Samsung could pull a similar trick with the Galaxy S25 family, namely release the three expected handsets—the Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra—in mid-January and hold back the presumptively named S25 Slim for a few months.

It's likely that the Galaxy S25 will run on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset when the new phones arrive next year. And that could be the most important change Samsung makes to its phones.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max is available right now, with prices starting at $1,199 for a 256GB model. This $100 price difference would give Apple the edge on Samsung.