro featured peak 2,000 nits brightness, but we expect the iPhone 16 Pro to be brighter. 

Meanwhile, the Galaxy S24 has an ever-so-slightly smaller 6.2-inch screen. It also supports 1-120Hz refresh rate and has pretty high peak brightness. It’s a decent and pretty standard OLED display.

The Samsung phone has a pretty small punch-hole display, which houses the single front-facing camera.

The Galaxy S24 also has superfast biometrics thanks to the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner embedded inside the display. The iPhone 16 Pro will rely on Face ID. 

Performance and Software

More power than you can handle

The Apple A18 Pro will utilize dual 4.05 GHz performance cores and four efficiency cores, will boast a 6-core GPU (whereas the iPhone 16/iPhone 16 Plus will get a pentacore GPU), and will probably get a better NPU in order to handle on-device Apple Intelligence processing better.

Meanwhile, the Galaxy S24 comes along with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy chipset. It’s arguably the best chipset available for Android devices right now. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 achieves a pretty decent performance, though we expect the A18 Pro to outdo that. 

Memory-wise, the iPhone 16 Pro will come with 8GB of RAM, while in terms of storage we’re getting 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB versions. The Galaxy S24 also arrives with 8GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB of storage, a bit less impressive loadout. 

In Apple’s camp, the minimum is five years of updates, but we usually get six to seven years of support.

Camera

Major changes to the iPhone

Battery Life and Charging

The Galaxy might have a serious lead

According to the rumor mill, the iPhone 16 Pro will come with a 3,355mAh battery, slightly larger than the one on the iPhone 15 Pro, but also the tiniest one among all iPhone 16 models. 

Even though we expect the Apple A18 Pro chip to be efficient, such a small battery doesn’t really inspire confidence. We expect better battery life than the iPhone 15 Pro, but the latter didn’t truly impress, so the bar is already pretty low.  

One area in which the iPhone 16 Pro might score a surprising upgrade is charging speed. Rumors have it Apple will throw 40W wired charging and 20W MagSafe wireless charging on the flagship, which will possibly improve the charging speeds by a lot.

The Galaxy S24 comes with 25W wired and 15W Fast Wireless charging, so while not too slow in comparison, it will probably lag behind the iPhone in this vital aspect. 

Specs Comparison

Summary

Overall, the clash between these two is yet another episode in the endless Apple-Samsung confrontation that doesn’t seem to have a peaceful resolution in sight. With each and every generation, it’s back and forth between the flagships of these two giants on the smartphone market. 

Presently, it appears that the iPhone 16 Pro might have a leg up in the competition due to the sensible upgrades that might be coming to the small Apple flagship. The longer telephoto, bigger screen, and potentially faster chip might be a decent reason to upgrade for seasoned iPhone fans. 

However, the Galaxy S24 is a pretty decent, no-nonsense flagship device of its own. It might lack showstopping features, but is appealing thanks to its simplicity. It also has a great camera, awesome performance, good battery life, and provides access to the Galaxy AI suite of features. A prime choice for Android fans.