Lying on the seashore in Antigua, I stared up into the evening sky, dazzled by the celebrities. A standard particular person would simply sit again and benefit from the present; however I’m not regular, so I took out my two telephones, the iPhone 16 Pro Max and the nonetheless very new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, and began taking photographs. What I found stunned me, and it would shock you, too.
To perceive how Samsung and Apple strategy evening images, you need to begin with how they deal with smartphone images usually. Both deliver one of the best sensors and lenses to the celebration, however in addition they apply vital quantities of algorithmic picture processing (aka computational images) to make one of the best of what are comparatively tiny lenses in units not solely constructed for the job of images.
Apple has its picture processing pipeline, one thing it has been refining for effectively over a decade. The picture sign processor makes use of a neural engine to investigate the scene being photographed in actual time and make numerous changes, each throughout and after seize, to provide one of the best picture.
Samsung’s ProVisible Engine does comparable work throughout seize and earlier than presenting the ultimate picture.
Taking the evening
The two programs additionally now produce very comparable outcomes with, as I famous in my Galaxy S25 Ultra assessment, that cellphone pushing the bounds on coloration saturation and pores and skin smoothness to offer nearly each remaining picture a barely heightened sense of actuality. I just like the photographs, however I feel selecting between the iPhone and a Galaxy Phone’s images is now a matter of style.
Night images, or astrophotography, provides one other wrinkle – and it is the place, not less than on methodology, Samsung and Apple differ, albeit solely barely.
Apple would not have a selected evening images mode. You simply level your cellphone on the evening sky and attempt to maintain it very nonetheless whilst you take the shot. There are a pair of targets within the heart of the picture that align completely should you can maintain regular by way of what defaults to a 3-second publicity. You can push that to 10 seconds, however you then higher have a tripod or different help.
Samsung has a devoted Night mode (it is hidden beneath ‘More’ within the Camera app). It, too, defaults to a 3-second publicity (the cellphone tells you to carry nonetheless in the course of the shot); you may also choose ‘Max’ and go for a full eight seconds, though once more, and not using a tripod, it is unlikely you’ll be able to hold your cellphone nonetheless for that lengthy.
Hello stars, whats up moon
Since I used to be on the seashore and on trip, I did not have a tripod, so did my degree finest to carry nonetheless as I switched backwards and forwards between the 2 smartphones. I’m an novice photographer, and delight myself and my stillness abilities (particularly helpful if, as I do, you prefer to take telephoto pictures of tiny birds).
I took a bunch of photographs, however in analyzing them, I discovered only a handful that I believed had been immediately – and pretty – comparable.
Broadly talking, each smartphones do an honest job of taking evening photographs, however there have been some stunning variations – and a few actual issues on the Galaxy S25 Ultra facet.
In normal, the iPhone 16 Pro Max does a greater job with sky coloration and readability. I feel the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra’s important 200MP digital camera captures extra element, that means extra stars, however the photos are usually not as clear as what you get from the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
This first set of photos beneath is an effective instance. As you’ll be able to see, the Galaxy S25 Ultra picture on the suitable has much more stars in it, however the sky coloration is grey as a substitute of deep, darkish blue, and I feel Samsung’s picture processing had hassle with the ambient mild. Granted, these weren’t the right circumstances for evening images – what I actually needed was zero ambient mild and nothing however the inky evening above, however vacationing beggars cannot be choosers.
A fly within the inkment
This subsequent set of photos not solely illustrates the iPhone’s appreciable prowess at capturing beautiful evening photos, it additionally highlights a major problem with the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
While I take into account each photos fairly good contemplating the circumstances – which included partial cloud cowl – there’s one thing within the S25 Ultra picture that I did not discover till I returned dwelling and began studying reviews about S25 Ultra evening images points. There had been reviews of a hazy sample on the photographs.
Initially, I believed these had been clouds, however then I noticed the identical sample on my subsequent main-camera evening images pictures. And once I noticed the very same sample in an article that featured evening images photos taken with the S25 Ultra, I noticed it is likely to be an actual problem. I contacted Samsung, and despatched them a few of these photos for evaluation.
Without reflecting on my particular photographs, Samsung despatched me this assertion: “We are conscious of a restricted variety of circumstances the place photos seem blurred when taking photographs in Night Mode on Galaxy S25 Ultra, and have issued a repair to resolve within the subsequent software program replace rolling out beginning this week.”
I stay up for seeing if the replace clears up this problem.
I’m unsure that I’d name what I’m seeing blurriness, however no matter it’s, the sample is even clearer on this subsequent picture set. As you’ll be able to see, there aren’t any comparable patterns within the iPhone 16 Pro Max picture on the left.
Juggling the darkish and lightweight
In this subsequent picture set, we get to see how each telephones deal with the problem of a brighter palm tree towards the evening sky. I used to be principally happy with each photographs, although once more the colour of the evening sky within the iPhone picture on the left is extra correct.
However, I additionally observed a brand new, completely different problem within the S25 Ultra picture. It has each the aforementioned hazy sample anomaly, but in addition some critical picture high quality breakdown in components of the evening sky, within the type of what appear like blotchy squiggles.
For these remaining pictures, the place the brilliant moon comes into play, I feel the Galaxy S25 Ultra did a greater job of sustaining star visibility towards the problem of a number of mild sources. My solely criticism of the S25 Ultra right here could be that it over-brightened the lit objects. I used to be there, and the lighting was ambient, and never direct as instructed on this picture.
Pushing the bounds and remaining ideas
I did attempt another pictures, specifically just a few the place I attempted to make use of optical zoom to seize the ultra-bright half-moon. Neither cellphone might decrease the publicity sufficient to make it discernible as a celestial object.
Naturally, I needed to attempt the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra’s 30x area zoom which immediately gave me a shocking half-moon picture (see beneath, proper). But, as I’ve written, I now not belief these photographs as a result of, as Samsung admits, they’re “photos” not photographs, which I take to imply that they seem to be a mixture of AI magic and a few photographic info.
Where the Galaxy S25 Ultra excels is in hyperlapse astrophotography. This is the place you select Hyperlapse (additionally beneath ‘More’ within the Camera app), set it to 300x, after which examine ‘Star Trails’. I took just a few of those timelapse photos, which might create an incredible swirl of stars circling round, for example, the north star. Unfortunately, with out my tripod, it was tough to maintain the cellphone planted for lengthy sufficient to get the complete impact. Even so, I want the iPhone had the same characteristic.
Here’s what I realized. Apple’s picture pipeline remains to be, not less than for evening images, extra refined than Samsung’s. It may not provide you with all the celebrities within the evening sky, however what it does ship is evident and infrequently stunning.
Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra is just not far behind, but it surely wants a extra refined image-processing strategy for the fragile work of evening images. In addition, that anomaly is an actual factor that is repeated throughout all evening pictures I took with the principle digital camera. I feel it is a simple ProVisible engine repair, although, and based mostly on Samsung’s assertion, I feel they agree.
