Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra vs iPhone 15 Pro Max: expected differences

October 24, 2023

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Intro

Big screens, the most powerful chipsets, the most advanced camera systems, the longest battery life.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro Max are as cutting edge as it gets, but what are the differences between the two?

For starters, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is a bit wider, slightly heavier, it has an S Pen, and – naturally – it runs Android, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max has a number of advantages of its own. It runs iOS and has a huge and powerful ecosystem, it has a super fast processor, a new zoom camera that performs well in low light, and a light-weight body made of titanium. Which one is the better choice? Let’s dive deeper to find out!

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra vs Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max expected differences:

Galaxy is slightly bigger and weighs more
Galaxy has S Pen
Galaxy runs on Android, iPhone runs iOS
Galaxy comes with four cameras on the back, iPhone – three
Battery life is expected to be similar
Galaxy has slightly faster charging speed

Table of Contents:

Design and Size

The Galaxy is bigger, the iPhone offers titanium

Expected Galaxy S24 Ultra design showcased in preliminary images by OnLeaks

When it comes to design and styling, the Galaxy and iPhone each have their own distinct look. The Galaxy S24 Ultra design is characterized by a bigger footprint, the phone is wider, and it also weighs a bit more, plus it has these signature sharp corners. The iPhone 15 Pro Max design, on the other hand, is about a more traditional look with rounded corners. The iPhone also weighs less thanks to that new titanium body.

When it comes to buttons, the power and volume keys are all on the right side on the Galaxy, while on the iPhone the power button is on the right while the volume keys are on the left which makes it a bit easier to press these together to take a screenshot, for example.

The iPhone also has one extra button: the new Action button! We love the idea, it’s a programmable button which you can set to what you want, but we don’t love the placing as it is in the far top left corner and a bit out of reach.

For the first time, you now have USB-C on the iPhone, just like the Galaxy has had for the last decade or so. That’s really nice and means you no longer need to look for proprietary Lightning cables.

Of course, you also have the S Pen tucked inside the Galaxy, and it remains the only phone with this cool stylus inside it. However, we don’t expect to see any changes to the functionality of the S Pen this year.

Both phones are also IP68 water and dust protected, just like pretty much all other flagships.

When it comes to colors, here are the expected color options for the Galaxy S24 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Galaxy S24 Ultra colors (as per leaks):

Black
Gray
Violet
Yellow
Orange – Samsung online exclusive
Light blue – Samsung online exclusive
Light green – Samsung online exclusive

iPhone 15 Pro Max colors (official):

Titanium Black
Titanium Gray
Titanium Blue
Titanium Silver

Both phones will arrive in slim boxes with just a charging cable, but no charger.

Display Differences

The wider size of the Galaxy allows for a more spacious screen too: you get a 6.8-inch screen on the S24 Ultra compared to a 6.7-inch display on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. But not only that, the screen has a wider 19:3:9 aspect ratio (the iPhone has a 19.5:9), so the actual screen area on the Galaxy is even bigger than the display diagonal numbers alone suggest.

The new thing with the Galaxy is that it uses a flat screen now with only the glass ever so slightly curved at the edges, and the iPhone also uses a flat screen. We find this change for the better.

Both phones support a high resolution, but the Galaxy should be just a bit sharper with a 1440p resolution.

Both also support 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, and can go down to just 1Hz with statics content.

One area where the Galaxy is expected to – quite literally – outshine the iPhone is screen brightness. The S24 Ultra should be able to hit 2,500 nits max brightness, while the iPhone reaches 2,000 nits.

As for biometrics, the Galaxy relies on an in-screen fingerprint scanner of the ultrasonic kind, and in previous generations this scanner has proven to be reliable and fast enough. Additionally, you also have image based face recognition too. On the iPhone, you only have Face ID, which uses a 3D model of your face. Both a fingerprint and face recognition are nice to have, and it really depends on personal preference which one you use.

Performance and Software

Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs Apple A17 Pro

Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs A17 Pro preliminary specs image by PhoneArena

When it comes to performance, the battle is getting heated. Apple’s new A17 Pro chip, the world’s first based on a 3nm process, has not quite lived up to the huge hype, and then on the other hand, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is coming with a new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip inside, which – rumors say – has found the perfect balance between increased performance and power efficiency.

It’s still too early to judge of course, but we will be updating this section with performance benchmarks and more information as it comes in.

One disclaimer here: Samsung might go back to offering different versions of the Galaxy S24 in different markets. The US is expected to get the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, but the UK and Europe might get a version of the S24 Ultra with a Samsung Exynos chip instead.

One interesting rumor around the Galaxy S24 Ultra is that it might go back to a starting model with 128GB of storage, something that Samsung got rid of in the S23 Ultra, which started at 256GB. We’ll see if that’s true indeed.

For all the rest, you will have a 12/256GB, 12/512GB and some rumors say a 16GB/1TB versions on the Galaxy, while the iPhone comes in the following configurations: 8/256GB, 8/512GB, 8GB/1TB.

Of course, the big difference will be in the actual software. The Galaxy is expected to run on Samsung’s new One UI 6 software on top of Android 14, while the iPhone runs on iOS 17. Both have their distinct advantages, but we’ll be looking out to see what software commitment will Samsung take upon. Google has recently announced seven years of software updates for the Pixel 8 series, and Samsung has so far offered four years. Apple does not officially disclose how many years it will support its phones, but it’s usually around five to six years.

One interesting tid-bit that Apple has included in recent iPhones is satellite connectivity, and so far, this feature has not made it on mainstream Android phones. Rumors say the Galaxy S24 Ultra might be among the first to get it, so let’s see about that.

Another detail worth knowing is that iPhone models in the United States (and only in the US) come with eSIM and NO physical SIM card slot. The Galaxy is expected to keep that physical SIM card option.

Camera

The battle centers around zoom quality and video recording

The Galaxy S24 Ultra sticks with four cameras on the back, but makes some significant changes to one of them, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max features three cameras on the back including a brand new 5X tetraprism zoom lens.

Which one is better?

We don’t know yet, but let’s look at what we do know. First of all, despite a 200MP main sensor, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is expected to still default to 12MP shots, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max now captures 24MP photos, with the promise for more detail.

The ultra-wide cameras have 12MP resolution on both phones.

And when it comes to zoom, the Galaxy has both a 3X and a 5X zoom lens, while the iPhone only has 5X. Not only this, the Galaxy uses a 50MP sensor for the 5X zoom shooter, meaning that it will be able to sensor crop and provide good quality at 10X and why not even 20X.

The other big battle is for video quality where the iPhone currently reigns supreme as videos from previous Galaxy phones still have a bit of noise and are not quite as clean. We are yet to see if Samsung can make big improvements there.

What Samsung does have is 8K video recording, an option missing on the iPhone, but we are not sure many people really care about that considering the huge size associated with 8K video and the lack of support on most monitors and TVs.

Audio Quality and Haptics

When it comes to loudspeakers, most phones – including the Galaxy S24 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro Max – use a main, bottom firing loudspeaker and a helper speaker in the earpiece.

The Galaxy changes the visual look of the bottom speaker going for a pill-shaped cutout instead of the perforated design used previously, and this suggests some tweaks to the speaker are possible too.

As for haptics, vibration feedback out of the iPhone still feels a bit more refined with that Taptic Engine and while Samsung’s vibration motor is fine, we do want to see some improvements there too.

Battery Life and Charging

Can one of these last two days between charges?

With an expected 5,000 mAh battery size, the Galaxy has the theoretical advantage over the iPhone 15 Pro Max with its 4,422 mAh battery.

However, you definitely should NOT take the numbers and run only with them as there are big differences in Android and iOS in optimization.

What this means is that iOS is able to squeeze more out of the same battery size. In reality, our use with the iPhone 15 Pro Max shows we can get to two days between charges if we don’t spend too much time glued to the screen. We are yet to see if the Galaxy will be able to match that, but the new rumored power efficiencies of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 should help.

When it comes to charging, the Galaxy is projected to be faster at 45W speeds compared to 20W speed on the iPhone. Okay, in reality, the iPhone can hit around 25W charging speeds (higher than the Apple advertized 20W), but that still means you have to wait for around 1 hour and 40 minutes for a full charge, while the Galaxy should top up in just around 1 hour.

Both also support wireless charging, but the iPhone also comes with the magnetic MagSafe support and 15W charging speed support, while the Galaxy should be rated at 10W+ and regular Qi charging.

Specs Comparison

	Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra	Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max
Size, weight	162.3 × 79 × 8.6mm 233 g	159.9 x 76.7 x 8.25 mm 221 g
Display	6.8″ OLED 120Hz dynamic 2,500 nits peak	6.7″ OLED 120Hz dynamic 2,000 nits peak
Processor	Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy	Apple A17 Pro
RAM, Storage	8/128GB 12/256GB 12/512GB 16/1TB LPDDR5X	– 8/256GB 8/512GB 8/1TB LPDDR5
Cameras	200MP main 12MP ultra-wide 10MP 3X telephoto 50MP 5X periscope, f/3.4 12MP front	48MP main, f/1.8 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.2 12MP 5X telephoto, f/2.8 – 12MP front
Battery	5000 mAh	4422 mAh
Charging	45W wired 15W wireless	20W wired 15W MagSafe wireless

The main highlights that we notice is how the iPhone lacks a 128GB storage version, which makes it a bit more expensive, but also the smaller battery size and how the Galaxy has one additional zoom camera.

Summary

When you draw the line in the sand, each of these two stick to their own game.

The Galaxy is the bigger phone, it has the S Pen for those who care, and the customization and openness of Android, plus a new and modernized camera system.

The iPhone on the other hand, has finally caught up with the zoom situation, and it offers the beauty of iOS and the closed Apple ecosystem, and it is expected to have the slightly longer battery life.

Price-wise, these should be quite the same, starting at around $1,200.

So… which team are you on, team Apple or team Galaxy, and why?

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