Intro
Apple’s upcoming iPhone 15 Pro Max is already shaping up to be quite the important step for Cupertino. The upcoming ultra-premium flagship will be introducing a lot of changes to the established formula, and in all honesty, will be a pretty major milestone for Apple. Signature features like the mute switch and the Lightning connector are getting deprecated, while a fancy new design and a powerful new zoom camera are also making an appearance to further boost the appeal of the upcoming iPhone 15 Pro Max.
If you’re still using a Galaxy S21 Ultra but are planning to be on the lookout for a new phone in the coming months, the iPhone 15 Pro Max could definitely fall on your radar, even though it belongs to another ecosystem.
- 6.7-inch (iPhone 15 Pro Max) vs 6.8-inch (Galaxy S21 Ultra) display
- 3nm Apple A17 Bionic (iPhone 15 Pro Max) vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 (Galaxy S21 Ultra)
- 48MP (iPhone 15 Pro Max) vs 108MP (Galaxy S21 Ultra) main camera sensors
- 12MP FaceTime (iPhone 15 Pro Max) vs 40MP (Galaxy S21 Ultra) selfie camera
- 5-6X optical (iPhone 15 Pro Max) vs 3X, 10X optical zoom (Galaxy S21 Ultra)
- 27W (iPhone 15 Pro Max) vs 25W (Galaxy S21 Ultra) charging speeds
- Face ID (iPhone 15 Pro Max) vs Ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint scanner (Galaxy S21 Ultra)
Table of Contents:
Design and Size
The iPhone 15 Pro Max will come with a fancy new titanium design that will supersede the stainless steel build of previous iPhones. Titanium will make the next big iPhone lighter, but also more robust than previous iPhones. Apple has already played around with titanium, with the most recent successful experiment being the superb Apple Watch Ultra.
There will also be no Lightning port at the bottom of the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Apple was willy-nilly forced to adopt the USB Type-C standard that trickled down as an EU law, and the iPhone 15 series will be the first in line for the new port.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max will also have extremely thin display bezels, enough to crown it the phone with the thinnest bezels around. At 1.55mm thin, the iPhone’s side bezels will beat the current holder Xiaomi 13 with its 1.81mm bezels, helping the phone achieve a drastical and quite striking look.
The Dynamic Island punch-hole, the last holdout preventing us from getting a completely uninterrupted screen experience on an iPhone, will still be present on the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra was a classic candybar phone with an aluminum frame and Gorilla Glass Victus at the front and at the back, a very snazzy Contour Cut design for the rear camera island, and with a small punch-hole for the selfie camera at the front. The glass slightly curved to the sides, both at the front and at the back, boosting the ergonomics. Unlike its successors, the Galaxy S21 Ultra sadly didn’t come with an S Pen Stylus, and it didn’t come with a microSD card slot either.
| iPhone 15 Pro Max | Galaxy S21 Ultra | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Height | 159.86 mm | 165.1 mm | -5.24 mm |
| Width | 76.73 mm | 75.6 mm | +1.13 mm |
| Depth | 8.25 mm | 8.9 mm | -0.65 mm |
In terms of colors, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is likely coming in the classic Space Gray, Silver, and Gold, as well as a new deep red color that could carry the snazzy Burgundy Red name. Very posh. In the meantime, the Galaxy S21 Ultra was available in Phantom Black and Phantom Silver, while Titanium, Navy, and Brown were exclusive to the Samsung.com store.
Display Differences
We don’t expect many changes for the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s display; at least we haven’t heard of any major ones. The device will employ a 6.7-inch Liquid Retin XDR OLED display with HDR capabilities and ProMotion.
The latter will allow the phone’s display to dynamically jump between 1Hz and 120Hz of smooth screen refresh rate, allowing for a very pleasing and rewarding overall usage experience. If the iPhone 15 Pro Max display is anything like the iPhone 14 Pro Max, then we’re in for an excellent display, with lovely and vivid colors, excellent contrast and viewing angles, as well as truly superb maximum brightness that makes viewing content in bright daylight mostly effortless.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra came with a relatively sluggish ultrasonic fingerprint scanner embedded right into the display, which is generally slower than similar sensors of the optical variety. The iPhone 15 Pro Max would have anything like that; Apple will once again rely on the tried-and-true Face ID system, built right into that Dynamic Island punch-hole.
Performance and Software
Sorry, Samsung…
Apple’s next big iPhone will be coming with the 3nm Apple A17 chipset. Thanks to the denser manufacturing process, billions more transistors will fit inside the upcoming chip, greatly improving the performance but also toning down the overall energy usage for a (hopefully) efficient chipset that will boost the battery life.
Performance wouldn’t be lacking, in any way, as iPhones usually top the charts once they land, beating all other chips on the market, and we don’t expect the Apple A17 Bionic to be any different.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy S21 Ultra was available in two varieties: the US version came with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip, while the international models were powered by the Exynos 2100 chip.
Both were manufactured on a 5nm process and were generally great for everyday usage and intensive tasks, but at the time, we found them to be lacking when it comes to sustained performance due to thermal throttling. Synthetic benchmarks weren’t kind to the Samsung flagship of 2021 either.
The iPhone will arrive with 8GB of RAM, a jump from 6GB on the previous model, and will likely ship with 128, 256, 512GB, and a massive 1TB storage version. The Galaxy S21 Ultra was available with 12 or 16GB RAM, and with either 128, 256, or 512GB of native storage in different combinations. There was no microSD card slot for further expansion.
We expect that the iPhone 15 Pro Max will receive software support until 2028 at least, with the possibility for further support down the line still possible. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is already half-way through its support lifetime, as Samsung’s new policy of four major Android software updates and five years of security updates kicked off with the Galaxy S21 series in particular. So, the phone will be supported until 2025/2026, respectively.
Camera
Samsung still has the upper hand in zooming capabilities
The iPhone 14 Pro Max introduced a 48MP camera to the iPhone scene, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max will reiterate that one, though rumors have it we’ll be seeing a larger sensor. This will boost the general competency of the camera, both in good and low lighting conditions, allowing for a better camera experience overall.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy S21 Ultra came with the old 108MP camera of Samsung’s top flagships, which came with very decent autofocus, and a bevy of AI assists for the ultimate in Android phone photography in early 2021. However, the main camera of the Galaxy S21 Ultra was a bit soft in the edges, but otherwise, even in mid-2023, could pass as very decent.
New on the iPhone will be a 5X or 6X periscope zoom that will substitute the 3X telephoto lens that has been used for a few years now. This will allow Apple to foray into long zooming territory, though probably not in the same levels as the Galaxy S21 Ultra. That one came with two telephoto cameras, a 3X and a 10X, allowing for a hybrid, AI-assisted zooming up to 100X, which essentially matches the current Galaxy S23 Ultra.
Audio Quality and Haptics
We expect that the iPhone 15 Pro Max will continue the long reign of iPhones as some of the best-sounding devices around. A recurring theme with some of the latest iPhone super-flagships has been the deep and rich sound, with a noticeable bass and punch in the high freqs, allowing for a very pleasant listening experience.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra also has a stereo-speaker setup, and this one is decently loud as well, though it lacks in the mids and the bass is not as punchy. Don’t get us wrong, audio played on the phone’s speakers is extremely decent, it’s just that subsequent Galaxies have employed way more impressive speakers.
Haptics have always been a strong aspect of the iPhone lineup, and we have similar high hopes for the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S21 Ultra also had a very precise haptic feedback experience, mostly due to an excellent vibrator motor.
Battery Life and Charging
At the time, the 5,000mAh battery inside the Galaxy S21 Ultra surprised us with its better-than-expected battery life, even though the phone had a power-hungry and sharp display and not-so-efficient chip on deck. It aced our battery life tests, which aimed to recreate various usage scenarios and were conducted in a controlled environment with the display set at 200 nits. However, if you’re still using a Galaxy S21 Ultra bought close to its launch, chances are the battery life isn’t as good as it was initially, but that’s normal.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra came with 25W wired charging support, as well as up to 15W of wireless charging and reverse wireless charging. You could fully top this one up in less than 90 minutes, which is a good result, but a far cry from the fastest-charging phones on the planet. Meanwhile, chances are that the charging solution for the iPhone 15 Pro Max wouldn’t change that much, so we expect up to 27W of wired charging as well as 15W MagSafe. Both are quite slow either, so neither the Galaxy nor the iPhone will blow your socks off in terms of charging.
Specs Comparison
| iPhone 15 Pro Max | Galaxy S21 Ultra | |
|---|---|---|
| Size, weight | 159.86 x 76.73 x 8.25mm | 165.1 x 75.6 x 8.9mm |
| Screen | 6.7″ OLED 120Hz ProMotion |
6.8″ OLED QHD+ LTPO 10-120Hz |
| Processor | A17 Bionic 3nm |
Snapdragon 888 5nm Exynos 2100 |
| RAM, Storage | 8/128GB 8/256GB 8/512GB 8/1TB LPDDR5 |
12/128GB 12/256GB 16/256GB 12/512GB 16/512GB LPDDR5 |
| Cameras | 48MP main 12MP ultra 12MP 5X-6X zoom 12MP front |
108MP main 12MP ultra 10MP 3X zoom 10MP 10X zoom 40MP front |
| Battery | 4323 mAh* | 5000 mAh |
| Charging | USB-C 27W wired MagSafe |
USB-C 25W wired 15W wireless 4.5W reverse wireless charging |
*-anticipated capacity
Summary and Final Verdict
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is shaping up to be quite a better device than the Galaxy S21 Ultra, but that’s mostly natural. After all, one of these will be two-and-a-half years old when the other even gets announced.
At $1,199, the Galaxy S21 Ultra was quite pricey at the time, but it was arguably one of the top phone available in 2021, jam-packed with tech that is still ahead of your average flagship phone even in mid-2023.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is shaping up to be another spectacular Apple flagship that could surely lure away many iOS fans using older iPhones to upgrade. And rightly so: even though Apple is rumored to increase the starting price to $1,199, there’s lots of hardware features that sound like more than worthy improvements.
Should you upgrade from the Galaxy S21 Ultra to the iPhone 15 Pro Max? If you’re willing to dip your toes in the iOS ecosystem and experience what we anticipate to be one of the top phones of 2023, then go for it.
