- Now that the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is here,
how does the best from Samsung
compare to the best from Apple in the iPhone 14 Pro Max?
What's up, guys?
Saf here on SuperSaf TV,
and we're going to be breaking down all of the key differences
between these two, SuperSafStyle.
Right, let's start off with the build and design.
So firstly, both of these are quite big phones.
They weigh almost the same.
The S23 Ultra is slightly bigger
in terms of the dimensions.
Now, I'm somebody who likes bigger phones,
but if you're used to a smaller phone
you might want to test these out in-hand first.
Now, for the design, I do like both.
The designs are quite familiar.
The S23 Ultra looks a lot like the S22 Ultra
and the iPhone 14 Pro Max
looks a lot like the iPhone 13 Pro Max,
at least from the back.
Not necessarily a bad thing,
but we do have some fresh colors.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max is available in four colors.
There's a silver, a gold, a space black,
as well as this deep purple,
which I think is one of my favorites.
The S23 Ultra also comes officially in four colors,
a phantom black, a cream, a green, as well as a lavender.
However, there are four additional, exclusive colors
available from samsung.com.
There's a graphite, sky blue, a light, as well as a red.
Now if you are thinking of getting the S23 Ultra,
you can get up to $150 of instant Samsung credit
using my exclusive affiliate link
down in the description below.
Shameless plug there.
Now for the builds,
the iPhone 14 Pro Max has a stainless steel frame.
The S23 Ultra has an aluminum frame.
The S23 Ultra is one of the first devices in the world
with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 in the front and back,
and this helps improve drop performance
on rough surfaces like concrete.
It's also made with 22% recycled glass.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max has Ceramic Shield.
Now in my experience, both of these are quite durable.
I'm not somebody who does drop tests,
but I'm sure others will be,
so if you're interested in how durable these exactly are,
you're going to have to wait for those.
What I do like about both of these
is that we've got matte finishes across the board
for all of the different colors,
and I think that looks so much better than glossy,
although the frames are glossy
and can get some fingerprints.
Now the iPhone 14 Pro Max has a flat front and back.
The S23 Ultra has a slight curve on the edges.
However, this is not as much as what we had
on the S22 Ultra, and personally speaking,
I do prefer this compared to last year.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max has the rounded corners,
whereas we've got more squared-off corners on the S23 Ultra.
In terms of comfortability,
I'd say both of them are pretty much the same.
Now, both devices do have an IP68
water and dust-resistant rating,
however, there is more to it than just that number.
You can actually submerge the iPhone 14 Pro Max
four times deeper into water compared to the S23 Ultra,
so that's around six meters compared to 1.5.
I'm not sure how useful that's going to be to you,
if you're planning to take a device for a swim,
but something definitely to mention.
Now let's turn these devices around
and take a look at the displays.
So firstly, let's look at the similarities.
Both are using OLED technology
which means colors really do pop,
and both have an adaptive refresh rate
which goes all the way up to 120 hertz,
making things very smooth.
And also, all the way down to just one hertz,
making things very efficient
and also allowing always-on displays.
So both devices do have great always-on displays.
They're different in the way they're implemented.
Apple initially just had a dimmed wallpaper,
which I personally found quite distracting
and I did mention this in my review.
They have since released a software update
which lets you have a blank always-on display.
Now, the S23 Ultra does have a slightly higher resolution,
which means things are going to be slightly sharper.
You might not notice them on the day to day.
And the iPhone 14 Pro Max
actually has a slightly brighter display,
with a peak brightness of 2,000 nits versus 1,750 nits.
So if you are somebody like me,
who wears sunglasses all the time,
and uses your device outdoors in bright sunlight,
then you're going to appreciate that slight edge
on the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Now when it comes to screen-to-body ratio,
the S23 Ultra you do get more screen,
because the borders are slimmer
and because of the curve they look even slimmer,
and we've only got a small punch out
for the front-facing camera.
On the iPhone 14 Pro Max,
we do have this center cutout
which is called the Dynamic Island.
Now, although it takes up more space
compared to the S23 Ultra, it does have some functionality.
You can get some previews in it
and you can also tap and expand it.
So, for example, if you're playing some music,
that's going to continue in the Dynamic Island,
and then you can tap to expand it.
Now I personally don't find myself interacting
with the Dynamic Island too much,
purely because it is the upmost part of the screen
so it's the least reachable.
However, I do like some of the different animations
and the previews that you get,
especially when you're playing music.
Now another reason why we have this post-shaped cutout
on the iPhone 14 Pro Max is because we have Face ID,
so all of the sensors are behind there as well.
The S23 Ultra has an ultrasonic
in-display fingerprint scanner.
This is the 3D Sonic Sensor Gen 2,
and it is personally one of my favorite
fingerprint scanners on any smartphone.
Now, which one you prefer,
the face ID or the fingerprint scanner,
is going to come down to your day to day.
I personally would edge towards the fingerprint scanner,
purely because I do like using my phone when I'm in bed,
and my face is halfway in the pillow.
Using face ID you have to kind of get out,
whereas on the S23 Ultra, I don't need to do that.
Right, now let's talk about the cameras.
- Hey, SideSaf here.
- Aren't you supposed to be editing?
- I know, I just wanted to remind you guys
that we have done a SuperSafStyle camera comparison
between these two, which you can check out after this video,
and also maybe consider subscribing because we,
by we I mean me, are working very hard on lots more content,
so you don't want to miss them. - Yeah,
these videos are not going to edit themselves, so yeah,
get back to it.
So as SideSaf was saying, if you haven't already,
then do consider subscribing for more content like this.
And also, I have worked on a detailed SuperSafStyle
camera comparison of both of these devices.
It's 18 minutes long and I cover all aspects.
You can go ahead and check that out.
But to give you a quick breakdown,
I think both devices take great photos and videos.
Both have an ultra wide camera,
a primary camera, as well as a telephoto camera,
but the S23 Ultra does have two telephoto cameras
and it can give you better extended zoom.
I also did prefer the S23 Ultra for the ultra wide camera,
and the primary camera on the S23 Ultra
does have a much higher resolution, 200 megapixels,
which does give you a lot of detail.
However, there is quite a bit of shutter lag
on the S23 Ultra, so if you do like taking pictures
of kids and pets, you're probably going to get a better result
with the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
And I also still do prefer the video overall
on the iPhone 14 Pro Max; it was more consistent.
It also has better cinematic mode
and a better stabilization.
The S23 Ultra does now have 8k at 30 frames a second,
which is great for lots of detail,
but when I'm looking at an overall package for video,
the iPhone 14 Pro Max would be my preference.
And for photos, I would overall pick the S23 Ultra
if you must know.
But once again, I want to emphasize
that I wouldn't mind going with either of these,
and you can check out that full camera comparison
if you're interested in all the details.
Right, now let's move on to performance.
So the iPhone 14 Pro Max is powered by the A16 Bionic chip.
The S23 Ultra
is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy.
This is a custom chip.
Good news is,
this is the chip that you get across the board.
Traditionally, Samsung devices
would have an Exynos chip in Europe,
and in the US you would have the Qualcomm chip.
That generally made things inconsistent
and quite difficult to assess performance.
But in my experience, both have been really, really good
and handled anything that I've thrown at them.
I'm personally not a gamer,
but my friend Thunder-E from BooredAtWork is.
He's actually done a detailed gaming test
on both of these devices.
I'll leave those videos linked down in the description below
if you want to check those out.
But in terms of my day-to-day usage,
these have been absolutely fine.
However, the iPhone 14 Pro Max does have less RAM
compared to the S23 Ultra,
and I have noticed this in certain situations, such as,
for example, uploading stories onto Instagram.
You have to kind of stay there
until it's fully uploaded on the iPhone,
otherwise it just won't carry on doing it in the background.
So the iPhone is quite aggressive with its RAM management.
With the S23 Ultra, I can just post and go away,
do something else, and it will carry on in the background.
Now this might be due to the more RAM that we have,
or it might also have things to do with the software,
and we do have different software
in both of these devices, of course,
we've got Android versus iOS.
So on the iPhone 14 Pro Max,
the current version is iOS 16.3.
The S23 Ultra comes with Android 13 out of the box
with One UI 5.1.
Now I'm not going to go into a battle about which one's better.
I think a lot of it does come down to your personal usage.
I'm somebody who uses both Android and iOS,
and I think these are some of the best examples that we have
of both operating systems.
Now, usually I would emphasize on the fact
that you're going to be getting updates
on the iPhone 14 Pro Max a lot longer than on the S23 Ultra,
and that will still be the case.
However, Samsung has actually made a big commitment
to provide four Android OS updates
as well as five years of security updates,
which is really impressive.
Of course, with the iPhone,
because this is part of the ecosystem,
you will be getting updates
for potentially even longer than that.
Now I want to talk about some of the additional features
that both devices offer.
So the S23 Ultra does have something
that you're not going to get on any iPhone,
and that is the S-Pen.
Now this gives you a level of precision
you're just not going to get,
and it's just got 2.8 milliseconds of latency.
So if you want to jot down some quick notes, do some doodles,
edit some images, or even sign some documents,
you're going to be able to do that much more easily
on the S23 Ultra.
This also works remotely,
so you can use it as a remote trigger for the cameras,
which is nice.
And there's also handwriting recognition
which is built into the software.
I'm somebody who really likes the S-Pen,
even though I don't use it all the time.
Now, because the S23 Ultra is a Samsung flagship device,
it does also come with DeX.
DeX will allow you to have a full desktop experience
wirelessly from your smartphone onto a big screen,
and also allow you to control the mouse
using your device as a touch pad.
Now it's so crazy how many people don't actually know this.
I actually told one of my friends about this,
and he was just mind blown by DeX.
Now the iPhone 14 Pro Max also has some additional features
that you don't have on the S23 Ultra.
The first is crash detection.
So if in the unfortunate event
you are involved in a car crash,
the iPhone can contact emergency services on your behalf.
What's funny is that it has been triggering this
on some roller coasters.
I'm not sure what the latest is about that,
but that was something.
And the iPhone also has Emergency SOS via satellite.
Now this is something that's really cool.
If you're out in the middle of nowhere
and you lose signal completely
and you need to contact emergency services,
the iPhone's actually going to be able to connect
onto satellites.
I've personally, thankfully, not had to use this as yet,
but it is available across many regions now.
For the speakers, we have stereo speakers on both.
There's one in the ear piece and one bottom firing.
I think both of them sound really good to me.
I'm no audiophile.
My buddy Thunder E from Boord At Work is,
and he has done a detailed speaker test.
I'm going to link that down in the description below.
In a nutshell, from what he said,
is that both of them are very, very close,
but the iPhone is fuller, whatever that means.
But anyway, the other thing I want to talk about
is the ports on both of these devices.
So the S23 Ultra has the more universal USB Type C.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max still has lightning,
which for me is quite frustrating,
because being an Apple user for other devices
like my MacBook Pro and my iPad Pro as well,
they all use USB Type C,
but we still have the very outdated lightning port
on the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
It looks like Apple is going to either be forced
to use USB Type C or they're just going to go port-less.
But currently, as it stands,
the S23 Ultra does get the advantage
for having much more of a universal port.
Right, now let's talk about battery size and performance.
So the S23 Ultra does have a larger physical battery
compared to the iPhone 14 Pro Max, but of course,
both of them are running completely different
hardware and software, which means that the battery size
no longer becomes relevant.
Now, in terms of battery life,
the iPhone 14 Pro Max has given me great battery life.
The S23 Ultra so far is actually keeping up,
and giving me similar battery life to the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Now this is early days, but the S22 Ultra
was definitely not as good as the S23 Ultra.
And also, the fact that we've got that consistent,
efficient chip set, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2,
it does mean that, again, in my experience so far,
it is keeping up with the iPhone 14 Pro Max
and I think both of these have excellent battery life.
Now for charging, the S23 Ultra gets the advantage,
because it can support the faster 45 watt charging,
whereas the iPhone 14 Pro Max can just do around 20 watts.
So the iPhone 14 Pro Max,
50%'s going to take around 30 minutes,
whereas it's just going to take 20 minutes on the S23 Ultra.
For wireless charging, the S23 Ultra does have support
for up to 15 watts of Qi wireless charging.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max can charge at 15 watts,
but only with MagSafe.
MagSafe is really cool and it just snaps on,
but it is proprietary.
The S23 Ultra also supports Wireless PowerShare,
so you can share the power from the S23 Ultra
to another device, even the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
It's something that I very rarely use,
but it can be useful if you're out and about
and you just want to top up your earbuds or something.
Now one thing to mention if you don't already know,
chargers do not come included out of the boxes,
so you are going to have to get those chargers separately
if you don't already have them.
Right, now let's look at storage and pricing.
So the S23 Ultra actually starts at a higher base model,
256 gigabytes compared to the 128 of the iPhone 14 Pro Max,
but both of them do go all the way up to one terabyte.
As you probably already know or should know,
neither of these have expandable storage.
Previous Samsung devices, many, many years ago,
did have expandable storage,
but we've not had that for quite some time.
And for pricing, if we compare the 256 gigabyte models,
they actually start at the same price in the US.
However, in the UK and other regions,
the iPhone 14 Pro Max does come in higher
compared to the equivalent storage models of the S23 Ultra,
and Samsung are also currently offering
the 512 gigabyte version
for the price of the 256 gigabyte version.
And if you do use my affiliate link
down in the description below,
you can also get up to $150 of instant Samsung credit.
So when you combine all of that,
you are going to be paying less overall
for the S23 Ultra compared to the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
So that is the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
versus the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
What are my opinions?
Well, personally speaking,
I really do like both of these devices,
and both of them will be in my pockets going forward.
Of course, both have their advantages and disadvantages.
However, a lot of it
is going to come down to your preference of operating system.
If you could pick one of these, which one would you go for?
Drop me a comment below, let me know your thoughts.
I have done that detailed camera comparison
between these two; I'll leave that link here,
and also leave another related video link here.
If you want to see more videos like this,
then don't forget to subscribe and hit that bell icon.
We do have even more S23 coverage,
SideSaf is working very hard at the editing.
I hope you enjoyed this video and found it useful.
If you did, then do smash that like button for me.
Thanks for watching.
This is Saf on SuperSaf TV, and I'll see you next time.