Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra vs. iPhone 15 Pro Max: Which big phone is best?

This article is part of our series?Battle of the Brands, in which we compare category-leading products to their counterparts to determine which are actually worth your money.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra are the latest flagships battling for the best big phone throne. So, for those who love a good fight and those noble enough to set the age-old Android versus iOS squabble down, let’s see how these phones compare on their own merits.

While the Galaxy S24 Ultra measures slightly larger and heavier, those differences are so marginal that I won’t try to pit their dimensions against each other. Both are great enough to deserve serious placement among the best smartphones, so it’s not surprising that they’re similar in some regards. That said, each takes wins in multiple categories while also offering neat tricks the other doesn’t.

This face-off has also been updated with my observations about if and how a recent Galaxy S24 Ultra update affects the phone’s display and cameras.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra vs. Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max at a glance

Quick comparison

Circle to Search is truly impressive

Every new phone should have at least one exciting surprise, and the S24 Ultra’s best trick is that it can restore a sense of fun and ease to online search. The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra supports Circle to Search, which lets you simply doodle on your screen to learn more. You just hold down on the circle navigation button until a sparkly animation covers your whole screen, draw around the object you want to discover more about and see what Google discovers.

This works with everything from blocks of text — I got the entire PDF of Constance De Jong’s “Modern Love” by searching the text from a scan of one page — to objects in photos online. Love that stool in that home office post on Instagram? Circle to Search to buy it for yourself (or learn that it doesn’t fit your budget). Circle to Search works with the S24’s S Pen, which feels like a natural extension of the stylus. It’s also available on the Galaxy S24, S24+, Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.

Over on the iPhone, you just search by typing or roll the dice with Siri.

The S Pen and Action button both offer unique interactions

The Galaxy S24 Ultra continues Samsung’s love affair with the stylus, which allows you to physically write and draw on its screen with something other than your fingertips. Meanwhile, the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s new physical Action button can be mapped to one of a handful of features, including your own custom shortcuts.

While these features are notably different, neither has yet to sway me into regularly using it. My muscle memory hasn’t found the Action button in regular use, and the S Pen stays in its little dock unless I am trying to select something very small when using Galaxy AI.

I’ve always been surprised that the S Pen still doesn’t pull my interest, considering I’m all about writing with pens and paper. Maybe it’s too thin and small of a utensil for me to regularly want to utilize it. As for the Action button? While I’ve yet to incorporate it into my daily habits, I applaud Apple for giving the iPhone a customizable button, something I never expected.

S24 Ultra gives you more titanium

Titanium, much like Owen Wilson’s Hansel in the film “Zoolander,” is so hot right now. Samsung’s using this material for the entire frame of the Galaxy S24 Ultra, and Apple is using it for the rim of the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max.

If you’ve been fortunate enough to never see your phone’s glass back shatter, you might wonder why I’m so envious that the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s titanium is all-encompassing.

For the uninitiated, titanium is stronger than glass and provides more durability for folks like me who like to go caseless. Also, the S24 Ultra’s titanium features what Samsung calls a “satin finish” that makes it just as nice to touch as the iPhone 15 Pro.

Apple doesn’t makes you go large or go home

This one is simple. While Apple limits its best telephoto camera to the larger iPhone 15 Pro Max, we’re still very grateful Apple makes its Pro-level iPhones in both 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch designs. Samsung, alternatively, only has the 6.8-inch S24 Ultra.

This lack of choice assumes everyone who wants titanium, all of the cameras and an S Pen will also want a phone bigger than any Apple sells at the moment. And since the Galaxy S24+ is 6.7 inches, you have to downgrade to the lower resolution of the 6.2-inch Galaxy S24 if your hands prefer a phone closer to 6 inches than 7.

MagSafe and Standby mode are an unrivaled tag team

As much as Samsung’s titanium shell impresses me, the under-the-hood differentiators in the iPhone 15 Pro Max keep me happy with my purchase. It all begins with the magnetic MagSafe?connector that enables easy charging on stands.

This is a nice trick that enabled neater desks and snack-sized recharging, or at least it was until Apple turned it into an even bigger tool with iOS 17’s Standby Mode — the smart-display-like screen that shows up when your phone is charging horizontally. And Standby Mode is best with the always-on displays of the iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 14 Pro. Meanwhile, the S24 Ultra doesn’t feature any such magnetic docking.

Apple’s A17 Pro chip sits in a league of its own

Even in the priciest phones, there is a notable divide when it comes to performance. I did not see a single hiccup when the speedy Qualcomm 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy chip ran the plays for the Galaxy S24 Ultra, but the Apple A17 Pro chip in the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max sits at the head of the processor table.

How big of a difference is there? On the Geekbench 6 general performance benchmark, the iPhone 15 Pro Max notched a score 32% higher than the S24 Ultra’s in the single-core test, which measures the performance you’re more likely to rely on in normal activities. On the more demanding multi-core test, though, Apple only won by a margin of 6%.

Don’t worry about the S24 UItra, though. It didn’t skip a beat when I split its screen between apps such as Chrome and Discord. Nor did the popular mobile game Genshin Impact stutter as I hacked and slashed.

Primarily, this performance gap appears in a new class of iPhone games available in the App Store. I don’t know if Resident Evil 4 and Death Stranding will be able to run on Android, but the fact that versions even slightly comparable to the console editions can even run on a phone is a win Apple holds over Samsung.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro Max offer very similar cameras

One of the most difficult parts of reviewing top-shelf smartphones is comparing the increasingly similar photos they capture. This was especially clear after I spent a day or so in overcast New York City comparing shots taken with the Galaxy S24 Ultra and the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and checking out how the zooms in each model’s cameras differ.

My Portrait mode selfies were, appropriately, neck and neck between the S24 Ultra and the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Both indoors and outdoors, these phones’ front-facing 12-megapixel cameras captured quality shots, though my skin looked slightly redder on the iPhone indoors and more natural outdoors.

The indoor selfie the S24 Ultra captured, though, had uneven skin tones in the top left corner of the image. While the outdoor selfies were equal in detail, the Galaxy S24 Ultra rendered a little more detail in my face indoors. I’m giving a slight win to Apple here. I’d choose notable color accuracy over a slight sharpness upgrade.

Staying outside, I took some more photos before it got too dark out. There, the iPhone 15 Pro Max did a better job of capturing the mint green hue of an oxidized copper roof. Turning my camera 90 degrees to capture Forrest Myers’ public art project “The Gateway to Soho,” I snapped shots where the iPhone won again, as the contrast between the green beams and blue paint was stronger. Light coming from inside that building wasn’t as washed out on the iPhone photos, giving a little more detail.

To ratchet up the difficulty higher, I turned to each phone’s 5x zoom cameras to capture the indoors of an office space from across the street. Here, the S24 Ultra won, as the iPhone shot has much more noise, which became more obvious when I manually cropped each image back at my desk. That said, if you crop on your photos often, I’ll point you to my Galaxy S24 Ultra review, where I highlighted how images captured with its 5x telephoto zoom looked a bit flatter than those taken with the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Out of the cold and hungry, I whipped up a spicy cauliflower chicken and noodles dish in the kitchen and snapped a photo of my work from each phone. Both phones produced excellent results, but I can see a little more detail of the cauliflower florets in the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s shots. That said, the S24 Ultra close-up makes me just as excited for leftovers as the iPhone’s shot does.

Lastly, to fit some nature into this urban jungle, I took some closeups of one of my cacti. Both shots are nearly identical, but the edges of the plant look sharper in the image taken with the S24 Ultra.

Samsung’s February 2024 update also promised “further optimization of key camera functions” across many of its functionalities. So I took both the Galaxy S24 Ultra and the iPhone 15 Pro Max with me to the offices?to see how they stack up now. After the update, we still noticed that the S24 Ultra shot appeared to flatten detail from a distance, taking out creases in a far away billboard. The iPhone 15 Pro Max’s text also appeared a little clearer, with more contrast for better legibility. This was exactly what I noticed in my Galaxy S24 Ultra review.

I then turned to my right to see a tempting ice cream truck had pulled up. I snapped more 5x zoom photos, and later cropped into their menus when I got back to my desk. Image quality was more similar here, except for how the iPhone’s version was a tad brighter.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra won a point with me for a close-up of a big green plant, where its shot has more contrast and detail of the veins of the leaf.

Portrait mode selfies I shot outside on each camera bore incredibly similar results, though the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s colors are a bit more oversaturated for my skin tone — which a colleague confirmed. That said, I think the iPhone 15 Pro Max did a better job of capturing the gray of my shirt, though the Galaxy S24 Ultra kept my garment and hair looking sharp instead of applying a soft amount of the bokeh effect like the iPhone did. This is pretty close, but I prefer the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s output here.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra’s got a bit more endurance

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra provided better battery life in our timed everyday usage testing. Each phone ran basic social media, photography and streaming apps, and was used for watching an hour of FX’s “Fargo” in the Hulu app and playing an hour’s worth of podcasts. Both of those playback sessions blasted audio off of the internal speaker, a notorious battery drain.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra was at 60% by the end of the testing session, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max hit 59% with 3 hours and 15 minutes left on the clock. By the end of the testing session, the iPhone’s battery was down to 42%.

Fast charging is also faster on the S24 Ultra, which supports charging power of up to 45W, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max tops out at 20W (though supports higher-speed chargers). When I tested it out myself, using the same 87W power adapter, the S24 Ultra went from 50% to full in 58 minutes, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max took 1 hour and 35 minutes to get the same amount of juice recharged.

Apple and Samsung keep things simple and superb with their screens

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra’s 6.8-inch, 1440 x 3120-pixel Dynamic AMOLED panel is only a bit sharper than the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s 6.7-in. 2796 x 1290 Super Retina XDR display, and the similarities don’t stop there. Both feature always-on display technology, and while Samsung boasts the protection of the new Corning Gorilla Glass Armor, Apple also has Corning-made glass for its display. Each offers refresh rates of up to 120Hz for smoother scrolling, a luxury you may not realize until you upgrade to a phone that has it.

Watching the GTA 6 trailer on both phones side by side, though, I only noticed a slight extra color boost coming from the S24 Ultra. Without the comparison, you’d think the trailer’s calming waters and purple-haired criminal looked perfect on either.

Since the only big differences here come in size and available screen space — the iPhone’s notch/Dynamic Island is much bigger than Samsung’s pinhole-design front camera — I’d chalk this round up as a tie.

Samsung is seemingly more eager to improve its existing hardware, as a February 2024 software update for the S24 phones added a new set of Vividness settings, following complaints that the phone screens looked too natural. In the display section of Settings, we found a new “Vividness” slider, which is basically turned off by default, with two optional notches to turn it up to. We didn’t see much difference when moving this setting around.

People expect Samsung phones to bear super-colorful (and arguably oversaturated) screens, and one new feature Samsung added to the Galaxy S24 line in February 2024 signals that the company may have skewed too natural for this year’s outing. I found the Vividness slider deep in the S24 Ultra’s Settings app, under Display > Screen Mode > Advanced Settings.

Testing it out with a bright photo of fabric roses I shot, I could see slightly brighter pinks and greens, though I’m not sure if I would have noticed without looking closely. The image is definitely more vivid, but not to the point where it looks oversaturated or wrong.

As for added value, your mileage will definitely vary here, as I find it perfectly acceptable while those expecting super-strong colors may be left wanting more and those looking for high contrast might get what they want. Still, I’m happy to see Samsung offering this option.

Galaxy AI on the S24 Ultra has the potential to impress

As explained in depth in my Galaxy S24 Ultra review, Samsung’s new bag of generative AI tricks has a tendency to go too far on image editing or do too little on text editing. Maybe it’s the generative AI cynic in me, but I am confident that I don’t need any of these so-called features on my iPhone 15 Pro Max (though I expect Apple to add some soon). In my testing, Samsung’s Galaxy AI features hallucinated whole cars, turned reflections into muddy mess and acted like divorce is too controversial for conversation.

That said, I found use for it when I was a little annoyed with a selfie I shot after a recent haircut. Taken without much thought, while lazing on the sofa, the original image not only has my head in front of a bunch of cords and books, but my bathroom sink is visible in the other corner of the image.

I didn’t notice those little details until the next morning — when I whipped out the S Pen, opened the Gallery app and traced outlines around those objects I didn’t want to be there. A few taps later, the background was cleaner (though a cursory zoom-in shows some minor digital artifacts). Oh, and there’s a little extra piece of wow factor here: I didn’t even shoot these photos on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. Galaxy AI edited those objects out of selfies I shot on the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Bottom line

To take you behind the scenes of this face-off, I’ll quote a colleague talking about the differences of the screens shown above: “Yeah, it’s slight.” On displays and cameras, two of the most important aspects of the smartphone, the Galaxy S24 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro Max reach the end of this race in photo-finish form.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra, though, is winning on battery life and design, with some AI-based tricks that might impress when they don’t make you cringe. The iPhone 15 Pro Max won its own rounds, including performance and size options, with the MagSafe and Standby mode duo impressing as well.

Both are mighty expensive, as the Galaxy S24 Ultra rings up at $1,300 while the iPhone 15 Pro Max starts at $1,199. Those price tags are the biggest thing I wish these companies would change, but at least they’re both phenomenal phones. Each, though, clearly has some ways to improve for their next iterations.