Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 5G vs Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.7-inch Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 5G (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G) that was released on August 11, 2021, against the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max, which is powered by Apple A17 Pro and came out 2 years and 1 month after. 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 Z Flip 3 5G
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
  • Weighs 38 grams less
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max
  • The rear camera has a 5x optical zoom
  • Shows 122% longer battery life (31:37 vs 14:13 hours)
  • Waterproof body (IP68 classification)
  • Better camera quality (According to DxOMark rating)
  • Delivers 90% higher peak brightness (1772 against 931 nits)
  • Comes with 1141 mAh larger battery capacity: 4441 vs 3300 mAh
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
  • 33% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1467K versus 1102K)
  • The phone is 2 years and 1 month newer

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 5G and Apple iPhone 15 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 93% Yes
Yes, this is a clear and meaningful upgrade.
Updating from Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 5G to Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max is a clear step forward, and the improvements should be easy to notice.
Main improvements: battery life, gaming, and camera.

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED OLED
Size 6.7 inches 6.7 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2640 pixels 1290 x 2796 pixels
Aspect ratio 21.9:9 19.5:9
PPI 426 ppi 460 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes Yes (1-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 850 nits 2000 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1200 nits 1600 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, Dolby Vision
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus -
Screen-to-body ratio 85% 89.8%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
Display tests
RGB color space 95.3% 99.8%
PWM 242 Hz 240 Hz
Response time 6.5 ms 1 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Screen space comparison
iPhone 15 Pro Max
6.7″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 17.1 in2
Galaxy Z Flip 3 5G
6.7″ (21.9:9 ratio) = 15.8 in2
~8% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
1772 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 166 mm (6.54 inches) 159.9 mm (6.3 inches)
Width 72.2 mm (2.84 inches) 76.7 mm (3.02 inches)
Thickness 6.9 mm (0.27 inches) 8.25 mm (0.32 inches)
Weight 183 g (6.46 oz) 221 g (7.8 oz)
Waterproof IPX8 IP68
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Black, Gray, Green, Pink White, Black, Silver, Blue
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-button No
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 5G and Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G Apple A17 Pro
Max clock 2840 MHz 3780 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 3 + 4) 6 (2 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Kryo 680 Silver (Cortex-A55)
- 3 cores at 2.42 GHz: Kryo 680 Gold (Cortex-A78)
- 1 core at 2.84 GHz: Kryo 680 Prime (Cortex-X1)
- 4 cores at 2.11 GHz: Sawtooth
- 2 cores at 3.78 GHz: Everest
L3 cache 4 MB -
Manufacturing Samsung TSMC
Lithography process 5 nanometers 3 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon 780 Apple Neural Engine
GPU
Graphics Adreno 660 6 core Apple GPU
GPU shading units 768 768
GPU clock 840 MHz 1398 MHz
FLOPS ~1290.2 GFLOPS ~2147.2 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 5G and Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) - 28374
Single-core score 1473 2974
Multi-core score 3767 7533
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
1467470
CPU 387259 374357
GPU 163836 463612
Memory 208561 184670
UX 342686 444831
Total score 1102342 1467470
Samples [7 tests] [7 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 72% 71%
Graphics test 3 FPS 10 FPS
Graphics score 435 1391
3DMark Solar Bay
Stability - 73%
Graphics test - 23 FPS
Section 1 - 29 FPS
Section 2 - 23 FPS
Section 3 - 16 FPS
Graphics score - 6089
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability 73% 63%
Graphics test 7 FPS 21 FPS
Graphics score 1224 3655
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
Web score 13317 -
Video editing 7710 -
Photo editing 29882 -
Data manipulation 10323 -
Writing score 15410 -

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 5G
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-09-12 (Zha)AnTuTu 12976692
📘 2026-03-14 (Mitu)AnTuTu 111102342
📘 2026-02-21 -> nanamondAnTuTu 111205113
📘 2026-02-01 (nanamond)AnTuTu 111128111
📘 2025-12-08 (Carlos Domino)AnTuTu 11987766
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-10-01 (Zabza)AnTuTu 111996792
📘 2026-09-28 (Kuan.28)AnTuTu 111752198
📘 2026-09-23 (podsolnuh)AnTuTu 111357765
📘 2026-09-11 (Zabza)AnTuTu 111599694
📘 2026-09-10 (elio)AnTuTu 111445771

Memory

RAM
RAM size 8 GB 8 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR5
Memory clock 2750 MHz 3200 MHz
Channels 2 4
Storage
Storage size 128 GB 256 GB
Storage type UFS 3.1 NVMe
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 11 (Can be upgraded to Android 15) iOS 17 (Can be upgraded to iOS 27)
ROM One UI 7.0 -
OS size 29 GB 17.6 GB
OS updates 2 years 7 years
Security updates 4 years 7 years

Battery

Capacity 3300 mAh 4441 mAh
Max charge power 25 W 23 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (10 W) Yes (7.5 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes
Bypass charging - No
Fast charging Yes (40% in 30 min) Yes (46% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:30 hr 1:49 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 05:34 hr 12:36 hr
Watching video 09:17 hr 22:07 hr
Gaming 03:55 hr 06:58 hr
Standby 65 hr 139 hr
General battery life
31:37 hr

Main camera

Matrix 12 megapixels 48 megapixels
Image resolution 4000 x 3000 8064 x 6048
Zoom Digital Optical, 5x
Flash LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording No No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (720p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 123° 120°
Lenses 1) Standard: 12 MP
2) Ultrawide: 12 MP
1) Standard: 48 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 12 MP 48 MP
Aperture f/1.8 f/1.8
Focal length 27 mm 24 mm
Sensor Sony IMX563 Sony IMX803
Sensor size 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch) 1/1.28" (≈ 0.78 inch)
Pixel size 1.4 micron 1.22 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution - 12 MP
Aperture - f/1.78 - 2.8
Focal length - 120 mm
Sensor - Sony IMX913
Sensor size - 1/3.06" (≈ 0.33 inch)
Pixel size - 1.12 micron
Stabilization - Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 12 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 22 mm 13 mm
Sensor Sony IMX258 Sony IMX633
Sensor size 1/3.06" (≈ 0.33 inch) 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron 1.4 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital

DxOMark main camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
Bokeh 55 80
Preview 69 86
Zoom 72 142
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 5G from DxOMark Photo samples of Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max from DxOMark

Selfie camera

Megapixels 10 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 3648 x 2736 4032 x 3024
Aperture f/2.4 f/1.9
Focal length 26 mm 23 mm
Sensor Sony IMX374 Sony IMX714
Sensor size 1/3.2" (≈ 0.31 inch) 1/3.6" (≈ 0.28 inch)
Pixel size 1.22 micron 1.12 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) Phase autofocus
Stabilization Digital Optical
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No Yes
DxOMark front camera
Photo - 145
Video - 156

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6E (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 5.1 5.3
Bluetooth features LE, A2DP LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 2 3.2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort - Yes
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 1 -
Type of SIM card Nano eSIM
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* 20 20
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

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced August 2021 September 2023
Release date August 2021 September 2023
Launch price (MSRP) $1000 $1199
Successor - Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 - Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max
SAR (head) 0.86 W/kg 0.98 W/kg
SAR (body) 1.58 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 Not included
*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 Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max is definitely a better buy.

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