iPhone 16 Pro Max vs Samsung S24 Ultra
The competition between Apple and Samsung has long dominated the smartphone landscape, with each company's flagship devices pushing the boundaries of innovation. The iPhone 16 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra continue this trend in 2024, offering cutting-edge technology, premium design, and advanced features.
The outcome of our comparison between the Galaxy S24 Ultra and the iPhone 15 Pro Max naturally gives the more recent iPhone 16 Pro Max a competitive advantage going into this matchup.That’s because there’s an 8-month gap between the arrival of these two devices, giving Apple the advantage of having the newer handset. Stores now carry all four of the iPhone 16 variants that Apple unveiled this year. The biggest phone in the bunch remains the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which can go toe-to-massive-toe with Samsung's biggest flagship, the Galaxy S24 Ultra. For those of you who enjoy large gadgets, both phones have a lot to offer. However, how do the two stack up on paper? Here’s an in-depth comparison of the two devices based on design, display, performance, camera, battery, and more.
Design
To be fair, both phones have minor design changes, but they largely adhere to the same style as earlier models. The only similarity between the two phones is that they both feature flat edges that allow them to stand up on their own. The sharply angled corner of the Galaxy S24 Ultra demonstrates Samsung's boxier design. One may argue that Samsung's design is the more uninteresting of the two, but because it is heavier and bulkier, it is considerably more difficult to use comfortably one-handed. Although the S24's titanium frame provides it a high-end appearance, the iPhone 16 Pro Max still looks better overall.
Apple's design is also mostly recycled. However, it feels much more manageable due to its thinner frame, lighter weight, and rounded corners. Although the iPhone 16 Pro Max is still rather large, it helps that it has a more sturdy build that gives its design a more refined appearance.
It's also important to note that the Galaxy S24 Ultra has the S Pen, which tucks into the phone's lower left corner when not in use. It serves as a useful tool for various purposes, like serving as a camera remote control, in addition to helping to convey the impression that paper meets pen.
In the meantime, Apple unveils the Camera Control button, which provides users with improved access to the most widely used settings and photo-enhancing capabilities. It is distinct in that it can detect swiping motions in addition to pressure sensitivity, allowing the Action Button to perform various functions.
Display
The iPhone 16 Pro Max marks a shift from Samsung's longstanding practice of having the larger display. This is a significant change considering the Galaxy S24 Ultra has a 6.8-inch Super AMOLED panel and the iPhone 16 Pro Max has a larger 6.9-inch Super Retina XDR display.
Both OLED screens have many advantages because they are ideal for almost anything. Their high resolutions make it easy to read ebooks, and their superb viewing angles and vibrant colours make it easy to catch up on your favourite streaming programs. Simply gazing at them will captivate you. They're that excellent!
Additionally, a 6.8-inch Quad HD+ Infinity-O-Edge Dynamic AMOLED display is included with the Galaxy S24 Ultra 5G. The screen features an adjustable refresh rate of 120 Hz and a resolution of 1440 x 3120 pixels. Additionally, it has Corning Gorilla Armour protection and a maximum brightness of 2,600 nits.
A 6.9-inch OLED Super Retina XDR display is a feature of the iPhone 16 Pro Max. With a screen refresh rate of up to 120 Hz and ProMotion technology, the phone has a resolution of 1320 x 2868 pixels. Additionally, the phone has HDR, True Tone, Dynamic Island, Ceramic Shield protection, and a maximum brightness of 2,000 nits.
Camera
It's important to note that these two phones have everything needed to capture images and videos of previously unheard-of quality. A 48MP primary camera, an updated 48MP ultrawide, and a 12MP telephoto with 5x magnification make up Apple's well-known triple camera configuration. The configuration of the Galaxy S24 Ultra, which has a 200MP primary camera, 12MP ultrawide, 10MP telephoto with 3x zoom, and a 50MP telephoto with 5x zoom, appears to be identical on paper.
Despite their unquestionable versatility in covering all ranges, each of these cameras has a unique appeal. Consider the iPhone 16 Pro Max's new Camera Control button, a side button that functions similarly to a standard shutter button on a mirrorless camera and lets you snap pictures fast. One distinctive feature that sets Apple's Camera Control apart is its ability to detect swiping gestures and gauge how firmly you press. Zooming and navigating through all of the iPhone's modes and settings are made simpler as a result.
However, the camera app on the Galaxy S24 Ultra is more suited to meet the demands of enthusiasts and power users. This is due to the fact that it has appropriate manual settings for taking pictures and recording videos, in addition to a number of other capabilities including dual recording. The S Pen can also be used to capture pictures by pressing down its button, even though it doesn't have a shutter button like that.
Audio Mix is the most amazing new video feature on the iPhone 16 Pro Max. In order to reduce background noise, it combines AI with spatial audio capture. And with a variety of choices, you have control. The Studio option creates the impression that the speakers are recording in a studio with the microphones close up, the in-frame mode isolates the voices in front of the camera, and Cinematic adds some background noise to create a movie-like image.
Performance
It came out to a draw between the Galaxy S24 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro Max with their performance when the two phones were put to the test, but this time there’s a clear winner. The iPhone 16 Pro Max's A18 Pro chip, which is built using a novel 3nm manufacturing technique, demonstrates that it has the strength to tackle any task thrown at it.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max deepens the gap in Geekbench 6 with single-core and multi-core scores of 3,400 and 8,341, respectively. When using Apple's phone, one will notice the rapid response and snappy feel, which is a noticeable improvement over the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max still lacks the graphical processing capability of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered Galaxy S24 Ultra, even with its more recent hardware. The Galaxy displays a remarkable average frame rate of 121.81 fps in 3DMark's Wild Life Unlimited test, which is smoother than the iPhone's average of 107.53 fps.
The Adobe Rush Premiere test, which measures how long it takes a phone to convert a video, comes last. The iPhone reports a speedier time of 0:21 compared to the Galaxy S24 Ultra, which is almost half as long to finish the identical operation.
While synthetic benchmark tests are a fantastic way to evaluate the two phones objectively, the iPhone generally responds more smoothly to common tasks like scrolling and accessing apps.
Battery
Apple claims that the iPhone 16 Pro Max's battery is larger than the iPhone 15 Pro Max's power pack, despite without disclosing the device's exact capacity. However, since the iPhone 16 Pro Max records an incredible time with battery benchmark test, it really doesn't matter.
Regarding battery life, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has a 5,000mAh battery. The phone supports wireless powersharing, 10W Qi wireless charging, and 45W fast wired charging.
Due to its faster 45W wired charging speed, the Galaxy S24 Ultra handily defeats the iPhone 16 Pro Max in terms of recharging. In 15 minutes, the S24 Ultra can reach 39%, and in 30 minutes, it can reach 79%. The iPhone, on the other hand, receives 29% and 55%.
The lithium-ion battery that powers the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max can play videos for up to 33 hours. The phone supports rapid charging up to 25W.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max beats the Galaxy S24 Ultra's time of 15 hours and 41 minutes, which was among the greatest when it was first released, by 18 hours and 6 minutes.
Although the Ultra's faster charging speeds are fantastic, Apple wins this one due to a larger difference in battery life.
Software and AI
The iPhone 16 Pro Max running iOS 18 is no exception to Apple's reputation for user-friendly software. It's good to see that Apple is paying more attention than ever before to providing more customisation, personalisation, and privacy with its software, even though the most recent software update doesn't initially disrupt the experience as much as earlier versions.
However, the software's best features aren't related to iOS 18 at all; rather, they highlight the capabilities made possible by Apple Intelligence. To properly understand what Apple Intelligence can accomplish, we've been using the iOS 18.1 beta. Overall, it improves the experience to a level comparable to Samsung's Galaxy AI. To a certain extent, the Galaxy S24 Ultra has the magic of the Photo Clean Up tool, a new, much more conversational Siri, and useful summarising tools that help us keep track of our most critical alerts.
With a plethora of features tailored to power users, Samsung's One UI 6.1 goes farther. Galaxy AI features improve the overall experience in addition to providing us with helpful AI-assisted features like Circle to Search and Google Gemini. Things like Instant Slow-Mo, which turns any video capture into a slow motion film, and Generative Edit, which eliminates reflections and undesired subjects in images, are obvious examples of generative AI in action.
Not to be overlooked is the way the S Pen enhances the S24 Ultra experience. With the Galaxy S24 Ultra, it's a useful tool with a variety of uses, such as taking notes right away without unlocking the phone, signing PDFs, and utilising it as a remote shutter for the camera. If you're still not convinced that the Galaxy S24 Ultra is designed for heavy users, it also has one of the most underappreciated phone features available: Samsung DeX. This enables the Galaxy S24 Ultra to replicate the desktop PC experience, something the iPhone 16 Pro Max still cannot do.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra still has the more appealing software for all of these reasons.
Pricing
If you want the best of the best, be prepared to pay a high price because they are at the top of their class for good reason.
At $1,199 for the base model with 256GB of storage, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is the less expensive of the two. However, the variant with 1TB of storage would cost more than $1,599.
Even more expensive is Samsung's flagship, which retails for an outrageous $1,299 for the base model with 256GB of RAM. On paper, this is more surprising because it closely matches the storage/cost value of the iPhone, but it balloons up to $1,659 for 1TB of storage.
The pricing for these two devices is as follows:
iPhone 16 Pro Max:
- 256GB: $1,199
- 512GB: $1,399
- 1TB: $1,599
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra:
- 256GB: $1,299
- 512GB: $1,299 ($1419)
- 1TB: $1,419 ($1659)
Key Differences
Chipset: Apple employs its own A18 Bionic, while Samsung uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
Camera: With a 200MP primary sensor and 100x magnification, Samsung leads the field in camera technology, whereas Apple's strategy emphasises software optimisation with a 48MP primary sensor.
Storage and RAM: Samsung provides higher RAM, which is advantageous while multitasking.
S-Pen:The Samsung S24 Ultra's exclusive S-Pen gives creative users additional capability.
Conclusion
Two distinct flagships in the smartphone industry are the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max and the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra 5G. Those who choose to continue with Android and want to enjoy some of the greatest features, strong performance, and excellent cameras will find the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra ideal. For Apple enthusiasts who demand the finest, there is the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max. The newest iPhone boasts the thinnest bezels, pro-grade cameras, flagship performance, and premium design.
