Xiaomi 18 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
93
out of 100
VS
91
out of 100
Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.9-inch Xiaomi 18 Pro Max (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6) that was released on September 23, 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
Key differences
Reasons to consider the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max
- Comes with 3500 mAh larger battery capacity: 8500 vs 5000 mAh
- Supports higher wattage charging (100W versus 60W)
- Slow-motion recording at 1920FPS
- 27% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (5001K 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
- Has a built-in infrared port
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
- The rear camera has a 5x optical zoom
- 20% higher pixel density (500 vs 418 PPI)
- Weighs 21 grams less
- Ready for eSIM technology
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 | AMOLED | Dynamic AMOLED |
| Size | 6.9 inches | 6.9 inches |
| Resolution | 1208 x 2624 pixels | 1440 x 3120 pixels |
| Aspect ratio | 19.5:9 | 19.5:9 |
| PPI | 418 ppi | 500 ppi |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | 120 Hz |
| Adaptive refresh rate | Yes (1-120 Hz) | Yes (1-120 Hz) |
| Max rated brightness | 1200 nits | 1500 nits |
| Max rated brightness in HDR | 4000 nits | 2600 nits |
| HDR support | Yes, Dolby Vision | Yes, HDR10+ |
| Touch sampling rate | 300 Hz | 240 Hz |
| Screen protection | Dragon Crystal Glass 3 | Corning Gorilla Armor 2 |
| Screen-to-body ratio | 92.1% | 91.4% |
| Display features | - DCI-P3 - Always-On Display - DC Dimming |
- DCI-P3 - Always-On Display - DC Dimming |
Peak brightness test (auto)
Design and build
| Height | 163.39 mm (6.43 inches) | 163.6 mm (6.44 inches) |
| Width | 77.6 mm (3.06 inches) | 78.1 mm (3.07 inches) |
| Thickness | 8.39 mm (0.33 inches) | 7.9 mm (0.31 inches) |
| Weight | 235 g (8.29 oz) | 214 g (7.55 oz) |
| Waterproof | IP68 | IP68 |
| Advanced cooling | Vapor chamber | Vapor chamber |
| Rear material | Plastic | Glass |
| Frame material | Metal | Metal |
| Colors | White, Black, Blue, Red, Pink | White, Black, Silver, Blue, Pink, Purple |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-display | Yes, in-display |
Screen-to-body ratio
Performance
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 |
| Max clock | 5010 MHz | 4740 MHz |
| CPU cores | 8 (2 + 3 + 3) | 8 (2 + 6) |
| Architecture | - 3 cores at 3.74 GHz: - 3 cores at 4.03 GHz: - 2 cores at 5.01 GHz: |
- 6 cores at 3.63 GHz: Oryon Gen 3 Performance - 2 cores at 4.74 GHz: Oryon Gen 3 Prime |
| L3 cache | - | 12 MB |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
| Lithography process | 2 nanometers | 3 nanometers |
| Neural processor (NPU) | Hexagon | Hexagon |
| Graphics | Adreno 850 | Adreno 840 |
| GPU shading units | 1536 | 1536 |
| GPU clock | 1450 MHz | 1300 MHz |
| FLOPS | ~4454.4 GFLOPS | ~3993.6 GFLOPS |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
| Compute Score (GPU) | - | 28391 |
| Single-core score | 3762 | 3624 |
| Multi-core score | 11459 | 11049 |
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
| CPU | 1431500 | 1168602 |
| GPU | 1947800 | 1520337 |
| Memory | 500900 | 448779 |
| UX | 1121034 | 801526 |
| Total score | 5001234 | 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 |
PCMark 3.0
| Web score | - | 23390 |
| Video editing | - | 8217 |
| Photo editing | - | 37389 |
| Data manipulation | - | 18322 |
| Writing score | - | 32854 |
AnTuTu 11 Ranking List (3rd and 27th place)
Recent User Tests
Xiaomi 18 Pro Max
No benchmark results yet
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-09-23 (Raze) | AnTuTu 12 | 3920421 |
| 📘 2026-09-19 (Niko) | AnTuTu 12 | 3439980 |
| 📘 2026-09-18 (KEKRiLL) | AnTuTu 12 | 4208433 |
| 📘 2026-09-14 -> Mi7ha | AnTuTu 12 | 4485552 |
| 📘 2026-09-05 (Pavel) | AnTuTu 11 | 3959848 |
Memory
| RAM size | 12 GB | 12 GB |
| Memory type | LPDDR5X | LPDDR5X |
| Memory clock | - | 5300 MHz |
| Channels | 4 | 4 |
| 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 | HyperOS 4 | One UI 8.5 |
| OS size | - | 33.2 GB |
| OS updates | 6 years | 7 years |
| Security updates | 6 years | 7 years |
Battery
| Capacity | 8500 mAh | 5000 mAh |
| Max charge power | 100 W | 60 W |
| Battery type | Silicon-Carbon (Si/C) | Li-Ion |
| Replaceable | No | No |
| Wireless charging | Yes (50 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 |
| Web browsing | - | 10:12 hr |
| Watching video | - | 21:39 hr |
| Gaming | - | 06:42 hr |
| Standby | - | 130 hr |
General battery life
Smartphones With Long Battery Life (#66th place)
Main camera
| Matrix | 200 megapixels | 200 megapixels |
| Image resolution | - | 16320 x 12240 |
| Zoom | Optical, 3.2x | Optical, 5x |
| Flash | Dual LED | LED |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| 8K video recording | Up to 30FPS | Up to 30FPS |
| 4K video recording | Up to 120FPS | Up to 120FPS |
| 1080p video recording | Up to 60FPS | Up to 240FPS |
| Slow motion | 1920 FPS (720p) | 240 FPS (1080p) |
| Angle of widest lens | 102° | 120° |
| Lenses | 1) Standard: 200 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 - RAW support |
- Bokeh mode - Pro mode - RAW support |
| Image resolution | 200 MP | 200 MP |
| Aperture | f/1.7 | f/1.4 |
| Focal length | 23 mm | 23 mm |
| Sensor | - | Samsung ISOCELL S5KHP2 |
| Sensor size | 1/1.28" (≈ 0.78 inch) | 1/1.3" (≈ 0.77 inch) |
| Pixel size | 0.61 micron | 0.6 micron |
| Autofocus | Laser autofocus | Laser autofocus |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| Image resolution | 200 MP | 50 MP |
| Aperture | f/2.4 | f/2.9 |
| Focal length | 75 mm | 111 mm |
| Sensor | Samsung ISOCELL HP5 | Sony IMX854 |
| Sensor size | 1/1.56" (≈ 0.64 inch) | 1/2.52" (≈ 0.4 inch) |
| Pixel size | 0.8 micron | 0.7 micron |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| Image resolution | 50 MP | 50 MP |
| Aperture | f/2.4 | f/1.9 |
| Focal length | 17 mm | 13 mm |
| Sensor | OmniVision OV50M40 | Samsung ISOCELL S5KJN3 |
| Sensor size | 1/2.88" (≈ 0.35 inch) | 1/2.5" (≈ 0.4 inch) |
| Pixel size | 0.61 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/2.2 | f/2.2 |
| Focal length | 21 mm | 23 mm |
| Sensor | OmniVision OV50M40 | Samsung ISOCELL S5K3LU |
| Sensor size | 1/2.88" (≈ 0.35 inch) | 1/3.2" (≈ 0.31 inch) |
| Pixel size | 0.61 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 |
| Number of SIM* | 2 | 1 |
| Type of SIM card | Nano | Nano |
| Multi SIM mode | Standby | Standby |
| eSIM support* | No | Yes |
| Hybrid slot | No | No |
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
Sound
| Speakers | 2.1 | Stereo |
| Headphone audio jack | No | No |
| FM radio | No | No |
| Dolby Atmos | Yes | 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 | - Barometer - 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, 100 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 Xiaomi 18 Pro Max. But if the display, design, and sound are more of a priority – go for the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.
Cast your vote
Total votes: 5