Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max vs. Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

A combat arsenic aged arsenic the word smartphone itself – Apple vs. Samsung has ever been a spectacle whether it’s advertising, instrumentality base, features oregon hardware. So, present is the latest 1 for you – we enactment the astir caller Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max adjacent to latest Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Table of Contents:

For starters, you tin compare the implicit specs sheets oregon straight proceed with our editor's appraisal successful the pursuing text.

Size comparison

The iPhone 18 Pro Max features a refined iteration of Apple's distinctive plan language, combining multi-textured elements successful a cohesive chassis. The telephone comes with Ceramic Shield 2 front, aluminum unibody and a Ceramic Shield 1st Gen implicit the wireless charging coil astatine the back. The iPhone is IP68-rated, but Apple promises it tin past for 30 minutes successful 6m-deep water.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra takes a decidedly no-nonsense approach, boasting 1 of the cleanest and astir stylish designs connected the market. It has level Gorilla Armor 2 astatine the beforehand and level Gorilla Glass Victus 2 astatine the back. The framework and the chassis are made of aluminum. The instrumentality carries a modular IP68 rating, ensuring h2o absorption up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes.

Both smartphones person akin footprints arsenic evident by their measurements, but the Galaxy S26 Ultra is noticeably lighter astatine 214g vs. the monstrous 249g for the iPhone.

Winner: Galaxy S26 Ultra for its cleanable looks and lighter body.

Display comparison

The iPhone 18 Pro Max packs a 6.9-inch LTPO OLED surface with 1320 x 2868 pixels (460ppi), dynamic 120Hz refresh rate, Dolby Vision and HDR10 support. It has a pill-shaped notch and is protected by Ceramic Shield 2 with oleophobic coating.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra features a 6.9-inch LTPO OLED surface with a higher solution with 1440 x 3120 pixels oregon 500ppi, dynamic 120Hz refresh rate, and HDR10+ support. The sheet has a tiny punch-hole, features Gorilla Armor 2 protection, and besides offers DX anti-reflective coating positive Privacy Display feature.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra offers higher maximum automatic brightness astatine 1,480nits vs. 969 nits for the iPhone 18 Pro Max. The highest brightness of some devices is alternatively akin astatine astir 2,800 nits.

Winner: Galaxy S26 Ultra. While some screens are feast for the eyes, the 1 connected the Galaxy has a higher resolution, a smaller cutout, and the Privacy Display feature.

Battery life

The iPhone 18 Pro Max is powered by a 5,391mAh battery, portion the Galaxy S26 Ultra packs a 5,000mAh artillery cell. The phones diagnostic antithetic surface panels and chipsets, though, truthful endurance is not each astir capacity.

The iPhone 18 Pro Max achived an Active Use Rating of 19:20h, portion the Galaxy S26 Ultra posted a 16:22h score. The iPhone did amended crossed each on-screen tests – web browsing, video streaming, gaming.

Winner: iPhone 18 Pro Max.

Charging speed

The iPhone 18 Pro Max supports up to 54W wired charging and up to 25W wireless charging.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra supports up to 60W wired and up to 25W wireless charging. It besides supports reverse wireless charging, thing Apple failed to deliver.

The iPhone and the Galaxy scope 50% of complaint successful 15 minutes, and northbound of 80% successful 30 minutes. A afloat complaint is achieved 12 minutes faster connected the Galaxy S26 Ultra, though.

Winner: Tie. Both phones recharge arsenic accelerated successful the archetypal 30 minutes, which are the ones that substance the most.

Speaker test

Both the iPhone 18 Pro Max and the Galaxy S26 Ultra connection stereo speakers and they some scored a Very Good people connected our loudness test.

Furthermore, some phones dependable astir the aforesaid with arsenic affluent and heavy audio output.

Winner: Galaxy S26 Ultra, but lone if you attraction astir afloat complaint times.

Performance

The iPhone 18 Pro Max is powered by the Apple A20 Pro spot built connected a 2nm process. Apple touts its desktop-class CPU cores, a much almighty GPU, doubly arsenic galore Neural Engine cores, and a 50% summation successful representation bandwidth.

The A20 Pro features a 6-core processor with 2x Super Cores clocked astatine 4.93GHz and 4x Efficient Cores clocked astatine 2.64GHz. The Apple GPU present has a 7-core design, with Apple promising up to 40% faster show compared to the A19 Pro. The Neural Engine present has 32 cores, up from 16 connected the A19 Pro, promising a important boost to AI performance. And the full happening is being cooled by a overmuch larger vapor enclosure system.

The iPhone is disposable with 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB of storage. All of them travel with 12GB RAM.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra employs an overclocked mentation of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 with a faster 8-core CPU and Adreno GPU than the modular model, and that’s wherefore Samsung calls it SD 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, mentation SM8850-AD. The "AD" suffix indicates that the main 2x Oryon V3 Phoenix L cores are clocked astatine 4.74 GHz alternatively of 4.6 GHz. The remainder of the 6x Oryon V3 Phoenix M cores stay astatine 3.62 GHz.

The Adreno 840 GPU is besides supposedly clocked higher. The AD mentation of the SoC should person its Adreno 840 clocked astatine 1300 MHz, arsenic opposed to 1200 MHz connected the vanilla AC version.

The disposable representation configurations for the Galaxy are 12GB/256GB, 12GB/512GB and 16GB/1TB.

Benchmark performance

All things considered, it seems that these 2 devices bash travel with the champion imaginable hardware this year.

Our tests showed a tiny vantage for the Apple spot successful the earthy CPU and GPU performance. The iPhone scores much AI points successful AI benchmarks acknowledgment to its almighty Neural Engine. And finally, it besides offers amended sustained show than the Galaxy (per our reviews).

Winner: iPhone 18 Pro Max.

Camera comparison

The iPhone 18 Pro Max doesn't bring overmuch of a alteration to the camera strategy compared to the erstwhile exemplary (the adaptable aperture makes little of a quality than Apple would person you believe) and the 18 Pro Max is simply a batch similar the 17 Pro Max. That is besides the lawsuit with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which is much oregon little connected par with its predecessor. So, we're looking astatine different iteration oregon much oregon little the aforesaid examination betwixt 2 camera systems that are different, but besides precise similar.

Both diagnostic astir comparable cameras - what matters astir is sensor size, and the 1 connected the Galaxy is specced astatine 1/1.3" portion Apple lists the Pro Max's astatine 1/1.28". So what if Samsung's is 200MP and Apple's is 48MP? The Galaxy doesn't person a changeable aperture, alternatively being 'stuck' astatine f/1.4, portion the iPhone's wide unfastened mounting is f/1.48 and it tin halt down to f/4.0 (f/1.8 and f/2.8 are besides available).

The parity continues connected the ultrawides, wherever some phones usage similarly-sized sensors (1/2.5") and beauteous utmost lenses. Both phones diagnostic telephotos astir the 100mm people - Samsung's is 111mm and they're calling it 5x zoom, portion Apple is going for a 100mm equivalent and a 4x label. The Galaxy besides has a 3x zoom camera which has ne'er truly been overmuch of an asset.

Both phones diagnostic proven selfie cameras, though the 1 connected the iPhone does dependable much awesome - an 18MP multi-aspect sensor that tin instrumentality scenery photos erstwhile you're holding the telephone vertically (works the different mode astir too), positive it's got a wide-angle, 20mm-equivalent lens. The Galaxy has a much accepted 12MP sensor and a 23mm lens (still plentifulness wide).

Image quality

Daylight

Predictably, some phones volition get you fantabulous daytime shots astatine 1x, though they person their differences. For one, the iPhone defaults to 24MP and it conscionable mightiness resoluteness a small much existent detail, but the quality is hardly melodramatic and the Galaxy's 12MP images inactive person plentifulness of definition. Both person likeable colors, with the iPhone leaning somewhat lukewarm successful its achromatic equilibrium and the Galaxy having a spot of other saturation, peculiarly successful greenery. Dynamic scope is fantabulous connected both. There's hardly immoderate nonsubjective victor here.

Daylight comparison, main camera (1x): iPhone 18 Pro Max • Galaxy S26 Ultra

2x is hardly the Galaxy's forte, but it inactive does alright. The iPhone is superior here, though - surely successful the much earthy mode it renders good detail, but perchance besides successful the magnitude of item that it resolves.

Daylight comparison, main camera (2x): iPhone 18 Pro Max • Galaxy S26 Ultra

The Galaxy's 3x zoom camera is decent astatine best, but it's astir apt of immoderate usage if you privation to span the spread betwixt 2x and 5x, peculiarly erstwhile accounting for the so-so 2x performance.

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (3x): Galaxy S26 Ultra

Comparing the iPhone's 4x zoom camera and the Galaxy's 5x telephoto tin beryllium a small hard due to the fact that of the somewhat antithetic focal magnitude and the 24MP vs 12MP resolution. The iPhone isn't stellar connected a pixel level successful 24MP astatine 4x and the Galaxy's images look amended astatine 1:1. Ultimately, they some astir apt seizure the aforesaid magnitude of detail, it's conscionable that the S26 Ultra's shots are easier to like.

Daylight comparison, telephoto camera: iPhone 18 Pro Max (4x) • Galaxy S26 Ultra (5x)

At doubly the nominal zoom level, the Galaxy's 10x shots successful agleam conditions are substantially amended than the iPhone's 8x ones. The Galaxy rapidly falls isolated successful dimmer settings though - indoors it's the iPhone that has the precocious hand.

Daylight comparison, telephoto camera: iPhone 18 Pro Max (8x) • Galaxy S26 Ultra (10x)

The ultrawides instrumentality photos with fundamentally the aforesaid item levels adjacent though the iPhone insists connected utilizing doubly arsenic galore megapixels for its take. The Galaxy's greenery is erstwhile again much lush than the iPhone's, but it's hardly a acquisition decision-altering difference.

Daylight comparison, ultrawide camera: iPhone 18 Pro Max (0.5x) • Galaxy S26 Ultra (0.6x)

Low light

Aggressive Night mode-style processing isn't what either of these phones is keen connected doing successful the acheronian and those blimpish approaches tin beryllium detrimental to representation quality, peculiarly connected the Galaxy, broadly speaking.

Even so, some the iPhone and the Galaxy volition get you bully low-light photos astatine 1x successful afloat auto. The iPhone's default results thin to beryllium sharper and much elaborate than the Galaxy's, though it's not a immense difference.

Low-light comparison, main camera (1x), afloat auto: iPhone 18 Pro Max • Galaxy S26 Ultra

The Galaxy's dedicated Night mode tin sharpen its output but we've seen it change achromatic equilibrium and mostly bash weird things with colors, truthful we're not definite it's the amended idea.

Low-light comparison, main camera (1x), Night mode: Galaxy S26 Ultra

At 2x zoom, the Galaxy is benignant of keeping up with the iPHone successful the better-lit scenes, but successful darker settings the iPhone has a much important advantage.

Low-light comparison, main camera (2x), afloat auto: iPhone 18 Pro Max • Galaxy S26 Ultra

If you unit the Galaxy to usage its Night mode (or the telephone deems it indispensable itself), the spread gets smaller.

Low-light samples, main camera (2x), Night mode: Galaxy S26 Ultra

The Galaxy's 3x telephoto isn't astonishing successful the dark, capturing brushed and gloomy images successful afloat auto, though it does liven up successful Night mode. Still, we're not seeing it arsenic immoderate existent vantage implicit the iPhone.

Low-light samples, telephoto camera (3x): Galaxy S26 Ultra

Low-light samples, telephoto camera (3x), Night mode: Galaxy S26 Ultra

Comparing the due telephotos, we'd reason that the Galaxy tends to person an vantage successful sharpness and definition.

Low-light comparison, telephoto camera, afloat auto: iPhone 18 Pro Max (4x) • Galaxy S26 Ultra (5x)

The Galaxy's Night mode trades successful immoderate of that sharpness for stronger sound reduction, and it's not needfully a amended look.

Low-light samples, telephoto camera (5x), Night mode: Galaxy S26 Ultra

At 8x/10x zoom, it's really astir apt the iPhone that has a insignificant edge, though it's conscionable different lawsuit of not being capable to truly matter.

Low-light comparison, telephoto camera, afloat auto: iPhone 18 Pro Max (8x) • Galaxy S26 Ultra (10x)

The Galaxy's forced Night mode isn't making things amended - conscionable different.

Low-light samples, telephoto camera (10x), Night mode: Galaxy S26 Ultra

On the ultrawide end, we're liking the Galaxy's exposures amended - the iPhone's images are beauteous dim and person important airy autumn disconnected towards the edges. Detail is broadly comparable, but the Galaxy's rendition is somewhat superior.

Low-light comparison, ultrawide camera, afloat auto: iPhone 18 Pro Max (0.5x) • Galaxy S26 Ultra (0.6x)

The Galaxy's Night mode brings an further shadiness boost and is astir apt a small better-looking still, though it is prone to immoderate of those mendacious colour issues we've been seeing.

Low-light samples, ultrawide camera (0.6x), Night mode: Galaxy S26 Ultra

Selfies

The Galaxy's no-frills selfie camera captures fantabulous shots with immoderate of the finest item renditions retired there. The iPhone isn't arsenic large successful presumption of implicit quality, but it's inactive beauteous good, positive you bash get the convenience of shooting scenery selfies with a vertical phone.

Selfies comparison: iPhone 18 Pro Max • Galaxy S26 Ultra

Video quality

Video capabilities are besides wide-ranging connected the 2 phones. You get 4K60 each astir from some the Galaxy and the iPhone, and some tin bash 4K24 connected each cameras too. 4K120 disposable connected the main camera and the ultrawide connected the Galaxy, portion the iPhone's 4K120 is lone disposable connected the main camera connected the back. For what it's worth, the S26 Ultra besides allows for 8K30 seizure astatine 0.6x, 1x, and 5x. Dolby Vision signaling is imaginable connected some phones and some connection pro-grade codecs and signaling to outer storage. Some superior stuff.

The iPhone's 4K30 videos from the ultrawide camera are noticeably sharper than connected the Galaxy. The Pro Max is besides somewhat sharper than the Ultra erstwhile comparing main camera 4K30 footage - some astatine 1x and astatine 2x. The iPhone maintains an vantage astatine 4x vs. the Galaxy's 5x camera - it captures a spot much item and renders it successful a nicer way. The 8x vs. 10x examination besides ends with an iPhone victory. In presumption of planetary properties, it's hard to kick astir thing connected either telephone - some person fantabulous dynamic scope and pleasing colors.

Daylight video screengrabs, iPhone 18 Pro Max: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 4x • 8x

Daylight video screengrabs, Galaxy S26 Ultra: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x • 5x • 10x

In the dark, the iPhone's ultrawide is trailing down the Galaxy's successful presumption of sharpness and it runs underexposed adjacent to the well-developed Galaxy rendition. Main camera footage is precise akin from a planetary perspective, but the 1 connected the iPhone is cleaner - the Galaxy has immoderate beauteous annoying chroma noise. The iPhone 4x footage is besides astatine slightest a small spot sharper than the Galaxy's 5x zoomed clips, and the iPhone is little atrocious erstwhile examining 8x vs 10x videos.

Low-light video screengrabs, iPhone 18 Pro Max: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 4x • 8x

Low-light video screengrabs, Galaxy S26 Ultra: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x • 5x • 10x

Winner: We'll fto you telephone this one, depending connected which aspects of the camera show substance much to you

Verdict

We tin hardly ideate galore die-hard fans of either campy jumping vessel for the competitor. The iPhone 18 Pro Max represents the champion Apple has to offer, and it shows: the telephone delivers a superb build, an outstanding display, the fastest spot connected the market, class-leading artillery life, and a versatile camera setup with consistently large video output.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra does beauteous overmuch the aforesaid portion adding an S-Pen into the mix. The Galaxy boasts a refined design, an exceptionally crisp OLED panel, the astir susceptible Android processor, and immoderate of the finest cameras astir (selfies, too!). Its artillery show is not acold down the iPhone's, and its charging velocity is arsenic fast.

Ultimately, the prime comes down to idiosyncratic workflow - prime whichever fits your needs champion and disregard the marque rivalry.