iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Camera Test Comparison
– What’s up guys, Saf here on “SuperSaf TV.” And this is the SuperSafStyle camera comparison between the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. It’s the one you’ve all been waiting for. We’re going to test out all aspects of the cameras, videos, images. We’re also going to be testing out the Zoom. So, stay tuned for that. So, we’re going to kick off with photos from the primary cameras and there is a lot to cover. Now, after taking lots and lots of photos, what I did notice is that the iPhone 15 Pro Max
does have a better overall dynamic range. You can see here in these examples, in the shadow areas, the iPhone 15 Pro Max has definitely better maintained those details. The S23 Ultra tends to go for a little bit more of a vibrant, more of a punchy look, and does seem to be increasing the contrast which might be a cause of this. But one new thing that we have on the iPhone is that now by default it will shoot at 24 megapixels. So, you will be getting more resolution at default compared to the S23 Ultra. And it
does mean that the images do appear to also look sharper. Now, I know a lot of you guys are going to be going crazy in the
Pro Max does hold its own even though it doesn’t have a 200 megapixel sensor. Now, the other thing to keep in mind as well is that the 24 megapixels default on the iPhone, you can take multiple shots with it. It doesn’t really take any time to process. Whereas on the S23 Ultra, if you do take an image with the 200 megapixels or even at 50 megapixels, there is a bit of lag and it does take time to process. Now, let’s move on to low light. When you are in low light on the iPhone 15 Pro
Max, you will be switched to 12 megapixels. It cannot do 24 megapixels in low light because it needs to let in as much light as possible by combining pixels together to get the most out of the sensor. And on this example, I think both are actually doing really well. On this image, however, I prefer the iPhone 15 Pro Max. You’ve got more detail and it’s a sharper image in lower light. And this was a very, very dark situation. Like, I could barely see anything myself. It’s quite spooky actually. Now, here I prefer the S23 Ultra.
If you look at the details on the slabs, they have been better maintained compared to the iPhone 15 Pro Max. However, the light has been slightly blown out. But there was something interesting that I noticed. Whenever I was taking any low light images, the S23 Ultra did take longer to capture the low light image compared to the iPhone 15 Pro Max. In addition to that, the iPhone 15 Pro Max gives you a bit of a preview in the Viewfinder so you kind of know what to expect. Whereas on the S23 Ultra, you are practically shooting
blind because you can’t really see much in the Viewfinder. It’s only when you tap the shutter button, wait for it to take the photo and the process, and then you’ll be able to see it. So, I would say that in low light, shooting with the iPhone is actually easier. Now, in this example I prefer the iPhone. I think it’s a sharper overall image. It’s also not blown out the highlights in the windows. And this is an indoor or light image, although I think both are doing good overall. The iPhone does give you a brighter image.
So, I would say in low light, generally the shooting experience and the results, I do prefer the iPhone. Now, with the iPhone 15 Pro Max, not only will you be shooting by default at 24 megapixels for regular images, you’ll also be shooting at 24 megapixels for portrait images. Now, let’s take a look here. I think both are doing great overall in terms of edges. Slight difference in colors. The S23 Ultra in this situation I think is doing better with the blacks. But because the iPhone 15 Pro Max has shot at 24 megapixels versus 12, you
do get more detail and you can crop in further. In addition to that, we have a new feature on the iPhone. And that is the ability to take regular photos with the depth information, so you can turn them into portraits later. This is something that I’ve been hugely impressed with and it’s something that makes so much sense because you don’t always have time to go into portrait mode to take a photo. Sometimes, you just want to take a photo. So, the iPhone will automatically detect when there is a person in the shot, or maybe a
cat or a dog. Or if you want to trigger it yourself, you can just tap on something if it’s an object. And if available, the iPhone will capture this depth information which you can then go back into and apply. You can also change the point of focus. So, you’ve got so much flexibility here with the iPhone. On the S23 Ultra, yes, you can change the type of blur, but this is more fun rather than practical. Now, let’s look at another portrait shot. Again, I think both are doing really well here. The S23 Ultra I would
say has the better blacks. But the iPhone has better dynamic range. Now, the next stop for portraits on the iPhone is 2x. This is where it kind of crops in to the middle of the sensor, so you’re still getting lossless zoom, but it’s not as good as the optical zoom that you’re going to get on the S23 Ultra at 3x for this portrait. And I really do like the portrait that’s come out of here on the S23 Ultra. Now, on the iPhone you can still get portraits at 3x because you can just take a normal
photo at 3x and then turn it into a portrait later like I have done here. So, it’s nice to have that flexibility. However, it is not as sharp as the optical zoom that you’ve got on the S23 Ultra. Now having said that, the iPhone 15 Pro Max does have a 5x optical zoom lens so you can get portraits at 5x. And this is a very interesting focal length because it gives you some really nice compression and some really natural looking bokeh. You can see here in this example, I’ve got 3x on the S23 Ultra, which
is doing pretty well, but I really do like this 5x portrait on the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the edges are so, so good. It’s even managed to get that single strand of hair that’s just floating on the top of my head. So, although the S23 Ultra does take good portraits, the iPhone 15 Pro Max just has a lot more versatility. Now, when it comes to low light portraits, it’s very interesting. Now, similar to low light photos on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, if you are taking low light portraits, it is going to switch back
to 12 megapixels. And I found that consistently the S23 Ultra did take better portraits in low light. They were sharper with better edges. Here’s another example. Again, I think the S23 Ultra has done better in terms of the edges. The iPhone 15 Pro Max has blurred out my hair a little bit. Now, here on the iPhone, you can’t actually use any focal length because the depth effect will not work in Night mode. But you can still take portraits at 1x, 2x, as well as 5x. Now, we compare the 3x on the S23 Ultra versus the
2x on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Now, neither of these are perfect, but the iPhone is a little bit noisy for my liking and I do prefer the S23 Ultra here. But it didn’t seem like the iPhone wanted to take any portraits at anything other than 1x in low light. And if you really want, you can take portraits at 5x on the iPhone 15 Pro Max in low light. However, I would say that this is really pushing it and we can’t really do a like-for-like comparison. So, those are the portraits. Now, let’s take a look
at the zoom because now we have a brand new 5x telephoto camera on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Where did you come from? Hey, SideSaf here. You found the new office? Dude, you’re really not hard to find. Anyway, guys, you know what I’m going to remind you, if you haven’t already, then do consider subscribing and hit that bell icon. We’re actually working on a detailed comparison between S23 Ultra and the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Looking out all of the differences, as well as the cameras, you’re not going to want to miss it. It’s going to
be here very, very soon. I’ll see you next time. You heard the man. If you haven’t already, then do consider subscribing. There will be lots more content coming up on here soon. Telephoto cameras. Now, the first thing to mention is that the iPhone does have lots of different focal lengths that you can now get with a lossless zoom. So, you’ve got 1.2, as well as 1.5. I do like the flexibility. Apple did say it’s the equivalent of having seven different lenses, which I think is a bit of a push, but it is nice to have
that flexibility nevertheless. And like we had with the iPhone 14 Pro Max, although you don’t have a 3x optical zoom camera, you can still use 2x zoom, which is going to be cropping into the middle part of the sensor which is essentially still going to give you lossless zoom. Now, what I found with zoom is that if you are taking pictures between 1, 2, up to 2.9x on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, it would give you better results compared to the S23 Ultra. However, as soon as you got to 3x, that’s when the optical zoom
camera of the S23 Ultra kicks in. And it does give you sharper results understandably. Now, when you go from 3x all the way to around 4.9x, then the S23 Ultra is still going to be giving you better zoom compared to the iPhone 15 Pro Max. But as soon as you hit 5x optical zoom, then that’s when the optical zoom camera of the iPhone 15 Pro Max kicks in. Are you seeing a trend here? And you’ll see here that we do have sharper results on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Now, this is going to carry on
all the way up to around 9.9x. And when you hit 10x, then that’s when the periscope zoom camera of the S23 Ultra kicks in. And that will give you sharper results. Looking at this image, especially if you look towards the text. The S23 Ultra is giving you sharper text. Now, the iPhone 15 Pro Max can now go up to 25x with digital zoom. And at 25x, the iPhone is still doing pretty decent, and especially better compared to the iPhone 14 Pro Max. But this is where the S23 Ultra really shines. Look at all the texts.
It’s clearly visible and it’s crisp on the S23 Ultra. Whereas you are now starting to struggle with the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Now, I tried this in different situations and I got the exact same results. I think it’s really going to come down to what type of zoom do you want? Do you want extended zoom? Then, the S23 Ultra will be for you. Do you want the ability to zoom up to 10x? Then, I would go for the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Now, of course the S23 Ultra can zoom all the way up to 100x.
Now, this is something that I don’t use much at all. It is a bit of a gimmick. And yes, you can take pictures of the moon. It’s been cloudy here in the UK over the past week, so I’ve not been able to take any pictures of the moon and compare them as yet. But I will do some comparisons on my Instagram when the moon is out. So if you want to follow me on there, I’m @SuperSaf. Now, one interesting thing is that the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s telephoto camera actually has a pretty wide aperture. Wider
than most others. So, I really wanted to see how the telephoto cameras compared in low light. And the results were quite interesting. So at 5x, the iPhone understandably is doing better. But then at 10x, I was expecting the S23 Ultra to do better, but this was not the case. It actually struggled to focus on me. Now, extending it all the way to 25x, the iPhone here you can see is doing way better than the S23 Ultra, even though the S23 Ultra has a 10x optical zoom camera compared to the 5x optical zoom camera. So, everything
in addition is coming digitally. But I think this is really where that wider aperture helps the iPhone 15 Pro Max. So, if low light zoom is your thing, then the iPhone is doing better. Right, now for the ultra-wide cameras. I think both actually do really well. The iPhone is slightly wider. In this image, I prefer the S23 Ultra. I think it’s got slightly better dynamic range. But in this image I prefer the iPhone 15 Pro Max especially in the shadow areas. It has maintained more detail compared to the S23 Ultra. But in this image I
prefer the S23 Ultra because it has maintained better shadow detail and it has better dynamic range. So, things can go back and forth. But overall I do tend to lean towards the S23 Ultra when it comes to ultra-wide images. And that is also because of macro photography. Now, both of these take excellent macro shots. You can focus in a little bit closer on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, but I do find the results a little bit more pleasing on the S23 Ultra as you can see here. Look at all those raindrops. Now, this might be
down to some of the processing that Samsung does, but hey, I like it. Again in this example, although the iPhone is doing really well, I just prefer the slightly more contrasty image on the S23 Ultra. You can just see those droplets a little bit clearer. Now, for images in low light with the ultra-wide camera. Here, I prefer the S23 Ultra. It’s just a tad sharper. Now, remember this place was super dark. Again, another ultra-wide shot. Once again, I prefer the S23 Ultra. If you look at the paving, it is more detailed compared to the iPhone
15 Pro Max. Now in this image, although the S23 Ultra is brighter, there is a lot of lens flaring going on. Look at all of that pink and purple, which I do not like. So, here I prefer the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Although overall I would say ultra-wide camera, I do prefer the S23 Ultra. Right now for selfies. I think both actually do really well. They have lots of detail. The iPhone 15 Pro Max is slightly wider. And again, with the iPhone you can just take a normal selfie and then turn it into a portrait
mode selfie after the fact. And you can also change the focus of it. Here in this shot, although both are doing better and I think the colors are a bit more true on the S23 Ultra, I do prefer the edges on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Apple has really done some good work in terms of edge detection. You can see that my hair strands that are floating have not been cut off. They’ve still been maintained there on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which is super impressive. The S23 Ultra has taken those off which actually might
be good. But the edge detection is not as good as the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Now selfies in low lights, both of them have kind of like a night mode for selfies. And I really don’t like this because when you’re trying to hold the camera still at this distance, it’s really not good. Usually, I would use the front-facing flash which is just basically illuminating the display. And here I think both are doing pretty okay. I’d have to call it a bit of a draw. I don’t like either too much to be fair. Right, for video.
When we are looking at regular video taken at 4K, I think both are really good. But I think this is the same story. Once again, the iPhone 15 Pro Max does such a good job when it comes to dynamic range. You can see all of the shadow detail here. Now, both devices can shoot in HDR, High Dynamic Range, but I would say the iPhone is more versatile because it’s easier to use and it’s easier to take over to different places. On the S23 Ultra, it is kind of hidden, and if you don’t want to export
it, you do have to select this setting, which wasn’t working for me on the S23 Ultra for some reason. I don’t know what was going on. But with the iPhone, just dynamic range generally, even if you’re not using HDR is just better. Now for low light video, I’m sure a lot of you guys are wondering. Do you still get those little balls of light on the iPhone 15 Pro Max because of the lens flare? Yes, you do. That is still here. It’s not as present on the S23 Ultra. However, when it comes to overall video
quality in low light, once again, the iPhone 15 Pro Max just gives you better overall results with the ability to capture in pretty much darkness. I mean, this place was super, super dark. And you can barely see anything on the S23 Ultra, but you can still make stuff out on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Now, for stabilization. I think both are actually really good at 4K and it was a bit of a draw. But of course, you guys want to see action mode versus super steady. Action mode is at a slightly higher resolution. And by
default, both of these shoot with the ultra-wide camera when you’re using action mode or super steady. And the results again are very, very close. However, when you do switch to the primary cameras with action mode and super steady, then the iPhone is more stable. So yes, stabilization is pretty close, but I would have to give the overall win for stabilization to the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Now, one advantage that the S23 Ultra has is the fact that it can film at 8K. Now, 8K has been improved massively on the S23 Ultra compared to previous generations.
There is no longer a massive crop and it’s actually quite stable too. Now, I know not everybody shoots that 8K, but if you do want to have that option, and you want lots of detail, then you have that with the S23 Ultra. You can even crop in and completely change your angle. This is something that you do not have on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Although I would still say, dynamic range is better on the iPhone. Right, what about pro features? This is something I know you guys will want me to touch on. The S23
Ultra actually has a Pro Video mode with lots and lots of control over your shoot speed, white Balance, ISO. And if you are somebody who likes to kind of mess around with these settings, you’re going to be able to do that natively on the S23 Ultra. On the iPhone 15 Pro Max, you will have to get an external app to do this. However, on the iPhone 15 Pro Max you do have ProRes Encoding with Log. Now, some of you guys might be wondering what am I talking about? Log is basically what pro videographers use. It’s
like a flat picture profile which you can then add color to later on in Pulse. And if you are somebody who likes to do this, this is now natively available on the iPhone 15 Pro Max which is great to see. For slow motion, I think both are actually pretty good. The S23 does appear to be sharper. I’m not sure if this is ProRes sharpening, but I do prefer it. The S23 Ultra also has super slow-mo. So, this is at around 960 frames a second. But it is at 720P so it is being upscaled quite a
bit. However, the option is there. The iPhone does have a bit more versatility because you can shoot slow motion from all the different lenses. So, you can use the ultra-wide, the primary, as well as the telephoto. On the S23 Ultra you only have the primary camera. So, a few advantages and disadvantages here for both when it comes to slow motion. Now, for the front facing camera. I think both are actually really good. However, the iPhone is wider. It’s got better colors. My beard is not purple like it’s starting to appear on the S23 Ultra. Once
again, you did get overall better dynamic range on the iPhone. In terms of stabilization from the front-facing camera, I think is a bit of a draw. Now, for cinematic video, you saw the intro of this video. And although I would say neither is perfect, both of ’em were struggling a little bit with my hair. I mean, I have gray hair, so it is a bit of a challenge. But overall, the colors were better on the iPhone. You can also edit where you want to focus after the fact on the iPhone. This is something that you
can’t do on the S23 Ultra. And a brand new feature that we’ve got on the iPhone this year is continuous zoom in Cinematic mode. This is something that you can’t do in the S23 Ultra. You are just fixed. For auto focus in good light, I think both are pretty good. But I really wanted to put them through the paces, right? So, I used a black card in a low light which is very difficult. But the iPhone had no problems with it whatsoever. The S23 Ultra was struggling as you can see. And that is because the
iPhone 15 Pro Max has a LiDAR scanner. It doesn’t have to rely on the light in the scene. And finally, audio, I’ll let you guys have a listen. Audio tests on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. And now the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. Back to the iPhone 14, 15 Pro Max. And the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. Let me know which one you think was better. But in my opinion, I think both were very good, but I’d say that the S23 Ultra does have overall better noise cancellation. I could hear less of the background noise. That’s what
I think anyway. What do you guys think? Drop me a comment below. Let me know your thoughts. In terms of my conclusions, I think both of these have excellent cameras overall both for images and video. The S23 Ultra obviously has that better extended zoom. It has better portraits in low light. Better macro shots in my opinion, as well as the overall better ultra-wide camera. The iPhone I would say is so consistent, and it’s also very versatile because now you have all of these different focal lengths and lenses that you can use. You can also shoot
at 24 megapixels by default. You can control the depth of images after you take them, which is amazing. It has better low light performance from the primary, as well as the telephone to camera. And I sound like a broker record, but I still think the iPhone has the best video on any smartphone overall. If you want to see my unboxing and initial 72-hour experience with the iPhone 15 Pro Max, I’ve covered that in the video here. And if you want to see my full review of the S23 Ultra, you can see that here. Don’t forget,
I am working on a very detailed comparison between the S23 Ultra and the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Looking at all of the other things, as well as the cameras. If you don’t want to miss that, then do subscribe and hit that bell icon. I hope you enjoyed this video and found it useful. If you did, then do smash the like button for me. Thanks for watching. This is Saf on “SuperSaf TV” and I’ll see you next time.
