iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Galaxy S22 Ultra: Can Samsung's ex-flagship hold the ground?

The iPhone 15 Pro Max is here, hoping to make a loud splash in the ocean of phones. The iPhone 15 Pro Max is quite the important milestone for Apple, with refreshed design, a new 5X periscope camera, and USB Type-C are just some of the exciting new features that make the next big iPhone such an important device.

You're not mistaken, we are actually comparing the next iPhone with the former Samsung flagship, the Galaxy S22 Ultra. Why? Well, although the Galaxy S23 Ultra is much newer and improved in many ways, the Galaxy S22 Ultra is still very capable and could stand its own against whatever Apple can throw in the ring in late 2023.

Of course, our iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Galaxy S23 Ultra review is already live.

With the iPhone 15 Pro Max shaping up to be such an big update over the iPhone 14 Pro Max, should you abandon your Android roots and upgrade from the Galaxy S22 Ultra?

iPhone 15 Pro at Walmart: preorder and save with a Verizon subscription

If you're looking for more power, we suggest you consider Walmart's preorder offer on the incredible iPhone 15 Pro. This smartphone can be bought with a carrier subscription to Verizon for just $26.37/mo, saving you a total of $100.

$100 off (10%)

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$1049

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AT&T-locked iPhone 15 Pro: preorder and save at Walmart

The incredible iPhone 15 Pro is also available with a subscription to AT&T. The device is available for $26.37 a month over 36 installments. In total, your savings amount to $100. This is the 128GB version of the device.

$100 off (10%)

$949 ³²

$1049

Pre-order at Walmart

The iPhone 15 Pro Max is available for preorder at Walmart with a Verizon subscription

Don't miss out on the chance to preorder Apple's newest and most capable smartphone yet for just $31.92/mo at Walmart. To get the iPhone 15 Pro Max at that price, you just need to subscribe to Verizon or upgrade. Your total savings through this preorder deal amount to $100.

$100 off (8%)

$1149 ¹²

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AT&T-locked iPhone 15 Pro Max is available for preorder at Walmart

An AT&T-locked version of the iPhone 15 Pro Max is available for preorder at Walmart. The device sells for $31.92/mo over 36 installments, saving you as much as $100 in total. This is the 256GB configuration of the Apple smartphone. Currently, all colors are available.

$100 off (8%)

$1149 ¹²

$1249

Pre-order at Walmart

The iPhone 15 Pro Max is a little different from most of its predecessors, as Apple decided to shook up the design of the phone a little. Gone is the stainless steel frame of previous iPhone Pro Max phones, substituted by a contoured titanium frame. The new design has not only helped the iPhone become noticeably lighter without sacrificing any of the robustness. 

The Dynamic Island punch-hole cutout is making a comeback, but the bigger deal at the front of the next large iPhone will be its much, much slimmer bezels. While there's still ways to go, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is now closer to that edge-to-edge fullscreen utopia.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max also has a USB Type-C port at the bottom, a major development for Apple, which has relied on its proprietary Lightning port for over a decade. The iPhone 15 Pro Max support USB 3.0 speeds, theoretically allowing up to 10Gb/s of data throughput.

Another major change is the removal of the mute switch and the introduction of a new Action Button in its place. This button is very similar to the Apple Watch Ultra's customizable button and allows you to map different functions, like quickly accessing the camera, the flashlight, certain accessibility features, and specific Shortcuts.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra isn't much different, employing a traditional glass sandwich design that does not compromise on the premium feel of the phone. This one comes with a slightly curved display and back plate, which is definitely improving the overall ergonomics of the otherwise quite large Samsung phone. 

The S Pen on the phone was at the time a major development on the Samsung scene. Having axed the Galaxy Note lineup, Samsung decided to bring the S Pen over to the flagship Galaxy S series, which generally jibed well with the overall utility of the large-screen Galaxy flagship. The Galaxy S22 Ultra was the first product of the Galaxy Note and Galaxy S merger.

iPhone 15 Pro Max will likely be available in Space Black and Silver, while rumors say we might also see it in Titan Gray and a new deep blue hue. The Galaxy S22 Ultra, on the other hand, came in Phantom Black, Phantom White, Green, and Burgundy, a very solid selection of hues. 

Apple didn't change the display of the iPhone 15 Pro Max at all, so the new iPhone comes with a 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display, of course HDR capable. It has a dynamically-switchable ProMotion refresh rate that will be able to go up to 120Hz for the ultimate and quite rewarding scrolling experience. Frankly said, we don't think any revisions are currently necessary as we will most certainly get a superb display, with exceptional maximum brightness, beautiful colors, top contrast, and so on. 

Generally, the same can be said about the Galaxy S22 Ultra's 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED display. Samsung's AMOLED displays are usually among the best ones over at the Android side, and the Galaxy S22 Ultra was no different. The only downside of this sharp and vivid display is that it technically can't achieve the same levels of maximum brightness that the iPhone 13 Pro Max and 14 Pro Max hit, so there's a very strong suspicion that the iPhone 15 Pro Max will further widen that gap.   

Aside from accommodating the front-facing camera, the Dynamic Island punch-hole is also home to the Face ID paraphernalia. That's right, we have Apple's facial recognition tech on board the iPhone 15 Pro Max, as we don't really expect an in-display fingerprint scanner to make it on board the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Guess what, such a sensor is found on the Galaxy S22 Ultra, allowing you to unlock the phone and authorize payments with your fingertip. A picture-based face unlock is also on board the S22 Ultra.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max comes along with the 3nm A17 Pro chipset, the first 3nm mobile chipset. According to official data from Apple, the chip is around 10% than the already super-fast Apple A16 Bionic chipset of the iPhone 14 Pro Max. Additionally, a faster chip is a more efficient chip, so we expect that the A17 Pro will be the key to quite improved battery life for the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Yet, Apple doesn't project any official expectations about better battery life, sadly.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, Qualcomm's 4nm foray was a powerful, yet slightly overheating affair that didn't deliver exemplar battery life. Actually, battery life regressed in comparison with the Galaxy S21 Ultra, so the Galaxy S22 Ultra didn't exactly live up to the major hype prior to its announcement. 

In any way, we expect the Apple A17 Pro to totally beat the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 at everything, both in terms of peak and sustained performance as well as efficiency. That's logical to expect. 

The base Galaxy S22 Ultra starts with 8GB of RAM, and guess what, that applies to the iPhone 15 Pro Max as well, with the latest large iPhone scoring a bump from 6GB RAM to 8GB RAM.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra was also the first phone to offer four years of major software updates. As it arrived with Android 12, the phone is expected to be updated to Android 16. Meanwhile, Samsung will offer security support for five years, or until 2027. 

The iPhone 15 Pro Max will be launching with iOS 17 out of the box, and we expect Cupertino to grace its next showpiece with at least five years of major software and security updates, though in the best case scenario we'd expect support until the end of the decade. 

iOS 17 will be available on the iPhone 15 Pro Max as soon as it arrives to the market. The piece of software was previewed at Apple’s WWDC developer-centric event in June 2023. Aside from iOS, we also saw what macOS, iPadOS, and watchOS will have in store for us this fall.

Some of the new features in iOS 17 include improvements to Phone, Messages, FaceTime, as well as Find My, and Maps. iOS 17 users will be able to enjoy smarter Visual Look Up, and AirTags will be shareable to other people. There are also interactive widgets, which will let you enable or disable interface features with a simple tap.

Finally, you will no longer have to say “Hey, Siri” to invoke the assistant –– a simple “Siri!” would suffice.

The main camera of the iPhone 15 Pro Max continues being a 48MP one, but scored some intriguing improvements, like a new Photonic Engine and improved Smart HDR, which will potentially improve the overall image quality by a lot. Photos are also now 24MP by default, improving detail and sharpness, as well as three custom wide-camera focal lengths that will unlock the photographer in you.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra, on the other hand, comes with Samsung's previous camera, helmed by the 108MP main camera. That one was generally good, though it had some excessive oversharpening in some situations, as well as the tendency to lift up the shadows and deliver somewhat gloomy and bleak-looking photos. 

It's been a while, and while most Android manufacturers have explored periscope cameras on their phones, Apple has sort of stayed away from those cool new far-zooming cameras. This changes with the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which comes with a 5X periscope camera that will let you zoom further away, at up to 120mm of focal length.

However, the Galaxy S22 Ultra employs the second iteration of Samsung's periscope lens that debuted a year prior on the Galaxy S21 Ultra. It is a 10X periscope that lets you zoom far, and in tandem with the digital zoom feature of the phone, lets you zoom in to 100X. Surely, images at such ridiculous magnifications are barely usable, but for bragging rights alone, you can't really beat the Galaxy S22 Ultra, or its successor, or even its predecessor!

The ultra-wide lens of the Galaxy S22 Ultra is a standard 12MP one with a relatively small 1/2.55" sensor, but it is capable of capturing quite a lot of scene in the frame. The iPhone 15 Pro Max's ultra-wide camera has scored some minor improvements of its own as well.

At the front, the Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with an impressive 40MP selfie camera, which was very good. Have in mind that the Galaxy S23 Ultra's 12MP selfie camera achieves slightly better results despite having lower resolution. The iPhone 15 Pro Max comes with a 12MP FaceTime camera; no specific improvements are hinted for that one. 

The Galaxy S22 Ultra, which came with a bottom-firing speaker and an earpiece, failed to make a strong case for its loudspeaker quality, giving slightly emphasized highs but the mid and base frequencies lacked oomph, which was unfortunate. 

Meanwhile, most iPhone Pro Max models since the iPhone 12 Pro Max have had exemplar loudspeaker quality, delivering richer and fuller sound with lots of depth, making them one of the best-sounding phones you can get, period. We see no reason why this wouldn't be the case for the iPhone 15 Pro Max as well, so we generally expect excellent audio quality. 

With a 4,422mAh battery, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is easily the best endowed iPhone ever in terms of battery size. Alas, however, as this isn't actually about to deliver drastically better battery life than last year's iPhone 14 Pro Max.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra came with a large 5,000mAh battery but didn't wow us with its battery life. It fared worse than its predecessor in our custom battery tests, and fared particularly unimpressive in our custom video playback test, with an overall endurance of just 7 hours and a half. The phone's gaming score of slightly above 10 hours was impressive though. 

The iPhone 15 Pro Max arrive with 20W wired charging, so no improvement year-over-year, as well as 15W MagSafe wireless charging. That's slower than most of the iPhone's competitors, including the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra is no different––its 45W wired charging support lets it fully charge in one hour, a neat round number. Wireless charging of this one is capped at 15W; the phone also supports reverse wireless charging allowing you to quickly top up your accessories. 

Although the iPhone 15 Pro Max specs are still up in the air and definitely subject to change (nothing is official until it's official), we can sort of compare the upcoming iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Galaxy S22 Ultra's specs to determine which one has the upper hand. 

The iPhone 15 Pro Max is setting itself as the yardstick for all other phones to match against in late 2023 and early 2024. With improved performance thanks to the foray into 3nm territory, a new periscope camera, as well as refreshed design, USB Type-C, and a new titanium build, the iPhone 15 Pro Max will likely take its well-deserving spot at the upper portion of the top charts.

Meanwhile, the Galaxy S22 Ultra is a slightly aging but still capable former flagship that can still be considered a good buy, especially if you find a killer deal on the former Samsung pride and glory.