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00:00Okay, this is the big one, right? Galaxy S24 Ultra, iPhone 15 Pro Max, which is best?
00:06Which should you buy? Which would I buy? And of course, this is all just my opinion,
00:10you are absolutely welcome to disagree, and I want you to let me know which one you think wins this test,
00:14which is the best phone in the comments below at the end of the video.
00:16But just to be clear, this video is not sponsored by anyone.
00:19I do not have a big fat check from Samsung or Apple sat on my desk, unfortunately.
00:24So, if you are going to spend over a thousand pounds of your hard-earned money,
00:28and these two are pretty similarly priced, which should you go for?
00:31Well, let's talk money first, and going by retail price in the UK and the US,
00:36the iPhone is £50 or $100 cheaper, and that gets you 256 gigs of storage on both.
00:42Now, Samsung do offer more deals and bundles, so it actually might end up being cheaper overall,
00:47although iPhones do hold their value longer, and they'll give me more for a trade-in.
00:51Apple's offering £400 for my 13 Pro Max from a couple of years ago,
00:55whereas Samsung will give me just £290 for my equally old S21 Ultra.
01:00As always with pricing, lots of variables, it varies by country and currency,
01:04and when you buy it, and deals, and all those things, but baseline, the iPhone is a touch cheaper.
01:10I wouldn't say it's a deciding factor between them.
01:12But after the price, what's the most important thing to consider when buying a new phone?
01:17That's right, the color.
01:19Okay, maybe not.
01:19Although, Samsung do have more options available, particularly with their exclusive online colors.
01:25Conveniently, though, I do have both phones in, well, basically the same color.
01:29Natural titanium on the iPhone, titanium grey on the S24.
01:34Now, it does kind of look like Samsung copied Apple, right?
01:37Titanium, titanium.
01:39But realistically, the development cycles are much longer than the, sort of,
01:42three or four months between these guys actually launching,
01:44so I'm sure they've been working on that for a long time.
01:46And titanium does offer advantages, like, well, more durability,
01:50and in the case of the iPhone, it's significantly lighter than the stainless steel they were using previously.
01:55So the 15 Pro Max is noticeably lighter and more comfortable to use than previous Pro Maxes,
02:00and it's actually lighter than the S24 Ultra.
02:03We're talking 221 grams versus 232.
02:06Although, the S24 is a slightly bigger phone, so it kind of works out feeling pretty similar in your hand.
02:12You can see, though, I have dropped my iPhone.
02:14I dropped it pretty early on, actually.
02:16And if you can get the light, it's a little ding in the glass there.
02:19That's not titanium, only the frame is.
02:21It's still glass back here with the ceramic shield glass at the front here.
02:25Both phones are IP68 water and dust resistant.
02:28We have USB-C ports on both.
02:30Finally, Apple got there eventually.
02:32Although, right now, it is only the latest iPhone 15s that do have one.
02:35Both have fantastic stereo speakers, though I found the S24 Ultra does get a fair bit louder.
02:40Although, at the highest volumes, the sound does distort and get a little bit tinny.
02:44At regular volumes, I really can't choose between them.
02:47I would say they're equally good to my untrained ears.
02:51Oh, and remember, in the US, the iPhone 15 series is eSIM only.
02:56There is no physical SIM card tray, but that is only in the US.
02:59Here in the UK, Europe, and everywhere else, we do have a physical SIM card tray and also eSIM support.
03:04Now, front and center are these big, bright, beautiful screens.
03:08And this year, both phones have slimmed down their bezels.
03:11And you can see here, the chin on the S24 Ultra is pretty much halved over last year's S23 Ultra.
03:16And, like the iPhone, all S24s now come with a flat rather than curved screen.
03:21And I think most people agree that's a good decision.
03:23You're not getting that slight darkening and reflections on the edges.
03:27And it does mean you can now use the S Pen right up to the edge of the screen.
03:31And speaking of the S Pen, this is probably the first main unique selling point of the S24 Ultra,
03:36because in all but name, this is the S24 Note.
03:41Now, they have slightly reduced the size of the pen this year, but not significantly.
03:44And functionally, it is the same as before.
03:47We haven't really had many new features for the S Pen in a couple of years.
03:50But for more precise handwritten notes, for doodling, for drawing, for photo editing,
03:55and also my personal favorite, using it as a remote shutter for the camera,
03:58it is a nice extra to have, and it does make the Ultra stand out from the crowd.
04:02Sadly, no S Pen on the iPhone, although we do get the action button.
04:07Does that count as a feature?
04:08I have it set to do not disturb, so essentially still a mute switch for me.
04:12But you can customize it to launch pretty much any app.
04:14You can use it as a shutter button.
04:16Still, in terms of design, these are both very big phones.
04:18You are going to feel them in your pocket.
04:20Although, between the two, the S24 is definitely bigger.
04:25The Ultra's squared-off corners and boxy design, and the fact that it has a 0.1-inch bigger screen,
04:30while you are getting a little bit more usable screen space,
04:32and of course a smaller hole-punch selfie camera, it is personal preference,
04:36but I do find the iPhone more comfortable to hold, and I absolutely love the dynamic island.
04:41I think we were all a bit skeptical at first of this, because there wasn't a ton of use cases,
04:45but over the last couple of years, since they introduced this on the 14s last year, the 14 Pros,
04:49now it's on all iPhone 15s, there are so many more apps that take advantage of it.
04:53Most of the time, it's there as like an at-a-glance notification window.
04:57For everything from your boarding time and gate number, the ETA for your Uber, timers, calls, music,
05:02you do lose a bit of screen, but it does have a functional use, and I really like it.
05:08So we have these lovely big screens, 6.7 inches, 6.8 inches on the Ultra,
05:12both with dynamic 1-120Hz refresh rates, and while the S24 Ultra is sharper,
05:17if you switch to the Quad HD resolution, I suspect most of us would leave it at the default Full HD,
05:22which does save some battery, but then means the iPhones are a touch sharper, although there's not much in it.
05:27But there is something that's caught my eye. Can you guess what I'm talking about?
05:33Just look at the difference in reflections.
05:36The S24 is using new Gorilla Glass Armor, which is 75% less reflective,
05:41and versus the ceramic glass we have on the iPhone, and basically any other phone,
05:46which is like a glossy mirror, essentially, is one of the most underrated features and upgrades of the S24 Ultra.
05:53The downside, there is a slight compromise, is the screen isn't quite as vibrant.
05:57Visually, side-by-side with the S23, you can see the S24's just a little bit less saturated,
06:03but I don't think it's particularly significant, and all day long, I would take this anti-reflective screen
06:08over losing a few percent of vibrancy.
06:11But what do you think? Is this a big deal for you?
06:14And, while both phones do get incredibly bright, the S24 Ultra peaks at 2,600 nits outdoor with its Vision Booster,
06:21versus a peak outdoor brightness of 2,000 nits on the iPhone.
06:24So it's brighter, it's less reflective, and it also gets dimmer.
06:28Both phones on the home screen, that is a difference in the minimum brightness.
06:34I'm also happy to see that Samsung have actually doubled the PWM rate, the Pulse Width Modulation,
06:39and it's now 492 Hz, which is a touch higher than the iPhone's 480,
06:44and should help reduce eye strain, particularly at lower brightnesses.
06:47And finally, while both screens obviously support HDR, as usual for Samsung, it misses out on Dolby Vision,
06:53instead favoring their own HDR10 Plus format, which just isn't as widely used.
06:57Whereas the iPhone gets regular HDR10 and Dolby Vision, which you can also record in with the camera.
07:03But, whatever you're watching, playing or scrolling through, both are excellent screens.
07:08Although I am now a bit spoiled by these reflections, or lack of them.
07:11So, for me, I'm going to give this just to the S24 Ultra.
07:15So that is the outside, but as my mum always said, it's what's on the inside that counts.
07:20And we've got the A17 Pro from Apple, and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy from Qualcomm.
07:26Okay, so if I was going to be really simplistic and reductive, I would just run a Geekbench 6 benchmark
07:31and tell you that the iPhone is a little bit faster.
07:34But then in 3DMark, the more demanding graphics test, the S24 Ultra actually wins.
07:39But really, as fun as it is to nerd out over benchmarks and see which one's a few percent faster
07:43and opens an app a tenth of a second quicker than the other one, it really doesn't matter.
07:47These are both exceptionally fast phones, and both chips will run every app, every game,
07:51from their respective app stores as flawlessly as possible right now.
07:55The real world difference is down to the software.
07:58iOS versus Android, how well apps are optimised for each.
08:01I would probably say the S24 running Android 14 feels a touch quicker overall,
08:06mostly down to the slightly faster animations.
08:08And you can also speed these up even more in the settings.
08:10And of course, you can install different skins, and you've got far more customisation options on Android.
08:15But I'll come back to the software in a minute.
08:17What I have noticed, though, is that while the Snapdragon chip is pretty ubiquitous among Android flagships,
08:23because of the lack of fragmentation with Apple devices,
08:25you do tend to see slightly better optimisation, particularly for games, on the iPhone.
08:30For example, Honkai Star Rail. I'm sure if you've played that, it's like Genshin Impact.
08:34That has a 120fps mode on the iPhone, tops out at 60 on all Android phones.
08:39They both support ray tracing in games.
08:41You can hook up and install controllers, like the Backbone controller, which I think is really neat.
08:46But also, the iPhone has started to offer us some more console-level games.
08:50We've had Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil Village, Death Stranding.
08:53It's just a handful for now, but they are kind of like PS4-level full console games that you can play on your iPhone.
08:59However, the advantage with Android and the S3 for Ultra is you can install game streaming apps,
09:04you can sideload apps, a lot of that stuff is all locked down on the iPhone.
09:07Although, things are changing.
09:09Very soon, with the latest update in Europe, at least on the iPhone,
09:12you will be able to install third-party marketplaces.
09:15So you'll have access to GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming,
09:18stuff that you could already do on the Android, but it's now coming to iPhones.
09:21So things are shifting around a little bit.
09:23I think in terms of gaming, I'd call it a draw.
09:26But which one lasts longer?
09:28Well, in terms of the battery size, the S3 for Ultra wins.
09:325,000 mAh versus just under 4,500 mAh.
09:35But we all know size isn't everything.
09:36It's what you can do with it, and Apple generally is a lot more efficient with their battery
09:40because they make the chip, they make the phone, they make the software.
09:42In my testing so far, I found that they're pretty neck-and-neck.
09:45I found that the Samsung does last longer if you're just playing back videos,
09:49just watching videos all day long, which maybe you are.
09:51But in general, so more all-rounder use, the iPhone lasts a little bit longer as well.
09:55But in terms of non-stop, screen-on, everyday use,
09:59you're getting between 10 and 11 hours on both.
10:02I would probably say the Samsung just about takes the lead, but it's not significant.
10:07Although it does charge faster, up to 45 watts versus 25 watts.
10:12Still both appallingly slow compared to some of the competition,
10:15but again, the Samsung just edges out in front there.
10:18And also, not only do you get wireless charging, but you also get reverse wireless charging,
10:22so you can top up other devices like your headphones or other phones.
10:25However, we do have the pretty good MagSafe ecosystem for wireless charging with the iPhones.
10:30So again, I don't think you could base your buying decision on the battery.
10:34But let's move on to the big one.
10:36The camera, I think for most of us, is like the next big deciding factor.
10:40And on paper, the Samsung seems like the better option.
10:43We get four lenses versus three, 200 megapixels with the main camera versus 48.
10:48We get 8K30 or even 4K120 video, but we all know it's not as simple as that.
10:53And also, there's a lot of subjectivity.
10:54You may just prefer how one camera looks, how the photos on one look over the other.
10:59Now, I am working on a full camera comparison video where I'll do a proper deep dive into these,
11:04but there are a few things you need to know.
11:06For the iPhone, the big upgrades this year include the 5x zoom, up from 3x last year.
11:11We now also get 24 megapixel photos from the main camera rather than 12,
11:15and with some clever cropping, a near lossless 2x zoom.
11:19So photos are sharper, we get better dynamic range, and improved low-light portraits.
11:24And for video, because we now have a USB-C port rather than lightning,
11:28you can connect external storage drives and now shoot ProRes at 4K60.
11:32I also love the ability to shoot ProRes video in Log,
11:35which is definitely more of a pro feature, but you can add different LUTs or color profiles,
11:40and turn your ordinary iPhone-looking video into something a lot more cinematic and professional.
11:46But, by far the biggest upgrade I think, is how all photos are now taken with depth information included,
11:52meaning you can turn any regular photo into a portrait, and vice versa.
11:57And even change the focal point and the blur intensity after the fact.
12:01Yes, you can add background blur to Samsung photos, but it's artificial blur, and it doesn't always work.
12:06After saying all that, I don't know if the S24 Ultra's camera grades are as impressive.
12:12The headline is they've also switched up the zoom lens.
12:15We still have the 3x, but they've dropped the 10x in favor of a 5x,
12:19with a much higher 50MP resolution, bigger sensor, and wider aperture than the old 10x,
12:25so you actually end up with much better zoom across the board, from 3x to 10x and beyond.
12:31And while the iPhone's 5x does certainly give this a run for its money,
12:35I would still crown the S24 Ultra the zoom king, especially at longer ranges.
12:42But other than that, the camera hardware is identical to last year.
12:47The main other difference is the addition of Samsung's Pro Visual Engine,
12:51the software, the algorithms behind the scenes.
12:53And this does impact every camera, the phone on the back and the selfie up front.
12:56And from my testing, we're now getting much faster shutter speed,
13:00which I'm very pleased to see, because this has been one of my biggest issues with Samsung cameras for years now.
13:05It's also smoother switching between lenses, particularly useful when shooting video and zooming in and out.
13:11And I've also noticed that video is a lot more stable, particularly at longer range zoom.
13:16And if you record at 4K60, you can now switch between all the lenses.
13:20Previously, you were locked into the one you started with.
13:23So lots of nice refinements, but I would probably argue the iPhone does feel like a bigger upgrade year on year.
13:29Which is the best camera between the two?
13:31I think the Samsung is more versatile. You have more options. You have better long range zoom.
13:35The iPhone, though, is still my favorite for video, for stabilization, for ProRes, log, cinematic mode.
13:41And I do also like the style of iPhone's photos and also the ability to turn any photo into a portrait.
13:49Okay, let's have a little play with some video.
13:51And this is actually my hometown. This is Wells in Somerset.
13:55This is a big old moat around what they call the Bishop's Palace.
13:59Now, I'm recording this on the S24 and the iPhone, obviously, in 4K60, because that's generally how I shoot.
14:04Because I like to be able to slow it down in the edit afterwards.
14:07And I just kind of like the extra smoothness.
14:09But no video in Wells is complete without a mention of the Swans.
14:13So these are actually kind of famous, especially if you've seen the movie Hot Fuzz.
14:18They live here. And there's a little bell over here.
14:21If I jump up to the 5x zoom, and at their feeding time, they will ring that bell.
14:26And then someone will give them some food.
14:29So, in fact, this is a pretty good test of the zoom.
14:32So these guys are swimming away. This is the 1x.
14:35Let's go up to the 5x on both.
14:38Keep walking alongside, see which one's more stable.
14:421x, 3x on the S24, 2x on the iPhone, 5x on both, and then 10x on both.
14:51Would you go for the iPhone or the Samsung?
14:58You also just have so many more options on the S24.
15:01You've got director's view, where you can switch between the lenses while filming.
15:04You've got a preview of all the cameras.
15:06This is dual record, so you can see what's in front of me.
15:09And my face as well, which is pretty handy if you want a reaction to something.
15:14You just can't do any of this on the iPhone.
15:16You can also pause your video.
15:18You can flip the camera around with the main video to the selfie while recording at 4K60.
15:23And then go back to the rear and change all the lenses as well.
15:26You just have a lot more flexibility.
15:27An 8K video.
15:29However, I think where the iPhone definitely wins is with its cinematic mode.
15:33We do have this portrait video on the Samsung.
15:35But, in my opinion, they've just never been quite as good as the iPhone.
15:39I love this cinematic mode.
15:40I kind of wish there was a 4K60 version.
15:42I probably use that all the time.
15:43But what do you think?
15:44As I'm awkwardly holding the mic in front of me.
15:46What do you think looks more cinematic and higher quality from the two phones?
15:50And do you actually use this mode?
15:52Actually, one of the upgrades with the Samsung this year is that third-party apps,
15:56like Instagram, TikTok, and Snap, can use more of the native camera features.
16:00Like OIS and the laser autofocus.
16:02But they're both excellent camera systems.
16:04And they do offer slightly different things.
16:06I'm going to call it a draw.
16:07But, of course, any comparison with the S24 Ultra would not be complete without a mention of AI.
16:13This is Galaxy for AI, right?
16:15But, to its credit, there are some very nifty new features.
16:17And the first one you saw there is this circle to search.
16:20It's not exclusive to the Samsung.
16:22It is now available on the latest Pixel with the update.
16:24But this is a quicker way of Google lensing what you've screenshotted or what you've drawn around on your screen.
16:29So, magic search with Google is pretty cool.
16:32We also have new transcription assist.
16:34I think this is pretty cool where you can do an audio recording.
16:36It'll then transcribe your recording, separate different speakers,
16:39and then it can go and summarize the entire conversation, putting in bullet points.
16:43You've got live translations, whether it's via text, back and forth, or even over the phone.
16:47And a lot of this can all be done on device, even if you don't have an internet connection.
16:52But my favorite AI features have to do with the camera.
16:55I think the one that's the best to show off is instant slow-mo.
16:58You can take any video, just press on the screen, and give you a slow motion version of the clip.
17:03Which you can then go into the video editor afterwards, save that slow motion part, and export a new clip.
17:09You've also got a whole range of AI photo features, and also a Photoshop-esque AI gen fill.
17:14Where you can crop and rotate an image, and it'll fill in the background.
17:17You can highlight subjects, and then move or resize or just delete them completely, and it'll fill in the gaps.
17:23To be fair, a good amount of this you can also do on the Google Pixel, and third-party apps give you options.
17:28But I like how seamless and baked in it is to the photo gallery on the S24.
17:33However, what makes all that AI a little bit less special is that Samsung say,
17:37pretty much all, if not all, features will also be coming to the S23 series, last year's phones.
17:42So it's clearly not an exclusive feature to the S24, but there you go.
17:46And breathe.
17:47Okay, let's wrap up.
17:48And I think the answer is they are both equally good phones.
17:51If I was going to go out and buy one, I think it really comes down to what ecosystem you're in.
17:56Do you have a MacBook, an AirPods, or do you have a Galaxy Book, or their Buds Pro, or their Tabs?
18:02Apple offer six years of iOS updates, where Samsung are promising seven years.
18:07But I think really it comes down to the ecosystem and whether you prefer iOS or Android.
18:11In terms of the actual phones, I can tell you honestly that right now I do carry both of these with me,
18:16because I think there are advantages to having both.
18:18Although I wouldn't suggest buying both, because that's an awful lot of money.
18:21Most of the time though, because I do prefer the look of the camera and the video,
18:26and I shoot a lot of video as a content creator,
18:28and I'm also pretty invested in the ecosystem because I use a MacBook Pro,
18:31I'm more likely to go with the iPhone.
18:33But what about you?
18:34Which one would you go for?
18:35Which do you think is the best phone?
18:36Let me know in the comments below.
18:38If you've got any questions between these two, also drop a comment.
18:40And if you did enjoy this video, a cheeky little like and subscribe would be lovely.
18:44I'll see you next time right here on The Tech Chat.