Compare Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max vs. Samsung Galaxy S22
The iPhone 14 Pro Max is here. It's the best that we have from Apple. How does it compare to one of the best Android smartphones of 2022, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra? And that's exactly what we're going to be finding out in this bog by comparing all of the key differences between these devices. Let's initially start with the build and design. So overall, both are very premium and both are very good-looking devices with this matte finish across all of the different colors. The iPhone is available in four colors, gold, silver space black, as well as this deep purple, which I am risking. The S22 Ultra is also available in four official colors. We've got white, black, and green, which we have here, as well as burgundy. However, there are some additional exclusive colors you can get directly from samsung.com. Now, for the build, the S22 Ultra has an aluminum frame, and the iPhone has a stainless steel frame. So stainless steel is a little bit more premium. But in terms of the glass, we've got Gorilla Glass Victus Plus on the S22 Ultra. The iPhone has ceramic shields on the front, and what's Apple called the toughest glass on any smartphone at the back. Now, I'm not somebody who's going to do any drop tests. In my experience, both of these are very premium and very durable. Both devices are also water and dust resistant, we've got an IP68 rating. However, you can submerge the iPhone in water deeper compared to the S22 Ultra. You can do it up to six meters versus 1.5 meters. Now, I'm not sure how useful that's going to be to you if you're taking your device for a swim, but, hey, good to know. Now, with the iPhone 14 Pro Max, it looks pretty much the same as the iPhone 13 Pro Max, so you're not getting much of a design upgrade, shall we say. The S22 Ultra looks quite a bit different compared to the S21 Ultra, so it is a bit more refreshed. We've got flat sides on the iPhone 14 Pro Max, which I like because it means I can prop this up on a table without having to put anything behind it. The S22 Ultra has symmetrical curved sides that go from the back to the front. And even though the S22 Ultra is slightly larger in terms of height, width, and thickness, it doesn't feel any bigger. And that's also thanks to the fact that it weighs slightly less compared to the iPhone 14 Pro Max. And that brings us nicely onto the displays. We have beautiful displays on both devices. The S22 Ultra does have a slightly larger 6.8-inch display versus the 6.7-inch display on the iPhone. Both displays are using OLED technology, so colors are very vibrant. They're both very bright as well, and also very sharp. Now, the S22 Ultra is a tad sharper, it's not something that you're going to notice much in your day-to-day, but the iPhone is now brighter compared to the S22 Ultra, which is something that I wasn't expecting. We've got a peak brightness of 2,000 nits outdoors, which makes this the brightest display on any smartphone out right now. Now, that might not be a huge deal for a lot of people, but it is a big plus for me, because I'm always wearing these, and especially when it's a sunny day outdoors, it makes a difference. And we have an adaptive refresh rate on both devices up to 120 Hertz, making everything smooth, but both are using LTPO technology, which means that they can go all the way down to one Hertz, which is going to makes them more efficient. As well as that, it means that both can have Always On displays. Yes, the iPhone finally has an Always On display. If you've been watching me here on the channel, you'll know that I've been complaining about this for many, many years. Now, it's finally here, and it's quite different from the S22 Ultra. So with the S22 Ultra, I do quite like it. You get little icons for notifications, and you can see which apps those have come from. And you do have some customization, you can choose from lots of different clock styles, and you can also specify when you want the Always On display to come on and off. On the iPhone, you can pretty much switch the Always On display on or off. You can't specify times. It's going to work things out automatically. When you're sleeping, it's going to turn off by itself. If it's in your pocket, it's going to know it's in your pocket, and it's going to switch off. And it does offer a lot of customization, and that's because it's essentially your lock screen, just dimmed down. So including your wallpaper will be displayed on the full Always On, whereas on the S22 Ultra, if you don't want to have an image, it's just going to take up a small section. So both of these have advantages and disadvantages. Personally speaking, I do like them both. Now, looking at the screen-to-body ratio, we do have a higher screen-to-body ratio on the S22 Ultra, because we do have slightly smaller bezels, as well as a very small punch out. Now, on the iPhone 14 Pro Max, the bezels are slightly smaller compared to the iPhone 13 Pro Max. And finally, we no longer have a notch, we have what Apple is calling a Dynamic Island, which is this pill-shaped cutout here in the middle. Now, this does take up more space compared to the small punch-outs on the S22 Ultra, however, it does bring in lots of new functionality. I've covered this in previous videos, but essentially, you're going to be able to have music playing here at the top, which you can then long-press an action, or you can have some shortcuts on here. You can have a separate bubble displaying a stopwatch, or if you're on a call. And overall, I am quite liking this Dynamic Island, because it's a different implementation that we haven't seen before. So overall, excellent displays on both devices, some of the best out there in the market. I don't think you can go wrong with either. Traditionally, it's been an easy win for Samsung because the iPhone has generally not been as bright, and it's had that notch, but Apple has really stepped up the display game this year, and I can safely say that this time, it is a draw. Now, one of the reasons why we have this larger pill-shaped cutout on the iPhone is because of Face ID. So Face ID is still here, and it works as expected, it's very fast. It also now works with a mask, which it didn't do previously, and it's something that I was feeding back for a long time. The S22 Ultra has an under-display fingerprint scanner. It's an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, which in my opinion, is the best under-display fingerprint scanner on a mainstream flagship. And realistically speaking, you can't go wrong with either. Both of these works well. Traditionally, I used to favor the S22 Ultra for the fingerprint scanner because I used to have issues when wearing a mask with Face ID, but now that Apple has updated this, it's not too much of an issue. Right, next up, let's talk about the cameras. But to give you a summary, we do have an ultra-wide camera on both, a primary sensor, which is now a larger size sensor on the iPhone, as well as a three times telephoto camera. The S22 Ultra does have an additional periscope zoom camera, which will give you up to 10 times optical zoom. And generally speaking, I think you can't go wrong with either of these cameras. They both take amazing images and videos. With the S22 Ultra, you do get that versatility of focal lens, and that zoom is, I would say, one of the best out there. In my opinion, you also get a better ultra-wide camera with better dynamic range, and you get the best edge detection I've tested on any smartphone. With the iPhone, I think you get an overall more consistent package. With better low-light performance, especially in the video.
And the iPhone, once again, is still
king in video with great dynamic range, exceptional stabilization, especially
with the new action mode, and a very usable cinematic video mode, where it's
going to blur the background. I was impressed with this I know a lot of you
guys are going to ask me, which one of these would I pick up for an overall
camera package for photos, videos, and all of the different features? And for
me, it would be the iPhone 14 Pro Max. Are you happy? Right, now, let's move on
to the performance. The iPhone 14 Pro Max is powered by Apple's A16 Bionic
chip, and the S22 Ultra is going to be powered by either the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8
Gen 1 or the Samsung Exynos 2200 depending on your region. You do get more RAM
on the S22 Ultra, and in my experience, both of these are amazing, they've got
no issues whatsoever, and have handled everything that I've thrown at them. Now,
I'm not somebody who's going to go detailed into benchmarks and looking at
frame rates, and things like that. I would say that the iPhone 14 Pro Max will
get a bit of an edge because it does have a newer chipset. The S22 Ultra has
the 8 Gen 1, which came out earlier. We do now have the 8+ Gen 1 on many other
devices. And performance will also come down to the software. And of course, we
have iOS versus Android. I won’t go into debates between these two, and it's
come to a point where you really can't go wrong with either OS. I think it's
going to come down to which ecosystem you prefer and want to get into. Obviously,
with the iPhone, you're going to have things like iMessage and Airdrop, and I
do like some of the new features that have come with iOS 16, such as the remove
background feature. The S22 Ultra, it's tied in well with the Samsung
ecosystem. So if you do have other Samsung devices, you'll also enjoy that
experience. Once again, I think this is going to come down to personal
preference. I know a lot of you hate it when I say that, but that is the case. Now,
looking at the speakers, we've got stereo speakers on both devices.
There's one speaker in the earpiece and
one bottom-firing. And both sound real, really good to me. I don't want to
spoil it too much, but I think the edge does overall go to the iPhone 14 Pro
Max. Let's now talk about some of the additional features you'll get on both devices, which you're not going to find on many others. So with the
S22 Ultra, you have the S Pen, which is now enclosed within the
device. The Samsung Galaxy S series traditionally has not had an S Pen, although,
on the S21 series, you could buy it separately. They seem to have merged the
Note with the S series, and we've got the S22 Ultra. I'm personally a big fan
of the S Pen. I love it for just some quick doodling, some photo editing, or if
you want to sign a document when you're out and about. I don't use it all the
time, but when I do use it, it is so useful to have. You've got a 2.8-millisecond
latency, which makes this very, very smooth, and it's such a unique experience which
I do appreciate. The S22 Ultra also has DeX support. So you'll be able to
wirelessly connect this to a display. Use your S22 Ultra as a trackpad, and get
a desktop experience. Now, the iPhone has some unique features of its own. We
now have Crash Detection, so in the unfortunate event that you are in a car
crash, the iPhone has sensors, which will detect this, and if you don't
respond, it can contact emergency services on your behalf, which is useful. It
also has emergency SOS via satellite. So if you are in the middle of nowhere, you've
got no reception, and you need to contact emergency services, it's going to be
able to show you where the satellites are, connect to them, and send those
emergency messages. Now, initially, it's only going to be available in the US
and Canada, but hopefully should be coming to other areas soon, and it's going
to be included for two years. After which, I believe there's going to be some
sort of subscription model Now, I have to mention that we have different ports
on these. The S22 Ultra has the more universal USB Type-C, and the iPhone 14
Pro Max still has a lightning cable, which I'm not too happy about. I mean, a
lot of other Apple devices such as the iPads and the MacBook all use the USB
Type-C universal port. And it's so annoying when I have to carry a lightning
cable when I am traveling. So USB Type-C is the way, and I believe Apple may be
forced to use USB Type-C by Europe very, very soon. We'll see next year, however,
they say it is still lightning. Now, if you are based in the US, you will no
longer have a physical SIM card tray for the iPhone, you will be having to use
eSIM only. It's a pretty straightforward process, but it's something that
you'll have to get used to. You do have a physical SIM card tray on the S22
Ultra. Right, now, let's talk about batteries and charging. So the S22 Ultra
does have a larger physical battery, but, of course, it's not all about size, depending
on the context. And in this context, the iPhone does have better battery life
in my experience. I'd say I'm getting around about 20% better battery life on
the iPhone 14 Pro Max versus the S22 Ultra. Now, for charging, the S22 Ultra
does get the advantage, although neither of these comes with a charger out of
the box. It does support faster charging up to 45 watts versus 20 watts. So on
the S22 Ultra, you can get a 50% charge in around 20 minutes, whereas on the
iPhone 14 Pro Max, that's going to be more like around 30 minutes. Now, both of
these do support wireless charging. You have up to 15 watts of wireless
charging on the S22 Ultra. On the iPhone 14 Pro Max, you've got 7.5 watts using
a standard Qi wireless charger. But if you do want to use Apple's proprietary
MagSafe charger, you can get up to 15 watts. I do like MacSafe, it just snaps onto
the back, and you don't have to have a situation where you've not placed your
smartphone on a wireless charger correctly. But then again, it is proprietary, it's
not just your standard, which I do prefer. The S22 Ultra also does have
Wireless PowerShare, so you'll be able to charge things like earbuds on the
back of the S22 Ultra. And it's not something that I have used much at all, but
it might be useful in some situations. Right, finally, let's look at the
storage versions and pricing. So both of these are available in the same
storage variants, 128, 256, and 512 gigabytes, as well as a massive one-terabyte
version. Now, if you do look at the launch prices of the S22 Ultra, it is
priced higher in the US compared to the iPhone, but lower in the UK compared to
the iPhone. Apple has increased the price of the new iPhone 14 quite a bit in
the UK and other regions. And I'm not sure why this is, but it is a little bit
unfortunate for us living here in the UK. And with the S22 Ultra, because it
has been out for a few months now, you can get it lower than what it initially
came out for. I've seen it for around about 900 to 8,000 pounds depending on
where you get it. And Samsung also is offering lots of really good trading
deals, as well as additional credit using my affiliate link down in the description.
You don't have to use it if you don't want to, but if you are going to get an
S22 Ultra, you may as well. So overall, you will be paying less in most regions
for the S22 Ultra, and now that it is a few months old compared to the iPhone
14 Pro Max. And that is the detailed comparison between the iPhone 14 Pro Max and
the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. Personally speaking, I like both devices. I think
they've both got their advantages and disadvantages. But it's never been closer.
I love to see this competition, What do you guys think? Which one of these
would you pick? Do let me know in the comments below.
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