This is our own footage: we put the iPhone 18 Pro Max and the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra through the same shots side by side, ultra wide, main camera, telephoto and a straight portrait test, and the video above is the full comparison.
Apple's iPhone 18 Pro Max carries the same variable aperture we already tested on the standard 18 Pro, and our first look at what it changes is in iPhone 18 Pro Camera Review: We Tested the Variable Aperture. Samsung's answer is the 200MP main sensor on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, a phone we already spent two weeks with before this test. Here is what the two actually produced, frame by frame.
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Ultra wide: the first split test
At 0:34 in our video, both phones shot the same street corner on their ultra wide lens. Framing and exposure land almost identical between the two, and the sky and the shopfronts read the same shade of grey-blue on both crops. If we had to pick a difference from this frame alone, it would not be a confident one.
Main camera: where the sensor size should matter most
This is the lens Samsung's 200MP sensor is built to win on paper. At 1:16, shooting a fruit stall's dragon fruit and citrus, both phones hold detail well into the produce at the back of the frame. The colour of the dragon fruit's pink skin and the green limes reads close to the same on both crops, and the difference we can see in this single frame is too small to call a winner from a still image alone.
Telephoto: close on a moving subject
Telephoto is usually where the gap between flagship cameras opens up. At 2:22, both phones locked onto the same pigeon at close range, and both hold onto fine feather detail at this crop. The only visible difference in this frame is colour: the Galaxy's version leans slightly warmer, while the iPhone's crop reads a touch cooler.
Portrait mode: the closest result of the whole test
The photo at the top of this article, our headshot test at 1:32, is the closest the two phones came to identical. Skin tone and the background blur falloff behind the subject read almost the same on both, and neither phone over-smoothed the skin the way phone portraits sometimes do. If you want to shoot deliberate portraits like this instead of leaving everything to auto mode, our phone filmmaking course Pocket Cinematic covers exposure, framing and colour control step by step.
What the full video still has to answer
Our video keeps going past this: low light, video recording, and a final verdict at the 5:03 mark, where we say which camera we would actually buy. A still frame can only tell part of the story, so watch that part before you decide. The comparison has already been watched more than 57,700 times on our channel, and "Team Apple or Team Samsung" is still an open question in the comments under the video. Tell us your pick.
