iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: Cameras Compared

Despite being a year old, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is still a very good phone to buy. While it may not offer the best picture quality, its versatility has ensured the phone ranks as one of the top options for photographers. However, Apple’s competing offering — iPhone 15 Pro Max — also offers plenty to like. So, which one of the two should you buy? Here’s a comprehensive iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Galaxy S23 Ultra camera comparison to help you decide.

Camera Specifications

When it comes to cameras, numbers are purely for bragging rights. What matters is the final image output where factors like camera software and image processing pipelines play a big role. That said, here are the camera specs of both phones.

	Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max	Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
Primary	48MP f/1.8	200MP f/1.7
Secondary	12MP f/2.2 (Ultrawide)	12MP f/2.2 (Ultrawide)
Tertiray	12MP f/2.8 (5X Telephoto)	10MP f/2.4 (3X Telephoto)
Quarternary	–	10MP f/4.9 (10X Telephoto)
Selfie	12MP f/1.9	12MP f/2.2
Extras	LiDAR scanner for depth	Laser AF

Daylight Photos — Primary and Ultrawide

Most of us click pictures in broad daylight when we’re out and about. Hence, this category is what matters to a lot of users. Scanning through hundreds of photos that I clicked for this comparison, it’s evident that the iPhone 15 Pro Max trumps the Galaxy S23 Ultra — pretty much in every scenario.

Despite Samsung flaunting a much larger megapixel count, the S23 Ultra clicks 12MP photos by default. While I mentioned at the beginning that camera specs and numbers don’t really matter, Apple’s new 24MP photo capture (even present on the vanilla iPhone 15) makes a world of difference compared to the 12MP output of the S23 Ultra. Upon first look, the difference isn’t immediately evident. However, if you pixel peep, you’ll clearly see a difference in the levels of details when you zoom in.

Both phones offer a 2X digital crop and here too, the iPhone’s photos look more detailed with better colors.

Color Reproduction

Apart from details, the color reproduction on the shots clicked by the iPhone 15 Pro Max is also better. The S23 Ultra tends to brighten images and increase the highlights. While some may prefer this look, I personally like the extra contrast in the iPhone’s shots.

However, it’s worth noting that the S23 Ultra exposes darker regions and shadows better like in the image below and when you zoom in to the leaves in the above image.

The overall dynamic range on both phones is excellent. Apple has upped its game in this department drastically as highlights are no longer blown out. Samsung’s HDR is already fantastic and it was frankly surprising for me to see the iPhone one-up the S23 Ultra in this department.

Samsung tries to maintain even lighting in the entire photo which sometimes results in the image looking washed out. The S23 Ultra also oversharpens images needlessly, giving them an artificial look. I’m not a fan of this at all.

Dynamic Range

Take a look at this picture of a school bus for example. The iPhone has retained the actual color of the bus — but at the cost of underexposing the darker portions. The S23 Ultra, on the other hand, has exposed all portions of the photo evenly. But, in the process, has changed the color of the bus and given it a washed-out look. I personally love the iPhone’s color reproduction in this image since it’s exactly what my eyes saw.

In the next photo though, the iPhone has severely pulled down the shadows resulting in an underexposed shot. While the day surely wasn’t as bright as the S23 Ultra portrays it, I prefer Samsung’s photo here since it’s more pleasing to the eye. Plus, it has managed to retain a lot more details in the shadows. However, this only seems to be a one-off case since I prefer the iPhone’s shots almost every single time.

This photo of a dark alleyway further emphasizes how good the HDR performance of both phones is. There was harsh sunlight coming out of the other end but both phones managed the exposure in a fantastic manner. The iPhone seems to have done marginally well with the yellow lights on the sides.

Ultrawide

Switching to the ultrawide camera for the same shot, the S23 Ultra does slightly better with details and dynamic range. In fact, that’s a recurring trend I observed. The ultrawide camera on the Samsung is slightly better both in terms of details and dynamic range.

Samsung’s processing emphasizes the blues in most scenarios. As a result, you’ll see that the sky, water, or any blue element in a picture looks more saturated in the S23 Ultra’s pictures.

Telephoto Cameras

For the longest time, Samsung has ruled the telephoto department on smartphones with its mighty 10X lens. While the iPhone doesn’t match the focal length, the new 5X tetra-prism lens on the 15 Pro Max lets you get closer to subjects than any other iPhone from the past. But, the real question is — does it dethrone the S23 Ultra as the best zoom camera on a phone? Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer.

The 5X camera on the iPhone is supremely capable when there’s a lot of light hitting the sensor. So whether you’re clicking pictures of a building in broad daylight or you wish to read a faraway signboard when you’re outdoors, the resulting images are stellar. When you compare the 3X telephoto on the S23 Ultra with the 5X one on the iPhone, the iPhone’s camera wins hands down — both in terms of details and color reproduction.

However, it’s unfair to compare the two cameras since they have different focal lengths. If you want to click 5X photos on the S23 Ultra, the phone uses the 3X lens to digitally zoom in. This obviously results in a loss of quality compared to the iPhone.

5X vs 10X

On the other hand, clicking 10X photos on the iPhone means zooming in digitally using the 5X lens so there’s a hit in terms of quality compared to the dedicated 10X lens on the S23 Ultra. Surprisingly though, the difference in quality in broad daylight isn’t as apparent as I expected. Look at this shot for example. While the S23 Ultra’s shot is sharper and has less noise, the difference isn’t night and day.

Of course, when you zoom in, you will see that the S23 Ultra has captured more details. But, the iPhone has also done a commendable job despite the fact that the image is rather soft.

The situation takes a turn when you go indoors or under artificial lighting though. As you can see from this shot of the signboard, the Galaxy S23 Ultra clicks a much better image with ample details. The iPhone struggles with a lot of noise creeping in.

Maximum Zoom Range

As for the maximum zoom, the iPhone is limited to 25X while the Galaxy S23 Ultra can go all the way up to 100X. Comparing the shots from both phones at 25X, it’s evident that the S23 Ultra captures more details. However, again, in broad daylight, the difference isn’t too much to declare a clear winner.

However, when you capture a 100X shot on the Samsung, and a 25X shot on the iPhone and zoom in digitally to match the S23 Ultra’s crop, you’ll see more details in Samsung’s image.

One weird thing I noticed though is that Samsung has some sort of optimization kicking in at 30X that makes shots look sharper. The image below, for example, has been clicked at 25X on the iPhone and 30X on the Samsung. You can see that the 30X shot has a lot more details with less noise. It’s a usable picture whereas the one shot on the iPhone is not.

If you want a longer zoom range, there’s no debate here. The Galaxy S23 Ultra is the clear winner. However, for street photography or clicking objects that aren’t too far off, the iPhone’s 5X shooter seems like the more practical option. It looks like Samsung has realized this too as rumors indicate the 10X lens will make way for a 5X one on next year’s S24 Ultra. And given that in daylight, you can go up to 10X even on the iPhone without too much loss of detail, it might just be the more compelling choice.

Clicking Human Subjects — Portrait Mode

We’re not done with the zoom cameras yet. The 5X lens on the iPhone 15 Pro Max is hands down the best camera to click human subjects. I’m so glad Apple decided to offer Portrait Mode on the 5X camera as you can get some stunning shots with this perspective. The compression offered makes pictures look stellar with a beautiful focus fall-off. Every adjective synonymous with ‘beautiful’ in the above sentence genuinely holds true when clicking 5X portrait images.

Samsung also offers the ability to click portrait mode images via its 3X lens. While they also look rather flattering, I prefer the iPhone’s 5X shots. I feel like the iPhone handles skin tones better while Samsung tends to add a yellowish hue. This is in stark contrast to what it used to be until last year when images shot on the iPhone seemed like they were shot with a warm filter on by default. Thankfully, Apple has fixed the white balance this year.

It’s worth noting though that Samsung’s edge detection is superior in some instances. You can also click portrait mode images in 1X and 2X using both phones. The shots are neck and neck without much to differentiate between them.

Even when manually zoomed in to match the 15 Pro Max’s framing, the S23 Ultra loses out on details. I would pick the iPhone 15 Pro Max for portrait shots — solely due to that creamy broken and compression offered by the 5X lens.

That said, if you don’t want to take 20 steps back every time you want to take a picture of a friend, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is no slouch. It’s still fantastic at taking portraits with its 3X lens.

Who Takes Better Selfies

The simple answer here is the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. However, there are a lot of complexities when we delve deeper. Look at this selfie portrait for example. Upon first look, the iPhone’s picture looks more appealing. In fact, it has gotten the color of my hair and sweatshirt absolutely spot on. However, the iPhone has added a reddish tint to my face.

Samsung, on the other hand, has messed up the colors slightly but has managed to retain better details. Moreover, the edge detection is also better on the S23 Ultra. If you zoom in on both shots, you’ll see that the iPhone’s selfie has a bit of noise whereas Samsung’s picture is sharper.

This challenging scenario was to test the dynamic range of both phones. And both of them have performed incredibly well. The S23 Ultra decided to expose my face better at the expense of increasing the highlights in the background. The result is a selfie where my face is clearly visible with lots of detail.

As for the iPhone, it has beautifully managed the exposure in the background. But, in the process, has made my face look pale. The end goal of a selfie is to make the subject’s face look good. And the S23 Ultra has done exactly that. So, I would pick the Galaxy S23 Ultra in this situation as well.

In the final selfie, the iPhone’s output looks more detailed but only until you zoom in. There’s a bit of noise in the iPhone’s shot whereas the S23 Ultra has a cleaner output.

However, the colors are better captured by the 15 Pro Max and the dynamic range also looks better in the iPhone’s shot. For this particular image, I’ll give it to the iPhone.

Low Light Performance

The Galay S23 Ultra captures more light almost every single time when clicking in low-light scenarios. This can be attributed to the wider aperture compared to the iPhone 15 Pro Max. As a result, the shots look brighter. However, Samsung also has the tendency to trigger Night Mode more often than the iPhone. I’m not a fan of this since it means holding your phone still for a longer time.

Despite capturing more light, the S23 Ultra has fewer details than the 15 Pro Max in some situations. This is with Night Mode disabled on both phones

But, turn on Night Mode and you’ll see the S23 Ultra hits right back with an image that’s both brighter and less noisy. Samsung is employing some kind of smoothening in its shots to eliminate noise.

The same attributes carry over to the zoom lenses on both phones. When comparing the 5X shot from the iPhone and the 3X one from the Samsung, the 5X picture appears noisy whereas the 3X one looks cleaner.

However, if you zoom all the way in, the 5X picture from the iPhone has more details.

I then took the same shot via the 10X camera on the S23 Ultra. The picture has a lot less light courtesy of the narrower aperture of the 10X lens.

In fact, the iPhone 15 Pro Max digitally zoomed in to 10X captured a better picture compared to the S23 Ultra in low light.

If Samsung had used a lens with a wider aperture, the results would have been completely different.

Miscellaneous Parameters

As expected, the iPhone 15 Pro Max shoots better videos using all cameras. Samsung’s oversharpening can be seen here too with a bit of focus breathing. Macros are better on the Samsung. They’re more detailed and the color temperature is bang on.

The iPhone is still unmatched when it comes to shutter speed — despite now clicking 24MP photos. So many times, I would end up with a shaky photo on the S23 Ultra just because I moved the phone quickly after hitting the shutter. There was no such issue with the iPhone making it a better camera to click photos of your kids or pets.

Samsung offers a lot of camera features inside the app like the ability to switch between the front and rear cameras while recording, super slow-mo, Single Take, Pro mode, etc. These make using the camera more fun. On the other hand, the iOS camera app offers a no-frills experience similar to a point-and-shoot camera.

iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: Which Phone Has the Better Camera?

The iPhone 15 Pro Max provides a stellar package for mobile photographers both in terms of versatility and output quality. Apple has fixed all the shortcomings we’ve been complaining about right from poor HDR to warmer-than-usual color temperatures. The result is a smartphone camera that’s consistent and reliable. As such, the iPhone 15 Pro Max — in my opinion — is the better of the two devices.