Apple has lifted the lid on the iPhone 15 collection including the top-end iPhone 15 Pro Max – the question is, how does it compare to the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra?
Apple’s newest top-end iPhone makes significant gains, not only switching from Lightning to USB-C to match its Android counterpart, but it has an upgraded telephoto lens exclusive to the Pro Max, along with top-end processing power and an upgraded titanium chassis.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, on the other hand, is Samsung’s top-end flagship for 2023 with specs to match including an impressive 200MP camera, a 6.8-inch AMOLED display with a built-in S Pen and an exclusive Snapdragon chipset.
While we’re yet to go hands-on with the iPhone 15 Pro Max, we’ve spent plenty of time with the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, and here’s how the two compare on paper to help you decide which is best for your needs.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is likely more powerful
The iPhone 15 Pro Max, along with the 15 Pro, are the first two smartphones to boast Apple’s new A17 Pro chipset. It’s not just a rebrand from the previous Bionic chipsets either – this is the first 3nm mobile chipset on the market. This not only gives the iPhone 15 Pro Max the edge in performance, but it should allow for much better battery efficiency and therefore battery life too.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra isn’t to be sniffed at, however, with an exclusive Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy unique to Samsung smartphones, boasting higher clock speeds and an additional GPU core compared to the already-top-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.
It’ll certainly be interesting to see how the iPhone 15 Pro Max benchmarks once we get a sample in for review.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has stylus support
One feature that allows the Galaxy S23 Ultra to stand out not only compared to the iPhone 15 Pro Max but smartphones in general is its S Pen support. Previously a stalwart of the now-cancelled Galaxy Note range, the S Pen ships with the S23 Ultra and is hidden within the chassis when not in use.
The skinny stylus is the perfect addition to the S23 Ultra’s particularly large 6.8-inch display, providing a great canvas for note-taking and doodling on the go, with impressively low latency of 2.8ms that blows the Apple Pencil 2 (which isn’t compatible with iPhones, by the way) out of the water.
Simply put, if the idea of using a stylus with your smartphone is an appealing prospect, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is the one to go for.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max has a more premium build
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra’s combination of aluminium and glass helps elevate it to premium levels, especially compared to the plastic-backed cheaper Android alternatives, and it boasts IP68 dust and water resistance to boot.
That leaves the S23 Ultra in a particularly strong spot compared to most of the smartphone market, but not the iPhone 15 Pro Max. You see, the iPhone 15 Pro Max has not only seen an upgrade in materials but a slight tweak to its design to make it look and feel fresh.
More specifically, the iPhone 15 Pro Max, along with the 15 Pro, now boasts a brushed titanium finish in place of the already-unique stainless steel of last year’s iPhone 14 Pro Max.
There’s also a new subtle contour to the edges of the phone and the rear camera island, helping soften some of those aggressively angular edges in previous iterations of iPhone to hopefully make it more comfortable to hold – but we’ll have to confirm that once we go hands-on.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has better zoom capabilities
The iPhone 15 Pro Max differentiates itself not only from the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus but the iPhone 15 Pro in one specific area: telephoto performance. While the iPhone 15 gets a new 2x digital zoom courtesy of the upgraded 48MP snapper, the iPhone 15 Pro sports the same 3x telephoto zoom as the iPhone 14 Pro.
The iPhone 15 Pro, on the other hand, has taken that up a notch with a 5x (120mm equivalent) zoom that allows you to get even closer to your subject without having to take a step forward, delivering better framing, particularly for portrait shots.
That’s a great addition to the iPhone collection for sure, but it falls behind the 10x periscope lens on offer from the Galaxy S23 Ultra. That’s even truer when we include Samsung’s Space Zoom tech that allows the phone to zoom in up to 100x digitally. We found most results are pretty much unusable at such aggressive levels of zoom, but it does take phenomenal shots of the moon on dark nights.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is cheaper
It’s not often that you can say that an Apple product is cheaper than the competition, but that’s indeed the case when comparing the iPhone 15 Pro Max to the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.
More specifically, the iPhone 15 Pro Max will set you back £1199 in the UK at release on 22 September, while the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is currently available with an RRP of £1249, £50 more than Apple’s new top-end smartphone.
