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Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra vs Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max

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Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra vs Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max

76 out of 100
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
VS
89 out of 100
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.8-inch Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (with Exynos 2100) that was released on January 14, 2021, against the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max, which is powered by Apple A17 Pro and came out 33 months after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

  1. Differences
  2. Review
  3. Specs
  4. Benchmarks
  5. Battery life
  6. Camera
  7. Comments

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
  • The rear camera has a 10x optical zoom
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • Comes with 578 mAh larger battery capacity: 5000 vs 4422 mAh
  • Has 2 SIM card slots
  • 12% higher pixel density (515 vs 460 PPI)
  • CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max
  • 84% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1530K versus 833K)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
  • Apple releases software updates and supports their phones a few years longer than Samsung
  • More energy-efficient CPU – Apple A17 Pro
  • 2.3x faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 3281 and 1458 points

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max 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

Value for money

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests
Phone:
Galaxy S21 Ultra
vs
iPhone 15 Pro Max

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED OLED
Size 6.8 inches 6.7 inches
Resolution 1440 x 3200 pixels 1290 x 2796 pixels
Aspect ratio 20:9 19.5:9
PPI 515 ppi 460 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes Yes
Max rated brightness 1500 nits 2000 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR - 1600 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, Dolby Vision
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus Ceramic Shield
Screen-to-body ratio 89.8% 89.8%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display 		- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
Peak brightness test (auto)

Design and build

Height 165.1 mm (6.5 inches) 159.9 mm (6.3 inches)
Width 75.6 mm (2.98 inches) 76.7 mm (3.02 inches)
Thickness 8.9 mm (0.35 inches) 8.25 mm (0.32 inches)
Weight 227 g (8.01 oz) 221 g (7.8 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Black, Silver, Gray, Blue White, Black, Silver, Blue
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display No
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Tests of Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max in the benchmarks
SoC
Chipset Samsung Exynos 2100 Apple A17 Pro
Max clock 2840 MHz 3780 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 3 + 4) 6 (2 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 2.2 GHz: Cortex-A55
- 3 cores at 2.81 GHz: Cortex-A78
- 1 core at 2.91 GHz: Cortex-X1 		- 4 cores at 2.02 GHz:
- 2 cores at 3.78 GHz:
Lithography process 5 nanometers 3 nanometers
Graphics Mali-G78 MP14 Apple A17 GPU
GPU shading units 896 768
GPU clock 854 MHz 1398 MHz
FLOPS ~1530.4 GFLOPS ~2147.2 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
AnTuTu Benchmark 10
CPU 236566 420892
GPU 255535 553020
Memory 157504 219823
UX 183564 328863
Total score 833650 1530820
3DMark Wild Life Performance
Max surface temperature 40.8 °C -
Stability 69% -
Graphics test 31 FPS -
Graphics score 5221 -

Memory

RAM
RAM size 12, 16 GB 8 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR5
Memory clock 2750 MHz -
Channels 2 4
Storage
Storage size 128, 256, 512 GB 256, 512, 1024 GB
Storage type UFS 3.1 NVMe
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 11 (Can be upgraded to Android 13) iOS 17
ROM One UI 5.1 -
OS size 26.4 GB -

Battery

Capacity 5000 mAh 4422 mAh
Max charge power 25 W 30 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes (7.5 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes
Fast charging Yes (54% in 30 min) Yes (50% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:11 hr -
Battery life tests
Web browsing 10:13 hr -
Watching video 15:32 hr -
Gaming 05:26 hr -
Standby 98 hr -
General battery life

Camera

Specs and camera test of smartphones
Main camera
Matrix 108 megapixels 48 megapixels
Image resolution 12000 x 9000 8000 x 6000
Zoom Optical, 10x Optical, 5x
Flash Dual LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 24FPS No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (720p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 120° 120°
Lenses 4 (108 MP + 10 MP + 10 MP + 12 MP) 4 (48 MP + 12.7 MP + 13.4 MP)
Wide (main) lens - 108 MP
- Aperture: f/1.8
- Focal length: 26 mm
- Pixel size: 0.8 micron
- Sensor: 1/1.33", Samsung S5KHM3 (ISOCELL Plus CMOS)
- Laser autofocus
- Optical stabilization
- 48 MP
- Aperture: f/1.8
- Focal length: 24 mm
- Sensor: 1/1.28", Sony IMX803 (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
Telephoto lens - 10 MP
- Aperture: f/4.9
- Focal length: 240 mm
- Pixel size: 1.22 micron
- Sensor: 1/2.65", Samsung S5K3J1 (ISOCELL CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
- 12.7 MP
- Aperture: f/2.8
- Focal length: 85 mm
- Pixel size: 1.12 micron
- Sensor: 1/1.9" (CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
Ultra-wide lens - 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.2
- Focal length: 13 mm
- Pixel size: 1.4 micron
- Sensor: 1/2.55", Sony IMX563 (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- 13.4 MP
- Aperture: f/2.2
- Focal length: 13 mm
- Pixel size: 1.4 micron
- Sensor: 1/2.55"
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Depth lens - Yes
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support 		- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra from DxOMark -
Selfie camera
Megapixels 40 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 7864 x 5200 4032 x 3024
Aperture f/2.2 f/1.9
Focal length 26 mm 23 mm
Pixel size 0.7 microns -
Sensor type ISOCELL CMOS -
Sensor size 1/2.65" 1/3.6"
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS

DxOMark camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic camera score

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
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 5.2 5.3
Bluetooth features LE, A2DP LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 3.2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- USB-Host mode
- OTG 		- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC
NFC * Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM * 2 1
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby -
eSIM support * Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat * 24 20
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 January 2021 September 2023
Release date February 2021 September 2023
SAR (head) 0.71 W/kg -
SAR (body) 1.58 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
* Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max is definitely a better buy.

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