Galaxy S23 Ultra vs iPhone 14 Pro Max: Early Comparison

The South Korean Tech Giant is gearing up for its flagship launch for the year 2023. As expected and following Samsung’s recent year iterations, the company will unveil the most anticipated and awaited Galaxy S23 series. The series will probably include the regular Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23+, and the topmost flagship of the S series—Galaxy S23 Ultra. The series will launch on February 1, 2023, at its Galaxy Unpacked Event. 

The Galaxy S23 series is expected to come with the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 by Qualcomm, a new 200MP primary rear camera, and some improvements and changes for the top variant, i.e., Galaxy S23 Ultra. The other variants are also expected to bring some incremental modifications compared to the previous generations. 

The company is aware of the pen competition from Apple, i.e., the iPhone 14 series, especially the iPhone 14 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro Max. Because of their significant changes over the predecessors like Satellite Connectivity, Dynamic Island, and better chipset and camera, they are selling like hotcakes in the markets. Therefore, the company is planning to launch its flagship S23 series, especially the S23 Ultra, to limit the march of consumers toward the iPhone 14 Pro series. Hence, we can also expect significant changes with Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S23 Ultra.

You will be thinking can the Galaxy S23 Ultra beat iPhone 14 Pro Max Apple has already bridged the gap between the regular Pro and the long gap between non-pro variants by separating them with distinctive specifications changes. This increased the iPhone 14 Pro Max sales before the S23 Ultra arrived. In this article, we will compare the upcoming Galaxy S23 Ultra and the iPhone 14 Pro Max, clarifying which device is better among the two flagships. 

Significant differences between the Galaxy S23 Ultra and the iPhone 14 Pro Max

The high-end S-line flagship will likely come with a 200MP Primary camera, while the iPhone 14 Pro Max has 48MP. The Samsung will have 10X optical zoom, and the iPhone will have 3X optical zoom. Plus, the Ultra has support for the S pen, while Apple doesn’t have any support for that. 

Galaxy S23 Ultra vs iPhone 14 Pro Max

If you are confused between the upcoming Samsung flagship and the current iPhone 14 Pro Max, which is better between these two, then apart from the above slight differentiation, we have discussed every major aspect of a smartphone in detail below. Make sure to read the points sincerely, as you will get an idea of which device is better among the two flagships. Without any further due, let’s get started. 

Display

The Galaxy S23 Ultra will likely be equipped with the Samsung 12th Generation OLED display with a 1440P panel and a 6.8 Inch big display. On the other hand, the iPhone 14 Pro Max also supports 6.7 Inch ProMotion (120Hz) OLED display with 2000 nits of peak brightness. However, Samsung has not reached the limit of 2000 nits brightness with their smartphones, but their devices are sufficiently bright and produce excellent eye-soothing colours. 

Additionally, the dynamic refresh rate on Samsung, i.e., switching from 1Hz to 120Hz, is now adopted by Apple too, which was earlier kept at 10Hz. Regarding the display protection, the Galaxy S23 Ultra will likely come with Gorilla Glass Victus 2, announced by Corning. We are unsure about the toughness of Apple’s proprietary Ceramic Shield and whether it is better. 

Design

The design department for the S23 series is said to be less different than the previous generations. The S23 Ultra will come with a boxy design, while the regular S23 and S23+ will come with an S22 Ultra-like plan removing the outer camera Island. On the flip side, the iPhone 14 Pro Max remains the same since the two generations, like the boxy design. It is a comparatively heavy phone and will be trouble for prolonged usage of one hand. 

The S23 Ultra will likely come with a curved display, making it comfortable to hold and use with one hand. On the Plus side, the Samsung one also supports an S pen stylus, which the iPhone hasn’t had for ages, and we are not sure when they will implement their Apple pencils in their smartphones. 

Processor and Performance

The Galaxy S23 Ultra reportedly comes with the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Chipset, nearly equivalent to Apple’s A15 Bionic Chipset. The chipset is less potent than Apple’s A16 Bionic Chipset on the iPhone 14 Pro Max. 

As per the rumours, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 on the S23 Ultra will be a customized chip that the company will highly clock. The regular clock speed is 3.2GHz which will be further increased to 3.36GHz. In the recent benchmark, the custom-made chip performed decently well as it scored 1521 in Single-Core scores and 4689 in Multi-Core scores which are better for now compared to the other scores revealed. 

The 5G Modem used in the iPhone 14 Pro Max is one generation behind the one used in the Galaxy S23 Ultra, i.e., Qualcomm X70 5G Modem. It has various advantages over the one used on iPhones, like the Qualcomm 5G AI Suite, the Qualcomm 5G Ultra-Low Latency Suite, and the Qualcomm 5G PowerSave Gen 3 and 4X. It harnesses Artificial Intelligence power to provide better 5G speeds, low latency, and more efficiency. It supports every commercial 5G band from 600 MHz to 41 GHz.

For the software part, the iPhone 14 Pro Max runs on iOS 16, whereas the S23 Ultra will likely come with Android 13-based One UI 5 out-of-the-box. For the above two different software Operating Systems, the preference will be entirely upon you of what you love and like more. 

Battery and Charging

The battery life on the upcoming Galaxy S23 Ultra will have a significant upgrade which will be comparatively better than the Galaxy S22 Ultra. The change is because of the forthcoming flagship in Samsung’s new second-generation 4 nm-based technology. On the flip side, the battery on the iPhone 14 Pro Max is insanely good. 

Per the tests by PhoneArena, the iPhone 14 Pro Max surpasses the Galaxy S22 Ultra in terms of battery life in some cases. So, we can expect the battery life of the upcoming S-Line flagship to progress. 

Regarding the charging speeds, by looking at history, the South Korean tech giant is way ahead compared to Apple. Where it takes 2 hours to charge a bit less mAh capacity battery, Samsung chargers the 5000 mAh battery in around 1 hour. 

Price

With all the major points covered, let’s discuss the price. As we know, the iPhone 14 Pro Max cost $1099 for the 128GB variant, and the starting price of the 2023 Samsung flagship is expected to be $1199. Obviously, between the two, the iPhone is $100 cheaper. But once you proceed further for 512GB and 1TB variants, the price of the Galaxy S23 Ultra (Expected) and the iPhone 14 Pro Max get nearly equal. 

Conclusion: 

So, what’s better between the Galaxy S23 Ultra and the iPhone 14 Pro Max? Samsung takes the cake in our analysis because of the S Pen support, better display, and the Qualcomm X70 5G Modem, which is better than the one used in iPhone. So, we suggest you wait for S23 Ultra, which will offer you the cherry on top with $100 more for the base variant. But the pricing of higher variants is similar for both Apple and Samsung. 

But if you are closely integrated with Apple’s closed ecosystem, you will resist buying the upcoming Galaxy S23 Ultra, which is also an excellent buy for the price. 

What would you recommend between the iPhone 14 Pro Max and Galaxy S23 Ultra? What do you like about the upcoming Galaxy S23 Ultra? If you had to choose between Apple and Samsung flagships, which one would you go for? Let us know by dropping the replies below in the comments section. 

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