iPhone 12 Pro Max vs Galaxy Note 20 Ultra (Full Comparison) By Jonathan Casey

In one corner: we have the flagship phone from the South Korean tech giant Samsung the phone series that made big and thick cool long before Megan trainer, the Galaxy Note 20 in the other corner, we have the California grown industry-leading behemoth that combined modern design with technology apple, and this is their latest creation. The iPhone 12 Pro max I'm putting both of these phones up against each other. In a six round, match-up they'll be going head-to-head in six different categories consisting of design performance, software, entertainment battery and camera I'll declare a winner after each round. We'll tally up the points at the end of the video and, of course, we'll declare a winner keep in mind. Some of these things are going to be subjective and come down to personal choice. So you may not agree with everything that I say throughout the video.

If you do find yourself disagreeing drop me a comment, and let me know why that being said, let's go ahead and do this ring that damn bell both the iPhone 12 Pro max and the note 20 ultra have gorgeous designs. The build on both phones are exactly what you would expect from flagships in this price range, and you can immediately feel the quality when picking up one of these phones both have a matte glass backside, although this is limited to the gold or rose gold color on the note 20 ultra, whereas all the iPhone 12 Pro max colors are met. Honestly, both phones look amazing, but the note 20 ultras, enormous camera bump kinda looks comical next to the iPhones, even though both are quite large. The note 20 ultra has an aluminum frame versus the iPhone's stainless steel frame, which causes the iPhone to be a little heavier than the note. The iPhone is also slightly wider than the note 20 ultra so, depending on your hand, size you could find it to be uncomfortable when using it, especially with the square iPhone 5 like design ergonomically.

The Galaxy Note, 20 ultra is definitely more comfortable to use due to the subtle curvature on the back side and on the edges, all while being a little taller and slightly thicker durability comes down to ceramic shield versus gorilla glass. Vitus keep in mind. Both forms of glass are manufactured by corning, based on my research. Ceramic shield is actually more resilient to drops being able to withstand tumbles of around 2.7 meters or 9 feet. Gorilla glass Vitus is rated for 2 meters or 6, and a half foot which most tests show this to be accurate, while some show even less scratch.

Resistance is a different story. In order for glass to be dropped resilient, it needs to be softer, making it easier to scratch. This is the same case with both ceramic shield and gorilla glass. Vitus testing shows both phones scratching at a level 6 on the Moss scale, functionally the note 20 ultra takes the cake here. Not only is USB a much more universal form of data transfers and charging the micro SD card slot adds the ability to expand your internal storage, and you get a nice little slot that houses the s pen, which brings a ton of added functionality.

Finally, we have security. The iPhone uses face ID while the note uses an ultrasonic and display fingerprint scanner, as well as a lesser secure form of face unlock. Given that we live in a time when masks are becoming the norm and Apple has yet to figure out a way for face ID to work with mask having a fingerprint scanner, is so much more convenient and faster at the end of round one when it comes to design I'm giving this one to the note 20 ultra, since it's not always about how good a phone looks, but also how well it can perform functionally next round is performance. What I'm looking at is app opening speeds, ram management, gaming performance and compute performance. This one will be relatively short and sweet.

The iPhone 12 Pro max with the a14 bionic is a more powerful smartphone than the note 20 ultra with the snapdragon 865 plus. Typically, in the past, the iPhone would be held back by the limited amount of ram, but as seen in performance tests such as phone buffs and in my own testing, which, by the way is far, far more scientific. Ah, damn it my finger slipped, we see the six gigabytes of ram inside the iPhone 12 Pro max is enough to pull ahead here. Not only is the iPhone 12 Pro max faster at opening the majority of apps, but it's also just as good at keeping them open in the background for multitasking or bouncing between applications. This includes bouncing between games.

Both phones can keep multiple games open in the background, so you can switch in between them. Seamlessly Samsung incorporated ways to manage your ram manually, which is great for power users, but the iPhone does an impeccable job automatically going back to gaming. Both phones perform equally great with similar performance, but the experience is definitely better on the note 20 ultra, which I'll get to later compute wise, the iPhone pulls ahead being able to edit 4k timelines with various effects easily. This includes h.265 files from popular mirrorless and cinema cameras. The note can also do this, but it's a little less consistent with performance.

Overall, I have to give performance to the iPhone 12 Pro max. The a14 bionic is a beast, and it just flexes on the snapdragon 865 plus, but keep this in mind. The a14 is also a relatively new chip. Meanwhile, the 865 plus is nearly identical to the snapdragon 865, which is almost a year old. The galaxy s21 will feature the snapdragon 875, which will be Qualcomm's first, five nanometer chips and much, much more comparable to the a14.

So hardware is great, but it's nothing without software. For this I'll be examining performance updates features and customization apple's, iOS and Samsung's one UI perform excellent. Ios have always been pretty well optimized and Samsung has done an excellent job at improving their optimization. Day-To-Day performance is butter on both devices, but what the iPhone pulls ahead is updates, specifically due to the amount of years apple continues to support their products. I mean the first generation iPhone SE and the iPhone 6s even received iOS 14, whereas Samsung only guarantees three years of updates for their more modern devices.

The note 20 ultra pulls ahead, though, when it comes to features and customization, it packs device, health features, customization features out the wazoo and even down to the display. You can tweak it. Google Assistant and Bixby integration are available on the note 20 ultra Samsung pay DEX and the amazing s pen features you can customize your icons, themes, widgets and assign default apps much more extensively than you can on. The iPhone iOS isn't lost, though, since Apple has exclusive services like iMessage, airdrop and FaceTime that are much more widely adopted in the United States. Plus Apple Pay is great and more places than ever are accepting.

It apple even allows for greater widget control and the ability to assign default browser and email. Apps iOS has a very simplistic approach, and it's great for people who are accustomed to iPhones, since the experience is always simplistic and very familiar, but it's still a far cry from what you can do on android with the one UI skin on top. Overall, I have to give the win to Samsung for having a far more intricate and highly customizable software experience, entertainment or content. Consumption is another big area for people when it comes to buying a phone for this. I'm referring to my experience watching content, gaming and sound quality.

The note 20 ultra has a larger display at 6.9 inches versus 6.7 inches on the iPhone. It has a screen to body ratio of 91.7 percent versus the iPhone's 87.4 percent, meaning that the note 20 ultra has tiny bezels. Both phones support, HDR content in their own respectable way. The iPhone utilizes Dolby Vision, which is far more adopted and supported than the note 20 ultras HDR 10 plus, that said, most of the larger apps, like Netflix, Disney plus and prime video support, hdr10 content and both phones. Look incredible.

What the note 20 ultra takes to win is with its 120 hertz, refresh rate, which not only makes the entire phone experience feel snappier, but it makes for an incredible gaming experience once you factor in the native support for streaming services like Xbox game, pass steam and more. You have one of the best gaming experiences on a mobile device. The speakers on both devices sound great and each have a unique, sound signature, since both are equally loud. In my personal opinion, I'm going to give it a tie for sound quality, but you can have a listen for yourself um in the end. What really gives the note the leg up here on the iPhone 12 Pro max for entertainment, is the higher refresh rate, the 120 hertz mode on the note 20 ultra is just so silky it's hard to go back to a 60 or 61 hertz, refresh rate for the battery, I'm looking at a few different things overall screen on time and daily usage charging speeds and any additional power.

Ups like wireless charging, the note 20 ultra and the iPhone 12 Pro max have excellent battery life performance, both average around 11 hours of use with the iPhone 12 Pro max edging out a little by about 35 to 40 minutes some days. That's it Samsung did incorporate an array of battery saving software settings, including various performance modes, adjusting display resolution, refresh rate and other settings that can extend the battery life on the note 20 ultra significantly. The iPhone 12 Pro max also has a battery saving mode, but it's not to the extent of the note 20 ultra the note 20 ultra also charges much faster than the iPhone 12 Pro max using the included out-of-the-box chargers and the difference is almost double. Basically, it's a little over an hour for the note, 20 ultra to charge and nearly two hours for the iPhone 12 Pro max. The iPhone features, wireless charging and a new style of MagSafe, which uses magnets to hold a wireless charging puck in place or other various accessories.

It's cool, and I like it, but it's not as functional as reverse wireless charging. On the note 20 ultra in my personal opinion. Hopefully apple brings this to next generation iPhones. By the way, both phones can charge wirelessly at 15 watts. So it's pretty even in that aspect, all in all, I'm going to give the win to the note, 20 ultra sure the iPhone 12 Pro max has better battery life out of the box.

But it's not by a significant margin. The note 20 ultra charges faster, and it packs plenty of other useful battery saving features that will help you go a little longer when needed, also I'll take reverse wireless charging over MagSafe any day. The last thing we need to talk about is camera performance, and this one is a little tricky. In short, I give the iPhone the win for video, but for photos. The note is better in my personal opinion, but even still it's not as simple as it sounds.

These two phones are so back and forth. It's really tough to pick a winner, especially when you factor in things like camera features. The note 20 ultra tends to land slightly colder with more vibrancy the majority of the time versus the iPhone. It also has more sharpness unless, of course, deep fusion kicks in on the iPhone, then it's evenly matched, if not sharper than the note. The note's wide angle and telephoto cameras are better, especially when you talk about the focal length than the iPhone, even with its new two and a half times telephoto camera.

This is especially the case when comparing the dynamic range on the wide angle cameras the note 20 ultras five times optical zoom is really nice, and it comes in clutch for those shots where it's impossible to get close enough. Like you see here, I do wish. There was an in-between for the times when you really don't need all that zoom. But honestly, that's just me being petty. The iPhone's telephoto does do a better job at reducing motion blur with a faster shutter, which is weird, but it's noticeable in some of these shots.

I believe this is due to the fact that the iPhone 12 Pro and 12 pro max now support deep fusion, even when using the telephoto and wide cameras which really kicks up the sharpness in the photos. This processing, I'm sure, will get better over time. So I expect the iPhone 12 Pro max to surpass the note 20 ultra in the telephoto department. Eventually, as long as you don't care about that extra focal length, portrait mode on both devices is surprisingly perfect, but the iPhone 12 Pro max has a huge leg up here, due to the LIDAR sensor and faster, focusing when using portrait mode and night mode at the same time. Otherwise, during the day, both phones perform very, very similar, with the note 20 ultra, sometimes edging out ahead and other times, it's the opposite.

What I will say is that the note 20 ultra tends to crush blacks a little more when using portrait mode, but also preserves highlights a little better. In my experience, the 108 megapixel mode on the note 20 ultra is awesome, even if it doesn't perform the best in every single scenario. It's still a fun feature for capturing an insane amount of detail. Front-Facing selfies look great on both phones and good lighting. However, the iPhone tends to be much more consistent by delivering more pleasing skin tones in lower lit situations.

Speaking of low light, both phones do a great job for photos. I would say the iPhone is a bit more consistent and has a more pleasing version of night mode, but it just depends on what you like. The note 20 tends to crush shadows in darker areas more than the iphone provides a more balanced shot when using night mode overall. But again, this isn't always the case like seen here, the biggest one for the note, 20 ultra comes down to features and modes between the pro mode for photos and videos, the 8k, video recording, 108 megapixel photo mode and various other shooting modes. It is crazy what you can accomplish with the note in video.

Both phones have their own respectable HDR modes. It comes down to Dolby Vision versus HDR 10, plus, which both look amazing, but Dolby Vision is a much more common and widely used version of HDR when it comes to the cinema and video world. Overall, the iPhone produces better looking video in my opinion and is far more consistent with white balance and skin tones, which is important. What's funny, though, is that the stabilization on both phones isn't that much different, so, hopefully, Apple can tweak the sensor stabilization on the iPhone 12 Pro max. Otherwise, it's not really worth it.

So, at the end of this round, I have to give it a tie photo wise. Both phones have their strengths and weaknesses, and it's pretty much, even though the iPhone may take the win for video quality. The note 20 ultra still has dedicated pro modes and a much broader feature set, including 8k, video recording, okay. So let's wrap this up, since this was by far one of the hardest comparisons I have ever done, based off of my personal use and professional opinion, the iPhone 12 Pro max wins one round and the note 20 ultra wins four, and then we have a tie for the final round. This means the Galaxy Note.20 ultra takes the victory over the iPhone 12 Pro max as a better phone overall, but it's definitely not by a huge margin. In fact, the iPhone 12 Pro max could make a comeback with future updates, given that iOS progresses into something much more feature-rich and customizable.

It also comes down to the person comparing these phones and what's important to you. Let me know in the comment section, if you think my conclusion is accurate, or would you go the other way if you think the iPhone should have one? Let me know why. Thank you all so much for watching. If you enjoyed this video, consider giving it a thumbs up subscribe for more videos and comparisons. Just like this, and I will see you amazing people in the next.

You.

Source : Jonathan Casey