iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Galaxy S21 Ultra: Can an aging Samsung flagship still be competitive?
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Intro
The newest and brightest supernova in the Cupertino constellation is the hot (no pun intended) and exciting new iPhone 15 Pro Max, a device that reinvigorates the iPhone lineup with a host of new features.
Gone are signature iPhone features like the mute switch and the Lightning connector, substituted for a USB Type-C port and a customizable Action Button. There's also a fancy new titanium design, a powerful new periscope camera, and finally, an unchanged price.
How does this one stack up against the Galaxy S21 Ultra from a few years ago? Samsung's flagship phone from 2021 was a cornerstone device that came with a very large display, a big battery, the best Snapdragon and Exynos chips at the time, as well as the coveted ultra-long 10X periscope lens and an overall design that was Samsung's finest at the time.
iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Galaxy S21 Ultra expected differences:
- iPhone 15 Pro Max is much newer
- 6.7-inch (iPhone 15 Pro Max) vs 6.8-inch (Galaxy S21 Ultra) display
- 3nm Apple A17 Pro (iPhone 15 Pro Max) vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 (Galaxy S21 Ultra)
- 48MP (iPhone 15 Pro Max) vs 108MP (Galaxy S21 Ultra) main camera sensors
- 12MP FaceTime (iPhone 15 Pro Max) vs 40MP (Galaxy S21 Ultra) selfie camera
- 5X optical (iPhone 15 Pro Max) vs 3X, 10X optical zoom (Galaxy S21 Ultra)
- 25W (iPhone 15 Pro Max) vs 25W (Galaxy S21 Ultra) charging speeds
- 4,422mAh vs 5,000mAh battery
- Face ID (iPhone 15 Pro Max) vs Ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint scanner (Galaxy S21 Ultra)
- iOS 17 vs Android 13
Table of Contents:
Design and Size
The iPhone 15 Pro Max comes with a fancy new contoured titanium design that supersedes the stainless-steel build of previous iPhones. The titanium alloy used has allowed the new iPhone to be lighter and more robust than previous iPhones. Apple has already played around with titanium on both the Apple Watch Ultra and the fresh Apple Watch Ultra 2.
Another change has come to the mute switch, one of the many signature features of the iPhone lineup. This one has been substituted for a customizable Action Button, similar to the one on the Apple Watch Ultra. You can assign various features, functionalities, focuses, and even custom shortcuts to the side-positioned Action Button.
There is also no Lightning port at the bottom of the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Yes, look down there, and you'll find a USB Type-C port looking right back at you. Apple was willy-nilly forced to adopt the USB Type-C standard that trickled down as an EU law, and the iPhone 15 series is first in line for the new port.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max also has thinner bezels, which makes for a striking new look. While it's not edge-to-edge, still good job on trimming the fat, Apple.
The Dynamic Island punch-hole, the last holdout preventing us from getting a completely uninterrupted screen experience on an iPhone, is still present on the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra was a classic candybar phone with an aluminum frame and Gorilla Glass Victus at the front and at the back, a very snazzy Contour Cut design for the rear camera island, and with a small punch-hole for the selfie camera at the front. The glass slightly curved to the sides, both at the front and at the back, boosting the ergonomics.
Unlike its successors, the Galaxy S21 Ultra sadly didn't come with an S Pen Stylus, and it didn't come with a microSD card slot either.
In comparison, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is shorter and thinner, but wider, though in all honesty, aside from the height difference, the rest is mostly marginal.
| iPhone 15 Pro Max | Galaxy S21 Ultra | |
|---|---|---|
| Height | 159.9 mm | 165.1 mm |
| Width | 76.7 mm | 75.6 mm |
| Depth | 8.25 mm | 8.9 mm |
In terms of colors, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is available in Natural Titanium, Black Titanium, Blue Titanium, and White Titanium, all of which have that signature titanium finish. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S21 Ultra was available in Phantom Black and Phantom Silver, while Titanium, Navy, and Brown were exclusive to the Samsung.com store.
Display Differences
The iPhone 15 Pro Max hasn't scored any significant changes in the display department; we guess Apple rolled under the "never change a winning team" motto for that one. The device employs a 6.7-inch Liquid Retina XDR OLED display with HDR capabilities and ProMotion, which makes scrolling and swiping around very pleasing and rewarding.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max has an excellent screen, with lovely and vivid colors, excellent contrast and viewing angles, as well as truly superb maximum brightness that makes viewing content in bright daylight a literal joy in the park.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy S21 Ultra also came with an OLED display and, similar to any display on a proper Samsung flagship, this one was mostly superb at the time. The 6.8-inch panel with QuadHD+ display was among the first at the time to employ the LTPO screen technology that allowed for an adaptive refresh rate, as it allowed for dynamic switching in the 10-120Hz spread. Surely, not as spectacular as modern displays that can go down as low as 1Hz, but we dare you spot the difference in real life.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is brighter and more color-accurate, but the Galaxy S21 Ultra isn't too far behind either. It's challenging to get disappointed with an OLED display, even if it's not the latest and greatest one, and the Galaxy S21 Ultra proves that.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra came with a relatively sluggish ultrasonic fingerprint scanner embedded right into the display, which is generally slower than similar sensors of the optical variety. Apple once again relies on the tried-and-true Face ID system, built right into that Dynamic Island punch-hole.
Performance and Software
Sorry, Samsung...
Apple's next big iPhone comes with the 3nm Apple A17 Pro chipset, which also happens to be the first 3nm chip on mobile. Thanks to the denser manufacturing process, billions of extra transistors have been crammed inside the upcoming chip, improving the performance by around 10% in comparison with the previous iPhone 14 Pro Max generation.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy S21 Ultra was available in two varieties: the US version came with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip, while the international models were powered by the Exynos 2100 chip. Both were manufactured on a 5nm process and were mainly great for everyday usage and intensive tasks, but at the time, we found them to be lacking when it comes to sustained performance due to thermal throttling. Synthetic benchmarks weren't kind to the Samsung flagship of 2021 either.
If we thought that the Galaxy S21 Ultra lagged behind the iPhone 12 Pro Max a few years ago, can you imagine how big the difference could be with the iPhone 15 Pro Max?
As expected, the Galaxy S21 Ultra can't really hold a candle to the iPhone 15 Pro Max in terms of raw performance. In all of our benchmarking tests, Apple's latest and greatest has scored a crushing victory against its older Galaxy rival, and that's more than natural.
The iPhone comes with 8GB of RAM, a jump from 6GB on the previous model, and ships with 256, 512GB, or a massive 1TB storage version. The entry-level 128GB version of the phone is gone, with prices for the other tiers unchanged. The Galaxy S21 Ultra was available with 12 or 16GB RAM, and with either 128, 256, or 512GB of native storage in different combinations. There was no microSD card slot for further expansion.
We expect that the iPhone 15 Pro Max will receive software support until 2028 at least, with the chance for further support down the line still possible. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is already half-way through its support lifetime, as Samsung's new policy of four major Android software updates and five years of security updates kicked off with the Galaxy S21 series in particular. So, the phone will be supported until 2025/2026, respectively.
Apple's WWDC 2023 developer summit took place in early June 2023. Like every year, all the future software goods and functions that will be arriving at an Apple device near you this autumn were previewed, including some exciting additions that will be coming to Apple's software in the fall.
iOS 17 will include significant improvements to the essential Phone, Messages, and FaceTime apps, as well as new features such as StandBy, which displays useful information while your phone is charging, interactive widgets, improvements to AirDrop, a brand-new Journal app that will act as your digital diary, and enhanced keyboard autocorrect. Expect improvements to Siri, Visual Look Up, which now more intelligently detects flora and fauna, and finally giving Apple Maps the ability to save maps for offline use.
iOS 17 will include significant improvements to the essential Phone, Messages, and FaceTime apps, as well as new features such as StandBy, which displays useful information while your phone is charging, interactive widgets, improvements to AirDrop, a brand-new Journal app that will act as your digital diary, and enhanced keyboard autocorrect. Expect improvements to Siri, Visual Look Up, which now more intelligently detects flora and fauna, and finally giving Apple Maps the ability to save maps for offline use.
Late in 2023, Apple released the first major patch for iOS 17. The iOS 17.1 software update comes with plenty of changes, chief among which are improvements to the new StandBy feature, as well as major improvements to the Apple Music user experience. Additionally, iOS 17.1 allows you to share massive files even when two iPhones are not in close proximity by supporting AirDrop over cellular networks. The iOS 17.1 software update comes with further enhancements and bug fixes. However, it appears that iOS 17.1 doesn't fix the Wi-Fi bug that has been plaguing the iPhone 15 series from day one.
Camera
Samsung still has the upper hand in zooming capabilities
The iPhone 14 Pro Max introduced a 48MP camera to the iPhone scene, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max also comes with a 48MP camera, but with many software improvements. For the full scope on the iPhone 15 Pro Max camera, check our dedicated article.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy S21 Ultra came with the old 108MP camera of Samsung's top flagships, which came with very decent autofocus, and a bevy of AI assists for the ultimate in Android phone photography in early 2021. However, the main camera of the Galaxy S21 Ultra was a bit soft in the edges, but otherwise, even in mid-2023, could pass as very decent.
New on the iPhone is a 5X periscope zoom that substitutes the 3X telephoto lens that has been used for a few years now. This allows Apple to foray into long zooming territory, though not in the same levels as the Galaxy S21 Ultra. That one came with two telephoto cameras, a 3X and a 10X, allowing for a hybrid, AI-assisted zooming up to 100X, which essentially matches the current Galaxy S23 Ultra.
Audio Quality and Haptics
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is a superb device when it comes to audio quality. A recurring theme with some of the latest iPhone super-flagships has been the deep and rich sound, with a noticeable bass and punch in the high frequencies, allowing for a very pleasant audiophile experience.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra also has a stereo setup, and this one is decently loud as well, though it lacks in the mids and the bass is not as punchy. Don't get us wrong, audio played on the phone's speakers is extremely decent, it's just that subsequent Galaxies have employed way more impressive speakers.
Haptics have always been a strong aspect of the iPhone lineup, and we have similar high hopes for the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S21 Ultra also had a very precise haptic feedback experience, mostly due to an excellent vibrator motor.
Battery Life and Charging
At the time, the 5,000mAh battery inside the Galaxy S21 Ultra surprised us with its better-than-expected battery life, even though the phone had a power-hungry and sharp display and not-so-efficient chip on deck. It aced our battery life tests, which aimed to recreate various usage scenarios and were conducted in a controlled environment with the display set at 200 nits. However, if you're still using a Galaxy S21 Ultra bought close to its launch, chances are the battery life isn't as good as it was initially, but that's normal.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max comes with a 4,422mAh battery inside, slightly more than the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra came with 25W wired charging support, as well as up to 15W of wireless charging and reverse wireless charging. You could fully top this one up in less than 90 minutes, which is a good result, but a far cry from the fastest-charging phones on the planet. Meanwhile, the iPhone 15 Pro Max features 25W wired charging, as well as 15W MagSafe wireless charging. The Galaxy S21 Ultra charges up nearly twice as fast as the iPhone 15 Pro Max, as the latter takes two hours for a full 100% charge.
Specs Comparison
Although the archives are incomplete and the iPhone 15 Pro Max specs aren't set in stone, we already have our iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Galaxy S21 Ultra specs comparison up ant running. Don't fret, a shorter summary is available right below.
| iPhone 15 Pro Max | Galaxy S21 Ultra | |
|---|---|---|
| Size, weight | 159.9 x 76.7 x 8.25 mm | 165.1 x 75.6 x 8.9mm |
| Screen | 6.7" OLED 120Hz ProMotion | 6.8" OLED QHD+ LTPO 10-120Hz |
| Processor | A17 Pro 3nm | Snapdragon 888 5nm Exynos 2100 |
| RAM, Storage | 8/256GB 8/512GB 8/1TB | 12/128GB 12/256GB 16/256GB 12/512GB 16/512GB LPDDR5 |
| Cameras | 48MP main 12MP ultra 12MP 5X zoom 12MP front | 108MP main 12MP ultra 10MP 3X zoom 10MP 10X zoom 40MP front |
| Battery | 4,422 mAh | 5000 mAh |
| Charging | USB-C 20W wired MagSafe | USB-C 25W wired 15W wireless 4.5W reverse wireless charging |
Summary and Final Verdict
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is shaping up to be leaps and bounds a better device than the Galaxy S21 Ultra, but that's very logical to expect given the sheer age difference of the two devices. After all, one of these will be two-and-a-half years old when the other even gets announced.
At $1,199, the Galaxy S21 Ultra was quite pricey at the time, but it was arguably one of the top phone available in 2021, jam-packed with tech that is still ahead of your average flagship phone even in mid-2023.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is shaping up to be another spectacular Apple flagship that could surely lure away many iOS fans using older iPhones to upgrade. And rightly so: even though Apple didn't increase the price and the iPhone 15 Pro Max still costs as much as the iPhone 14 Pro Max did, starting at $1,199.
Should you upgrade from the Galaxy S21 Ultra to the iPhone 15 Pro Max? If you're willing to dip your toes in the iOS ecosystem and experience what we anticipate to be one of the top phones of 2023, then go for it. If you simply can't abandon Android, then next year's Galaxy S24 Ultra might be a better fit.
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