There’s a lot to like about Apple’s big-screen powerhouse, including its new 48MP main camera, blazing-fast A16 Bionic processor, and handy new features like Dynamic Island. Also, Apple is finally catching up to Samsung with an always-on display, despite the iPhone 14 Pro Max’s implementation being different.
Rumors have it that the Galaxy S23 Ultra is a beast of a phone. It could feature a 200MP camera, and thanks to the rumored Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, it should deliver the fastest performance ever on an Android device. Don’t forget that Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra already has some advantages over Apple that should carry over to the new phones. Here’s how the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra will beat the iPhone 14 Pro Max when the phone arrives next year.
A monstrous 200MP camera
Let me start by saying that resolution isn’t everything. Otherwise, Samsung‘s 108MP Galaxy S22 Ultra tops our list of best camera phones. But it’s still exciting to think about what Samsung can do with this resolution on the S23 Ultra. According to reports, the main sensor will be able to take 200MP or 12.5MP photos, with the latter being done through Pixel binning.
The S23 Ultra may feature Samsung’s new 200MP ISOCELL HP2 sensor, which is rumored to be 1/1.3-inch in size and has a wider aperture than the previous f/1.7 (versus f/1.6). That means the camera should be able to let more light in.
Speaking of which, leaker Ice Universe says this new 200MP camera will be better at taking low-light photos, which could really help Samsung surpass the iPhone’s excellent night mode.
Zoom is better than the iPhone
While this isn’t rumored to change between the S22 Ultra and S23 Ultra, Samsung’s new big-screen beast should beat the iPhone 14 Pro Max when it comes to optical zoom. That’s because Apple’s phone only offers 3x optical zoom and a maximum digital zoom of 15x.
Meanwhile, the S23 Ultra is once again suggested to use dual telephoto lenses with 3x and 10x magnification. The iPhone 15 could answer with a more powerful periscope-style zoom, but its release is still a long way off.
More stylish design
As much as we like the design of the iPhone 14 Pro Max, it is bulkier and has a larger camera bump than its predecessor due to the larger sensor. The current Galaxy S22 Ultra is lighter than the iPhone despite having a slightly larger 6.8-inch display, and the S23 Ultra is not expected to change much.
We’ve heard the S23 Ultra is only 0.2 ounces, or 6 grams, heavier than the previous model. This will be due to the wider metal frame.
We could also have a raised bezel around the camera to protect the lens from scratches without the huge monolithic patch that the iPhone 14 Pro Max uses to surround all of its cameras.
Faster charging, bigger battery
The Galaxy S23 Ultra is once again rumored to offer 45W charging, which should be significantly better than the 20W to 30W charging Apple offers for the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
With the S22 Ultra, we saw the drained phone hit 67% in 30 minutes, while the iPhone 14 Pro Max was only 42% in the same amount of time. So Samsung should be able to maintain its lead here.
Despite the smaller battery, the iPhone 14 Pro Max has longer battery life than the S22 Ultra: 4,323 mAh versus 5,000 mAh. So if Samsung is going to beat the top-of-the-line iPhones in battery life, it’s going to have to squeeze out more efficiency. Maybe the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip can help with that.
Better graphics performance
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 benchmarks suggest Samsung’s flagship phone could beat the iPhone 14 Pro Max in graphics and gaming.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 reference device hit 84 frames per second on the 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited benchmark. That’s nearly 30 fps more than the S22 Ultra, and beats the iPhone 14 Pro Max’s 74 fps, but pretty solid 10.
In the more demanding Extreme Unlimited portion of the test, the gap wasn’t as wide, but the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip did outperform the iPhone 14 Pro Max (22.4 fps vs. 19.9 fps), while beating the S22 Ultra by 8 frames.
S Pen
This should be the second generation in a row that Samsung has offered the S Pen in a Galaxy S Ultra phone since the Galaxy Note is gone. But aside from reduced lag and improved handwriting recognition, we haven’t seen a major upgrade to the stylus.
Samsung needs to justify why the iPhone 14 Pro Max is at a disadvantage because it doesn’t support the S Pen, which is similar to the Apple Pencil. We need killer new use cases and third-party applications.