Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus (Snapdragon) vs Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.7-inch Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus (Snapdragon) (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5) that was released on February 25, 2026, against the Apple iPhone 17 Pro, which is powered by Apple A19 Pro and came out 6 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus (Snapdragon)
  • 50% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (3811K versus 2538K)
  • Has a 0.4 inch larger screen size
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • 12% higher pixel density (516 vs 460 PPI)
  • CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
  • The phone is 6 months newer
  • Weighs 16 grams less
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 17 Pro
  • The rear camera has a 4x optical zoom
  • 10% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 3992 and 3634 points

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus (Snapdragon) and Apple iPhone 17 Pro crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
πŸ“± Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

To get an accurate value-for-money index, update the default prices with actual prices from your country’s retailers (for the selected memory configs) and press the "Calculate" button.
Currency
12 / 256 GB
VS
12 / 256 GB
39.2
(Mediocre)
Value Index
23.7
(Mediocre)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED OLED
Size 6.7 inches 6.3 inches
Resolution 1440 x 3120 pixels 1206 x 2622 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 19.5:9
PPI 516 ppi 460 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (1-120 Hz) Yes (1-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 1500 nits 3000 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 2600 nits 1600 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, Dolby Vision
Touch sampling rate 240 Hz -
Screen protection Corning Gorilla Armor 2 Ceramic Shield 2
Screen-to-body ratio 91.7% 90.4%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
Screen space comparison
Galaxy S26 Plus (Snapdragon)
6.7β€³ (19.5:9 ratio) = 17.1 in2
iPhone 17 Pro
6.3β€³ (19.5:9 ratio) = 15.1 in2
~13% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)

Design and build

Height 158.4 mm (6.24 inches) 150 mm (5.91 inches)
Width 75.8 mm (2.98 inches) 71.9 mm (2.83 inches)
Thickness 7.3 mm (0.29 inches) 8.75 mm (0.34 inches)
Weight 190 g (6.7 oz) 206 g (7.27 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber Vapor chamber
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Black, Silver, Blue, Pink, Purple Silver, Blue, Orange
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display No
Repairability - Good (3.04/5)
Drop resistance - Very good (B) Β· 180 drops
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus (Snapdragon) and Apple iPhone 17 Pro
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Apple A19 Pro
Max clock 4740 MHz 4260 MHz
CPU cores 8 (2 + 6) 6 (2 + 4)
Architecture - 6 cores at 3.63 GHz: Oryon Gen 3 Performance
- 2 cores at 4.74 GHz: Oryon Gen 3 Prime
- 4 cores at 2.6 GHz:
- 2 cores at 4.26 GHz:
L3 cache 12 MB -
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 3 nanometers 3 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Apple Neural Engine
GPU
Graphics Adreno 840 6 core Apple GPU
GPU shading units 1536 768
GPU clock 1300 MHz 1620 MHz
FLOPS ~3993.6 GFLOPS ~2488.3 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus (Snapdragon) and Apple iPhone 17 Pro
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) 27258 44342
Single-core score 3634 3992
Multi-core score 11036 10688
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
CPU 1126364 753740
GPU 1506051 926158
Memory 430002 217137
UX 748714 641716
Total score 3811131 2538751
Samples [2 tests] [6 tests]

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus (Snapdragon)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-25 (Ahmed)AnTuTu 113643182
πŸ“˜ 2026-06-13 (Sparky)Geekbench 6 GPU29139
πŸ“˜ 2026-06-03 (Krish)Geekbench 6 GPU25262
πŸ“˜ 2026-06-03 (Krish)Geekbench 6 CPU3634 / 11036
πŸ“˜ 2026-06-03 (Krish)AnTuTu 113811131
Apple iPhone 17 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-16 (Anatoli)AnTuTu 112304042
πŸ“˜ 2026-06-03 (Vin)Geekbench 6 CPU3890 / 10107
πŸ“˜ 2026-05-11 (Atti rajan)AnTuTu 112301246
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-10 (Resul)AnTuTu 112538751
πŸ“˜ 2026-02-23 (FiLsImRoZeR)AnTuTu 112106484

Memory

RAM
RAM size 12 GB 12 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5X
Memory clock 5300 MHz -
Channels 4 4
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 256 GB
Storage type UFS 4.0 NVMe
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 16 iOS 26 (Can be upgraded to iOS 26.5)
ROM One UI 8.5 -
OS size 30.8 GB -
OS updates 7 years 7 years
Security updates 7 years 7 years

Battery

Capacity 4900 mAh 4252 mAh
Max charge power 45 W 40 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (25 W) Yes (25 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes
Bypass charging Yes No
Fast charging Yes (69% in 30 min) Yes (70% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:01 hr 1:18 hr
Battery cycles - 1000 cycles
Battery life tests
Web browsing - 09:51 hr
Watching video - 19:54 hr
Gaming - 06:49 hr
Standby - 117 hr
General battery life

Main camera

Matrix 50 megapixels 48 megapixels
Image resolution 8160 x 6120 8064 x 6048
Zoom Optical, 3x Optical, 4x
Flash LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 30FPS No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 120FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 120FPS
Slow motion 240 FPS (1080p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 120Β° 120Β°
Lenses 1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Telephoto: 10 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
1) Standard: 48 MP
2) Telephoto: 48 MP
3) Ultrawide: 48 MP
4) Depth
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 50 MP 48 MP
Aperture f/1.8 f/1.78
Focal length 23 mm 24 mm
Sensor Samsung ISOCELL S5KGNG Sony IMX903
Sensor size 1/1.56" (β‰ˆ 0.64 inch) 1/1.28" (β‰ˆ 0.78 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1.22 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 10 MP 48 MP
Aperture f/2.4 f/2.8
Focal length 69 mm 100 mm
Sensor Samsung ISOCELL S5K3LD Sony IMX973
Sensor size 1/3.94" (β‰ˆ 0.25 inch) 1/2.55" (β‰ˆ 0.39 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 0.7 micron
Stabilization Optical Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 12 MP 48 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 13 mm 13 mm
Sensor Sony IMX564 Sony IMX972
Sensor size 1/2.55" (β‰ˆ 0.39 inch) 1/2.55" (β‰ˆ 0.39 inch)
Pixel size 1.4 micron 0.7 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital

DxOMark main camera tests

Generic main camera score
Bokeh - 170
Zoom - 141
Samples - Photo samples of Apple iPhone 17 Pro from DxOMark

Selfie camera

Megapixels 12 megapixels 18 megapixels
Image resolution 4000 x 3000 4896 x 3672
Aperture f/2.2 f/1.9
Focal length 23 mm 20 mm
Sensor Samsung S5K3LU Sony IMX914
Sensor size 1/3.2" (β‰ˆ 0.31 inch) -
Pixel size 1.12 micron 1 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus
Stabilization Digital Optical
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No Yes

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be)
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 6.0 6.0
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 3.2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort Yes, DP 1.2 Yes
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 1 -
Type of SIM card Nano eSIM
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced February 2026 September 2025
Release date March 2026 September 2025
Launch price (MSRP) $1099 $1099
SAR (head) 0.78 W/kg -
SAR (body) 1.22 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
Bundled charger Not included Not included
Further details
Notes on iPhone 17 Pro:
    - The eSIM-only model has a larger battery than the Nano SIM + eSIM version – 4,252 mAh vs. 3,988 mAh.
    - Only the Chinese version offers dual Nano SIM slots and it also has a weaker 15-watt wireless charging system.
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

If the camera and software are more important to you, then choose the Apple iPhone 17 Pro. But if the display and battery life are more of a priority – go for the Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus (Snapdragon).

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
52 (59.1%)
36 (40.9%)
Total votes: 88

User opinions

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