Galaxy S25 Ultra vs iPhone 17: Who handles screen glare better?

Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra was the world’s first phone to offer a display with anti-reflective properties, thanks to Corning’s Gorilla Glass Armor. The Galaxy S25 Ultra features Gorilla Glass Armor 2, offering the same capability to cut down reflections and offer a clear look at the content against light sources.

Following in Samsung’s footsteps, Apple has equipped its latest lineup of smartphones, the iPhone 17 series, with displays featuring anti-reflective properties. In addition to being two years late to the race, it turns out that the anti-reflective property of the iPhone 17 series’ display isn’t as good as that of Samsung’s phones.

On YouTube, MrWhoseTheBoss posted a video unboxing Apple’s iPhone 17, iPhone Air, and iPhone 17 Pro. In the video, the channel placed the iPhone 17 beside the Galaxy S25 Ultra and placed a light bar over their displays to check which phone's screen cuts down the reflections better. The result? The display of the one from Samsung showed significantly lower reflection. Below is a frame from the video comparing the anti-reflective properties of the displays of the two phones.

That means under direct sunlight or against sources of light, content on the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s and Galaxy S25 Ultra’s display will be much more clearly visible compared to that on the iPhone 17’s screen. This is another example that Samsung is usually ahead of Apple in terms of innovation. Unfortunately, the internet is treating the anti-reflective property of the iPhone 17 series' display as the first feature of its kind on the market. As usual, Samsung fans are fighting with Apple loyalists.