iPhone 14 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra: Which should you buy?

Apple unveiled the iPhone 14 series last week. The new models, especially the Pro ones, pack a lot of new features, including an always-on display mode, pill-shaped ‘Dynamic Island’ notch, a 48MP primary camera sensor, and more. The series has been available for pre-order (you can find the best deals right here) since the last week, and a few recent reports indicate that the iPhone 14 Pro Max is gaining the most attraction out of all the models, with a lot of customers interested in buying it.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra from Samsung is another device that is available at around the same price as an iPhone 14 Pro Max. It packs a lot of comparable features and specs, making it a worthy iPhone 14 Pro Max competitor. So, in this article, we take a close look at the two premium flagships from Apple and Samsung and find out which smartphone deserves a place in your pocket.

Technical Specifications

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Design

Starting off with the design, the iPhone 14 Pro Max still looks eerily similar to its predecessor, at least from the back. The squared-edge design is here to stay, and the smartphone still comes with stainless steel side rails and Ceramic Shield protection on the front and the back. The changes include a couple of new colors and an even bigger camera array that houses the new 48MP primary sensor (more on this later).

On the front, it’s a totally different story. Apple has gotten rid of the notch on the iPhone 14 Pro, and the smartphone ships with a ‘Dynamic Island’ notch up top. The new pill-shaped notch enables new ways to interact with the iPhone and enables users to check important alerts, notifications, and activities.

Moving onto the Galaxy S22 Ultra, the premium smartphone from Samsung doesn’t come with the Contour Cut design like the other smartphones of the S22 series. Instead, it features a flat top and bottom with heavy curves on the sides, which was first seen in the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. There is no separate camera module. Instead, each individual sensor protrudes from the back, making a small cluster on the top left corner.

Just like the iPhone 14 Pro Max, Samsung has given the back Gorilla Glass Victus Plus glass a hazy finish, which is contrasted with a glossy tone on the metal rails. Moving to the front, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra also comes with a small punch-hole cutout that houses its selfie camera. It, however, doesn’t come with interactive features like the iPhone 14 Pro Max’s Dynamic Island notch. Before we move to the display department, it’s worth pointing out that both smartphones come with IP68 dust and water resistance.

Display

Bringing your focus to the displays, Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra features a large 6.8-inch display with a hole punch. In comparison, iPhone 14 Pro Max features a slightly smaller 6.7-inch panel. Despite the new Dynamic Island notch, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra boasts a higher screen-to-body ratio of 90.2 percent.

Both smartphones feature OLED panels with great contrast ratios, adaptive 120Hz refresh rate, high resolution, and enough brightness to make outdoor usage a hassle-free experience. Since the panel can now go as low as 1Hz, Apple has finally added the always-on mode to the iPhone 14 Pro Max. This feature, on the other hand, has been available on Samsung flagships, including the Galaxy S22 Ultra, for quite a while now.

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra also boasts support for the S-Pen. If you’re looking for productivity features and want to make the most out of your smartphone’s display, Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is the undoubted choice. But if it is the display quality that you are looking for, both phones will not disappoint!

Processor

Apple has led the chipset race in the past few years, and the A16 Bionic found on the iPhone 14 Pro Max further widens the gap. Apple is promising up to 40 percent better CPU performance compared to its Android counterparts, and the GPU has also improved from the last time. The A16 Bionic also comes with a new 16-core Neural Engine that can perform nearly 17 trillion operations per second, resulting in better AI and ML capabilities.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra also has a powerful SoC behind it — though your experience can vary based on whether your phone uses a chipset from Qualcomm or one from Samsung. Despite a few early reports of overheating and sluggish performance, Samsung has (mostly) fixed all the bugs of the S22 Ultra, and the phone now runs smoothly.

Rest assured, you won’t notice much of a difference between the iPhone 14 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra’s performance in day-to-day usage, and both smartphones will be able to handle any task you throw at them with ease.

Camera

With the iPhone 14 Pro Max, Apple has finally caught up with its Android competitors as the smartphone now comes with a 48MP sensor (the previous few generations featured a 12MP sensor). It also features a better ultra-wide and telephoto lens than the last generation. Apple promises a multifold leap in low-light and day-to-day camera performance, thanks to the new sensors and the next-generation computational photography engine.

Nonetheless, we are not going to make our judgment solely based on price and specs. We’ll soon be going hands-on with the iPhone 14 Pro Max to check out all the new features and its camera, so make sure you stay tuned to Pocketnow!

On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra features a 108MP primary camera. Samsung, just like Apple, is making use of pixel-binning technology on the primary sensor to churn out 12MP images out of the 108MP sensor. The primary sensor is coupled with a 12MP ultra-wide sensor and a pair of 10MP telephoto cameras, each with different levels of optical zoom. We’re really impressed with the cameras of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, and you can find out our thoughts on the same in our full review.

Battery

Gone are the days when iPhone users needed to carry chargers in their bags or pockets. Most modern iPhones, especially the Pro Max models, offer excellent battery life despite featuring a 120Hz refresh rate display. While we don’t have the knowledge of the exact battery size of the iPhone 14 Pro Max, we’d expect similar or nearly identical results as the iPhone 13 Pro Max. There’s a chance that the battery may be ever so slightly better, but it’s too early to tell, and we’ll have to conduct more tests.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra, on the other hand, features a 5000 mAh cell that will last you through a whole day of use. It boasts a higher charging speed of 45W, which Samsung claims can charge the device from 0-100% in about an hour. Similar to the iPhone 14 Pro Max, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra also features 15W wireless charging. It also boasts support for reverse wireless charging, using which you can charge your Qi-compatible accessories, such as the company’s own Galaxy Buds 2, by just placing it on the back of your phone. This feature is not available on the iPhone 14 Pro Max.