Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra vs Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.9-inch Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra (with Exynos 9 Octa 990) that was released on February 11, 2020, against the Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max, which is powered by Apple A15 Bionic and came out 19 months after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the gadgets.
Key differences
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
- Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 1000GB
- The rear camera has a 4x optical zoom
- Fingerprint scanner
- Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
- Comes with 648 mAh larger battery capacity: 5000 vs 4352 mAh
- Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5 3200 MHz
- Has 2 SIM card slots
- 12% higher pixel density (511 vs 458 PPI)
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
- Shows 66% longer battery life (43:44 vs 26:19 hours)
- Apple releases software updates and supports their phones a few years longer than Samsung
- 33% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (797K versus 602K)
- Delivers 18% higher maximum brightness (1060 against 895 nits)
- The phone is 1-year and 7-months newer
- More energy-efficient CPU – Apple A15 Bionic
- 90% faster in single-core GeekBench 5 test: 1754 and 921 points
Review
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Performance
CPU/GPU performance in apps and games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
NanoReview score
Final comparison evaluation
Value for money
You can enter your local price of these phones (in USD or any other currency) and click on the "Calculate" button to see which one has a better value for money.
Tests and specifications
Comparison table of technical specifications and testsDisplay
| Type | Dynamic AMOLED | OLED |
| Size | 6.9 inches | 6.7 inches |
| Resolution | 1440 x 3200 pixels | 1284 x 2778 pixels |
| Aspect ratio | 20:9 | 19.5:9 |
| PPI | 511 ppi | 458 ppi |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | 120 Hz |
| HDR support | Yes, HDR10+ | Yes, Dolby Vision |
| Screen protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 6 | Ceramic Shield |
| Screen-to-body ratio | 89.9% | 87.4% |
| Display features | - DCI-P3 - Always-On Display |
- DCI-P3 |
| RGB color space | 99.2% | 99.9% |
| PWM | 240 Hz | 238 Hz |
| Response time | 6.2 ms | 8.5 ms |
| Contrast | ∞ Infinity | ∞ Infinity |
Max. Brightness
Design and build
| Height | 166.9 mm (6.57 inches) | 160.8 mm (6.33 inches) |
| Width | 76 mm (2.99 inches) | 78.1 mm (3.07 inches) |
| Thickness | 8.8 mm (0.35 inches) | 7.65 mm (0.3 inches) |
| Weight | 220 gramm (7.76 oz) | 240 gramm (8.47 oz) |
| Waterproof | IP68 | IP68 |
| Rear material | Glass | Glass |
| Frame material | Metal | Metal |
| Colors | Black, Gray | Black, Silver, Gold, Blue |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-display | No |
Screen-to-body ratio
Performance
| Chipset | Samsung Exynos 9 Octa 990 | Apple A15 Bionic |
| Max. clock | 2700 MHz | 3200 MHz |
| CPU cores | 8 (2 + 2 + 4) | 6 (2 + 4) |
| Architecture | - 4 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A55 - 2 cores at 2.5 GHz: Cortex-A76 - 2 cores at 2.73 GHz: Exynos M5 |
- 4 cores at 1.82 GHz: Blizzard - 2 cores at 3.223 GHz: Avalanche |
| L3 cache | 2 MB | - |
| Lithography process | 7 nanometers | 5 nanometers |
| Graphics | Mali-G77 MP11 | Apple GPU |
| GPU clock | 550 MHz | 1200 MHz |
| FLOPS | ~1196 GFLOPS | - |
| RAM size | 12, 16 GB | 6 GB |
| Memory type | LPDDR5 | LPDDR4X |
| Memory clock | 3200 MHz | 2133 MHz |
| Channels | 2 | 2 |
| Storage size | 128, 512 GB | 128, 256, 512, 1024 GB |
| Storage type | UFS 3.0 | NVMe |
| Memory card | MicroSD | No |
| Memory card max. size | Up to 1000 GB | - |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 5 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 5 (Multi-Core)
AnTuTu Benchmark 9
| CPU | 159236 | 213823 |
| GPU | 234975 | 317561 |
| Memory | 111280 | 126792 |
| UX | 94560 | 136444 |
| Total score | 602148 | 797935 |
3DMark Wild Life Performance
| Stability | 42% | 82% |
| Graphics test | 25 FPS | 57 FPS |
| Graphics score | 4293 | - |
| PCMark 3.0 score | 11151 | - |
Software
| Operating system | Android 10.0 (Can be upgraded to Android 12) | iOS 15 (Can be upgraded to iOS 15.5) |
| ROM | One UI 4.1 | - |
| OS size | 23.7 GB | 13 GB |
Battery
| Capacity | 5000 mAh | 4352 mAh |
| Charge power | 45 W | 20 W |
| Battery type | Li-Ion | Li-Ion |
| Replaceable | No | No |
| Wireless charging | Yes (15 W) | Yes (7.5 W) |
| Reverse charging | Yes, (wireless) | No |
| Fast charging | Yes (100% in 80 min) | Yes (42% in 30 min) |
| Full charging time | 1:20 hr | 1:46 hr |
| Web browsing | 08:26 hr | 14:55 hr |
| Watching video | 11:53 hr | 20:14 hr |
| Gaming | 04:13 hr | 07:42 hr |
| Standby | 93 hr | 140 hr |
General battery life
Camera
| Matrix | 108 megapixels | 12 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 12032 x 9204 | 4032 x 3024 |
| Zoom | Optical, 4x | Optical, 3x |
| Flash | LED | Dual LED |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| 8K video recording | Up to 24FPS | No |
| 4K video recording | Up to 60FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| 1080p video recording | Up to 60FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| Slow motion | 960 FPS (720p) | 240 FPS (1080p) |
| Angle of widest lens | 120° | 120° |
| Lenses | 4 (108 MP + 48 MP + 12 MP + 0.3 MP) | 4 (12 MP + 12 MP + 12 MP + 0 MP) |
| Wide (main) lens | - 108 MP - Aperture: f/1.8 - Focal length: 26 mm - Pixel size: 0.8 micron - Sensor: 1/1.33", Samsung Bright S5KHM1 (ISOCELL CMOS) - Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) - Optical stabilization |
- 12 MP - Aperture: f/1.5 - Focal length: 26 mm - Pixel size: 1.9 micron - Sensor: 1/1.66", Sony IMX703 (Exmor-RS CMOS) - Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) - Optical stabilization |
| Telephoto lens | - 48 MP - Aperture: f/3.5 - Focal length: 103 mm - Pixel size: 0.8 micron - Sensor: 1/2", Sony IMX586 (CMOS) - Phase autofocus - Optical stabilization |
- 12 MP - Aperture: f/2.8 - Focal length: 77 mm - Pixel size: 1 micron - Phase autofocus - Optical stabilization |
| Ultra-wide lens | - 12 MP - Aperture: f/2.2 - Focal length: 13 mm - Pixel size: 1.4 micron |
- 12 MP - Aperture: f/1.8 - Focal length: 13 mm - Pixel size: 1 micron - Phase autofocus |
| Depth lens | - 0.3 MP - Aperture: f/1.0 - Pixel size: 5 micron |
- Pixel size: 1 micron |
| Camera features | - Bokeh mode - Pro mode - RAW support |
- Bokeh mode - Pro mode - RAW support |
| Samples | - | Photo samples of Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max from DxOMark |
| Megapixels | 40 megapixels | 12 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 7864 x 5200 | 4032 x 3024 |
| Aperture | f/2.2 | f/2.2 |
| Focal length | 26 mm | 23 mm |
| Pixel size | 0.7 microns | 1 microns |
| Sensor type | CMOS | Exmor-RS CMOS |
| Sensor size | 1/2.65" | 1/3.6" |
| Video resolution | 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS | 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS |
DxOMark camera tests
Photo quality
Video quality
Generic camera score
Connectivity
| Wi-Fi standard | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 b/g/n/ac/ax) | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) |
| Wi-Fi features | - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Display |
- Dual Band - Wi-Fi MiMO - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot - Wi-Fi Display |
| Bluetooth version | 5 | 5 |
| Bluetooth features | LE, A2DP | LE, A2DP |
| USB type | USB Type-C | - |
| USB version | 3.1 | 2 |
| USB features | - Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
- Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS |
| NFC* | Yes | Yes |
| Infrared port | No | No |
| Number of SIM* | 2 | 1 |
| Type of SIM card | Nano | Nano |
| Multi SIM mode | Standby | - |
| eSIM support* | Yes | Yes |
| Hybrid slot | Yes | No |
| LTE Cat* | 22 | 18 |
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
Sound
| Speakers | Stereo | Stereo |
| Headphone audio jack | No | No |
| FM radio | No | No |
| Dolby Atmos | Yes | Yes |
Speakers test
Max. loudness
Other
| Category | Flagship | Flagship |
| Announced | February 2020 | September 2021 |
| Release date | March 2020 | September 2021 |
| SAR (head) | 0.32 W/kg | 0.99 W/kg |
| SAR (body) | 1.56 W/kg | 0.98 W/kg |
| Sensors | - Hall-effect sensor - Barometer - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint |
- Barometer - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Face recognition sensor |
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.
Conclusion
After analyzing all the data, we think that the Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max is definitely a better buy.
Cast your vote
Total votes: 143
