Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra vs Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.8-inch Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (for Galaxy)) that was released on January 17, 2024, against the Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max, which is powered by Apple A15 Bionic and came out 2 years and 5 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
  • 2x better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (2341K versus 1153K)
  • Has 2x more RAM: 12GB versus 6GB
  • The rear camera has a 5x optical zoom
  • Delivers 38% higher peak brightness (1443 against 1049 nits)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
  • Supports higher wattage charging (45W versus 23W)
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Compatible with Wi-Fi 7 wireless networks
  • The phone is 2 years and 5 months newer

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and Apple iPhone 13 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
DeviceFacts Score
Final comparison evaluation
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate DeviceFacts Score
📱 Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

Should I update?
No 43% Yes
Mostly no. The difference is too small to matter in everyday use.
The overall difference between Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is not big enough to justify updating.
Main improvements: connectivity, gaming, and performance.

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED OLED
Size 6.8 inches 6.7 inches
Resolution 1440 x 3088 pixels 1284 x 2778 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 19.5:9
PPI 501 ppi 458 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (1-120 Hz) Yes (10-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 2600 nits 1000 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR - 1200 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, Dolby Vision
Touch sampling rate 240 Hz -
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Armor -
Screen-to-body ratio 88.5% 87.7%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
- DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space 99.5% 99.9%
PWM 480 Hz 238 Hz
Response time 1 ms 8.5 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
1443 nits
1049 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 162.3 mm (6.39 inches) 160.8 mm (6.33 inches)
Width 79 mm (3.11 inches) 78.1 mm (3.07 inches)
Thickness 8.6 mm (0.34 inches) 7.65 mm (0.3 inches)
Weight 232 g (8.18 oz) 240 g (8.47 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber -
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Black, Gray, Blue, Green, Orange, Purple, Yellow Black, Silver, Gold, Blue, Green
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display No
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (for Galaxy) Apple A15 Bionic
Max clock 3390 MHz 3230 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 3 + 2 + 2) 6 (2 + 4)
Architecture - 2 cores at 2.27 GHz: Cortex-A520
- 2 cores at 2.96 GHz: Cortex-A720
- 3 cores at 3.15 GHz: Cortex-A720
- 1 core at 3.3 GHz: Cortex-X4
- 4 cores at 2.02 GHz: Blizzard
- 2 cores at 3.23 GHz: Avalanche
L3 cache 12 MB -
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 4 nanometers 5 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Apple Neural Engine
GPU
Graphics Adreno 750 Apple GPU (5 cores)
GPU shading units 1536 640
GPU clock 903-1000 MHz 1338 MHz
FLOPS ~2774 GFLOPS ~1712.6 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) 15386 21357
Single-core score 2259 2427
Multi-core score 7330 6142
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
2341394
CPU 717970 276639
GPU 790073 369897
Memory 341284 116764
UX 492067 390373
Total score 2341394 1153673
Samples [42 tests] [3 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 71% -
Graphics test 11 FPS -
Graphics score 1527 -
3DMark Solar Bay
Stability 63% 75%
Graphics test 29 FPS 14 FPS
Section 1 36 FPS 19 FPS
Section 2 29 FPS 14 FPS
Section 3 23 FPS 9 FPS
Graphics score 7748 3785
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability 59% 73%
Graphics test 27 FPS 17 FPS
Graphics score 4531 2960
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
Web score 18499 -
Video editing 8001 -
Photo editing 35916 -
Data manipulation 15552 -
Writing score 22696 -
AnTuTu 11 Ranking List (#190th place)

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-10-14 (Riflessione)AnTuTu 122005418
📘 2026-10-08 (Lello75)CPU Throttle73%
📘 2026-09-29 (Ratiii)Geekbench 7 CPU1995 / 6875
📘 2026-09-29 (gunissus)AnTuTu 122654412
📘 2026-09-24 (Denislav Antimov)AnTuTu 122573019
Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-10-12 -> HotPowerGeekbench 7 CPU2155 / 5548
📘 2026-09-23 -> HotPowerAnTuTu 111184759
📘 2026-09-19 -> HotPowerGeekbench 6 GPU21284
📘 2026-09-19 -> HotPowerGeekbench 6 CPU2423 / 5985
📘 2026-09-12 (Simon)AnTuTu 111146332

Memory

RAM
RAM size 12 GB 6 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR4X
Memory clock 4200 MHz 2133 MHz
Channels 4 2
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 128 GB
Storage type UFS 4.0 NVMe
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 14 (Can be upgraded to Android 17) iOS 15 (Can be upgraded to iOS 27)
ROM One UI 9.0 -
OS size 28 GB 13 GB
OS updates 7 years -
Security updates 7 years -

Battery

Capacity 5000 mAh 4352 mAh
Max charge power 45 W 23 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes (7.5 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) No
Bypass charging Yes No
Fast charging Yes (69% in 30 min) Yes (42% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:05 hr 1:46 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 10:18 hr 11:16 hr
Watching video 18:00 hr 17:03 hr
Gaming 05:51 hr 06:41 hr
Standby 122 hr 136 hr
General battery life
26:30 hr
28:08 hr
Smartphones With Long Battery Life (122nd and 89th place)

Main camera

Matrix 200 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 16320 x 12240 4032 x 3024
Zoom Optical, 5x Optical, 3x
Flash LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 30FPS No
4K video recording Up to 120FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 240FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 240 FPS (1080p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 120° 120°
Lenses 1) Standard: 200 MP
2) Telephoto: 50 MP
3) Telephoto: 12 MP
4) Ultrawide: 12 MP
1) Standard: 12 MP
2) Telephoto: 12 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
4) Depth
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 200 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/1.7 f/1.5
Focal length 23 mm 26 mm
Sensor Samsung ISOCELL HP2 Sony IMX703
Sensor size 1/1.3" (≈ 0.77 inch) 1/1.66" (≈ 0.6 inch)
Pixel size 0.6 micron 1.9 micron
Autofocus Laser autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 50 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/3.4 f/2.8
Focal length 111 mm 77 mm
Sensor Sony IMX854 Sony IMX713
Sensor size 1/2.52" (≈ 0.4 inch) 1/3.4" (≈ 0.29 inch)
Pixel size 0.7 micron 1 micron
Stabilization Optical Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 12 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/1.8
Focal length 13 mm 13 mm
Sensor Sony IMX564 Sony IMX772
Sensor size 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch) 1/3.4" (≈ 0.29 inch)
Pixel size 1.4 micron 1 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital

DxOMark main camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
Bokeh 70 75
Preview 82 81
Zoom 145 119
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra from DxOMark Photo samples of Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max from DxOMark

Selfie camera

Megapixels 12 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 4000 x 3000 4032 x 3024
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 26 mm 23 mm
Sensor Samsung S5K3LU Sony IMX514
Sensor size 1/3.2" (≈ 0.31 inch) 1/3.6" (≈ 0.28 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron 1 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No Yes
DxOMark front camera
Photo - 128
Video - 143

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- 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 5.3 5
Bluetooth features LE LE, A2DP
USB type USB Type-C -
USB version 3.2 2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort Yes, DP 1.2 -
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 1 1
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* 20 18
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness
93 dB

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced January 2024 September 2021
Release date January 2024 September 2021
Launch price (MSRP) $1299 $1100
Successor - Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra - Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max
SAR (head) 1.06 W/kg 0.99 W/kg
SAR (body) 1.3 W/kg 0.98 W/kg
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Face recognition sensor
Bundled charger Not included -
Further details
Notes on Galaxy S24 Ultra:
    - There is a model with two physical SIM cards and no eSIM, and another with one physical SIM card and eSIM support.
*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 Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
212 (70%)
91 (30%)
Total votes: 303

User opinions

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