Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Galaxy S22 Ultra

Intro

Design and Size

iPhone to score a redesign, Samsung has found its sweet spot

The iPhone 15 Pro Max will be quite different from most of its predecessors, as Apple will shake up the design of the phone a lot. It will be scoring a titanium frame, the rumor mill says, which will make it tougher but lighter, a win-win scenario. The Dynamic Island punch-hole cutout is making a comeback, but the bigger deal at the front of the next large iPhone will be its much, much slimmer bezels. 

How thinner, exactly? Think record-breaking levels. As per the rumors, the phone will have 1.55mm-wide bezels, beating the current record-holder, the Xiaomi 13, which has 1.81mm-wide bezels. The Galaxy S22 Ultra, in comparison, has 1.95mm bezels, which might not seem that much, but is still technically wider. 

The iPhone 15 Pro Max will also have a USB Type-C port at the bottom, a major developing for Apple, which has relied on its proprietary Lightning port for over a decade. Another major change would be the removal of the mute switch and the introduction of a new Action Button. This button will be very similar to the Apple Watch Ultra’s customizable button and allow you to map different functions and shortcuts. 

iPhone 15 Pro Max will likely be available in Space Black, Silver, Gold, and a new deep red color. The Galaxy S22 Ultra, on the other hand, came in Phantom Black, Phantom White, Green, and Burgundy, a very solid selection of hues. 

Display Differences

The iPhone 15 Pro Max will come with a 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display, of course HDR capable, which will have a dynamically-switchable ProMotion refresh rate that will be able to go up to 120Hz for the ultimate and quite rewarding scrolling experience. 

In fact, we don’t expect any major changes in the display department of the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and frankly said, we don’t think any revisions are currently necessary. If the next iPhone comes with the same display as the iPhone 14 Pro Max, we can expect a superb display, with exceptional maximum brightness, beautiful colors, exceptional contrast, and so on. 

Aside from accommodating the front-facing camera, the Dynamic Island punch-hole is also home to the Face ID paraphernalia. That’s right, we will have Apple’s facial recognition tech on board, as we don’t really expect an in-display fingerprint scanner to make it on board the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Guess what, such a sensor is found on the Galaxy S22 Ultra, allowing you to unlock the phone and authorize payments with your fingertip. A picture-based face unlock is also on board the S22 Ultra.

Performance and Software

Apple’s beastly 3nm A17 to demolish Snapdragon 8 Gen 1?

The iPhone 15 Pro Max will most certainly be coming along with the 3nm A17 Bionic chipset. Thanks to its very advanced manufacturing process, this chip will be extremely dense, capable of fitting a few billion extra transistors which will boost the overall performance in a major way. Additionally, a faster chip is a more efficient chip, so we expect that the A17 Bionic will be the key to quite improved battery life for the iPhone 15 Pro Max. 

The Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, Qualcomm’s 4nm foray was a powerful, yet slightly overheating affair that didn’t deliver exemplar battery life. Actually, battery life regressed in comparison with the Galaxy S21 Ultra, so the Galaxy S22 Ultra didn’t exactly live up to the major hype prior to its announcement. 

The base Galaxy S22 Ultra starts with 8GB of RAM, and guess what, rumors point out that the same will apply to the iPhone 15 Pro Max as well, which will be scoring a bump from 6GB RAM to 8GB RAM of the fast LPDDR5 type. 

The Galaxy S22 Ultra was also the first phone to offer four years of major software updates. As it arrived with Android 12, the phone is expected to be updated to Android 16. Meanwhile, Samsung will offer security support for five years, or until 2027. 

The iPhone 15 Pro Max will be launching with iOS 17 out of the box, and we expect Cupertino to grace its next showpiece with at least five years of major software and security updates, though in the best case scenario we’d expect support until the end of the decade. 

Camera

Apple to finally come to the periscope party

The main camera of the iPhone 15 Pro Max will continue being a 48MP one, but will reportedly utilize a larger sensor that could potentially improve the overall image quality by a lot. In mobile photography, sensor size is one of the main keys to improved imaging capabilities in either good or bad lighting conditions, so Apple using a larger sensor fills us with hope that the iPhone 15 Pro Max could be drastically better than its predecessor in all the various imaging scenarios.

It’s been a while, and while most Android manufacturers have explored periscope cameras on their phones, Apple has sort of stayed away from those cool new far-zooming cameras. This is about to change with the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which will likely come with a 5X or 6X periscope camera that will let you zoom quite far and take photos of far-away subjects. Great!

However, the Galaxy S22 Ultra employs the second iteration of Samsung’s periscope lens that debuted a year prior on the Galaxy S21 Ultra. It is a 10X periscope that lets you zoom far, and in tandem with the digital zoom feature of the phone, lets you zoom in to 100X. Surely, images at such ridiculous magnifications are barely usable, but for bragging rights alone, you can’t really beat the Galaxy S22 Ultra, or its successor, or even its predecessor! Here’s to hoping Apple will deliver less impressive but more sensible zooming solution. 

At the front, the Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with an impressive 40MP selfie camera, which was very good. Have in mind that the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 12MP selfie camera achieves slightly better results despite having lower resolution. The iPhone 15 Pro Max is also expected to come with a 12MP FaceTime camera; no specific improvements are hinted for that one. 

Audio Quality and Haptics

The Galaxy S22 Ultra, which came with a bottom-firing speaker and an earpiece, failed to make a strong case for its loudspeaker quality, giving slightly emphasized highs but the mid and base frequencies lacked oomph, which was unfortunate. 

Meanwhile, most iPhone Pro Max models since the iPhone 12 Pro Max have had exemplar loudspeaker quality, delivering richer and fuller sound with lots of depth, making them one of the best-sounding phones you can get, period. We see no reason why this wouldn’t be the case for the iPhone 15 Pro Max as well, so we generally expect excellent audio quality. 

Battery Life and Charging

Big hopes for the iPhone 15 Pro Max

We don’t know how large the iPhone 15 Pro Max battery will be, but it should generally reside in the 4,200-4,300mAh ballpark, possibly slightly smaller than the one on the iPhone 14 Pro Max. Battery life, however, will likely be better thanks to the anticipated jump in efficiency of the 3nm Apple A17 Bionic chipset.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra came with a large 5,000mAh battery but didn’t wow us with its battery life. It fared worse than its predecessor in our custom battery tests, and fared particularly unimpressive in our custom video playback test, with an overall endurance of just 7 hours and a half. The phone’s gaming score of slightly above 10 hours was impressive though. 

The Galaxy S22 Ultra is no different––its 45W wired charging support lets it fully charge in one hour, a neat round number. Wireless charging of this one is capped at 15W; the phone also supports reverse wireless charging allowing you to quickly top up your accessories. 

Specs Comparison

Summary and Final Verdict

The iPhone 15 Pro Max is setting itself as the yardstick for all other phones to match against in late 2023 and early 2024. With improved performance thanks to the foray into 3nm territory, a new periscope camera, as well as refreshed design, USB Type-C, and a new titanium build, the iPhone 15 Pro Max will likely take its well-deserving spot at the upper portion of the top charts.

Have in mind that all of this will be $100 more expensive than previous years, as Apple is rumored to be planning a price hike for the first time on the iPhone Pro Max series.

Meanwhile, the Galaxy S22 Ultra is a slightly aging but still capable former flagship that can still be considered a good buy, especially if you find a killer deal on the former Samsung pride and glory.