The iPhone 15 Pro Max is Apple’s flagship model and one of the best phones you can buy. However, it now faces substantial competition from the Samsung Galaxy S24 family, with the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra standing out as a major contender.
This Android superphone boasts more cameras, a larger screen than the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and some similar features like a titanium frame.
So, which one should you consider buying? Here’s how these two phones compare based on their specifications and what we discovered in our iPhone 15 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra reviews.
IPHONE 15 PRO MAX VS GALAXY S24 ULTRA: SPECS COMPARISON
The table below compares the official Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra specifications against the iPhone 15 Pro Max specifications, allowing you to evaluate how these flagships stack up. In most respects, the iPhone 15 Pro Max falls short of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. However, it comes quite close while also having smoother software than Samsung’s phone and benefiting from Dynamic Island. The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra poses a significant threat to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, boasting more cameras, RAM, a larger battery, and a brighter screen, but more does not always equal better.
CAMERA
In terms of camera arrangement, the Samsung S24 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro Max differ significantly. While they both have a 12MP front-facing camera and a 12MP ultrawide lens on the back, there are a few distinctions to consider.
To begin, the S24 Ultra’s main camera lens has a resolution of 200MP, which is much higher than the iPhone’s 48MP. On paper, this appears to be a big difference; nevertheless, in his iPhone 15 Pro Max review, Max Parker remarked, “The iPhone remains incredibly reliable, producing a usable image pretty much every single time – I can’t say this about the Galaxy Ultra series.”
The S24 Ultra also made a contentious adjustment from its predecessor, the Galaxy S23 Ultra, by reducing the 10MP 10x periscope lens to only 5x. This puts it on level with the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which has increased its zoom from 3x to 5x. Both handsets are praised for their zoom, with Max concluding “the quality of the images is good, especially in daylight situations where colors are rich and detailed” and Lewis Painter, in his S24 Ultra review, praising the telephoto lens as “a solid shooter with colors and detail consistent with that of both the main lens and the 5x periscope lens that makes it a great intermediary between the two.”
Samsung’s S24 Ultra launch coincided with the introduction of Galaxy AI, which is highly featured in the camera and photo gallery. AI-powered photo editing tools include a variety of capabilities, such as personalized edit suggestions based on each shot, Generative Edit to correct crooked images, and generative fill to remove distractions.
Although the iPhone 15 Pro Max was praised for its photography capabilities, it does not include a dedicated AI editing tool. You can, however, continue to enhance and modify photographs.
DESIGN AND DISPLAY
The iPhone 15 Pro Max features a glass back, a titanium frame and a flat screen with a big Dynamic Island cut into it. It also features a huge, squared triple-lens camera block on the back.
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is similar in that it features a titanium frame (which is a higher-quality material than aluminum or stainless steel). It also features a glass back, but the camera lenses protrude individually rather than in a block, and the phone’s corners are less curved.
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra also includes a small punch-hole cut-out in the display, rather than a larger and more functional Dynamic Island. Samsung’s phone lacks the Action button present on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which serves as a programmable shortcut, but it does have a S Pen stylus and a slot for it, which Apple’s phone does not have.
Another resemblance is that the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and the iPhone 15 Pro Max both have an IP68 classification, which indicates the same certified level of water and dust protection.
In terms of size, the iPhone 15 Pro Max measures 159.9 x 76.7 x 8.3mm, while the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra measures 162.3 x 79 x 8.6mm, making the latter somewhat larger and thicker. It’s also heavier, at 232g, compared to 221g for the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
And the colors differ, at least slightly. Colors for the iPhone 15 Pro Max include Black Titanium, White Titanium, Blue Titanium, and Natural Titanium, while the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra comes in Titanium Violet, Titanium Gray, Titanium Black, Titanium Yellow, Titanium Blue, Titanium Green, and Titanium Orange.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max features a 6.7-inch 1290 x 2796 OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a maximum brightness of 2,000 nits. However, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra features a 6.8-inch 1440 x 3120 AMOLED display with a refresh rate of 120Hz and a maximum brightness of 2,600 nits. So the Samsung screen is slightly larger and brighter, but otherwise similar.
HOW’S THE PERFORMANCE?
For performance, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is likely to triumph, as its A17 Pro chipset outperforms every Android phone in benchmarks. However, the iPhone 15 Pro Max only has 8GB of RAM, which is insufficient for a high-end phone, despite Apple’s smart use of memory.
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra features a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy processor, which is an overclocked version of the ordinary Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, perhaps the best chipset available for Android phones. And it’s combined with 12GB of RAM.
So, both of these phones are excellent performers. We stated that the iPhone has “fantastic performance” and “makes console gaming a reality in an iPhone.” However, the Galaxy S24 Ultra could be even more powerful, as our evaluation stated that “the Ultra is just as fast as the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and in many ways it’s even faster.”
GET THE IPHONE 15 PRO MAX FOR:
- iOS is an Apple product.
- The lighter body has rounded corners.
- Higher-rated ingress protection.
- FaceID unlocks.
- The speedier CPU.
- Better battery life.
- The slightly improved speakers.
- 4K60 Dolby Vision and Pro Res Log video.
- The superior cinematic video mode.
- The lower price in the United States.
GET THE SAMSUNG GALAXY S24 ULTRA FOR:
- Android operating system.
- S-Pen stylus.
- The faster it charges.
- Reverse wireless charging.
- Fingerprint unlocking under the display.
- The faster GPU.
- The Galaxy AI has several features.
- The more adaptable camera setup.
- 8K@30 and 4K@120 video recording.
- A lower pricing in various markets.
