The Samsung Galaxy S24, S24 Plus and S24 ultra launched on 31 January and are almost certainly destined to join the ranks of the best phones of 2024.
You can read our full review of the Galaxy S24 ultra for all the details, but you might be wondering how Samsung’s new devices compare with one of the most popular phones on the market today: the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Both phones offer cutting-edge specifications, running on the most advanced hardware available and with the best displays Samsung and Apple can manage. In terms of features such as speed, battery life, cameras and performance, they’re very similar devices.
Both the iPhone 15 pro max and the Galaxy S24 ultra have their own strengths, so deciding which phone is right for you partly comes down to personal preference. To help you choose, let’s dive into the differences between the Samsung Galaxy S24 ultra and iPhone 15 pro max.
Read more: The best Samsung Galaxy S24 contract deals
Samsung Galaxy S24 ultra vs iPhone 15 pro max: Specs
Comparing the raw specifications of the Galaxy S24 ultra and iPhone 15 pro max gives us a technical overview of the differences between the phones, though it’s not necessarily the best way to choose between the two.
Here’s a rundown of both phones, for reference.
Samsung Galaxy S24 ultra vs iPhone 15 pro max: Display
Samsung is as well known for its televisions as it is for phones, to the extent that the Korean tech giant even manufactures displays for rival companies. Even Apple uses Samsung screens in the iPhone 15 pro max.
The biggest upgrade to either phone’s display is the Samsung Galaxy S24’s newly improved peak brightness of 2,600 nits, beating the 2,000 nits peak brightness of the iPhone 15 pro max.
Peak brightness has unexpectedly emerged as a new battleground for flagship smartphones but while, on paper, the S24 ultra is a clear winner, there’s little practical difference between the two. This is especially true in the UK and northern Europe, where the sun is never so bright that you’d struggle to read your phone’s screen.
Elsewhere, both the Samsung Galaxy S24 ultra and the iPhone 15 pro max offer very similar display experiences. Samsung’s screen has a slightly higher pixel density (505ppi vs 460ppi) making it almost imperceptibly sharper, but both phone screens are neck and neck where it matters: both use HDR10 and run at a smooth-scrolling 120Hz refresh rate.
Galaxy S24 ultra vs iPhone 15 pro max: Cameras
Both Samsung and Apple use an array of camera lenses to achieve excellent shots at a range of zoom levels, but this year’s flagship Galaxy device actually gets a technical downgrade over the S23 ultra, dropping the 10x optical lens in favour of a less powerful 5x lens backed up by a larger and more light-sensitive sensor.
This means you still get that headline-grabbing 100x super zoom capability, but the S24 ultra is now using a mixture of pixel-binning techniques and some fancy machine-learning magic to produce decent telephoto shots even at extreme zoom levels.
Compare that to the iPhone 15 pro max, which also tops out at 5x optical zoom but uses a significantly smaller sensor to capture light. On paper, that places Apple’s camera hardware some distance behind Samsung’s, but the raw specs don’t tell the full story. The A17 Pro chip in the iPhone 15 pro max uses next-level image processing to produce incredible smartphone photography. The Galaxy S24 ultra camera system is technically more versatile, but which phone’s pictures you prefer largely comes down to personal preference, as Samsung and Apple’s algorithms subtly tweak results toward a particular style, colour balance and contrast.
Galaxy S24 ultra vs iPhone 15 pro max: Design
Samsung has clearly taken design cues from Apple this year, gracing the new Galaxy S24 ultra with a new titanium frame and a flat display. Ditching the “waterfall edge” makes using the S-Pen stylus slightly more comfortable, as the tip of the pen no longer slips off the side of the phone when you doodle too close to the edge of the screen. Otherwise, the design of the three latest Samsung phones will be familiar to anyone who’s used a Galaxy device before.
The Galaxy S24 ultra uses a rather severe-looking, squared-off display, giving it a boxier look and feel than the gentler, rounded-off corners of the iPhone 15 pro max. This writer prefers the softer edges of Apple’s phone, but neither design is objectively better. The iPhone 15 pro max is lighter, but not enough to make a serious difference. It also uses the ‘dynamic island’ camera notch to house the selfie camera, whereas Samsung’s phone squeezes its front camera into a tiny cutout no wider than a grain of rice.
Galaxy S24 ultra vs iPhone 15 pro max: Verdict
Drawing a like-for-like comparison between the Galaxy S24 and the iPhone 15 isn’t straightforward, as both offer unique software features not found on the other.
Samsung’s newest phone introduces a range of AI-powered tools for editing photos, translating live phone calls and improving your writing, for example. The iPhone 15 pro max gets an automatic home advantage for anyone who’s already bought into the Apple ecosystem.
In terms of pure hardware specs, however, it’s the Galaxy S24 ultra that wins. Samsung’s newest flagship offers a better camera system, a host of new AI features, Google’s latest search tools and the versatile S-Pen stylus.