money iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: Which flagship phone wins?
It's a battle between the two very best phones that money can buy with this iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra comparison. I tested both phones side by side for several days to crown a winner, backed up by our in-depth camera shootout and lab testing.
As you'll see in our iPhone 15 Pro Max review, Apple's $1,199 flagship has a lot to offer, including a strong, lighter and more compact titanium design, a smart new Action button and a blazing A17 Pro chip. Plus, there's several camera upgrades on board along with (finally) USB-C charging.
On the other hand, our Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review shows why it has been our best camera phone champ and is the best Android phone overall. It offers a whopping 200MP camera, dual telephoto zoom lenses, a great display and — if you want one — a built-in S Pen.
So which is the best phone overall? This iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Galaxy S23 face-off will crown a winner and help you pick the best flagship for your money.
iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Galaxy S23 Ultra: Specs
iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Galaxy S23 Ultra: Price and value
Both the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Galaxy S23 Ultra are among the most expensive phones available. Apple's iPhone 15 Pro Max has a starting price of $1,199 for 256GB of storage. If you want more, you can spring for 512GB for $1,399 and 1TB for $1,599.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra arrived in February with a starting price of $1,199 for 256GB of storage. You can upgrade to 512GB for $1,379 or 1TB of storage for $1,619.
Check out our iPhone 15 Pro Max deals page and Galaxy S23 deals page for the latest discounts.
Winner: Draw
iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Galaxy S23 Ultra: Design
The iPhone 15 Pro Max starts with a distinct advantage with its new titanium design. This replaces the stainless steel band on the iPhone 14 Pro Max, and it's both stronger and lighter than the aluminum on the S23 Ultra.
Apple has also trimmed the bezels around the iPhone 15 Pro Max's display and it the design is now contoured — the rounded edges feel comfortable to hold.
Measuring 6.29 x 3.02 x 0.32 inches and weighing 7.8 ounces, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is more compact and lighter than the S23 Ultra's 6.4 x 3.0 x 0.35 inches and 8.2 ounces. To be fair, the S23 Ultra has a slightly larger display and a built-in S Pen.
Personally, I'm not a fan of the curved edges on the S23 Ultra's screen, which can sometimes result in accidental screen touches. But Samsung's punch hole in the display is certainly smaller than the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Winner: iPhone 15 Pro Max
iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Galaxy S23 Ultra: Display
The iPhone 15 Pro Max and Galaxy S23 Ultra both offer stellar OLED displays. The 6.7-inch panel on the iPhone 15 Pro Max is a bit smaller than the 6.8-inch screen on the Galaxy S23 Ultra, but they both offer vivid colors and a bright picture along with 120Hz refresh rates.
Side by side, I found the iPhone 15 Pro Max's screen a bit brighter overall, which is backed up by our testing. The Pro Max reached 1,500 nits in our labs when displaying HDR content, compared to 1,444 nits for the S23 Ultra. Indoors the 15 Pro Max looked brighter but in direct sunlight Samsung's adaptive brightness had an edge.
In terms of color reproduction, the Galaxy S23 Ultra turned in higher scores in both the sRGB test and DCI-P3 color space, but the iPhone 15 Pro Max's colors proved more accurate in our Delta-E test as you can see in the results.
I love that Samsung gives you a choice between color profiles but when viewing content the iPhone 15 Pro Max's screen looked a bit better with higher contrast and dimension to subjects as in the above Barbie movie trailer.
Winner: Draw
iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Galaxy S23 Ultra: Cameras
You won't find more powerful camera phones out there. The iPhone 15 Pro Max offers a 48MP main sensor, a 12MP ultrawide camera and a new 12MP tetraprism zoom lens with 5x optical zoom and 25x digital zoom. The front camera remains 12MP.
The biggest iPhone 15 Pro Max camera improvements other than zoom includes the ability to take portraits without having to enter portrait mode, improved Smart HDR for better colors and highlights and a boosted Night mode.
In this photo of the Bryant Park Fountain, the Galaxy S23 Ultra produces the brighter but it looks washed out. The iPhone 15 Pro Max delivers sharping looking water coming from the fountain and better detail in the fountain itself.
In this portrait photo, the Galaxy S23 Ultra once again delivers a brighter shot and my face pops a bit more as Samsung's camera handles the shadows a bit better. But there's more detail in my face and shirt in the iPhone 15 Pro Max pic. I'd probably share the Samsung photo despite some smoothing in my face.
To test the zoom of both phones I started with the side of this building in Manhattan. The stone figures are fairly sharp in both the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Galaxy S23 Ultra but I'd give a slight edge to the Pro Max in overall sharpness as I zoomed in. It also offers a warmer color tone, which some may prefer.
The tables turn here at 25x digital zoom. This is the upper limit of what the iPhone 15 Pro Max can do, and there's a fair amount of noise in the shot. The S23 Ultra's picture is considerably sharper, especially in the lettering.
Heading indoors, I shot this photo at the City Winery of a bunch of wine barrels with a red glow. The iPhone 15 Pro Max renders with more realistic looking shadows but the text on the barrels is more legible through the Samsung. This one is a toss-up for me.
In night mode both the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Galaxy S23 Ultra shine. In this pic of harvest decorations, the Samsung turns in the brightest pic overall. And I like that the straw and flowers look sharper. The iPhone 15 Pro Max's shot is good though, and the scarecrow in the middle has a more realistic orange.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max narrowly takes this night mode comparison shooting a volleyball in front of a pool. The ball itself is sharper and more vibrant versus the Galaxy S23 Ultra. But the concrete on the left has more definition through the Samsung.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max easily takes this selfie round. My face and hair have more detail, and my eyes look a lot clearer. At first glance, the S23 Ultra's shot is certainly brighter and more inviting.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra does the better job here capturing yellow echinacea flowers along with some hay and an pumpkin. The flowers have more detail in the petals and the rest of the shot is in focus. The iPhone 15 Pro Max applies a bokeh to everything but the flowers which adds a sense of depth but I still prefer the Samsung pic.
Once again the Galaxy S23 Ultra wins with a close-up shot in this photo of a fruit tart. The pastry itself has more defined edges and the strawberries and blueberries look crisper. The colors do look more natural through the iPhone 15 Pro Max as Samsung tends to oversaturate things.
In macro mode using the ultrawide cameras both shots are mesmerizing in their own way. The center of the flower is sharper in the Samsung photo, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max's pic has a bit more depth to it.
How about ultrawide photos? This shot is very close between the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Galaxy S23 Ultra. I like that the wood pile-ons in the water are brighter in the foreground in the iPhone pic, but the building off to the right is overly warm. The Samsung shot has a more even exposure but less contrast.
While both the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Galaxy S23 Ultra are capable of shooting at 4K and 60 fps, I shot these clips at 30 fps in order to be able to use all of the zoom levels. Samsung only lets you change the zoom from 1x to 3x and 10x and beyond while you're shooting in 30 fps mode.
Overall, I prefer the iPhone 15 Pro Max's video clip because there's more contrast in the water and more gradation in the blue sky. And jumping between the zoom levels is much smoother than the jerkier Samsung S23 Ultra. However, once you get to 3x and 10x zoom, the Samsung's footage looks more detailed.
Winner: Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Galaxy S23 Ultra: Performance
The iPhone 15 Pro Max and Galaxy S23 Ultra are both fast phones, but Apple has vaulted into the lead with its A17 Pro chip. This is the world's first 3nm processor for phones, which packs in even more transistors.
In Geekbench, which measures overall performance, the iPhone 15 Pro Max cleared 2,700 and 6,900 on single-core and multi-core, while the Galaxy S23 Ultra was half as fast on single core and 34 percent slower on single-core.
This matchup was closer in graphics performance, as the iPhone 15 Pro Max notched 92 frames per second in 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited versus 87 fps for the Samsung. But Apple extended its lead in our video editing test, needing only 24.5 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p. That's 15 seconds faster than the S23 Ultra.
Winner: iPhone 15 Pro Max
iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Galaxy S23 Ultra: Special features
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra's biggest special feature is the S Pen, which is included and lets you take notes, sketch and perform fine photo edits. It can be a pretty valuable tool. Another handy feature is mult-window, which enables you to run two applications on the screen at once. This comes in handy for multitasking.
The One UI 5.1 software for Galaxy S23 Ultra offers several neat fetures. For example, with Bixby Text Call Samsung's assistant can answer incoming calls for you, and then you can pass on messages via speech-to-text or by voice typing.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max arguably has better special features. For example, the new Action button lets you assign any number of shortcuts to it, including muting calls but also launching the camera, flashlight, voice recorder and magnifier. And you can customize thousands of options via the Shortcuts app.
Another unique feature the S23 Ultra can't match is Dynamic Island. This area displays live alerts and activities to save you time. For example, I can see my Uber status at a glance while I'm using other apps, or quickly change tracks on Spotify. It's getting more useful as other developers catch on.
There's lots of great features within iOS 17, too. Standby mode turns your iPhone into an alarm clock and mini smart display. And it's easier than ever to exchange contact info with NameDrop, though you need another iPhone running iOS 17 to do it.
Winner: iPhone 15 Pro Max
iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Galaxy S23 Ultra: Battery life and charging
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is simply one of the longest lasting phones we've tested. In our battery testing, which involves continuous web surfing over 5G, the new Pro lasted a whopping 14 hours and 2 minutes.
By comparison, the Galaxy S23 Ultra lasted 13 hours and 9 minutes with its display set to 60Hz mode and 12:22 in adaptive mode. The iPhone 15 Pro Max is adaptive by default and you can't change it.
On the plus side, the Galaxy S23 Ultra charges faster via a 45W charger, getting to 57% in 30 minutes. The iPhone 15 Pro Max got to just 41% in the same amount of time with a 20W charger. We'll be performing additional testing to see how much faster the iPhone can get with a 30W charger.
Winner: iPhone 15 Pro Max
iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Galaxy S23 Ultra: Verdict
The iPhone 15 Pro Max wins this very close contest as the best phone overall. It gives you a stunning display in a sturdier and lighter titanium design, and it offers both stronger performance and better battery life than the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.
However, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is still an amazing phone and it got a narrow victory in the camera round thanks to its brighter and sharper pics and more powerful zoom.
We gave the most points to the camera round, and here the iPhone 15 Pro Max held its own with a number of victories. It tends to produce more detailed portaits and selfies and its Night mode performance and HDR video capture are both top-notch.
The deciding factor really was battery life, as it's hard to argue with up to 2 hours more endurance when the screens are in adaptive mode (1-120Hz). So the iPhone 15 Pro Max takes this very close contest, but the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra could certainly come out on top when it debuts.
