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Vincent Vega
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They say that the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is the best Android phone in the world. So how does it compare to the best iPhone yet? Well, today I’m going to compare everything from displays, performance, cameras, and more. This year is interesting for Samsung. The S24 Ultra copies quite a bit from the iPhone 15 Pro Max. We have similar pull tabs, but they don’t want to work. Samsung’s constantly making fun of Apple. But they keep copying it. And the S24 Ultra didn’t change that much. But the things that did change are very weird ones. So let’s discover the S24 Ultra vs. the iPhone 15 Pro Max!
Now, looking at the color, wow, this looks so similar to Apple’s natural color, slightly warmer. But right away, the S24 Ultra feels different in the hand. The sides are flat with a subtle curve, just like the iPhone 15 Pro Max. And now the display is flat as well. Samsung really cared about that curve for years, but they switched, and I have to say it looks and feels nice.
Now, the frame is also made out of titanium, just like the iPhone. I like that it used aluminum before; it’s lighter. And the S24 Ultra is actually just 1 gram lighter than before, even though it did get a little smaller and thinner.
Even though Samsung made fun of Apple’s 5x camera, compared to the 10x they’ve had for years, they now have a 5x camera. It is a little bit larger and heavier than the iPhone, and it also costs $100 more. But with that said, you do get that S Pen built in, and if you actually use it, it is nice. But personally, it just stays on the phone for me.
Now, the one thing that I wish they would have copied from Apple is MagSafe. But they did not build magnets into the phone. Like you can get on the iPhone. Which makes it really nice and convenient. But thankfully, Torras has you covered with their Ostand Ring Case. That really makes this phone Ultra.
It’s basically a case, a stand, a ring, and a MagSafe all in one. Instantly making your S24 Ultra like car chargers or Anker Magnetic Power Bank.
And it can now magnetically stick to metal surfaces. The stand-aspect ratio is great. Since you can prop it up in vertical mode to take selfies or watch shorts. As well as landscape mode for movies or videos.
Now looking at the fronts, I love how the new S24 Ultra looks with that flat screen. We now have even bezels all around, super thin, and it’s a really nice, clean look. Of course, the iPhone 15 Pro Max has those curved edges, along with even bezels. But one thing the iPhone doesn’t have is that tiny little cutout instead of that large, dynamic island.
Samsung and Apple keep trading blows about speaker quality; I’ll compare speakers. But one difference that I noticed is BASS. The bass in the S24 Ultra is not really there. I feel like the old one sounded better, maybe because they made it thinner. I’m not sure, but overall, I would say the iPhone 15 Pro Max does sound better.
medium.com
One thing that I noticed is how much darker the S24 Ultra display is in the black areas than the iPhone 15 Pro Max. I actually took off the screen protectors to make sure nothing was affecting them. The S24 Ultra has really, really good anti-reflectivity. So that is why the colors are so rich.
I maxed out the brightness on both. Because the S24 Ultra is now rated up to 2,600 nits. Better than the 2000 of the iPhone 15 Pro Max. And looking at them, it does seem like the S24 Ultra is brighter. Just manually maxing it out. Dang guys, this is bright. And this is actually the first time the S24 Ultra can actually beat it in a full-color test.
Then, going outside in the sun, you could see how much brighter the S24 Ultra is than the iPhone 15 Pro Max. It is actually really impressive. I thought the iPhone was the best at this. And it was. But the S24 Ultra looks like it’s years ahead. Especially because of the nice anti-reflective coating. It just looks amazing. It makes the iPhone honestly look bad.
And after watching an HDR movie, it looks incredible on the S24 Ultra. The screen is brighter, we have better contrast, and there are no issues with reflectivity. I mean, it is really amazing. I like the larger screen. And we don’t have a dynamic island. You actually have the full screen being used. That’s because of the aspect ratio. If I were watching a movie, I would absolutely want to watch it on the S24 Ultra. I mean, we just can’t get over how incredible this display looks.
The first thing I want to test is the storage speed because Apple is starting to fall behind.
So we have 1,514 for reading on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, compared to 2,746 on the S24 Ultra. That is like the MacBook Pro level of performance. Now for the writing, we have 406 compared to 1,575. That is crazy fast.
Now in terms of performance: A17 Pro vs. 8 Gen 3 CPU, CPUs we have the 3nm A17 Pro compared to the 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. And 8 gigs compared to 12 of RAM. I’ll go ahead and run our CPU Benchmark. All right guys, this is crazy.
For single-core score, we have a difference of 28%: the iPhone 15 Pro Max outperforms the S24 Ultra. But in multi-core scores, it is practically the same. We have a difference of 83 points. That’s within the margin of error. And we have a 4nm chip in the S24 Ultra that is performing so well. That is impressive. The iPhone 15 Pro Max is the winner in performance.
Now, in terms of performance, I have 3D Marks Wildlife Extreme Unlimited on both phones. But I’ll also do a ray-tracing test for thermal throttling after.
And we have 21.7 compared to 28 8.6 frames per second. That’s a difference of 32%. So the iPhone 15 Pro Max is being destroyed by the S24 Ultra.
medium.com
Now both of these phones do have ray tracing, so we have this new test called Solar Bay Unlimited; let’s go ahead and run it. Now that the thermal throttling test has just finished running on the Samsung. So, I’ve been benchmarking these. I want to compare the temperatures. I’m seeing 39°C on the S24 Ultra and 42°C on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, right over there. And you guys can see the hotspot.
The S24 Ultra is definitely running cooler. Now with that, they actually updated their whole thermal system. You have twice the vapor chamber that’s built into there. So we have better graphics performance than I showed you guys. And it’s going to stay cooler for longer.
Now I have a result from Solar Bay, and we have 5,969 on the iPhone 15 Pro Max compared to 8,002.67 on the S24 Ultra overall score. That is a 38% difference, even greater this time. Meaning that the ray tracing on the Samsung is better than what Apple just finally added.
And looking at the frame rates, you guys can see all the details there, definitely much better on the S24 Ultra. So if you care about gaming, go for the S24 Ultra.
Now let’s talk about the cameras. Both phones kept most of the lenses from last year; they each got a new 5x zoom. There are some differences in color. But honestly, the iPhone looks better. The S24 Ultra has a higher resolution, and honestly, I love how it looks brighter, nicer, and crisper.
And now let’s look at the 5x lenses. Samsung had a 10x forever; now it’s 5, but it’s 50 megapixels compared to 12. And this is in really good lighting; same thing with this water tower or cell phone stuff on top. Yeah, it looks a little bit more detailed, but it also looks a little bit oversharpened. In the Rocks, I don’t know; maybe they should have stayed with the 10x lens.
Here I have a 200-megapixel shot compared to the 48 on the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
We definitely have a little bit more detail, but also more noise. Now, as you guys know, I love doing comparison tests. So make sure you guys are subscribed because I will be doing that S24 vs. S24+ soon.
BEST DEALS:
Buy iPhone 15 Pro Max
Buy Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
Buy Samsung Galaxy S24
Buy Samsung Galaxy S24+
So to answer the original question, can the S24 Ultra defeat the iPhone 15 Pro Max? Well, I think we have to agree. Yes, I’m very impressed with the S24 Ultra overall. And add to that the fact that you do have an S Pen if you want to use it. There are a lot of new AI features. And we have Wi-Fi 7 built in as well with the new modem. This is definitely the superior smartphone. Now, software-wise, you can argue about that, but I give the S24 Ultra a big thumbs up.
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SEO expert and tech enthusiast. Who brings a deep understanding of the ever-evolving world of technology.
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