I have both. iPhone 16 Pro Max (2024) and Galaxy S10 (2019).

Okay so the iPhone 17 Pro is kinda pointless vs the regular iPhone 17. There’s a reason the 17 is the hot seller. It got ProMotion and it has a virutal 2x telephoto (by cropping into the regular cam) so it’s good enough for most people.

Pixel 10 Pro is worth considering, but try the camera first. You’ll love it or you’ll hate it. I love how when dialing into the 100X zoom, you get a little preview in the corner so you see where you’re going! That’s helpful. But it uses AI to hallucinate what it can’t make out, so be advised the 100X is kind of an illusion. But it’s also a 100X zoom! That’s awesome.

P10P has roughly the same compute power as an iPhone 11, and that’s sorry as hell, given the price, and given that Google sells your personal information. It’s borderline inexcusable, but if you’re considering Android, you’re not getting away from that. Also, benchmarks can be misleading. The Tensor CPU may be a few generations behind in raw compute power, but the P10P package makes up for this in other areas, like camera compute and battery life. It is NOT like having an iPhone 11 in 2025 (not that there’s anything wrong with that, I rock a 2019 S10 in 2025 and I still love that phone). The phone is not much slower (if at all to a layman’s perspective) than any 2025 flagship.

Speaking of benchmark shenanigans, the Galaxy S25 gets the highest benchmarks (not sure if this counts the iPhone 17 line, they were benching against the 16 series), but it loses more when thermally throttling. So if you’re playing high-end games, the Galaxy S25 will become weaker than the 16 Pro because it slows down more. But in day to day tasks? Kicks the iPhone’s ass… in benchmarks. Both phones will perform admirably!

If I had to replace my S10 right now, I’d get a base Galaxy S25. I like Samsung. It gets the best of Android and you generally get a year or two before Google’s more controversial decisions (removing the buttons, removing the headphone jack) come to Galaxy. Galaxy phones are fun. They’ve always had good energy to me.

If I had to replace my 16 Pro Max, I’d get a base 17 in a heartbeat.

I don’t hate the Pixel phones. I want to see Google step up the power of the Tensor chip a bit. I like Apple’s lax approach to AI. Samsung tries to make it fun and I think Google does too much, but I can’t point to any one thing with AI that really bothers me that Google does. I just think Samsung is better here, and they use more powerful chips.

I’ve always said that no matter what side of the iOS/Android fence you’re on, you really can’t go wrong with either Apple or Samsung. That goes for platform loyalists and those considering switching. Samsung isn’t really the Apple of Android, that’d be Google, but Apple is kinda boring and so is Pixel, and Samsung… isn’t.