Not sure if you should buy the iPhone 15 Pro Max or the Galaxy S24 Ultra? Here’s a head-on comparison between the two to help you decide.
iPhone 15 Pro Max, Apple’s most expensive superphone, is a big step forward. It’s the most significant upgrade we’ve seen in a while, packing a powerful new camera and a USB-C port. Plus, it’s lighter than last year’s iPhone 14 Pro Max.
The iPhone is a complete beast in price and features, but is it the obvious choice for a flagship phone, or should you get the Galaxy S24 Ultra instead?
Samsung has made major upgrades to the Galaxy S24 Ultra, which was released on January 17 during Galaxy Unpacked event. It brings an even better camera system, a bright display, and a powerful processor. The flagship also comes clad in Titanium.
We compare what we know about the Galaxy S24 Ultra and pit it against the iPhone 15 Pro Max to help you decide which is better.
Price
Samsung bumped up the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s price by $100. The Galaxy S24 Ultra starts at $1,299 for the 12GB RAM and 256GB storage variant. If you go for the 512GB storage model, you pay $1,419. The 1TB storage trim costs $1,659.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max, by comparison, is cheaper than Samsung’s flagship. It starts at $1,199 for the 256GB model in the US. The price goes up to $1,399 for 512GB and $1,599 for the top-of-the-line 1TB version.
However, Samsung will give you a free storage upgrade if you pre-order S24 Ultra before January 30. This means you can get a 1TB model for the price of 512GB version.
Design
Despite packing a better camera and display, the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s lightweight design is its best feature. The new Apple device uses Titanium frames, which cuts its weight by around 20g (the 14 Pro Max weighs 240g).
The iPhone also gets thinner screen bezels and it’s a hair shorter than the 14 Pro Max. The rest of the design remains the same. You see flat frames and flat glass sides with a notably huge camera housing.
iPhone 15 Pro Max is taller than the rest of the models in the lineup, featuring a 6.7-inch display. The screen is as good as it gets. Seriously, the iPhone uses an LTPO Super Retina XDR OLED with HDR10, Dolby Vision, 2000 nits peak brightness, and 1290x2796px resolution.
Samsung is rarely behind Apple when it comes to offering bleeding-edge specifications. The Korean company has equipped the Galaxy S24 Ultra with Titanium frames, however, it still weighs almost the same as its predecessor. The latest Samsung flagship is nearly identical to the Galaxy S23 Ultra but with a flat-screen and back.
The display on the Galaxy S24 Ultra is taller than the iPhone 15 Pro Max, measuring 6.8 inches. Samsung uses Dynamic AMOLED on the smartphone, offering a particularly extreme 2,600 nits brightness. Both smartphones have a 120Hz refresh rate.
Camera
Apple’s camera game is and has been strong for the longest time. With the iPhone 15 Pro Max, the Cupertino company has unveiled its best camera system so far.
It has the same general setup as last year’s 14 Pro, a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera, a 48MP main camera, and a 12MP telephoto camera, but with some key differences. For one, the telephoto shooter now has 5X zoom, up from 3X.
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Another difference is that the main camera now captures 24MP photos by default, up from 12MP.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra’s camera system, on the other hand, is in its own league. While the main camera on the phone uses the same 200MP sensor as the Galaxy S23 Ultra, a new 50MP periscope shooter is offering 5x optical zoom with 0.7μm pixel size. The rest two cameras include a 12MP Ultrawide and a 10MP optical shooter— the same as the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
Specifications
| | Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra | Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (4nm) | Apple A17 Pro (3nm) |
| RAM | 12GB LPDDR5X (max) | 8GB LPDDR5 (max) |
| Battery | 5000mAh | 4441mAh |
| Charging | 45W | 25.5W |
| Display | 6.8-inch AMOLED | 6.7-inch OLED |
| Cameras | 200+12+50+10, 12MP front. Quad camera with 5x optical zoom | 48+ 12+ 12. Triple camera system with 5x optical zoom. |
| Price | Starting at $1,299 | Starting at $1,199 |
Packing the 3nm A17 Pro bionic chip, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is arguably the most powerful smartphone in the market. However, the chip is not so far ahead of Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which powers the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
In Geekbench’s multi-core test, the Qualcomm chip scored 7,501 points, which is in fact better than Apple’s A17 Pro (7,237 points). However, Apple’s silicon brings enough firepower to run PS5-quality games and it is even claimed to be more efficient.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 also promises efficiency, but we are yet to see how it will perform on the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Storage options on both Galaxy S24 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro Max are the same— 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. However, the S24 Ultra gets more RAM (up to 12GB) than the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which only has 8GB RAM.
AI features
Apple is reportedly gearing up for some big AI moves in the upcoming iPhone 16 series, but the current iPhone 15 Pro Max is a bit light on AI. Samsung, on the flip side, went all-in on AI with the S24 Ultra. It has features like Live Translate, Transcript Assist, and Chat Assist for smooth real-time, multi-lingual conversations.
The camera is strong too, taking a cue from Google’s Pixel lineup. One notable feature is Circle to Search. It lets you long-press the home button, circle, highlight, or tap anything in the app, and bam, it’s Google-searched without leaving what you’re doing.
Software updates
Apple and Samsung both support their flagships for five years. This means you get at least five major software updates and frequent security fixes. However, Samsung was recently outdone in the Android world by Google.
The search giant announced the Pixel 8 series with a whopping seven years of major Android updates, surpassing what Samsung provides with the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
Not to be left behind, Samsung has made changes to its update policy. The latest Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra will get up to seven years of software updates.
This likely means the phone will receive at least seven major software updates, similar to what Google assured for the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, and 2 years more than the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Which flagship is better?
So, which phone could be the better choice: the iPhone 15 Pro Max or the Galaxy S24 Ultra? It wouldn’t be fair to pick a side since both phones are top-notch. If you’re on Team Android, the Galaxy S24 Ultra might be the way to go. If you lean towards iOS, the iPhone 15 Pro Max should naturally be your choice.
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