Does Apple or Samsung make the best flagship camera phone? We put the iPhone 15 Pro Max against the Galaxy S23 Ultra to find out.
Apple versus Samsung is perhaps the ultimate battle in smartphones, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Galaxy S23 Ultra are the two brand’s top devices. If you want one, you may have also looked at the other, and even if not, who doesn’t want to see a tough camera battle between these two heavyweights?
We put the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max’s camera to the test alongside the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra to see which comes out victorious.Introducing the cameras
These are two of the best, most expensive smartphones you can buy at the moment, with massive screens and the fastest processors, but the cameras are quite different from each other. The iPhone 15 Pro Max has a 48-megapixel main camera with optical image stabilization, a 12MP wide-angle camera with a 120-degree field-of-view, and a pair of 12MP telephoto cameras providing 2x and 5x optical zoom.
The main camera can be used to shoot at 24mm, 28mm, and 35mm, giving further flexibility, plus there’s a full resolution 48MP mode. I haven’t tested these against the Galaxy S23 Ultra. On the front is a 12MP camera with autofocus and image stabilization. Video isn’t part of the test, but we have some examples of its ability in this article; plus there is an in-depth test of the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s video performance here.
Moving on to the Galaxy S23 Ultra, it has a massive 200MP main camera (which shoots in 12MP by default, lower than the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s 24MP default), a 12MP 12-degree field-of-view wide-angle camera, and a pair of 10MP telephoto cameras for a 3x and a 10x optical zoom. Optical image stabilization is onboard, along with laser autofocus. The front selfie camera has 12 megapixels.
The photos in this test were taken across different days, all in auto mode. They have been resized for easier online viewing.Main camera
The iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Galaxy S23 Ultra can often take very different photos, and I’m going to highlight a few here. It’s quite difficult to single out one main camera as better than the other in many situations, as the results are just a different take on the same scene with the same high level of quality and detail. However, in specific circumstances, such as when you get close up, there are notable differences between them.
Take a look at the basket of vegetables, where the iPhone 15 Pro Max shows so much more detail and texture, and the Galaxy S23 Ultra smooths the image out. Arguably, it does have a slightly sharper focus, but the lack of texture gives it an artificial look that isn’t as visually pleasing. The iPhone 15 Pro Max’s white balance is more accurate, too.
When I took the photo of the leaf, both phones activated the “macro” mode, enabling better focus on close-up objects. The iPhone 15 Pro Max’s mode can rob photos of any depth, but that doesn’t matter here. Instead, look at the difference in color and detail. The S23 Ultra’s photo is vibrant and sharp, while the iPhone’s photo is drab and poorly focused. The S23 Ultra captured the essence of the scene far more attractively.
The next shot was taken early in the morning when the autumn sun was low in the sky, and both have a different take on the environment. The iPhone is warmer and more natural, and it captured the blue in the sky that was slightly missed by the S23 Ultra. There is more noise in the S23 Ultra’s photo, and also some odd rainbow effects in the water, while the trees are overly processed. The iPhone’s photo is natural, and although noise is visible, the image hasn’t been overly sharpened.
