Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus vs Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max

Source: Date:

Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus vs Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.7-inch Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus (with Exynos 9 Octa 990) that was released on February 11, 2020, against the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max, which is powered by Apple A17 Pro and came out 44 months after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus
  • Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 1000GB
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • Has 2 SIM card slots
  • 14% higher pixel density (524 vs 460 PPI)
  • CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
  • Weighs 35 grams less
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max
  • The rear camera has a 5x optical zoom
  • 2.2x better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1530K versus 707K)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
  • Apple releases software updates and supports their phones a few years longer than Samsung
  • More energy-efficient CPU – Apple A17 Pro
  • 2.8x faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 3281 and 1159 points

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus and Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk ( * ) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation

Value for money

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED OLED
Size 6.7 inches 6.7 inches
Resolution 1440 x 3200 pixels 1290 x 2796 pixels
Aspect ratio 20:9 19.5:9
PPI 524 ppi 460 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate No Yes
Max rated brightness 800 nits 2000 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR - 1600 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, Dolby Vision
Screen protection Corning Gorilla Glass 6 Ceramic Shield
Screen-to-body ratio 90.5% 89.8%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
Display tests
RGB color space 99.7% -
PWM 214 Hz -
Response time 9 ms -
Contrast ∞ Infinity -
Peak brightness test (auto)

Design and build

Height 161.9 mm (6.37 inches) 159.9 mm (6.3 inches)
Width 73.7 mm (2.9 inches) 76.7 mm (3.02 inches)
Thickness 7.8 mm (0.31 inches) 8.25 mm (0.32 inches)
Weight 186 g (6.56 oz) 221 g (7.8 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Black, Gray, Red White, Black, Silver, Blue
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display No
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Tests of Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus and Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max in the benchmarks
SoC
Chipset Samsung Exynos 9 Octa 990 Apple A17 Pro
Max clock 2700 MHz 3780 MHz
CPU cores 8 (2 + 2 + 4) 6 (2 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A55
- 2 cores at 2.5 GHz: Cortex-A76
- 2 cores at 2.73 GHz: Exynos M5
- 4 cores at 2.02 GHz:
- 2 cores at 3.78 GHz:
L3 cache 2 MB -
Lithography process 7 nanometers 3 nanometers
Graphics Mali-G77 MP11 Apple A17 GPU
GPU shading units 704 768
GPU clock 550 MHz 1398 MHz
FLOPS ~1126 GFLOPS ~2147.2 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
AnTuTu Benchmark 10
CPU 200722 420892
GPU 194919 553020
Memory 132605 219823
UX 175768 328863
Total score 707030 1530820
3DMark Wild Life Performance
Max surface temperature 48.1 °C -
Stability 53% -
Graphics test 25 FPS -
Graphics score 4298 -
Web score 8553 -
Video editing 5864 -
Photo editing 31253 -
Data manipulation 8577 -
Writing score 12260 -

Memory

RAM
RAM size 8 GB 8 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR5
Memory clock 3200 MHz -
Channels 2 4
Storage
Storage size 128 GB 256, 512, 1024 GB
Storage type UFS 3.0 NVMe
Memory card MicroSD No
Memory card max size Up to 1000 GB -

Software

Operating system Android 10.0 (Can be upgraded to Android 13) iOS 17
ROM One UI 4.1 -
OS size 23.6 GB -

Battery

Capacity 4500 mAh 4422 mAh
Max charge power 25 W 30 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes (7.5 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes
Fast charging Yes (100% in 84 min) Yes (50% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:25 hr -
Battery life tests
Web browsing 09:33 hr -
Watching video 13:44 hr -
Gaming 03:54 hr -
Standby 92 hr -
General battery life

Camera

Specs and camera test of smartphones
Main camera
Matrix 12 megapixels 48 megapixels
Image resolution 4000 x 3000 8000 x 6000
Zoom Optical, 1.1x Optical, 5x
Flash LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 24FPS No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (720p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 120° 120°
Lenses 4 (12 MP + 64 MP + 12 MP + 0.3 MP) 4 (48 MP + 12.7 MP + 13.4 MP)
Wide (main) lens - 12 MP
- Aperture: f/1.8
- Focal length: 26 mm
- Pixel size: 1.8 micron
- Sensor: 1/1.76", Samsung S5K2LD (ISOCELL CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
- 48 MP
- Aperture: f/1.8
- Focal length: 24 mm
- Sensor: 1/1.28", Sony IMX803 (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
Telephoto lens - 64 MP
- Aperture: f/2.0
- Focal length: 29 mm
- Pixel size: 0.8 micron
- Sensor: 1/1.72", Samsung Bright S5KGW2 (ISOCELL CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
- Optical stabilization
- 12.7 MP
- Aperture: f/2.8
- Focal length: 85 mm
- Pixel size: 1.12 micron
- Sensor: 1/1.9" (CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
Ultra-wide lens - 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.2
- Focal length: 13 mm
- Pixel size: 1.4 micron
- Sensor: 1/2.55", Samsung S5K2LA (ISOCELL CMOS)
- 13.4 MP
- Aperture: f/2.2
- Focal length: 13 mm
- Pixel size: 1.4 micron
- Sensor: 1/2.55"
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Depth lens - 0.3 MP
- Aperture: f/1.0
Yes
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus from DxOMark -
Selfie camera
Megapixels 10 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 2592 x 3872 4032 x 3024
Aperture f/2.2 f/1.9
Focal length 26 mm 23 mm
Pixel size 1.22 microns -
Sensor type CMOS -
Sensor size 1/3.2" 1/3.6"
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS

DxOMark camera tests

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5 5.3
Bluetooth features LE, A2DP LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.1 3.2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC
NFC * Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM * 2 1
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby -
eSIM support * Yes Yes
Hybrid slot Yes No
LTE Cat * 22 20
5G support No Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced February 2020 September 2023
Release date March 2020 September 2023
SAR (head) 0.38 W/kg -
SAR (body) 1.57 W/kg -
Sensors - Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Face recognition sensor
Bundled charger - Not included
* Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max is definitely a better buy.

Scroll to Top