It's 2024, and I've spent well over the past
6 months using the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Now that the S24 Ultra is out, I'm going to break down
what really differentiates them and ultimately which one I think is the better phone. First,
let's look at the S24 Ultra and its advantages. Coming in at number one: the display. This
display can go as bright as 1600 nits, compared to the 2,000 nits of peak brightness
the 15 Pro Max has. But the even more important difference to me has been the anti-glare
coating. Samsung partnered with Corning to develop a better glass material called
Gorilla Glass Armor. It's four times more scratch-resistant and three times better
with drops. And if rumors are to be believed, the iPhone won't be getting similar glass from
Corning until next year's iPhone 17 models. Ouch. Coming in at the number two best feature for the
S24 Ultra is Galaxy AI. Galaxy AI is a suite of features that actually turned out to be pretty
useful and includes things like Circle Search, where you tap the bottom bar of the phone
and then circle anything you want to Google search. You also have translation in
messages as well as call translations, perfect for when you're traveling or have family
members or friends who speak different languages. Samsung also added a photo editing feature similar
to Google's Magic Editor, called Generative Edit, which allows you to remove parts of an image
and move around and resize objects. This is a feature Apple still doesn't have an answer
for, which is kind of surprising given the superior processing power you get with the
chips Apple puts on their iPhones. But let me know what you think. What do you think
of these AI features? Does Apple really seem that far behind? Let me know in the comments.
Samsung AI also brought us photo emoji, which is similar to the stickers feature Apple rolled
out with the iPhone 15 Pro Models last September. Coming in at number three is the S Pen, which
continues to be one of the most unique features you get with the Ultra series of phones. It gives
you another way to interact with your phone. It makes Circle Search feel a bit more precise,
gives you the ability to handwrite notes, autocorrect that to text, handwrite in
the UI, and use it as a camera remote. Coming in at number four is One UI, which is
Samsung's version of Android that this phone runs. One UI is just flat out a more customizable
and flexible operating system than iOS. You get multitasking split views, edge panels where you
can save your favorite apps to drag out into the multitasking view, and you can customize the
OS to your heart's content with Samsung's Good Lock app. I've customized the multitasking view
and increased the volume steps past Android's default to make it more like iOS's pretty much
infinite volume steps. You also have Samsung DeX, which I haven't really ever found a use for, but
I like the idea in theory of being able to turn your phone into a computer by just hooking it
up to a monitor. Android also has notification channels, whereas with iOS notifications, a lot
of the time you either allow all notifications or none for an app, whereas Android gives you more
granular control over the type of notifications that you want to allow through. Speaking of iOS,
because the S24 Ultra's OS is so customizable, you can actually download a launcher which will
make your phone look and feel pretty much exactly like iOS. And because it runs Android, you can
download apps outside of Google's App Store, which really gives it its own advantage over iOS. So
yes, I'm going to make that Advantage number five. All right, and the last advantage I'd give to
the S24 Ultra is its better integration with Samsung and Windows devices. It has a slightly
more expansive integration for the Windows PC users via the Phone Link app where you cannot
only view notifications and respond to messages and calls like you can with an iPhone, but you
can also view photos, control media playback, set your phone to silent, and group messaging is
supported with Android devices. And of course, if you have other Samsung products like
a tablet, earbuds, smartwatch, etc., those are all going to work really well
with the S24 Ultra and not the iPhone. And the inverse is of course the case with
Apple's other products and the S24 Ultra. Now, what about the camera systems? Honestly,
they're both pretty good in their own right, though there are some differences you will
notice between the two. I found the S24 Ultra's color science skews a bit warmer than
the 15 Pro Max's, and the S24 video is also less noisy at 5x. Overall, the S24 has a bit
more saturation and deeper colors like in the sky compared to the iPhone, and its images are
typically a bit sharper than the iPhone's as well. The 15 Pro Max, however, seems to shoot
with a lower aperture, giving photos slightly better depth of field. Videos captured on the
Samsung always start off black for a second, which is kind of annoying. Video quality
overall, I'd still give to the iPhone, especially when you factor in you can now
shoot ProRes Log natively with the S24 Ultra; you're going to have to use a third-party app
to get anything similar. As far as selfies go, the S24 Ultra's low-light selfies do look
better than the iPhone's, but in daylight, both phones are pretty good. So to me, the
camera systems are a bit of a toss-up; sometimes I prefer the look of the S24 Ultra's photos,
and then other times I like the iPhones better. All right, so that's the camera systems; we've
covered the advantages of the S24. Now let's look at the iPhone. But before we do, no matter
which one of these phones you end up choosing, if you want to listen to a podcast on either
one, there's really only one choice for that, and that's Pocket Casts. I've relied on Pocket
Casts for the past several years as my top podcast player, and I can't live without it. Pocket
Casts comes with an array of powerful features like cross-platform syncing, where you can
seamlessly switch between devices and keep your place in a podcast. And because Pocket
Casts is available on almost every platform, it's perfect for somebody like me who has a lot
of tech devices in different ecosystems. They also have features that can save you time, like
customizable skip buttons and trim silence, which automatically skips the silent parts of a podcast.
And not only can you download podcast episodes, but you can customize certain podcasts to download
new episodes automatically and be placed in your queue. Pocket Casts makes it easy to organize
podcasts with filters, for example, a private and business filter and another for news and politics.
Plus, I love how much control you get for not only what episodes show up in your up next queue
and in what order, but the app also features a changeable appearance with a variety of themes and
customizable buttons at the bottom of the player. You can even change the app icon to a different
design like Pocket Cats, my personal favorite. With its robust features, customizations, and
wide availability, Pocket Casts truly elevates your podcast listening experience. So what are you
waiting for? Download Pocket Casts today for free by using the link in the description below, and
thanks to Pocket Casts for sponsoring this video. All right, now let's take a look at the iPhone 15
Pro Max and its advantages. Coming in at number one is weight and size. The 15 Pro Max weighs
just 221 grams compared to the S24 Ultra's 233 grams. And while both use titanium, Apple was able
to use that material to reduce the phone's overall weight from the previous generation. Even though
these two phone screens are about the same size, when you hold them in your hand, the iPhone
just does not feel as big as the S24 Ultra, probably due to the iPhone's rounded corners. Moving on to the number two advantage for this
iPhone, it's Apple's ecosystem. Now, while, yes, Samsung can do a lot of the cross-device syncing
features that are part of the Apple ecosystem, the thing that differentiates Apple and its ecosystem
still is the way Apple approaches implementing these features by making them frankly easier
to use and more intuitive. With Apple devices, you just sign into your iCloud account on all
of your devices, and features like Handoff, Continuity, it all just works. With Samsung,
they're reliant on their partnerships with Google and Microsoft for everything to work, which just
adds a bit more friction into that experience. You have to download additional apps and fiddle around
with settings in order to get feature parity with Apple's ecosystem working properly. Apple also
deeply integrates services like Apple Music, Fitness Plus, iMessage, and others across their
devices. And while some of these services, like Apple Music, are available on Android, many
are not. When you take those and combine them with Apple's ecosystem features and class-leading
hardware products like the iPad, the Apple Watch, AirPods, when you add all of that together,
it makes a pretty compelling ecosystem that, in my opinion, Samsung right
now can't compete with. Now, I know I'm just one opinion out there, and
if you have thoughts on these ecosystems and which one has worked better for
you, let me know down in the comments. The next advantage you get with the 15 Pro
Max is the new Action button. It allows you to quickly get to a specific action like opening
up the camera, flashlight, or trigger a shortcut, which are these powerful iOS automations that
can do different things on your phone based on context. And I'll leave a link to the
custom one I've made in the description. The number four advantage I give the iPhone 15
Pro Max is video quality, for two reasons. One, it can now shoot Apple Log, which lets you
shoot way better video out of the iPhone and allows you more flexibility when color grading the
footage the way you want. Second, the iPhone has a smoother zoom in and out when you're switching
between camera lenses while shooting video. The number five advantage I'd give to the
iPhone 15 Pro Max is iOS. There are just a few things iOS just does better than Android,
like Apple's Weather app, which is just gorgeous and the best default one I've used. Plus, you
can pair it with a dynamic weather background, which makes it impossible not to know what
the weather is outside when you're looking at your phone. I've also found widgets to be more
aesthetically consistent compared to the ones I can add to my home screen on the S24 Ultra by
default. And then there's the dynamic island, which, while, yes, you can download some
things that mimic what it does on the S24, but what's great about it with the iPhone
15 Pro Max is it creates a persistent place to tap and get to anything important
that's running in the background. That, paired with iOS's live activities, which stay
on the lock screen for things like an upcoming order delivery timer or sports scores, these
are features that are just much better thought out and implemented on the iPhone 15 Pro
Max's software versus the S24 Ultra's. All right, now let's talk about which phone
I think is ultimately better. And if we just, you set aside the ecosystems for a second
and look at these phones from a hardware and software standpoint, I do think the S24 Ultra
is the better phone, even when you consider the iPhone's superior processor. The S24 Ultra's
better screen is going to matter to more people, and from the software side, it's more flexible
than iOS, and Apple doesn't get to control what you want to download to your phone. Now here's
where things get a bit interesting though. These two phones, they don't live in a vacuum; they live
in an ecosystem of other devices. For me at least, if we have to consider ecosystems, the iPhone is
a better choice even if the S24 Ultra beats it in some of the hardware categories. If you have
a Mac, the iPhone will work better with that, and same thing with an iPad, same thing with
AirPods. And it's kind of funny, although maybe somewhat annoying, how big of a difference the
ecosystems can make in what smartphone you decide to choose nowadays. And if you want to see more of
my thoughts on the Android versus iPhone ecosystem battle, you can check out the video I did on
that topic here. And for more videos on Apple and Samsung products and comparisons between them,
check out the links in the description below. If you like this video and found it helpful,
make sure you hit that thumbs-up button below, and don't forget to subscribe for more. For 6
months later, I'm Josh Teder. Thanks for watching.
