The S24 Ultra is the world’s best-selling flagship Android phone in 2024, whereas the iPhone 16 Pro Max is the best iPhone you can buy right now!
And if you remember, when I compared the S24 Ultra with last year’s 15 Pro Max, it was so close between these two phones! But since then, the S24 Ultra has received some major updates making it more refined than ever, whereas with the iPhone 16 Pro, we get some nice upgrades too! Kinda! So, let’s put both of these flagships to the test to find out which one comes out on top. But before going anywhere further, let’s have a quick rundown of its specifications.
iPhone 16 Pro Max vs Galaxy S24 Ultra Specifications
Specification | Galaxy S24 Ultra | iPhone 15 Pro Max |
---|---|---|
Display | 6.8″ Dynamic AMOLED 2X 120Hz refresh rate |
6.9″ Super Retina XDR 120Hz refresh rate |
Processor | Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (4nm) | Apple A18 Pro (3nm) |
Cameras | 200MP main (OIS) 50MP telephoto (5x) 10MP telephoto (3x) 12MP ultrawide |
48MP main (OIS) 48MP ultrawide 12MP telephoto (5x) |
Battery | 5,000 mAh 45W charging 15W wireless charging |
4,685 mAh 25W wired charging 25W wireless charging |
Price (256GB) | NPR 184,999 | NPR 232,499 |
iPhone 16 Pro Max vs Galaxy S24 Ultra
Design
Ok, let me start the conversation with their design and as expected both of them are quite different in terms of looks! The S24 Ultra has this classic boxy form factor and that clean camera setup! Which looks Bold and Classy.
But one thing I often find difficult while using the S24 Ultra are these pointed corners, which means it’s a little uncomfortable while playing AAA games for long hours. Whereas the curves on the sides of the 16 Pro really help with an overall grip.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max this time has a bigger form factor than last year – it’s got a bigger 6.9-inch display, so I was expecting it to be somewhat uncomfortable, but the weight is actually more evenly distributed this time around. Don’t get me wrong, both these phones are pretty huge, but I just like the overall feel of the 16 Pro Max. The iPhone is also more robust since you get Grade 5 titanium frames Vs Grade 2 on the S24 Ultra, so if you happen to drop these phones on concrete, chances are iPhone 16 Pro might have fewer scuffs.
Plus, Apple is claiming that their new iPhones are 2X tougher than any other smartphone’s display. And if you check the drop test conducted by Phone Buff, you will see that the 16 Pro is more crack-resistant than the S24 Ultra, but on the back, it seems that the S24 Ultra’s camera is stronger! The iPhone 16 Pro is also more water-resistant than the S24 Ultra! Both are IP68-rated, but you can submerge the iPhone up to 6 meters for 30 minutes Vs just 1.5 meters on the Galaxy.
But one thing I don’t like about either of these phones is these camera lenses can get dirty now and then, and if you don’t wipe it often before clicking photos, you might end up getting hazy photos! BTW, I am also fond of the iPhone’s action button, which I use more often than I expected, especially if I have to quickly set the notifications to silent whenever I enter a meeting room. However, as I said in my review of the 16 Pro, this new Camera button is not very useful to me! Its placement is weird, and it’s tedious to use so I have disabled it altogether.
The big Plus you have with the S24 Ultra though is this S-pen. And this is something none of the phones have! So this is a big advantage if I quickly wanna take notes during meetings, and it could be quite productive for a lot of professions like if you are an engineer and has to write down some important stuff during field visits, or if you are an artist who likes to doodle a lot! This is a nifty handy tool to have!
Display
Ok, how’s the display on these two phones? I think in this area, Samsung is now slightly behind because Apple has 2 big advantages:
No. 1 Not only its bigger but its bezels are even super thin than the S24 Ultra
And No. 2, the iPhone 16 Pro is even brighter than the S24 Ultra. In our test, we found out that the 16 Pro can reach up to 1800 nits in auto-brightness, whereas the S24 Ultra can only go up to 1500 nits. So, generally, the iPhone has better visibility outdoors.
But one thing to know is that Samsung uses this new anti-reflective coating which means it gets less reflection if direct light is coming in. And this has been super useful for me when I am using my phone on a bright 12:0 clock sunny day or even indoors where there’s multiple light sources. The glares are pretty much non-existent on the S24 Ultra. As for the color accuracy of this display, I found both these phones to be doing quite well and HDR 10+ videos are fantastic to look at as well.
But if I have to nitpick, since the S24 Ultra doesn’t support Dolby Vision playback, and the iPhone does, you will notice a tiny difference while watching Dolby mastered videos on Netflix or Amazon Prime! For eg. One of my favorite movies on Netflix, “Into the Spider-verse” is both brighter and has better contrast on the iPhone 16 Pro as compared to the S24 Ultra.
What’s disappointing though is that neither of these phones yet again hasn’t provided high PWM dimming like what Chinese flagships and even mid range phones are offering in 2024. This means if your eyes are sensitive to screen flickering when you are using the phone at low brightness, you might get eyestrain and headaches time and often.
Audio and Haptics
Now, when it comes to haptics, both these phones have nice precise high-quality vibration feedback, and I can’t really tell which is better! You will appreciate both of them when typing or navigating through the UI. Same with the speaker, Samsung is slightly louder but iPhone has better mid-tones and vocals; both are good speakers!
Software
One area where Samsung is ahead is with the AI features! If you remember, all the cool AI features Samsung announced during the launch of the S24 series were made available on the day the S24 Ultra was available in the market, and there are also some new AI features Samsung has added since then but seems like Apple is playing catch up here because most of the AI features they talked about is going to be available only later this year! And I still don’t know when it’s going to be available here in Asia!
This was a surprise because Apple announced these AI features in WWDC in June, and we all expected these AI features to roll out during the iPhone 16 launch. Thankfully, iOS 18 is here and it’s now more like Android. I can finally customize a lot of things like Android, I can pause the video while recording, there is T3 dialing and all too.
But the reason I always have an iPhone with me is if I have to go live or post a video on Instagram stories, the quality of the video doesn’t get compressed, and it’s sharper than any other Android phone!
Performance
As for the performance, both these phones are wickedly fast as you would expect! The new A18 Pro on the 16 Pro max does have significantly better CPU results, but in a real-world multitasking test I ran where I opened and closed 15 popular apps, both finished the loop at the same time! The area where the iPhone is slightly more optimised is in gaming! As you can see from this Chart, the 16 Pro Max has a much better 1% low so it’s more smoother and stable than the S24 Ultra.
This is the reason why all of the Pro, semi-pro and even amateur PubG players get an iPhone for gaming. It’s just more optimized. This time around, the 16 Pro Max’s thermals have also improved. Apple is still not using the Vapor chamber cooling system as the S24 Ultra, but the size of the graphite sheet is now larger, so I found it to be doing a surprisingly good job of keeping the thermals in check! Just check this wildlife extreme stress test, the stability of the iPhone is much much better than the S24 Ultra!
If you remember, last year’s iPhone 15 display used to dim itself after merely 20 minutes of PuBG to prevent the phone from overheating, but that’s not an issue with the 16 Pro Max! Even after 1 straight hour of gaming on this thing, the screen doesn’t dim! The temperature between these 2 phones is also comparable! They don’t overheat or throttle the performance! But one interesting thing I found is, after 40 minutes of recording 4K footage, the S24 Ultra was hotter by 2 or 3 degrees more than the 16 Pro Max!
Even copying large video files from the phone to SSD or converting 4K 120fps to slo-mo is significantly faster on an iPhone! The shutter speed or switching between the camera lens is also seamless on an iPhone! Small little quality of things are better on an iPhone!
Battery
Likewise, the battery life on the 16 Pro Max is also better by 1 or 2 hours, as compared to the S24 Ultra! In my typical use where I click a lot of photos and videos, play games, and watch videos, I get around 7 hours of SOT on the S24 Ultra, whereas I usually get around 8 hours on the latest iPhone 16 Pro Max! I have even got like 10 and a half hours of screen time which is crazy.
Charging is slightly faster on the S24 Ultra since with the 65W PD wired charger, it can get from 0 to 67% in 30 minutes and a full 100% in 1 hour 10 minutes, whereas the 16 Pro Max can get from 0 to 55% in 30 minutes and a full 100% takes almost 2 hours. The iPhone charges very slowly when it hits the 85% mark – to preserve the battery health!
Cameras
Ok, I have saved the last for the best – Cameras! And in this aspect, I am surprised to see how an 8-month-old S24 Ultra competes so well against the newly launched 16 Pro Max!
Daytime
I think the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s camera will eventually improve with an update, but right now, in most daytime images, the dynamic range is better on the Samsung, and the color tone in most photos looks pleasing. The iPhone’s flat and warm tone does look nice in some cases, but I have to say I like Samsung’s vibrancy in most images! Just look at this dawn photo I took, Samsung just looks much more pleasing!
I don’t want you to think that Samsung is better all the time! In many ways, you will like the photos from both these phones and weirdly some of the photos are so identical, that you will not find a lot of difference except for the color tone! What iPhones consistently have been doing better over the years is when you click photos of your pet, it has better texture, and fur details!
Low light
During low light, I once again prefer Samsung output as it’s brighter, has slightly better details, and has better highlight control. The iPhone, on a lot of occasions, like in this photo of Krishna temple has this contrasty output, which might be a little unpleasing to look at!
The thing that I hope Samsung improves with the upcoming S25 Ultra is the night mode optimization. When I click the photos in Night mode, it makes the images unnatural which doesn’t look very good!
Ultrawide
The 16 Pro Max has the new high-res 48MP Ultra-wide camera, which does a slightly better job than the S24 Ultra! Unlike the primary cameras, the 16 Pro Max has better dynamic range, and details, and is occasionally brighter too.
The 16 Pro Max’s Ultrawide lens can also go closer for those macro shots, but here I like Samsung’s output. Yes, the iPhone has better details, but the way Samsung pops up the images with better depth looks more pleasing.
Portraits
2X
What about the portraits? Here, in the 2X mode, Samsung has this classic vibrant social media-ready output whereas the iPhone likes to keep it natural with better textures if you zoom in. It’s just a matter of your preference! BTW You can go to the camera setting, and choose different options in the photographic style on the iPhone, but the default standard mode for me is still the safe option.
5X
Both these phones can click superb 5X portraits from its periscope zoom lens! Last time, when I compared the S24 Ultra and 15 Pro Max, the S24 Ultra was way behind, but with multiple updates Samsung has pushed, the S24 Ultra is now almost on the same level as the iPhone 16 Pro Max! In fact, the details from the S24 Ultra are better if you zoom in! S24 Ultra once again has that vibrancy, whereas iPhone color science is flat.
There are 3 other aspects where the S24 Ultra’s camera is better than the iPhone. No. 1: Its zoomed photos from 5X and beyond are much better. No. 2 You get an additional 3X lens which I think is a perfect focal length to take portraits. And No 3 the S24 Ultra’s selfie has improved a lot since the latest Sep Update! It just makes the skin tone appealing Vs the muted dark tone which you get from the iPhone!
On the other hand, No one can beat the iPhone when it comes to videography. Yes, Samsung is probably the second-best video camera phone after the iPhone, but that’s about it.
The consistency it has with the exposure handling, and smoothness is much better than what the S24 Ultra offers! I will give you one example. Check out this 4K 60fps Ultra-wide sample I took at night, Samsung just can’t pull any details whereas the iPhone video is much superior!
iPhone 16 Pro Max vs Galaxy S24 Ultra: Conclusion
Hence, with the iPhone in my pocket, I am more confident with the footage I am going to get. I can just click in pro-res and edit in post and the output is going to look more professional. The iPhone 16 Pro Max also has 4 studio quality microphones now and with the Audio Mix feature, removing the background noise is so much easier and effective too. And things like 4K 120fps videos and Cinematic aka portrait videos are also something iPhone 16 Pro Max is finer by a small margin.
Ok, conclusion time! And every year, I do the comparison between Samsung and iPhone! And every time, these two phones are getting so much closer and closer! The iPhone has a slightly better battery backup, a better Ultra-wide lens, and superior videography prowess, whereas, with the S24 Ultra, you are getting marginally better photos especially if you zoom a lot, there’s the S-pen for productivity, and the AI features you CAN use just fine.
And the S24 Ultra is much cheaper these days too! I was able to get the Dubai variant at just 72,000 INR or you can get the authorized unit during the sales at around 1.1 lakhs, which is still 25% cheaper than what the 16 Pro Max retails at!
I am particularly interested in the upcoming S25 Ultra launch, where we can anticipate bigger upgrades – hopefully in the battery and the ultra-wide camera. And I really hope the 3X lens will come with higher resolution and autofocus, which is something iPhone 16 Pro Max lacks!
- Meanwhile, check out our review of the