S23 Ultra Vs iPhone 15 Pro Max: Epic Compare

Struggling to choose which top range smartphone you’re looking for? Let’s do a comparison over the two best smartphones in the market right now: Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs iPhone 15 Pro Max from Apple. We’ll compare every single attribute of each of these two and see which one will take top position. At the end, you should have a really good idea, as to which smartphone of the two is worth your investment.  

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Review

Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max

Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max Review

Overview

The newly released iPhone 15 Pro Max from Apple is undoubtedly the most technologically advanced iPhone of 2023, standing out significantly from its predecessors.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max is already tipped to be one of the greatest phones of the year because to its periscope camera, new titanium body, USB Type-C connection, and numerous other features. 

On the other hand, Samsung has the top-of-the-line Galaxy S23 Ultra, one of the finest Android smartphones money can buy. It has a powerful chipset, a 200MP main camera, a stunning display, and a user experience designed by Samsung that makes the most of the S Pen’s tight integration.

It’s understandable why the Galaxy S23 Ultra is one of the most popular smartphones with such amazing specs. Of course, the top smartphones from Samsung and Apple always differ significantly from one another.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Galaxy S23 Ultra have fundamentally distinct operating systems and ecosystems, but if we ignore these differences, we might discover that these two phones aren’t really that different from each other given that they each represent the best of their respective manufacturers.

While the iPhone 15 Pro Max is a fantastic smartphone, once you get beyond the ‘fear-of-missing-out’ syndrome around the newest iPhone, you’ll discover that it’s neck and neck with the Galaxy S23 Ultra. Each of them has its own advantages and its drawbacks.

Design

With the iPhone 15 Pro Max, Apple is first amping up things quite a bit by introducing a new contoured or curved titanium design that not only increases durability but also reduces weight.

The mute switch will be replaced with a programmable Action Button, similar to the one on the Apple Watch Ultra. With this one, users of the iPhone 15 Pro Max will be able to configure the button and assign it various tasks.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max finally features a USB Type-C connector. It can be used to transfer files and charge the phone, but you may need to get a better cable to take full advantage of the phone’s possible data transfer capabilities.

How does the Galaxy S23 Ultra compare? This one has the same tried-and-true glass sandwich construction that has mostly not changed from the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

It’s one of the best-designed smartphones of early 2023 thanks to its luxurious design, which combines a flat bottom and top frame with a slightly curved display and an integrated S Pen stylus.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max weighs 221g whereas the Galaxy S23 Ultra weighs 234g. The Pro Max’s lighter thanks to the titanium construction. It’s unusual for large phones to experience such a significant weight loss between generations, despite the fact that the difference might not seem like much.

The Pro Max comes in four new colors—Natural Titanium, Blue Titanium, White Titanium, and Black Titanium. At Samsung.com website, you can get the Galaxy S23 Ultra in Cream, Lavender, Green, Phantom Black, and a few additional limited-edition colors.

However, don’t anticipate finding a wall adapter in the package of any phone. The iPhone 15 Pro Max also includes a USB 2.0 cable in the package, but if you want to use greater data rates, you’ll need to purchase a USB 3.0 cable.

Display

The 6.7-inch display on the iPhone 15 Pro Max has a fluid 1-120Hz ProMotion display, which makes navigating across the interface rather enjoyable. It reuses the fantastic screen from the iPhone 14 Pro Max, thus there aren’t any significant enhancements to the display other than the smaller bezels and the reintroduction of the Dynamic Island punch-hole.

We have nothing bad to say about that one because it had a beautiful color rendition and a high maximum brightness. 

The Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 6.8-inch display is only broken up by one considerably smaller punch-hole, which unquestionably contributes to the Android device’s cleaner appearance.

It has a highly sharp QHD+ display, a dynamic refresh rate of up to 120Hz, and can also achieve very high brightness in specific lighting circumstances. Suffice to say, it’s not as much as the iPhone 14 Pro Max and the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Both displays seem magnificent in person. Pulling apart the specifics is the only way to determine a clear winner.

In terms of minimum brightness and color temperature, the iPhone 15 Pro Max performs worse than the Galaxy S23 Ultra. The Samsung phone’s display is not as “cold” as the iPhone’s because it can get darker and is much closer to the desired 6500K color temperature goal.

In terms of color accuracy, both are superb. The viewing angles on both phones are excellent. Additionally, the Galaxy S23 Ultra conceals an ultrasonic in-display fingerprint reader that makes it simple and quick to unlock your phone and authorize online transactions. The iPhone 15 Pro Max relies solely on the Face ID face biometric and lacks such a feature, yet its face unlock is safer than a common face unlock from other mobile devices.

Performance

The iPhone 15 Pro Max is equipped with the 3nm Apple A17 Pro processor. Billions more transistors can now fit inside the new Apple processor, which also has significantly improved graphics processing capabilities, thanks to the use of a 3nm manufacturing process. This is kind of a huge deal because it will increase performance and energy efficiency everywhere, maybe turning the iPhone 15 Pro Max into a performance powerhouse. 

On the other hand, Samsung uses the 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy in each and every Galaxy S23 phone sold worldwide. That represents a significant shift for Samsung, which previously employed Exynos and Snapdragon CPUs on its phones depending on the location.

Yet the chipset in the Galaxy S23 Ultra isn’t your average one. Samsung managed to secure a customized, slightly overclocked version of the standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, which offers superior performance.

The standard Galaxy S23 Ultra come with an 8GB of RAM, however the iPhone 15 Pro Max has the same amount of capacity. However, the difference shouldn’t be noticeable, largely because of how iOS manages system resources and how it consumes memory.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max may be able to store more apps in memory even if the two handsets may have the same amount of RAM. The Galaxy should perform best in terms of multitasking if it has 12GB of storage.

User Experience

When it comes to user experience, the Galaxy S23 Ultra will most likely be the more effective phone.

You can accomplish considerably more simultaneously on the Galaxy S23 Ultra with features like multitasking, split-screen viewing, a full-featured DeX desktop-like solution.

And the S Pen stylus makes the experience even better with more ways to interact with the menus and apps.

Storage Options

The next thing to look with the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs iPhone 15 Pro Max comparison is the storage options available.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max comes in three different storage options: 256GB, 512GB, and the larger 1TB model. The cost has not changed from the previous edition of the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

On the other hand, storage options for the Galaxy S23 Ultra include 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB. This indicates that both devices ship with the incredibly roomy 256GB of storage in their base models, which is a good start at entry level. 

Software Updates

In addition to receiving at least five years’ worth of significant software and security updates, the iPhone 15 Pro Max will ship with iOS 17 out of the box and be supported until 2028. Software upgrades and support for the Galaxy S23 Ultra will be provided until 2027, a further four years, and until 2028, respectively.

Significant updates to apps such as Phone, Messages, and FaceTime are included in iOS 17, along with enhancements to Maps, Siri, Visual Look Up, and the addition of interactive widgets. While your iPhone charges wirelessly or cable, a new StandBy feature will give you vital information and a brand-new Journal app will help you manage your life.

As part of iOS 17, you may also distribute AirTags to other iOS users. The iOS lock screen, which gained individualized lock screens with iOS 16, has also seen improved customization.

Camera

The iPhone 15 Pro Max keeps the high-resolution 48MP main camera that was introduced with the iPhone 14 Pro Max, but adds some cool features like customizable default focal lengths for the main camera, a new 24MP default photo size, as well as new Photonic Engine and Smart HDR.

However, the new 5.0X periscope camera, which offers a 120mm equivalent, is the most significant change. The upcoming iPhone will produce images that are even better than those taken by its predecessors thanks to an updated version of Apple’s Photonic Engine and enhanced HDR.

With improved portrait photography, the phone can record depth information even when you’re taking standard pictures, enabling you to later turn these into portraits.

Although Apple has entered the appropriate zooming arena for the first time, the Galaxy S23 Ultra still outperforms it in terms of overall throw. The standard camera now includes three separate shooting settings in addition to the standard 24mm, including a 28mm and a 35mm option that is ideal for street photography. Additionally, the iPhone’s standard resolution increased from 12 to 24MP.

But when it comes to sheer specs, the Galaxy S23 Ultra completely dominates because to its 200MP camera and the big 1/1.3″ ISOCELL HP2 sensor. When the light is good, Samsung’s greatest phone will merge 16 pixels into one to make 12.5MP photographs with superb dynamics, but when the light is bad, it will use quad-pixel binning to produce incredibly detailed 50MP photos.

Video

The Galaxy S23 Ultra boasts enhanced picture stabilization and staggered HDR, which produces exceptional dynamic range, when it comes to video.

Support for 8K video at 24 and 30 frames per second is available. Some video recording modes on Apple’s most recent products allow 4K at 60fps, and video recording to external storage.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max maintains the long legacy of superior video capturing and is actually very skilled in this area. Though the Galaxy wins after you zoom in at a 10X magnification, the iPhone offers better dynamics, colors, and detail.

It’s interesting to note that audio captured with the Galaxy also sounds better, especially in windy settings.

Battery Life

Despite having a larger 4,422mAh battery than the iPhone 14 Pro Max, the iPhone 15 Pro Max doesn’t offer a noticeably longer battery life. The newest large iPhone will undoubtedly last you at least a day of moderate to heavy use, although games and particularly strenuous chores may cause it to last a little less.

On the other hand, the Galaxy S23 Ultra has a 5,000mAh battery, which also helps it last quite a while. The Galaxy S23 Ultra, at least in our unique battery benchmark tests, lasts shorter than the iPhone 14 Pro Max on a full charge. This might imply that the iPhone 15 Pro Max can accomplish the same thing.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Galaxy S23 Ultra are neck and neck in web surfing battery test, which involves running the two handsets through a number of webpages to simulate a typical browsing experience with the brightness manually set at 200 nits.

However, the iPhone 15 Pro Max advances to claim two significant victories that put it ahead of Samsung’s greatest phone to date in both our unique 3D gaming and video streaming tests.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra outperforms the iPhone 15 Pro Max with a far faster 45W wired charging, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max only offers 25W wired charging. You will need to provide your own phone charger for both phones as neither phone comes with one in the box.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro Max both support 15W Fast Wireless Charging 2.0 and MagSafe wireless charging, respectively. Reverse wireless charging is also available on the Samsung phone, but is not available on the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Battery Charge

With the iPhone 15 Pro Max, from zero to 30 mins the phone is charged at 53%, and full charge takes 120 mins. With the Galaxy S23 Ultra, from zero to 30 mins the phone is charged at 68%, and at full charge it takes 66 mins.  

Nothing is left to the imagination when it comes to charging. The Galaxy S23 Ultra charges up twice as quickly as the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The S23 Ultra clearly defeats the iPhone 15 Pro Max, whether you top it off for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or wait for the battery percentage to reach 100%.

Verdict

With numerous adjustments made to a lineup that is already well-established and extremely successful, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is already proving to be a significant evolutionary step for Apple.

Even said, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is probably mastering all the key features that make using a phone for the average user comfortable: the camera, performance, battery life, and design are all probably becoming better.

Fortunately, despite predictions of a price increase, the new iPhone is equally pricey as its predecessors. The entry-level iPhone 15 Pro Max costs under $1200, making it one of the best valued iPhones ever made. It is also a strong contender to be the best pro iPhone to date. Unquestionably a strong contender for the greatest iPhone to date.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra is most likely the greatest Android phone now on the market. Despite having an official cost less than US$1200, it manages to strike an excellent balance between the features that are offered, the hardware, the versatility of the camera, and overall value.

You may frequently find Samsung’s top phone available for less because to the abundance of trade-in offers and promotions that are virtually always available.

So which one, which top flagship smartphone should you choose? All of it is up to you. It will likely come down to your ecosystem choices since both of these champions are the best that money can buy in the iOS and Android markets, respectively. Either one is a good choice, and are both worth your investment.   

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