iPhone 11 Pro Max vs Galaxy S20+ In-Depth Review | Which Phone is Better? By InsideTech

When Apple released the iPhone 11 Pro Max. It was successful because it delivered in areas that people seem to care about the most with significantly improved battery life and a completely redesigned camera system. In fact, the iPhone competes with the Google Pixel for having the best camera on a smartphone and perhaps surpasses it thanks to the ultra-wide lens. In response to this Samsung looked at every aspect of last year's s, 10 series and pretty much maxed out the specs in all areas of the newest 20s. The s 20 plus, is an impressive smartphone and is in line to be perhaps the best smartphone released this year. Many of you have been asking for a comparison of Apple's best smartphone against not just Samsung's best phone, but what many believe to be the best phone on Android for those wondering why I'm not comparing the s20 ultra to the iPhone instead? Well, that's because, as we saw in the full review, the S 20 plus is frankly a better phone, and it seems that most of you agree with me.

Apple just doesn't make a phone like the s20 ultra and to think the Plus model is the closest competitor. Even before you look at the price in this video we'll be comparing all the specs and features of these smartphone Titans, covering all of their differences and answering the ultimate question which of these phones is better. Let's take a look so for the design, neither if these phones made any drastic changes from their predecessors and both still have glass front and rear panels with metal frames. The phones are pretty big, too big to use comfortably with one hand, but you'll notice that the s20 Plus is taller and narrower than the iPhone, which has implications for both how it feels to use in the hand and also with how it displays your content, it's a little easier to reach across the screen on the galaxy, but this may impact certain content like webpages games and video. Although this narrow aspect ratio tends to better suit cinematic footage, like certain movies, another difference in how it feels using these phones comes from the build quality and materials.

The iPhone, of course uses stainless steel versus the aluminum frame in the s20 plus, and this does give the iPhone a more premium feel in the hand. One thing that Apple have always done really well is create premium filling products, and the combination of the higher weight and smooth steel frame does feel nicer in the hand than the galaxy as the harder metal it'll also be more scratch resistant than the galaxy's aluminum. But if you drop either of these phones, they're pretty much equally likely to break I, also prefer the softer matte texture on the iPhones were a glass, since the glossy back of the s20 plus can feel a bit oily and also attracts more fingerprints. There's a slight difference in water resistance, despite the fact that both phones obtained an ip68 rating, because the iPhone is rated to 4 meters for 30 minutes, whilst the s20 plus is only rated to one and a half meters. The physical button layouts differ too, with the s20 plus placing everything on the right-hand side.

Whilst the iPhone has the power button on the right, but the volume keys on the left as a right-handed user I think I'd prefer to have the volume keys on the right as well. But I do love the iPhones handy, mute, switch, a feature I think all smartphones should have the iPhone single SIM card tray is located below the power button. Whilst the galaxy places is dual SIM tray. On top the hybrid nature of this SIM tray message, you could either use it for dual Sims or for expandable storage up to a huge one, terabyte a key feature: that's missing on the iPhone storage might be an important factor depending on your usage in the case of the iPhone I feel like I've, been saying this for years now, but a starting based, storage of just 64 gigabytes is really poor and should at least be the 128 gigabytes that Samsung offers, especially since you can't expand this. The one advantage is that there are more storage options available because in some regions, such as here in the UK you're stuck with 128 gigs for the s20 plus with the iPhone, you can get all storage options in any color, which is great, but as much rather have expandable storage as an option.

The galaxy also has an advantage when it comes to ports, since it uses the much more versatile, USB connector for charging and data transfer. Although remit to be switching to USB, see the 11pro max still uses the inferior Lightning port, the ports are flanked by microphones and stereo speakers, but you won't find the headphone jack on either phone. The corresponding front facing speaker is clear to see on the iPhone sent it inside the iconic notch, whereas the s20 plus manages to squeeze this into an impossibly thin top bezel. So there's no competition as to which looks better, which we'll come back to in terms of the speaker quality, though there's really not much in it at all. The stereo separation is pretty even and both phones are fairly loud, but let's say the iPhones audio is slightly more bass.

Whilst the galaxy is slightly louder, both phones support, Dolby Atmos, but on the s20 plus. You can also enable this for unsupported content, which does make the volume louder than the iPhone, but can diminish the audio quality. The iPhone simply enables it automatically through spatial audio for any Dolby Atmos supported content, listen serious about contending with the biggest names in audio tech, the Liberty. To pro note any cement sound cores position as a major player in this field, but are also one of the best true wireless earbuds available right now, we'll also be reviewing the cheaper Liberty to which are similar, not only by name but in designed and features to this in-depth review, but getting back to the iPhones notch. This forms part of perhaps the most important distinction between these phones when it comes to design side by side.

It's hard to believe these phones were released just a few months apart, because the iPhones now dated not makes it look like an older generation device. The s20 plus is single hole. Punch is a much more modern, attractive and less obtrusive design. Giving you much more screen real estate. I know that some people actually prefer the iPhones design, though so let me know down in the comments section which one you think looks better clearly, there's an important reason why Apple have stuck with the notch for so many years, and that's because if the technology packed inside it, the notch houses the necessary components for face ID the most sophisticated and I think best unlock system on a smartphone.

The s20 plus uses the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner we saw last year, I personally, quite like it. It's positioned really well and when it works, it can be faster than face ID. But, most importantly for me is that it takes me straight to the home screen, whereas you still need to swipe up on the iPhone. However, an emphasis must be placed on when it works, because it still suffers from slight misalignment, with your finger any dirt or moisture on the screen and a lot of screen protectors will give you problems to sure. There are ways to improve this, like increasing touch sensitivity and registering your print multiple times, but it's still not as convenient as face ID, which works every single time.

But now I find myself faced with the same decision as I did two years ago. Is the convenience of face ID worth the sacrifice you make by having the big ugly notch? I still love face ID, but when I look at Samsung's gorgeous display design I'm starting to think it's no longer worth the sacrifice. This is a really tough one, but lets me know which one you'd rather have done in the comments section. Just in case anybody didn't know, you can actually unlock the s20 plus with your face ?, but this doesn't use a 3d image of your face. So isn't a secure biometric method like on the iPhone, it's the same technology that made headlines after users were able to unlock phones using someone's photo.

So just be careful if you want to use this aside from the notch and hole punch, the displays are also impacted by the bezels, which are noticeably thinner with the s20 plus Samsung have finally decided to ditch the problematic curved displays of previous years and now have a much flatter display closer to the iPhone, there's still a slight curve to enable those thin side bezels. So they now seem to have found the perfect balance. The s20 plus offers a 6.7 inch display versus the six of a half inch display of the 11pro max, but there are quite a few matching display specs with the phones. There's the obvious fact that they're both own it displays, but they also offer the same height contrast, ratio, white, color range and 1200 minutes of maximum brightness. They both offer HDR support too and content is visually stunning on either phone I.

Just think. It's a bit easier to enjoy on Samsung's larger display with the higher screen to body ratio. The s20 plus offers a higher 1440p resolution ?, but there's one important spec that really separates the phone from the 11pro Max and that's the high refresh rate. The galaxy's 120 Hertz, refresh rate, makes using the phone an absolute joy thanks to iOS optimizations scrolling on an iPhone has always been perfect, but that's nothing compared to the smoothness of the s20 + high refresh rate displays really need to be seen in real life to be appreciated fully. You just won't see the true benefit on a YouTube video set to a lower frame rate, but those who've used them will note just how good they look.

The weird thing is that Apple released the iPad Pro with a 120 Hertz display, but didn't choose to include that display tech in their iPhone 11 Pro, which just seems insane the S 20s displace high refresh rate gaming ?, which is more enjoyable on the galaxy s bigger screen, although the iPhone still wins in terms of the game library, the high refresh rate is the one display spec, you really need to care about, and it's a no-brainer as to which display is technically more impressive. To give the offense of credit, it does have a few redeeming features for one. It supports Dolby Vision in addition to HDR 10, the former of which is often considered to be the superior HDR format. The second is true tone, a feature which automatically adjusts the white balance. According to the surrounding lighting, this seamlessly adapts to your environment to offer a more natural and comfortable viewing experience, and there isn't really a similar feature on the galaxy to compare.

But the final, and perhaps most important point is that the typical display brightness is higher on the iPhone, despite having the same max brightness specs. What you'll actually see in real world use is that the IFS display is brighter, so it does offer improved viewing, especially in bright conditions. An important thing to mention the s20 area fresh rate is that this does take a significant toll on the battery life, as I said in the full review. This is still worth the trade-off, but I could often extend my screen on time by over an hour by turning it off a still achieve better battery life on the 11 Pro max, though, a phone known for its great battery life using the phones at max brightness, streaming, 4k, video gaming and using multiple apps to simulate an intense day of use, both phones reach around 6 hours. The screen on time before the galaxy eventually died.

At this point, the iPhone still had around 20% battery, which translated to around an extra 2 hours of high-quality video streaming I, do have the Enos model of the S 20 plus, though, and I'd expect the Snapdragon version to offer much better performance. As for charging, though, the iPhone really falls behind the pro max can be fast charge at a maximum of 18 watts in around 2 hours, but the S 20 + half's this with his 25 watt charger. The wireless charging speed is faster on the galaxy 2, which is able to charge with more power. It also has the wireless power share feature letting you charge up at the devices by placing them on the back of the phone. You can actually charge up other devices here with more power than the iPhone can wirelessly charge, which is pretty crazy.

Moving on now to what many consider to be the most important aspect of the phones, which is the camera, both phones offer redesigned triple-n's camera systems, but the S 20 plus has additional depth sensors for enhanced depth information. There are some common themes that we've seen in previous years, such as a higher contrast and saturation with Samsung's images, whilst the iPhone tends to show more accurate and natural color. The s20 Jimmy Jim therefore tend to be more striking and vibrant than the iPhone well they're less realistic than the roll I've seen. The white balance is typically warmer with the iPhone 2, which perhaps comes as no surprise, but you'll still find that this can switch between shots. The s 20 plus often produced a sharper image, a characteristic trait from a Samsung camera, but sales have found the plane of focus to be shallower than the iPhone.

This was actually a big problem with the S 20 ultra. It isn't nearly as bad here, but I usually found the iPhone captured more of the subject in focus even with the scene. Optimizer and other enhancement features turned off. The galaxy tends to give a more processed and stylized image than the iPhone, which sometimes works really well, but this can lead to over sharpening and combined with Samsung's aggressive contrast and saturation boosts, can over process photos. But how much you like this effect will be down to your own preference.

There's also a high-resolution photo mode on the s20 +, which uses the telephoto lens to take a sixty-four megapixel photo, as we saw in the full review, though there isn't really much to warrant the slower capture, time and larger file size beyond to the regular mode and even compared to the iPhones 12 megapixel lens. The contrast and color differences we normally see are the only noticeable changes anyway. Both phones have 12 megapixel ultra wide-angle lenses, but you can clearly see a drastic difference in color. There's a significant magenta here with the s 20 plus and the iPhone much more accurately represents the true color of the scene. What's perhaps less obvious to see is the over sharpening effect of Samsung's image processing? This isn't always a negative, since you can make out more detail such as the individual seeds of the stand.

At the background, the iPhones image by comparison is much softer and the lower contrast means the seats in the foreground and metal bars on the roof are less prominent. The edge distortion is much more apparent on the xi / max, and you can see the curvature created by the lens. If you look at the seating in the foreground. Switching back to the s20 plus the seats are now parallel, but the field of view is the same so that the softening at the edges is quite similar. The distortion impacts the iPhone much more.

If we switch over to the main lens, the color difference is still clear, but you'll now notice that the sharpness of the iPhones picture much more closely matches the s20 plus. So this really highlights how the galaxy's image processing produces much sharper ultra-wide shots in these ultra-wide shots. You can see how much sharper the s20 pluses by looking in the grass, but the color, is way off and is much more accurate on the iPhone as we move through the levels of zoom you'd expect something to pull ahead with its space, zoom tech, able to zoom up to 30 times versus 10 on the iPhone. So far we can see the high contrast and saturation in the s20 Plus, which would expect, but otherwise the iPhone is keeping up. Remember the s20 plus has hybrid optical zoom, so at two times zoom, it's still using the main lens and, unlike the iPhone, doesn't switch over to the telephoto lens until you push the zoom further, which could explain why there's no substantial benefit at lower zoom levels by eight times the iPhone is almost at his maximum digital zoom range, but I'd argue that it's really holding its own against the supposed superior zoom lens with the s20 plus the bricks and wooden paneling have more contrast, but not necessarily that much higher resolution.

If we max out the s20 plus at thirty times, zoom we'd need to crop on the iPhones image to match the zoom level. So there's one advantage for Samsung already. The image quality is clearly better too, but I would question how useful this sort of zoom range will realistically be. It can be pretty tough to take a photo at thirty times zoom anyway, and there are a few occasions where this would ever be needed. Pictures aren't exactly amazing at thirty times either and, to be honest, I'm, not the sort of person who uses the telephoto lens anyway.

So the range offered by the iPhone up to ten times is more than enough, as I said in the full review. I just expected the s20 plus to be significantly better with zoom, but you really need the s20 ultra to get that noticeable advantage over phones like the iPhone 11 Pro max I'm, personally, just not really convinced by Samsung's hybrid zoom, but if you're into 10 or 30 times in photography, the s 20 plus still has the superior lens. Night mode has been improved significantly with the s 20 series, which now pretty much match the iPhone 4 performance in these shots. Here it's actually the iPhone that has slightly overexposed highlights. Well, though, the coffee bar text is more true to life.

You also don't see these light artifacts on the s20 limit, and this can be a fairly common occurrence with the iPhone, where there are very bright lights in a lone light. Setting. The iPhone has, however, captured more detail, which you can see most clearly in the brickwork and in the textures on this wooden surface, the S 20 plus still tends to over process with saturation exposure, and especially contrast- and this can give an almost cartoon like appearance- that's less realistic than the iPhone, but I often prefer the more striking image it produces. I think noise is the one area. The perhaps keeps the S 20 plus behind the iPhone in terms of night mode, but the low-light performance is now so similar that it's mainly going to be down to personal preference as to which style of image processing you prefer be it to sharpen, stylized, Samsung images or the more natural and realistic iPhone images.

The main takeaway for me, though, is that Samsung now finally have a decent night mode on their phones, which can keep up with the market leaders. I should mention that there's no night mode adoption on the ultra-wide lens of the iPhone, whilst there is on the galaxy, but this really isn't a big advantage. Since the ultra-wide lens plus poor lighting is usually a bad combination. One area where the s20 plus simply can't compete is with video for those who saw the full review. We picked up on a few focus issues with video, and thank most of this has since been improved across multiple software updates.

A few minor issues remain, which you can see here in this recreation of the test. I think the lack of auto tracking when filming in 4k 6d is mostly to blame, but with all issues aside, the quality of the video just can't keep up with the 11pro max Apple's iPhones are just a cut above the rest when it comes to video, and I'm. Yet to see another smartphone beat it for smoothness stability and overall quality stability is one area where the s20 plus comes close thanks to the super steady mode, but this significantly diminishes the video quality and also limits the resolution to 1080p at 30 frames per second, the one video feature the S 20 plus can post over the iPhone is support for 8k recording, or at least it would be if the quality wasn't so bad, even after the many software updates we've had so far. The quality is pretty poor, it's very unstable, and the focus issues are amplified to the max. You'll have much better luck, filming distant or slow-moving subjects on a tripod, but even if the 8k video was perfect, you've also got to consider the practicality of it.

It takes up huge amounts of storage around three gigabytes for every 5 minutes, and are you realistically going to have a 8k display to watch it back on? Almost certainly not 8k is cool. Samsung deserve credit for incorporating this into the phone and for moving the industry a step forwards, but 8k is not useful nor ready yet so just stick with 4k. For now. As for the front cameras, we're looking at a 12 megapixel selfie camera on the iPhone versus a 10 megapixel lens on the S 20 plus, but again the spec difference doesn't tell the whole story. The obvious thing to notice is that the iPhone takes the reverse image, which is how others see you, rather than how you see yourself in the mirror, and this is often the reason why people don't like their own selfies on the iPhone Samsung phones.

For a long time have allowed you to take either the reverse or the previewed image, and it would be cool to have this option on the iPhone without having to go into edit mode. A drawback to Samsung's camera is that you first need to disable the knowing BT mood settings that are run by default, which try to smooth and brighten skin tones, but once you do, the results are much better. If I flip the iPhones image. For the sake of the comparison, you can see that perhaps unsurprisingly, the Samsung photo is much sharper. Despite the difference in the megapixel count, it's actually a little over sharpened, a benefit or perhaps consequence of Samsung's face detection, even though all Beauty mode settings are turned off.

If you look at the surrounding background, there's actually a lot more noise in the s20 Jimmy Jr. So there are disadvantages too still. There's no question that there's more facial detail here than in the software image on the iPhone I do prefer the warmer color with the iPhones image, though, which tends to look a little more pleasing for skin tones. The iPhone also typically shows better dynamic range, and you can make out more detail in the bright material of the shirt and all some in the hair. In the shadows.

Switching over to portrait mode, the edge detection was pretty similar for each phone. The cutout on the s20 plus is a little sharper and more pronounced, whereas the edges are a lot softer on the iPhone. This is something you'll typically see by default, but since you can adjust the depth of the blur effect on either phone, you can normally adjust these to produce similar results. These unedited photos show a pretty typical result and, unlike elements of both photos, I like that the s20 plus has a greater depth of field, so the entire face is Unfocus by default, whereas on the iPhone you can see that the blur effect begins with the top of the forehead. However, the transition into the blurred background is more gradual and natural on the iPhone, whereas this is more sharp and sudden with the galaxy.

The portrait modes on the rear cameras gave similar results with a sharper cut out on the s20 plus and a more gradual blur, with the pro max. Interestingly, both struggled to keep the face as the main part of the subject in focus, despite each camera, recognizing a face in the frame and presumably factoring this in to the image processing with portrait mode on the main lens, though the s20 plus was pretty patchy with this area focus, and you can see how it's kept parts of the plant in focus, but blurred the subjects Led testing these modes with the latest updates shows some improvement, but this can still occur. I tend to find the portrait shots, look better with the tell lens, though, so it wasn't a huge problem anyway. The s20 plus did a perfect job with this image at the plant, though nailing the edge detection and background blur, whilst the iPhones, gradual, blur effect, doesn't work as well for these types of shots. So perhaps this example shows the advantage of the s 20s we're depth.

Sensors front-facing video has been improved on the s. Twenty plus two now match the offense 4k 60 resolution, but again the quality wasn't quite on par with the iPhone. The color and saturation is characteristically a bit off and the iPhone still wins the smoothness and stability. One thing that galaxy does really well, though, is maintained good exposure levels, whereas the iPhone tends to focus on exposing the subject, which often means areas like skies can get blown out. I want to quickly touch on an important but often overlooked aspect of these cameras and that's their usability.

There are important factors beyond just the specs on paper, such as how it feels to use the camera a significant part of the overall camera experience. The iPhone is perhaps the more user-friendly camera. It has a more simple to use interface and no complicated menus to get lost in, so it's easier to master, but the s20 plus has the more feature-packed camera app with added extras, like the floating shutter button, more advanced shooting modes like pro mode and single take and, of course, a full range of camera settings built into the app iOS now finally allows you to change up the shooting mode from within the camera app, but you're, still much more limited than on the s.20 plus. The main thing I prefer with the iPhone, though, is its ability to process images in real time, and the image in the viewfinder is practically identical to the processed image. Every time on, the s 20, plus the viewfinder and processed images can often be quite different, and it takes longer to display the processed image too.

I still don't think the s 20 plus is camera is as technically proficient as the iPhones camera overall, but the gap has definitely been closed with the new improvements. The 11 Pro max is still ahead with the video, but the photo performance is now so close that it really comes down to your personal preference of the style of image produced the s.20 plus images look more processed as though they've been edited automatically, and you may prefer this, since this often produces more striking images straight out of the camera. Others will prefer to have more natural and accurate photos, let's capture a true representation of the scene that they can later edit if they choose either way. These are two of the best smartphone cameras on the market getting into performance. The 11pro Max is packing Apple's a 13 Bionic chip, whilst the S 20 plus uses either the snapdragon 860 or the Enos 990 CPU benchmark tests were sure the iPhone comes out on top, but this doesn't tell the whole story.

Samsung's Enos chip also give significantly poorer performance than its snapdragon rival, so any performance gap is perhaps more exaggerated for my UK models of the phones, but either way you're still coming up against the fastest processor in a smartphone running software that was designed specifically to work with it. Apple benefits from combining in-house custom chips with his own purpose-built OS, and the pro max has the edge over the s20 plus for raw performance, but specs on paper, don't always apply to every use case in the real world, and you'll actually find the s20 plus to be equally snappy and responsive, and often more so, thanks to the gorgeous 120 Hertz refresh rate, the S 20 plus easily beats the iPhone 4 RAM management, though despite the higher efficiency on iOS. That means this spec gap isn't as drastic as it appears on paper. The S 20 plus, was still able to better run multiple apps in the background and I found it especially useful to be able to pin apps to the RAM for quick launching -. Ultimately, the importance of the hardware really pales in comparison to the software and is the classic battle of iOS vs.

Android that'll really separate the phones and likely be the most significant factor into your purchase decision. For me, there's no outright winner. It's there are aspects of both operating systems, but I enjoy on a daily basis. Ios offer a very clean and refined interface installed. As gestures better than Android, then there are essential apps, like notes, I message and FaceTime, which I love, plus the integration with other products in the ecosystem is best-in-class, but you're very much locked into this ecosystem.

Whereas Android gives you complete freedom most simply by offering customization, you can change up every aspect of the phone, the icons, the fonts and themes, and you can make your phone a very personal device. The iPhone lets you change the wallpaper at lock screen and that's basically, it Samsung decks. Lets you use the s20 plus as a desktop computer and multitasking allows you to be more productive, which is especially helpful on these huge displays. This crucial difference by OSR Android Trump's, pretty much all the differences in specs and features and that still hasn't changed this year. So how much do you have to pay the two of the most powerful phones on the market while the Pro max starts at 1099 and the s20 plus at $11.99? One important thing to note with the pricing, though, is that Samsung are very likely to offer various price drops throughout the year. So, even if you watch this video, the s20 plus could be heavily discounted, Apple are very unlikely to offer any discount and won't likely lower the price until the new phones come out later in the year by the way.

I. Don't think this is substantially enough difference in price to make either phone the outright winner in terms of value. Obviously, the UK pricing is better for the s20 plus, but then again we're stuck with the X and us models too. We should address the elephant in the room, though, because yes, the s20 plus supports 5g, as the 11pro max doesn't for some people. This will be a huge deal.

If you hang on to your phone for a few years, then you'll eventually be able to make use of those faster speeds, and it's destined to become a major benefit over the iPhone right. Now, though, the coverage is very limited, even for the more widespread low to mid-band networks, which only offer speeds slightly above the current 4G on a good day. You'd need to stand a few feet away from the millimeter wave masts to get those insane download speeds that give 5g all of its surrounding hype, which obviously isn't practical 5g simply isn't ready yet, and it's too early to analyze the true benefit, as I said back in the 11pro max review, I, don't mind the iPhone not having 5g, but for those who are looking to buy long term say three or four years, then the lack of 5g support may be a problem. Even by the time the new iPhones roll around the 5g network still went off a widespread coverage. But, having said that, I'd be surprised if Apple didn't offer 5g phones next time around overall I find it tough to personally choose between these phones.

I prefer the camera and battery life on the iPhone Apple have really nailed the basics, and it's probably the more practical choice of the two. But the s20, plus with this beautiful high refresh rate display just feels like a much more futuristic device and I think is the more exciting smartphone. For me, it's too close to call, but who do you think won this battle thanks a lot for watching, and I'll see you in the next one.

Source : InsideTech