Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra vs iPhone 15 Pro Max: The best phones of 2024 so far

In mid-2024, flagship phone enjoyers have really two options to consider: the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max. Both the new Galaxy and iPhone 15 Pro Max feature large screens, the fastest chipsets available right now, enhanced camera systems, and all the battery life you might need.

Where things weigh in on the scale, however, is Samsung's AI game with a bunch of new "Galaxy AI" features. In contrast, the iPhone is still to catch up on that front, but that might change once iOS 18 comes out this September.

But the iPhone 15 Pro Max also has a several advantages, namely the faster performance of the 3nm chip, as well as the better battery life in video and gaming. 

Let's first outline the major differences between the two:

Galaxy S24 Ultra with 512GB is now $250 off on Amazon

The S24 Ultra is at discounted prices on Amazon. You can now save $250 on the model with 512GB of storage. Not all colors arrive at the same discount.

$250 off (18%)

This offer is not available in your area.

Galaxy S24 Ultra: up to $750 off with a trade-in

You can purchase a fully unlocked Galaxy S24 Ultra via the official Samsung store. The almighty AI genius arrives for up to $750 off with an eligible phone trade-in. Alternatively, you can get the phone for $200 off with no trade-in required.

$750 off (58%) Trade-in

$549 ⁹⁹

$1299 ⁹⁹

This offer is not available in your area.

iPhone 15 Pro: save $40-$620 with a trade-in at Apple.com

Apple offers its impressive iPhone 15 Pro at steeply reduced prices with the right trade-in. Right now, you can get this top-class smartphone for up to $620 off with an eligible device trade-in.

$620 off (62%) Trade-in

$379

$999

This offer is not available in your area.

iPhone 15 Pro Max: up to $620 off with a trade-in

With its groundbreaking chipset and high-class titanium frame, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is a real mobile gem. It's now available on Apple at an impressive trade-in discount of up to $620. Minimum trade-in savings amount is $40.

$630 off (53%) Trade-in

$569

$1199

This offer is not available in your area.

When it comes to design and styling, the Galaxy and iPhone each come with their own distinct look.

The Galaxy has a bigger footprint: the phone is wider, it weighs more (233 grams vs 221 grams), and it has these sharp corners. The iPhone 15 Pro Max, on the other hand, has a more traditional look with rounded corners.

Of course, you also have that titanium frame that seems to be the new craze. It helps these larger phones keep a lower weight while also providing a sturdy structure to protect them against falls. That said, there have been some videos like the ones JerryRigEverything makes, showing the iPhone 15 Pro Max breaking, possibly because of the low flexibility of the titanium frame.

When it comes to buttons, the power and volume keys are all on one side on the Galaxy, while on the iPhone the power button is on the right, while the volume keys are on the left, which makes it a bit easier to press these together to take a screenshot, for example.

The iPhone also features one extra button: the new Action button. The idea is great, it's a button that you can set to what you want, but we don't like the placement as it's in the far top-left corner, so slightly unreachable.

Oh, and you finally have USB-C on the iPhone, just like the Galaxy has had for… the last decade or so! But hey, better late than never, and at least you can now use one cable on all your devices.

Of course, you also have the S Pen tucked inside the Galaxy, and it remains the only phone with this cool stylus inside it. There are no changes to the functionality of the S Pen this year, but it's still just as useful as before and a clear differentiating factor when it comes to comparing these two phones.

Both phones are also IP68 rated, just like pretty much all other flagships, so you get excellent water and dust protection.

When it comes to colors, here are the color options for the Galaxy S24 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

We should also warn you that there is no charger included in the box when you buy these phones, so you need to purchase the charger separately. That's just how things are with many flagship phones these days.

The wider size of the Galaxy allows for a slightly larger screen too: you get a 6.8-inch screen compared to a 6.7-inch display on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The screen has a wider 19:3:9 aspect ratio (the iPhone has a 19.5:9), so the actual screen area on the Galaxy is even bigger than the display diagonal numbers alone suggest.

The new thing with the Galaxy is that it uses a flat screen now with only the glass ever so slightly curved at the edges, and the iPhone also uses a flat screen. We find this change for the better. 

Display Measurements:

 

One area where the Galaxy literally outshines the iPhone is screen brightness. The S24 Ultra can hit 2,600 nits peak brightness, while the iPhone reaches 2,000 nits. Those "peak" figures are achieved when you have a tiny white spot on an all-black background. In our measurements where we test an all-white screen, the Galaxy hits 1,280 nits of brightness, beating the 1,092 nits of the iPhone 15 Pro Max. That's particularly useful outdoors on a sunny day, but the bigger difference is just how few reflections you get on the Galaxy screen. This is thanks to the new Gorilla Glass Armor, and it almost feels like a matte screen, it's a huge difference that makes using the Galaxy so much easier outdoors.

The same Gorilla Glass Armor is also more durable than displays on previous Galaxy Ultra phones, and now seems to match the scratch resistance of Apple's Ceramic Shield, which has been used on the latest iPhones.

In terms of resolution, the Galaxy is a bit sharper with a 1440p screen compared to the 1290p screen on the iPhone.

Both also support 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, and can go down to just 1Hz with statics content.

As for biometrics, the Galaxy relies on an upgraded in-screen fingerprint scanner of the ultrasonic kind, which is slightly faster than in previous generations. Additionally, you also have image-based face recognition too. On the iPhone, you only have Face ID, which uses a 3D model of your face. Both a fingerprint and face recognition are nice to have, and it really depends on personal preference which one you use.

When it comes to performance, the battle is getting heated. Apple's new A17 Pro chip, the world's first based on a 3nm process, has not quite lived up to the huge hype, and then on the other hand, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is coming with a new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip inside, which should hit a nearly perfect balance between increased performance and improved power efficiency.

It's nice to see that Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is match and even beating Apple's new A17 Pro chip. It is only when it comes to single-core processing power that the iPhone 15 Pro Max clearly outshines the S24 Ultra.

In terms of configurations, you have the same choice for the Galaxy and iPhone: 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage. The Galaxy comes with 12GB of RAM, while the iPhone comes with 8GB of RAM.

However, the big difference is in the actual software: the Galaxy runs on Samsung's One UI 6.1 software on top of Android 14, while the iPhone runs on iOS 17.

Samsung's new "Galaxy AI" is the big focus, while Apple seems to be late to the AI game (expect a big iOS 18 update this fall with a bunch of new AI features).

Samsung has the following cool new AI features:

- Live call translation powered by AI

- Text message translation

- AI smart photo editing: move and resize an object, straighten a crooked photo with smart fill

- Webpage summary right in your browser

We are also super stoked about having SEVEN YEARS of OS upgrades and security patches on the Galaxy, a first for Samsung. That beats even Apple which does not commit to a particular number, but typically provides 5 or 6 OS upgrades. One difference here, however, is that Samsung typically delivers those updates a few months later than their official release date.

One interesting tidbit that Apple has included in recent iPhones is satellite connectivity, but there is none of that on the S24 series.

Another detail worth knowing is that iPhone models in the United States (and only in the US) come with eSIM and NO physical SIM card slot. The Galaxy is less restrictive: it supports eSIM, but it also allows you to use a physical SIM card.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra sticks with four cameras on the back, but makes some significant changes to one of them, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max features three cameras on the back including the new 5X tetraprism zoom lens.

Which one is better?

Firstly, despite a 200MP main sensor, the Galaxy S24 Ultra still defaults to 12MP shots, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max now captures 24MP photos, so it has twice as more detail.

What is new is Samsung making significant changes to image processing. Galaxy S24 photos no longer have the excessive oversharpening of its predecessor and are now a much closer match to the iPhone. Samsung pictures still look clearly warmer.

During the day, the iPhone often goes for a brighter exposure, and we find the Galaxy to be a bit more true to life in this case. Both images have a solid amount of detail and beautiful colors, so no complaints.

At night, however, it is the Galaxy that goes for the much brighter picture. Some may prefer this, but it comes with downsides, as it may not always be true to life. Notice also the specific way the sky looks on the Galaxy, it's almost inky blue, and we find the colors on the iPhone to be a bit more accurate in this particular picture.

The ultra-wide cameras have 12MP resolution on both phones, but there are a few notable differences in the way they treat color. In the above example, we can spot color banding on the Galaxy and none of those issues on the iPhone. If you look at the tree branches, you can also spot the more aggressive sharpening on the Galaxy.

 

At night, the Galaxy goes for a brighter exposure and that results in a lot of noise in the skies. We also noticed the Galaxy consistently has this very inky blue color of the skies, which is not quite realistic. The iPhone looks darker and a bit more realistic in this case.

 

The above images are crops from a 3X zoom photo on the Galaxy and the iPhone, and when you view the crop, you can clearly see the much higher level of detail that you get with the native 3X zoom lens of the Galaxy.

The 5X zoom camera quality of both phones is quite comparable, with slightly different processing as the Galaxy goes for the sharper picture. We noticed 5X images out of the iPhone can be a bit noisy in some conditions, while the Galaxy does a better job with noise reduction.

The other big battle is for video quality, where the iPhone was the leader. But now night video is improved on the Galaxy and the footage has less noise, plus you can use the 5X zoom camera also at night.

What Samsung does have is 8K video recording, an option missing on the iPhone, but we are not sure many people really care about that considering the huge size associated with 8K video and the lack of support on most monitors and TVs.

When it comes to loudspeakers, most phones - including the Galaxy S24 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro Max - use a main, bottom firing loudspeaker and a helper speaker in the earpiece.

The Galaxy changes the visual look of the bottom speaker, going for a pill-shaped cutout instead of the perforated design used previously, but the audio quality remains mostly unchanged.

As for haptics, vibration feedback out of the iPhone still feels a bit more refined with that Taptic Engine and while Samsung's vibration motor is fine, we do want to see some improvements there too.

With a 5,000 mAh battery size, the Galaxy has the theoretical advantage over the iPhone 15 Pro Max with its 4,422 mAh battery. That's a difference of 13% in favor of the Samsung phone.

However, that's not how battery life works in real life.

And that is why we run a number of battery tests to find out the exact battery life numbers.

Our lighter web browsing test, shows these two last a similar amount of time with lighter use cases, but when you look at the YouTube video test, the iPhone outlasts the Galaxy by a good margin.

When it comes to charging, the Galaxy is faster at speeds of 45W, compared to around 25W on the iPhone. This means you have to wait around 1 hour and 40 minutes for a full charge for the iPhone, while the Galaxy tops up in just around 1 hour.

Both also support wireless charging at similar 15W speeds, but the iPhone also comes with the magnetic MagSafe support. The Galaxy does NOT support the new magnetic Qi2 standard.

Below, you can find an overview of the Galaxy S24 Ultra vs iPhone 15 Pro Max specs:

In summary, the Galaxy introduces a few neat improvements with AI, and it gives us small improvements all around. Of these, most noticeable might be the improved camera experience. It is also the bigger phone, it has the S Pen for those who care, and the customization and openness of Android.

The iPhone, on the other hand, offers iOS and all the benefits of the Apple ecosystem, and it is also expected to have the slightly longer battery life. It can stand its ground with the 5X zoom camera, and it offers a number of Pro photo and video features that some will appreciate.

Price-wise, the Galaxy is just slightly more expensive ($1300 for the base Galaxy vs $1200 for the iPhone), but Samsung phones are known to go on sale quite often, which is rarely the case for iPhone.

So at the end of the day… which team are you on in 2024, team Apple or team Galaxy? And why?