Vivo X500 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.85-inch Vivo X500 Pro Max (with MediaTek Dimensity 9600 Pro) that was released on September 21, 2026, against the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, which is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and came out 7 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 Vivo X500 Pro Max
  • Comes with 3000 mAh larger battery capacity: 8000 vs 5000 mAh
  • Higher display refresh rate – 144 Hz
  • Waterproof body (IP69 classification)
  • Supports higher wattage charging (90W versus 60W)
  • 23% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (4838K versus 3939K)
  • More recent OS version: Android 17 versus 16
  • Has 2 SIM card slots
  • Faster storage type - UFS 4.1 versus UFS 4.0
  • 15% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 4172 and 3624 points
  • Has a built-in infrared port
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
  • The rear camera has a 5x optical zoom
  • Supports Dolby Atmos sound technology

Review

Evaluation of Vivo X500 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra 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
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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
37.3
(Mediocre)
Value Index
33.7
(Mediocre)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type AMOLED Dynamic AMOLED
Size 6.85 inches 6.9 inches
Resolution 1440 x 3168 pixels 1440 x 3120 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.8:9 19.5:9
PPI 507 ppi 500 ppi
Refresh rate 144 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (1-144 Hz) Yes (1-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 2000 nits 1500 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 4400 nits 2600 nits
HDR support Yes, Dolby Vision Yes, HDR10+
Touch sampling rate - 240 Hz
Screen protection Armor Glass Corning Gorilla Armor 2
Screen-to-body ratio 90.9% 91.4%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
Peak brightness test (auto)
Sources: NotebookCheck [3]

Design and build

Height 163.32 mm (6.43 inches) 163.6 mm (6.44 inches)
Width 76.82 mm (3.02 inches) 78.1 mm (3.07 inches)
Thickness 7.95 mm (0.31 inches) 7.9 mm (0.31 inches)
Weight 225 g (7.94 oz) 214 g (7.55 oz)
Waterproof IP69 IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber Vapor chamber
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Black, Silver, Orange White, Black, Silver, Blue, Pink, Purple
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Screen-to-body ratio
90.9%
91.4%

Performance

Chipset specifications of Vivo X500 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
SoC
Chipset MediaTek Dimensity 9600 Pro Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
Max clock 4550 MHz 4740 MHz
CPU cores 8 (2 + 3 + 3) 8 (2 + 6)
Architecture - 3 cores at 3.1 GHz: C2-Pro
- 3 cores at 4.35 GHz: C2-Pro
- 2 cores at 4.55 GHz: C2-Ultra
- 6 cores at 3.63 GHz: Oryon Gen 3 Performance
- 2 cores at 4.74 GHz: Oryon Gen 3 Prime
L3 cache 16 MB 12 MB
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 2 nanometers 3 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) MediaTek NPU 1090 Hexagon
GPU
Graphics Mali-G2 Ultra NX MP12 Adreno 840
GPU shading units 1536 1536
GPU clock 1800 MHz 1300 MHz
FLOPS ~5529.6 GFLOPS ~3993.6 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Vivo X500 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
12688
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) - 28391
Single-core score 4172 3624
Multi-core score 12688 11049
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
4838033
CPU 1388289 1168602
GPU 1881401 1520337
Memory 488503 448779
UX 1079840 801526
Total score 4838033 3939244
Samples Less than 3 [32 tests]
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
Sources: 3DMark [5]
PCMark 3.0
Web score - 23390
Video editing - 8217
Photo editing - 37389
Data manipulation - 18322
Writing score - 32854
AnTuTu 11 Ranking List (3rd and 25th place)

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Vivo X500 Pro Max
No benchmark results yet
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-09-19 (Niko)AnTuTu 123439980
📘 2026-09-18 (KEKRiLL)AnTuTu 124208433
📘 2026-09-14 -> Mi7haAnTuTu 124485552
📘 2026-09-05 (Pavel)AnTuTu 113959848
📘 2026-08-29 -> szymon-bonkowskiAnTuTu 114220521

Memory

RAM
RAM size 12 GB 12 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5X
Memory clock 5333 MHz 5300 MHz
Channels 4 4
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 256 GB
Storage type UFS 4.1 UFS 4.0
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 17 Android 16
ROM OriginOS 7 One UI 8.5
OS size - 33.2 GB
OS updates 5 years 7 years
Security updates 7 years 7 years

Battery

Capacity 8000 mAh 5000 mAh
Max charge power 90 W 60 W
Battery type Silicon-Carbon (Si/C) Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (40 W) Yes (25 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes, (wireless)
Bypass charging Yes Yes
Fast charging Yes Yes (84% in 30 min)
Full charging time - 0:43 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing - 10:12 hr
Watching video - 21:39 hr
Gaming - 06:42 hr
Standby - 130 hr
General battery life

Main camera

Matrix 50 megapixels 200 megapixels
Image resolution 8192 x 6144 16320 x 12240
Zoom Optical, 3.5x Optical, 5x
Flash Dual LED LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 30FPS Up to 30FPS
4K video recording Up to 240FPS Up to 120FPS
1080p video recording Up to 120FPS Up to 240FPS
Slow motion 240 FPS (1080p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 119° 120°
Lenses 1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Telephoto: 200 MP
3) Ultrawide: 50 MP
1) Standard: 200 MP
2) Telephoto: 50 MP
3) Telephoto: 10 MP
4) Ultrawide: 50 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 50 MP 200 MP
Aperture f/1.6 f/1.4
Focal length 24 mm 23 mm
Sensor Sony LYT-910 Samsung ISOCELL S5KHP2
Sensor size 1/1.28" (≈ 0.78 inch) 1/1.3" (≈ 0.77 inch)
Pixel size 1.22 micron 0.6 micron
Autofocus Laser autofocus Laser autofocus
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 200 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/2.7 f/2.9
Focal length 85 mm 111 mm
Sensor Samsung ISOCELL HP9 Sony IMX854
Sensor size 1/1.4" (≈ 0.71 inch) 1/2.52" (≈ 0.4 inch)
Pixel size 0.56 micron 0.7 micron
Stabilization Optical Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 50 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/2.0 f/1.9
Focal length 15 mm 13 mm
Sensor Samsung S5KJN5 Samsung ISOCELL S5KJN3
Sensor size 1/2.76" (≈ 0.36 inch) 1/2.5" (≈ 0.4 inch)
Pixel size 0.64 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 50 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 8192 x 6144 4000 x 3000
Aperture f/2.0 f/2.2
Focal length 20 mm 23 mm
Sensor Samsung S5KJN1 Samsung ISOCELL S5K3LU
Sensor size 1/2.76" (≈ 0.36 inch) 1/3.2" (≈ 0.31 inch)
Pixel size 0.64 micron 1.12 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

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, NAVIC GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port Yes No
Network
Number of SIM* 2 1
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
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 No Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced September 2026 February 2026
Release date September 2026 March 2026
Launch price (MSRP) $1299 $1299
SAR (head) - 1.28 W/kg
SAR (body) - 1.35 W/kg
Sensors - Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Yes, 90 W Not included
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

If the battery life is more important to you, then choose the Vivo X500 Pro Max. But if the software and sound are more of a priority – go for the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
6 (85.7%)
1 (14.3%)
Total votes: 7

User opinions

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