Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra vs Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max
Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.8-inch Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (with Exynos 2200) that was released on February 9, 2022, against the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max, which is powered by Apple A14 Bionic and came out 16 months before. 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 S22 Ultra
- The rear camera has a 10x optical zoom
- Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
- Comes with 1313 mAh larger battery capacity: 5000 vs 3687 mAh
- Modern USB Type-C port
- Delivers 46% higher peak brightness (1259 against 861 nits)
- Newer Bluetooth version (v5.2)
- Fingerprint scanner
- Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
- 30% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (944K versus 726K)
- Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5
- Has 2 SIM card slots
- The phone is 1-year and 4-months newer
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max
- Shows 7% longer battery life (35:25 vs 33:09 hours)
- Apple releases software updates and supports their phones a few years longer than Samsung
- 36% faster in single-core GeekBench 5 test: 1597 and 1175 points
We may receive a commission from Amazon for purchases made using the links below, but this has no bearing on our assessment methodology.
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 | 6.8 inches | 6.7 inches |
| Resolution | 1440 x 3088 pixels | 1284 x 2778 pixels |
| Aspect ratio | 19.5:9 | 19.5:9 |
| PPI | 500 ppi | 458 ppi |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | 60 Hz |
| Max rated brightness | 830 nits | 800 nits |
| Max rated brightness in HDR | 1750 nits | - |
| HDR support | Yes, HDR10+ | Yes, Dolby Vision |
| Screen protection | Gorilla Glass Victus Plus | Ceramic Shield |
| Screen-to-body ratio | 90.2% | 87.4% |
| Display features | - DCI-P3 - Always-On Display |
- DCI-P3 |
| RGB color space | 98.2% | 99.4% |
| PWM | 120 Hz | 238 Hz |
| Response time | 1 ms | 8 ms |
| Contrast | ∞ Infinity | ∞ Infinity |
Peak brightness test (auto)
Design and build
| Height | 163.3 mm (6.43 inches) | 160.8 mm (6.33 inches) |
| Width | 77.9 mm (3.07 inches) | 78.1 mm (3.07 inches) |
| Thickness | 8.9 mm (0.35 inches) | 7.4 mm (0.29 inches) |
| Weight | 228 g (8.04 oz) | 226 g (7.97 oz) |
| Waterproof | IP68 | IP68 |
| Rear material | Glass | Glass |
| Frame material | Metal | Metal |
| Colors | White, Black, Gray, Blue, Green, Red | Silver, Gold, Gray, Blue |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-display | No |
Screen-to-body ratio
Performance
| Chipset | Samsung Exynos 2200 | Apple A14 Bionic |
| Max. clock | 2800 MHz | 3100 MHz |
| CPU cores | 8 (1 + 3 + 4) | 6 (2 + 4) |
| Architecture | - 4 cores at 1.82 GHz: Cortex-A510 - 3 cores at 2.52 GHz: Cortex-A710 - 1 core at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-X2 |
- 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Icestorm - 2 cores at 3.1 GHz: Firestorm |
| Lithography process | 4 nanometers | 5 nanometers |
| Graphics | Samsung Xclipse 920 | Apple GPU |
| GPU clock | 1300 MHz | - |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 5 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 5 (Multi-Core)
AnTuTu Benchmark 9
| CPU | 223163 | 199661 |
| GPU | 391575 | 262671 |
| Memory | 175188 | 132086 |
| UX | 154579 | 136404 |
| Total score | 944281 | 726502 |
3DMark Wild Life Performance
| Stability | 64% | 75% |
| Graphics test | 41 FPS | 47 FPS |
| Graphics score | 6872 | 7882 |
| PCMark 3.0 score | 12741 | - |
Memory
| RAM size | 8, 12 GB | 6 GB |
| Memory type | LPDDR5 | LPDDR4X |
| Channels | 4 | 2 |
| Storage size | 128, 256, 512, 1024 GB | 128, 256, 512 GB |
| Storage type | UFS 3.1 | NVMe |
| Memory card | No | No |
Software
| Operating system | Android 12 (Can be upgraded to Android 13) | iOS 14.1 (Can be upgraded to iOS 16.2) |
| ROM | One UI 5.0 | - |
| OS size | 26.8 GB | 16 GB |
Battery
| Capacity | 5000 mAh | 3687 mAh |
| Charge power | 45 W | 18 W |
| Battery type | Li-Po | Li-Ion |
| Replaceable | No | No |
| Wireless charging | Yes (15 W) | Yes (7.5 W) |
| Reverse charging | Yes, (wireless) | No |
| Fast charging | Yes (60% in 30 min) | Yes (55% in 30 min) |
| Full charging time | 0:59 hr | 1:32 hr |
| Web browsing | 11:20 hr | 12:04 hr |
| Watching video | 14:43 hr | 14:25 hr |
| Gaming | 05:53 hr | 07:11 hr |
| Standby | 109 hr | 122 hr |
General battery life
Mobile Phone Battery Life Ranking (144th and 97th place)
Camera
| Matrix | 108 megapixels | 12 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 12000 x 9000 | 4032 x 3024 |
| Zoom | Optical, 10x | Optical, 2.5x |
| 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 + 10 MP + 10 MP + 12 MP) | 4 (12 MP + 12 MP + 12 MP) |
| Wide (main) lens | - 108 MP - Aperture: f/1.8 - Focal length: 24 mm - Pixel size: 0.8 micron - Sensor: 1/1.33", Samsung S5KHM3 (ISOCELL Plus CMOS) - Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) - Optical stabilization |
- 12 MP - Aperture: f/1.6 - Focal length: 26 mm - Pixel size: 1.7 micron - Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) - Optical stabilization |
| Telephoto lens | - 10 MP - Aperture: f/4.9 - Focal length: 230 mm - Sensor: 1/3.52", Sony IMX574 (Exmor-RS CMOS) - Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) - Optical stabilization |
- 12 MP - Aperture: f/2.2 - Focal length: 65 mm - Pixel size: 1 micron - Sensor: 1/3.4", Sony IMX613 (Exmor-RS CMOS) - Phase autofocus - Optical stabilization |
| Ultra-wide lens | - 12 MP - Aperture: f/2.2 - Focal length: 13 mm - Pixel size: 1.4 micron - Sensor: 1/2.55", Sony IMX563 (Exmor-RS CMOS) - Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) |
- 12 MP - Aperture: f/2.4 - Focal length: 13 mm - Pixel size: 1 micron - Sensor: 1/3.4", Sony IMX372 (Exmor-RS CMOS) |
| Depth lens | - | Yes |
| Camera features | - Bokeh mode - Pro mode - RAW support |
- Bokeh mode - Pro mode - RAW support |
| Samples | Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra from DxOMark | Photo samples of Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max from DxOMark |
| Megapixels | 40 megapixels | 12 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 7864 x 5200 | 4290 x 2800 |
| 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 | 1/2.82" | - |
| 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 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) |
| Wi-Fi features | - Dual Band - Wi-Fi MiMO - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot - Wi-Fi Display |
- Dual Band - Wi-Fi MiMO - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot - Wi-Fi Display |
| Bluetooth version | 5.2 | 5 |
| Bluetooth features | LE | LE, A2DP |
| USB type | USB Type-C | No |
| USB version | 3.2 | - |
| USB features | - Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
- Charging - USB-Storage mode |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo | GPS, GLONASS, 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 | No | No |
| LTE Cat* | 20 | 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 2022 | October 2020 |
| Release date | March 2022 | November 2020 |
| SAR (head) | 1.05 W/kg | 0.99 W/kg |
| SAR (body) | 1.58 W/kg | 0.99 W/kg |
| Sensors | - Hall-effect sensor - Barometer - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint |
- Hall-effect sensor - 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
If the display, camera, connectivity, and design are more important to you, then choose the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. But if the software is more of a priority – go for the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max.
Cast your vote
Total votes: 400