Going through the list and there is obviously some bias toward the Galaxy S23 Ultra, but it’s also safe to say that the new Samsung phone is a very attractive purchase prospect. There is some belief that AMOLED is better than OLED, but it’s still a bit early to say that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is better than the A16 Bionic, although the former has been triumphant in some GPU comparisons. It is easy to declare that on paper the S23 Ultra sounds better in the camera department, with its legendary 200 MP sensor and up to 10x optical zoom (up to 100x digital zoom available) providing a compelling argument for photography supremacy. However, video recording at 8K 30 FPS could be called a gimmick, so this entry is more of a subjective buff than an objective one.
While 8 GB or 12 GB of RAM for the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra certainly seems much better than the 6 GB the Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max gets, it has been discussed before how iOS optimizations reduce the need for huge amounts of memory. The starting storage point of 256 GB instead of 128 GB is a pro for the S23 Ultra and the charging speed advantage will definitely help with the larger battery, but the Samsung phone will need that extra capacity to power its slightly larger display. Then there’s the S Pen; there will be those that hardly ever use it and those who couldn’t imagine using their Galaxy Note successor without one. As it is actually an additional input device that comes with the phone at no extra cost, then it is fair to call it a pro over the rival here.
Of course, there will be plenty of areas where the Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max is clearly superior over the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. Unsurprisingly, the source did not mention peak brightness in this comparison, as the S23 Ultra hits 1,750 nits while the iPhone 14 Pro Max can get up to 2,000 nits. There’s the iPhone’s Dynamic Island to enjoy, the potentially life-saving Emergency SOS via satellite feature, and frankly the iPhone 14 Pro Max looks gorgeous in Deep Purple. But for the casual buyer, if you can call spending over US$1,000 on a smartphone “casual”, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra with its convenient Android 13/One UI 5.1 operating system has the edge here, even when discounting some of the not-so-impartial choices.
Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra or buy an unlocked Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max (renewed) on Amazon
