Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max
91
out of 100
VS
96
out of 100
Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.9-inch Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5) that was released on February 25, 2026, against the Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max, which is powered by Apple A20 Pro and came out 6 months after. 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
Key differences
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
- The rear camera has a 5x optical zoom
- Fingerprint scanner
- 12% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (3939K versus 3504K)
- CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
- Weighs 35 grams less
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max
- Shows 18% longer battery life (33:56 vs 28:50 hours)
- The phone is 6 months newer
- 30% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 4725 and 3624 points
Review
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.
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
Value for money (Beta)
Tests and specifications
Comparison table of technical specifications and testsDisplay
| Type | Dynamic AMOLED | OLED |
| Size | 6.9 inches | 6.9 inches |
| Resolution | 1440 x 3120 pixels | 1320 x 2868 pixels |
| Aspect ratio | 19.5:9 | 19.5:9 |
| PPI | 500 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 | 91.4% | 91.6% |
| Display features | - DCI-P3 - Always-On Display - DC Dimming |
- DCI-P3 - Always-On Display |
Peak brightness test (auto)
Design and build
| Height | 163.6 mm (6.44 inches) | 163.4 mm (6.43 inches) |
| Width | 78.1 mm (3.07 inches) | 78 mm (3.07 inches) |
| Thickness | 7.9 mm (0.31 inches) | 8.75 mm (0.34 inches) |
| Weight | 214 g (7.55 oz) | 249 g (8.78 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 | Black, Silver, Blue, Burgundy |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-display | No |
Screen-to-body ratio
Performance
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | Apple A20 Pro |
| Max clock | 4740 MHz | 4930 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 2.64 GHz: - 2 cores at 4.93 GHz: |
| L3 cache | 12 MB | - |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
| Lithography process | 3 nanometers | 2 nanometers |
| Neural processor (NPU) | Hexagon | Apple Neural Engine |
| Graphics | Adreno 840 | 7 core Apple GPU |
| GPU shading units | 1536 | 896 |
| GPU clock | 1300 MHz | 1620 MHz |
| FLOPS | ~3993.6 GFLOPS | ~2903 GFLOPS |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
| Compute Score (GPU) | 28391 | 55104 |
| Single-core score | 3624 | 4725 |
| Multi-core score | 11049 | 12575 |
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
| CPU | 1168602 | 964766 |
| GPU | 1520337 | 1393271 |
| Memory | 448779 | 400483 |
| UX | 801526 | 745645 |
| Total score | 3939244 | 3504165 |
| Samples | [32 tests] | Less than 3 |
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Stability | 67% | - |
| Graphics test | 20 FPS | - |
| Graphics score | 2737 | - |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Graphics test | 46 FPS | - |
| Section 1 | 58 FPS | - |
| Section 2 | 42 FPS | - |
| Section 3 | 37 FPS | - |
| Graphics score | 11990 | - |
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
| Graphics test | 42 FPS | - |
| Graphics score | 7123 | - |
PCMark 3.0
| Web score | 23390 | - |
| Video editing | 8217 | - |
| Photo editing | 37389 | - |
| Data manipulation | 18322 | - |
| Writing score | 32854 | - |
AnTuTu 11 Ranking List (#32nd place)
Recent User Tests
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-09-23 (Raze) | AnTuTu 12 | 3920421 |
| π 2026-09-19 (Niko) | AnTuTu 12 | 3439980 |
| π 2026-09-18 (KEKRiLL) | AnTuTu 12 | 4208433 |
| π 2026-09-14 -> Mi7ha | AnTuTu 12 | 4485552 |
| π 2026-09-05 (Pavel) | AnTuTu 11 | 3959848 |
Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max
No benchmark results yet
Memory
| RAM size | 12 GB | 12 GB |
| Memory type | LPDDR5X | LPDDR5X |
| Memory clock | 5300 MHz | 4800 MHz |
| Channels | 4 | 3 |
| Storage size | 256 GB | 256 GB |
| Storage type | UFS 4.0 | NVMe |
| Memory card | No | No |
Software
| Operating system | Android 16 | iOS 27 |
| ROM | One UI 8.5 | - |
| OS size | 33.2 GB | - |
| OS updates | 7 years | 7 years |
| Security updates | 7 years | 7 years |
Battery
| Capacity | 5000 mAh | 5567 mAh |
| Max charge power | 60 W | 60 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 (84% in 30 min) | Yes (81% in 30 min) |
| Full charging time | 0:43 hr | 0:55 hr |
| Web browsing | 10:12 hr | 14:13 hr |
| Watching video | 21:39 hr | 22:52 hr |
| Gaming | 06:42 hr | 08:36 hr |
| Standby | 130 hr | 146 hr |
General battery life
Smartphones With Long Battery Life (67th and 20th place)
Main camera
| Matrix | 200 megapixels | 48 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 16320 x 12240 | 8064 x 6048 |
| Zoom | Optical, 5x | Optical, 4x |
| Flash | LED | Dual LED |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| 8K video recording | Up to 30FPS | No |
| 4K video recording | Up to 120FPS | Up to 120FPS |
| 1080p video recording | Up to 240FPS | Up to 120FPS |
| Slow motion | 240 FPS (1080p) | 240 FPS (1080p) |
| Angle of widest lens | 120Β° | 120Β° |
| Lenses | 1) Standard: 200 MP 2) Telephoto: 50 MP 3) Telephoto: 10 MP 4) Ultrawide: 50 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 |
| Image resolution | 200 MP | 48 MP |
| Aperture | f/1.4 | f/1.5 - 4.0 |
| Focal length | 23 mm | 24 mm |
| Sensor | Samsung ISOCELL S5KHP2 | - |
| Sensor size | 1/1.3" (β 0.77 inch) | 1/1.28" (β 0.78 inch) |
| Pixel size | 0.6 micron | 1 micron |
| Autofocus | Laser autofocus | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| Image resolution | 50 MP | 48 MP |
| Aperture | f/2.9 | f/2.8 |
| Focal length | 111 mm | 100 mm |
| Sensor | Sony IMX854 | - |
| Sensor size | 1/2.52" (β 0.4 inch) | 1/2.55" (β 0.39 inch) |
| Pixel size | 0.7 micron | 0.7 micron |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| Image resolution | 50 MP | 48 MP |
| Aperture | f/1.9 | f/2.2 |
| Focal length | 13 mm | 13 mm |
| Sensor | Samsung ISOCELL S5KJN3 | - |
| Sensor size | 1/2.5" (β 0.4 inch) | 1/2.55" (β 0.39 inch) |
| Pixel size | 0.7 micron | 0.7 micron |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
DxOMark main camera tests
Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
| Bokeh | 165 | - |
| Zoom | 141 | - |
| Samples | Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra 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 ISOCELL S5K3LU | CMOS |
| Sensor size | 1/3.2" (β 0.31 inch) | - |
| Pixel size | 1.12 micron | 1 micron |
| Autofocus | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) | 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 | Yes |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC |
| NFC* | Yes | Yes |
| Infrared port | No | No |
| 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 |
Speakers test
Max loudness
Other
| Category | Flagship | Flagship |
| Announced | February 2026 | September 2026 |
| Release date | March 2026 | September 2026 |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $1299 | $1299 |
| SAR (head) | 1.28 W/kg | - |
| SAR (body) | 1.35 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 |
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.
Conclusion
These smartphones have a lot in common, but we would recommend the Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max. It has a better battery life and software.
Cast your vote
Total votes: 538
