Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max vs. Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra | Infinium-tech

A fight as old as the term smartphone itself – Apple vs. Samsung has always been a spectacle whether it’s advertising, fan base, features or hardware. So, here is the latest one for you – we put the most recent Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max next to latest Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Table of Contents:

For starters, you can compare the complete specs sheets or directly continue with our editor’s assessment in the following text.

Size comparison

The iPhone 18 Pro Max features a refined iteration of Apple’s distinctive design language, combining multi-textured elements in a cohesive chassis. The phone comes with Ceramic Shield 2 front, aluminum unibody and a Ceramic Shield 1st Gen over the wireless charging coil at the back. The iPhone is IP68-rated, but Apple promises it can survive for 30 minutes in 6m-deep water.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra takes a decidedly no-nonsense approach, boasting one of the cleanest and most stylish designs on the market. It has flat Gorilla Armor 2 at the front and flat Gorilla Glass Victus 2 at the back. The frame and the chassis are made of aluminum. The device carries a standard IP68 rating, ensuring water resistance up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes.

Both smartphones have similar footprints as evident by their measurements, but the Galaxy S26 Ultra is noticeably lighter at 214g vs. the monstrous 249g for the iPhone.

Winner: Galaxy S26 Ultra for its clean looks and lighter body.

Display comparison

The iPhone 18 Pro Max packs a 6.9-inch LTPO OLED screen with 1320 x 2868 pixels (460ppi), dynamic 120Hz refresh rate, Dolby Vision and HDR10 support. It has a pill-shaped notch and is protected by Ceramic Shield 2 with oleophobic coating.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra features a 6.9-inch LTPO OLED screen with a higher resolution with 1440 x 3120 pixels or 500ppi, dynamic 120Hz refresh rate, and HDR10+ support. The panel has a small punch-hole, features Gorilla Armor 2 protection, and also offers DX anti-reflective coating plus Privacy Display feature.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra offers higher maximum automatic brightness at 1,480nits vs. 969 nits for the iPhone 18 Pro Max. The peak brightness of both devices is rather similar at about 2,800 nits.

Winner: Galaxy S26 Ultra. While both screens are feast for the eyes, the one on the Galaxy has a higher resolution, a smaller cutout, and the Privacy Display feature.

Battery life

The iPhone 18 Pro Max is powered by a 5,391mAh battery, while the Galaxy S26 Ultra packs a 5,000mAh battery cell. The phones feature different screen panels and chipsets, though, so endurance is not all about capacity.

The iPhone 18 Pro Max achived an Active Use Rating of 19:20h, while the Galaxy S26 Ultra posted a 16:22h score. The iPhone did better across all on-screen tests – web browsing, video streaming, gaming.

Winner: iPhone 18 Pro Max.

Charging speed

The iPhone 18 Pro Max supports up to 54W wired charging and up to 25W wireless charging.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra supports up to 60W wired and up to 25W wireless charging. It also supports reverse wireless charging, something Apple failed to deliver.

The iPhone and the Galaxy reach 50% of charge in 15 minutes, and north of 80% in 30 minutes. A full charge is achieved 12 minutes faster on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, though.

Winner: Tie. Both phones recharge equally fast in the first 30 minutes, which are the ones that matter the most.

Speaker test

Both the iPhone 18 Pro Max and the Galaxy S26 Ultra offer stereo speakers and they both scored a Very Good mark on our loudness test.

Furthermore, both phones sound almost the same with equally rich and deep audio output.

Winner: Galaxy S26 Ultra, but only if you care about full charge times.

Performance

The iPhone 18 Pro Max is powered by the Apple A20 Pro chip built on a 2nm process. Apple touts its desktop-class CPU cores, a more powerful GPU, twice as many Neural Engine cores, and a 50% increase in memory bandwidth.

The A20 Pro features a 6-core processor with 2x Super Cores clocked at 4.93GHz and 4x Efficient Cores clocked at 2.64GHz. The Apple GPU now has a 7-core design, with Apple promising up to 40% faster performance compared to the A19 Pro. The Neural Engine now has 32 cores, up from 16 on the A19 Pro, promising a substantial boost to AI performance. And the whole thing is being cooled by a much larger vapor chamber system.

The iPhone is available with 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB of storage. All of them come with 12GB RAM.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra employs an overclocked version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 with a faster 8-core CPU and Adreno GPU than the standard model, and that’s why Samsung calls it SD 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, version SM8850-AD. The “AD” suffix indicates that the main 2x Oryon V3 Phoenix L cores are clocked at 4.74 GHz instead of 4.6 GHz. The rest of the 6x Oryon V3 Phoenix M cores remain at 3.62 GHz.

The Adreno 840 GPU is also supposedly clocked higher. The AD version of the SoC should have its Adreno 840 clocked at 1300 MHz, as opposed to 1200 MHz on the vanilla AC version.

The available memory configurations for the Galaxy are 12GB/256GB, 12GB/512GB and 16GB/1TB.

Benchmark performance

All things considered, it seems that these two devices do come with the best possible hardware this year.

Our tests showed a small advantage for the Apple chip in the raw CPU and GPU performance. The iPhone scores more AI points in AI benchmarks thanks to its powerful Neural Engine. And finally, it also offers better sustained performance than the Galaxy (per our reviews).

Winner: iPhone 18 Pro Max.

Camera comparison

The iPhone 18 Pro Max doesn’t bring much of a change to the camera system compared to the previous model (the variable aperture makes less of a difference than Apple would have you believe) and the 18 Pro Max is a lot like the 17 Pro Max. That is also the case with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which is more or less on par with its predecessor. So, we’re looking at another iteration or more or less the same comparison between two camera systems that are different, but also very similar.

Both feature roughly comparable cameras – what matters most is sensor size, and the one on the Galaxy is specced at 1/1.3″ while Apple lists the Pro Max’s at 1/1.28″. So what if Samsung’s is 200MP and Apple’s is 48MP? The Galaxy doesn’t have a changeable aperture, instead being ‘stuck’ at f/1.4, while the iPhone’s wide open setting is f/1.48 and it can stop down to f/4.0 (f/1.8 and f/2.8 are also available).

The parity continues on the ultrawides, where both phones use similarly-sized sensors (1/2.5″) and pretty extreme lenses. Both phones feature telephotos around the 100mm mark – Samsung’s is 111mm and they’re calling it 5x zoom, while Apple is going for a 100mm equivalent and a 4x label. The Galaxy also has a 3x zoom camera which has never really been much of an asset.

Both phones feature proven selfie cameras, though the one on the iPhone does sound more impressive – an 18MP multi-aspect sensor that can take landscape photos when you’re holding the phone vertically (works the other way around too), plus it’s got a wide-angle, 20mm-equivalent lens. The Galaxy has a more conventional 12MP sensor and a 23mm lens (still plenty wide).

Image quality

Daylight

Predictably, both phones will get you excellent daytime shots at 1x, though they have their differences. For one, the iPhone defaults to 24MP and it just might resolve a little more actual detail, but the difference is hardly dramatic and the Galaxy’s 12MP images still have plenty of definition. Both have likeable colors, with the iPhone leaning slightly warm in its white balance and the Galaxy having a bit of extra saturation, particularly in greenery. Dynamic range is excellent on both. There’s hardly any objective winner here.

Daylight comparison, main camera (1x): iPhone 18 Pro Max • Galaxy S26 Ultra

2x is hardly the Galaxy’s forte, but it still does alright. The iPhone is superior here, though – certainly in the more natural way it renders fine detail, but possibly also in the amount of detail that it resolves.

Daylight comparison, main camera (2x): iPhone 18 Pro Max • Galaxy S26 Ultra

The Galaxy’s 3x zoom camera is decent at best, but it’s probably of some use if you want to bridge the gap between 2x and 5x, particularly when accounting for the so-so 2x performance.

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (3x): Galaxy S26 Ultra

Comparing the iPhone’s 4x zoom camera and the Galaxy’s 5x telephoto can be a little difficult because of the slightly different focal length and the 24MP vs 12MP resolution. The iPhone isn’t stellar on a pixel level in 24MP at 4x and the Galaxy’s images look better at 1:1. Ultimately, they both probably capture the same amount of detail, it’s just that the S26 Ultra’s shots are easier to like.

Daylight comparison, telephoto camera: iPhone 18 Pro Max (4x) • Galaxy S26 Ultra (5x)

At twice the nominal zoom level, the Galaxy’s 10x shots in bright conditions are substantially better than the iPhone’s 8x ones. The Galaxy quickly falls apart in dimmer settings though – indoors it’s the iPhone that has the upper hand.

Daylight comparison, telephoto camera: iPhone 18 Pro Max (8x) • Galaxy S26 Ultra (10x)

The ultrawides return photos with essentially the same detail levels even though the iPhone insists on using twice as many megapixels for its take. The Galaxy’s greenery is once again more lush than the iPhone’s, but it’s hardly a purchase decision-altering difference.

Daylight comparison, ultrawide camera: iPhone 18 Pro Max (0.5x) • Galaxy S26 Ultra (0.6x)

Low light

Aggressive Night mode-style processing isn’t what either of these phones is keen on doing in the dark and those conservative approaches can be detrimental to image quality, particularly on the Galaxy, broadly speaking.

Even so, both the iPhone and the Galaxy will get you good low-light photos at 1x in full auto. The iPhone’s default results tend to be sharper and more detailed than the Galaxy’s, though it’s not a huge difference.

Low-light comparison, main camera (1x), full auto: iPhone 18 Pro Max • Galaxy S26 Ultra

The Galaxy’s dedicated Night mode can sharpen its output but we’ve seen it alter white balance and generally do weird things with colors, so we’re not sure it’s the better idea.

Low-light comparison, main camera (1x), Night mode: Galaxy S26 Ultra

At 2x zoom, the Galaxy is sort of keeping up with the iPHone in the better-lit scenes, but in darker settings the iPhone has a more significant advantage.

Low-light comparison, main camera (2x), full auto: iPhone 18 Pro Max • Galaxy S26 Ultra

If you force the Galaxy to use its Night mode (or the phone deems it necessary itself), the gap gets smaller.

Low-light samples, main camera (2x), Night mode: Galaxy S26 Ultra

The Galaxy’s 3x telephoto isn’t amazing in the dark, capturing soft and gloomy images in full auto, though it does liven up in Night mode. Still, we’re not seeing it as any real advantage over the iPhone.

Low-light samples, telephoto camera (3x): Galaxy S26 Ultra

Low-light samples, telephoto camera (3x), Night mode: Galaxy S26 Ultra

Comparing the proper telephotos, we’d argue that the Galaxy tends to have an advantage in sharpness and definition.

Low-light comparison, telephoto camera, full auto: iPhone 18 Pro Max (4x) • Galaxy S26 Ultra (5x)

The Galaxy’s Night mode trades in some of that sharpness for stronger noise reduction, and it’s not necessarily a better look.

Low-light samples, telephoto camera (5x), Night mode: Galaxy S26 Ultra

At 8x/10x zoom, it’s actually probably the iPhone that has a minor edge, though it’s just another instance of not being enough to really matter.

Low-light comparison, telephoto camera, full auto: iPhone 18 Pro Max (8x) • Galaxy S26 Ultra (10x)

The Galaxy’s forced Night mode isn’t making things better – just different.

Low-light samples, telephoto camera (10x), Night mode: Galaxy S26 Ultra

On the ultrawide end, we’re liking the Galaxy’s exposures better – the iPhone’s images are pretty dim and have significant light fall off towards the edges. Detail is broadly comparable, but the Galaxy’s rendition is somewhat superior.

Low-light comparison, ultrawide camera, full auto: iPhone 18 Pro Max (0.5x) • Galaxy S26 Ultra (0.6x)

The Galaxy’s Night mode brings an additional shadow boost and is probably a little better-looking still, though it is prone to some of those false color issues we’ve been seeing.

Low-light samples, ultrawide camera (0.6x), Night mode: Galaxy S26 Ultra

Selfies

The Galaxy’s no-frills selfie camera captures excellent shots with some of the finest detail renditions out there. The iPhone isn’t as great in terms of absolute quality, but it’s still pretty good, plus you do get the convenience of shooting landscape selfies with a vertical phone.

Selfies comparison: iPhone 18 Pro Max • Galaxy S26 Ultra

Video quality

Video capabilities are also wide-ranging on the two phones. You get 4K60 all around from both the Galaxy and the iPhone, and both can do 4K24 on all cameras too. 4K120 available on the main camera and the ultrawide on the Galaxy, while the iPhone’s 4K120 is only available on the main camera on the back. For what it’s worth, the S26 Ultra also allows for 8K30 capture at 0.6x, 1x, and 5x. Dolby Vision recording is possible on both phones and both offer pro-grade codecs and recording to external storage. Some serious stuff.

The iPhone’s 4K30 videos from the ultrawide camera are noticeably sharper than on the Galaxy. The Pro Max is also slightly sharper than the Ultra when comparing main camera 4K30 footage – both at 1x and at 2x. The iPhone maintains an advantage at 4x vs. the Galaxy’s 5x camera – it captures a bit more detail and renders it in a nicer way. The 8x vs. 10x comparison also ends with an iPhone victory. In terms of global properties, it’s hard to complain about anything on either phone – both have excellent dynamic range and pleasing colors.

Daylight video screengrabs, iPhone 18 Pro Max: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 4x • 8x

Daylight video screengrabs, Galaxy S26 Ultra: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x • 5x • 10x

In the dark, the iPhone’s ultrawide is trailing behind the Galaxy’s in terms of sharpness and it runs underexposed next to the well-developed Galaxy rendition. Main camera footage is very similar from a global perspective, but the one on the iPhone is cleaner – the Galaxy has some pretty annoying chroma noise. The iPhone 4x footage is also at least a little bit sharper than the Galaxy’s 5x zoomed clips, and the iPhone is less bad when examining 8x vs 10x videos.

Low-light video screengrabs, iPhone 18 Pro Max: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 4x • 8x

Low-light video screengrabs, Galaxy S26 Ultra: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x • 5x • 10x

Winner: We’ll let you call this one, depending on which aspects of the camera performance matter more to you

Verdict

We can hardly imagine many die-hard fans of either camp jumping ship for the competitor. The iPhone 18 Pro Max represents the best Apple has to offer, and it shows: the phone delivers a superb build, an outstanding display, the fastest chip on the market, class-leading battery life, and a versatile camera setup with consistently great video output.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra does pretty much the same while adding an S-Pen into the mix. The Galaxy boasts a refined design, an exceptionally sharp OLED panel, the most capable Android processor, and some of the finest cameras around (selfies, too!). Its battery performance is not far behind the iPhone’s, and its charging speed is equally fast.

Ultimately, the choice comes down to personal workflow – pick whichever fits your needs best and ignore the brand rivalry.