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So far, the most eye-catching fierce battle in 2024 will undoubtedly be the showdown between the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and the iPhone 15 Pro Max - the collision between the upstart of the Android flagship family and the overall leader in 2023. Unsurprisingly, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra continues to excel in photography, performance, and display, and the highlight of this year's update is its rich set of AI tools that will make your work more convenient and efficient. The iPhone 15 Pro Max, on the other hand, focuses on optimizing the telephoto camera, chip performance, and design, and strives to reach the top of the market in terms of hardware. The contest between these two giants will undoubtedly bring more highlights and surprises to the mobile phone market in 2024. Let's compare each item in detail.
Design (each with its own merits).
When you look at these two phones, you can feel the difference between them. While both are crafted from metal and glass, framed in titanium, they are distinct from the inside. The iPhone 15 Pro Max has a unique exterior design, with rounded corners that complement straight edges; The Galaxy S24 Ultra, on the other hand, stands out from the rest, with a straight top and bottom, sharp corners, and subtly curved sides. In terms of display technology, the iPhone 15 Pro Max has a distinctive pill-shaped camera cutout above the display, affectionately known as the "Dynamic Island". Samsung, on the other hand, has cleverly positioned the camera hole at the top of the screen with a small cutout. The bezel craftsmanship of these two tech giants is equally stunning, thin and uniform. However, Samsung concentrates all the physical buttons on the right side, while Apple evenly distributes them on the left and right sides.
If we flip the phone, more differences are revealed one by one. The iPhone 15 Pro Max prominently bulges a camera island in the upper left corner, while the Galaxy S24 Ultra has five separate cutouts on the back, four of which are reserved for the camera sensor. The grip of the two phones is very different, due to their different shapes, but what they have in common is that they are both slippery. The Galaxy S24 Ultra has a slightly more spacious display, which is taller, wider, and thicker than the iPhone 15 Pro Max in comparison. Samsung's flagship also outperforms Apple by about 10 grams. It's worth mentioning that both smartphones are IP68 compliant for water and dust resistance. The Galaxy S24 Ultra also comes with an additional S Pen stylus that adds even more practicality to it.
Display (Galaxy S24 Ultra leads).
Apple's flagship phone is equipped with a 6The 7-inch LTPO Super Retina XDR OLED display with a resolution of up to 2796 x 1290 is like a beautiful canvas for users to enjoy the ultimate visual experience. This display not only supports adaptive refresh rate, but also has HDR10 and Dolby Vision technology, whether it is a movie or a game, it can present a delicate and realistic picture.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra comes with a 6The 8-inch QHD+ Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X display with a resolution of 3120 x 1440 is like a delicate mural. This screen also supports adaptive refresh rate and has HDR10+ technology, which has reached the industry-leading level in both color reproduction and dynamic picture performance. In terms of brightness, the theoretical peak brightness of both screens is very high, and the Galaxy S24 Ultra reaches 2600 nits. In addition, they both have an aspect ratio of 195:9, whether watching a movie or playing a game, provides a more immersive visual experience. Overall, both phones have excellent displays, with top-of-the-line color performance, brightness, and responsiveness. But if you look deeper, the Galaxy S24 Ultra's display has the advantage in terms of anti-reflective performance, and that's because it uses Corning Gorilla Glass armor technology. For those who use their phones outdoors and are prone to reflections, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is undoubtedly a better choice.
Performance (evenly divided).
Apple's A17 Pro 3nm processor powers the iPhone 15 Pro Max, while the Galaxy S24 Ultra is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy processor, a high-performance overclocking variant. In terms of hardware configuration, the iPhone 15 Pro Max has 8GB of RAM and NVMe flash storage, while the Galaxy S24 Ultra comes with 12GB LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 40 flash memory, showing great strength.
Both smartphones are silky smooth for day-to-day operation, with excellent animations for easy multitasking. Whether you're opening an app, browsing the web, using multi**, or something else, it's all great. They also perform quite well when it comes to gaming performance. Although the iPhone 15 Pro Max initially had some issues in this regard, Apple has set out to fix it. Samsung has also improved the cooling of the flagship to make it more stable when gaming under high loads. Overall, both phones offer excellent performance that meets the needs of users for both daily use and gaming entertainment. While both phones can heat up when facing the most demanding games, it's within acceptable conditions. In the future mobile phone market, the performance of these two mobile phones will be quite worth looking forward to.
Battery (Galaxy S24 Ultra leads).
The iPhone 15 Pro Max and Galaxy S24 Ultra are the best of both worlds. In terms of battery capacity, the iPhone 15 Pro Max has 4,441mAh of energy, while the Galaxy S24 Ultra is more powerful with a 5,000mAh battery. Although the way iOS works makes Apple's battery capacity relatively small, that doesn't stop them from being good at battery life. They all performed well in our battery life tests, ranking in the top three. To compete, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has a slightly better battery life.
For most people, both phones are enough for two days of use. Of course, for users who use it intensively, it may take a charge a day, but rest assured, they are all battery life. Both devices were able to maintain more than 8 hours of screen time in continuous shooting or general use, and in our real-world tests, they still had plenty of battery power, even when not playing games. The battery life of the two is the same, and the performance is the same.
In terms of charging experience, the iPhone 15 Pro Max supports 20W wired and 15W wireless (MagSafe & Qi.).5W Qi charging as well as 45W reverse wired charging. The Galaxy S24 Ultra, on the other hand, comes with 45W wired, 15W wireless (QI2 is not supported), and 45W reverse wireless charging. However, please note that both phones do not come with a charger in the box. Although the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra's wired charging seems faster on paper, in our actual tests, the iPhone 15 Pro Max was fully charged in just 1 hour and 45 minutes, compared to 1 hour and 26 minutes for the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Camera (iPhone 15 Pro Max leads).
The iPhone 15 Pro Max competes with the Galaxy S24 Ultra's camera for incentives. The iPhone 15 Pro Max comes with a 48-megapixel main camera, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide unit, and a 12-megapixel periscope telephoto camera. The Galaxy S24 Ultra, on the other hand, comes with a 200-megapixel main camera, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide unit, a 10-megapixel telephoto camera, and a 50-megapixel periscope telephoto camera.
In this competition, Samsung chose to replace its 10x periscope telephoto camera with a 5x periscope camera, is it the right choice? From our tests so far, the Galaxy S24 Ultra's 5x camera does outperform at 3x and 4x zoom, thanks to the fact that the iPhone 15 Pro Max doesn't have the same 3x telephoto camera as Samsung. However, when you zoom to 5x, the image quality of the two devices gradually closes, depending on the specific scene.
In this fierce competition, the iPhone 15 Pro Max even surpassed the Galaxy S24 Ultra at some moments by virtue of its superiority. Overall, both devices perform well on the main camera, but each has its own unique characteristics. Samsung has made its images more realistic and the tones more chilled by reducing image processing. The iPhone 15 Pro Max, on the other hand, tends to offer warmer tones**, making it brighter in low light. As for the ultra-wide cameras, they perform equally impressively. While sometimes the color science doesn't match the main camera, they're still good enough. The iPhone 15 Pro Max has won multiple awards in the ** category in this photography competition, and today it has never been closer to the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Sound (evenly divided).
Both devices boast a pair of stereo speakers, and they perform satisfactorily on both smartphones. The sound of these speakers is loud and balanced, and while not top-notch, it is definitely outstanding, and no one will dispute that. Sadly, they don't come with an audio jack, which is not common in today's phones, especially for flagships. However, users can take advantage of their Type-C ports for audio transmission. For users who use wireless headphones or earphones, both phones support the latest Bluetooth 53 Protocol.
Epilogue. In this evenly matched game, it can be said that no phone has a greater advantage. You can read our full score breakdown in **, but we think the iPhone 15 Pro Max is better suited to more people than the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. The Galaxy S24 Ultra excelled against tough opponents, including victories in AI, software, and battery rounds, as well as a surprise draw in performance benchmarks. However, the iPhone's superior photography and display and lower starting price make it a winner.
Without a doubt, these are two of the best phones available today that will satisfy the needs of any buyer. But for now, in this battle of high-end devices, the iPhone 15 Pro Max has the capital to boast about.