iPhone 12 Pro Max vs Galaxy Note 20 Ultra - Which Should You Buy? | The Tech Chap By The Tech Chap

Hey guys I'm tom, the tech chap- and these are probably the two best phones you can buy right now, but which one should you actually go for? Well, if we go by my Instagram poll from the other day after two and a half thousand votes, it was exactly neck and neck, which shows there's a lot of love for both, but it's also going to be hard to choose between them, so I've had them both in my pocket for the past month or so I was using the note 20 ultra as my everyday phone I'm trying to avoid the daily driver clich? there. But when the iPhone 12 Pro max came out, I was pretty excited to try out the fancy camera setup with the larger sensor and that unique DSLR style kind of stabilization plus. I just like the idea of a big iPhone with an extra long battery life. So I'm thinking this is it I'm, usually an android user first and then maybe carry an iPhone with me. But, along with the awesome new m1 mac books, I thought it's time, I'm gonna transition, and so here I am today with both phones in front of me having extensively tested and used them both, and I've gone back to the note I'll get to the specs and the side-by-side comparisons, and all that proper review stuff in just a second. But to be honest with you, looking at the specs or just you know, zooming in on some side-by-side photos to see how one handles a dynamic range in clouds or which one shoots more stable, video, I think, is kind of missing the point.

The experience of using the phones is just so different and unique, and it's kind of like deciding which is best between a windows laptop and a MacBook. Yes, there are hardware differences, although actually right now, the m1 mac is just blowing everything else out of the water, but for most people, including myself, it comes down to the experience what you feel most comfortable with and which one offers more of those exclusive features that you actually use. For example, if I put the specs side by side, yes, the a14 chip in the iPhone is faster, but the 120 hertz screen on the note actually makes it feel faster to use the 60 hertz screen and relatively long, albeit lovely and smooth animations, just felt like it was holding me back. Sometimes the notes also has a much bigger battery, yet the iPhone lasts longer I'll, come to that in a second and they both have triple camera setups, but with wildly different, sensors and particular to the huge pro max. I just don't think iPhones or iOS is that well optimized for big screens as I'm using it.

There's lots of finger gymnastics going on where I have to reach the top of the screen to swipe down for the notification panel or the control center. On the note I can just swipe down from anywhere on the home screen to open it and, despite the size, there's still no option for split screen to have two apps side by side, which is why, personally, even though I am a power user and usually want the biggest phone you can get, I would actually pick the iPhone 12 over the 12 pro max. It just makes more sense. I know you are missing out on that slightly bigger sensor and that extra stabilization and the battery is not quite as good, but it's 100 cheaper and, crucially, it's just a lot more comfortable to use. Of course, the note is just as big or be a little taller and thinner than the iPhone, but I'd say the way at least android is optimized.

It just feels more comfortably big. Now, at this point, you're, probably thinking I'll, stop whining you android fanboy, just because you don't know how to use an iPhone, doesn't make it bad, and you're right. But that's why I think the question of which is best is such a personal experiential question I mean the note.20 ultra also has its fair share of problems. For a start, this is actually 80 pounds or a hundred dollars more expensive than the iPhone uh. It's also really frustrating how in the UK and several other countries, we get the kind of average SLR 990 chips instead of the snapdragon 865, which my North American friends get, which is a good deal faster and actually helps the phone last, a couple of hours longer to sell the exact same phone, but with two different chips and two different kinds of performance and battery life figures is a bit unforgivable.

I also find the optical fingerprint reader a little hit or miss face. Unlocking is okay, but I would love it if they could maybe squeeze in the IR sensor that we get on the iPhone onto the note. I realize face unlocking, isn't as important these days when we're always wearing masks now and about but yeah the combination of the optical reader. You can see that it was like one hour two times it worked. It's not my favorite on this.

I think there's also quite a few gimmicky features like all the air gestures with the s pen, which looks cool in commercials, but I think, is rarely used in real life and finally, it takes ages, often six months up to a year before Samsung phones get the next version of android. A real advantage of iPhone not only is the lack of fragmentation between devices, but they get much quicker and more regular updates. But enough of my complaining, these are, of course, two incredible phones, I'm just sort of nitpicking between them as you'd expect for paying over a grand, and they also come with two of the very best camera setups you can get with, maybe just the Huawei Mate 40 pro and the pixel 5, giving them a run for their money. But, as is the theme with this video, I think what photo looks best is also very personal, so without knowing which camera took which photo, although I will keep them on the same side for continuity. I want you guys to decide, as I show you some camera samples which you think looks best as whenever I do camera comparisons.

Some people want bright, punchy, Instagram, ready shots and others want realistic, true to life, photos that maybe they can edit afterwards. There is, of course, an objective technical aspect to photography, but there's also a huge subjective part, which is more pleasing to your eye. So do you reckon you know which phone is a, and which is b and also do you have a favorite? Well, I can tell you that phone an on the left is the note 20 ultra and therefore, of course, phone b on the right is the iPhone 12 Pro max, and I'm sure you'd agree, but you really can't go wrong with either. The note is the clear winner when it comes to zoom, but I think selfies portrait shots and even video on the iPhone is a little better. Now the lighting is definitely a little tricky in here, which hopefully will be a good test of the cameras.

This is being shot at 4k 30 on both and this, if you're regular on my channel you'll know is Fred. Who is not my cat he's my neighbor's cat, but he comes and hangs out, and he's also a great subject for shooting some video. Now, just looking at the screen side by side, I can tell that the note 20 is a lot warmer. I think the white balance on the iPhone is a little more realistic. If we bring up to my spotlight here, you can hopefully see how it controls the dynamic range.

Apologies for the very messy house and also the very small Christmas tree. I do live in quite a small house, but yeah, just as I sort of spin around show you around it's a bit of a behind the scenes, but you can also get an idea of how the cameras compare both phones do let you change the lens while filming. So this is now switched to the ultra-wide. You can see just how small my living room really is, then, if we go back to one times and then zoom in on the tree five times on the note two and a half times on the iPhone, you know what, through all that out of the window, I figured out how to decide, which is best. The iPhone can stand on its own.

There you go, but what about battery life, because one of the reasons you might want to buy these super expensive, huge phones is that you expect to get the best battery life possible well, starting at 100 and with both phones set up identically, Wi-Fi on 150 nits background apps closed. I ran a pretty intensive, varied battery drain test and, after a non-stop seven hours and 40 minutes, the note 20 ultra finally calls it a day, leaving the iPhone the clear winner with 15 of his battery remaining, which is good for probably another hour of use and actually that test kind of confirms. My findings in real life use uh, where I tend to have about 35 36 of my battery left at the end of a normal day. On the note and about 42 to 43 on the iPhone, so both will easily last you a day and a half, but the iPhone wins when it comes to battery life, but they do both support wireless and reverse wireless charging, which has been improved further on the new iPhone with the MagSafe accessories. Now the last thing to consider are the exclusive features, the extra bits that might tempt you one way or another.

So with the note, of course, one of the big selling points of this is the s pen, there's simply no other phone out there. That gives you this kind of experience for doodling, drawing or even using it as a remote shutter button. Now, for me, I do use the s pen, but not all the time, and I didn't really miss it- that much when I was using the iPhone, but I know for a lot of you guys it's a huge selling point and probably the biggest reason why you might want to go for the note. We also get things like wireless decks, which gives you a full desktop experience with a phone and together with the micros expandability, the up to 12 gigs of ram and the s pen, it's a proper little productivity herb. You can also shoot 8k video, although that's not something most of us, would really use.

And of course, one of the benefits of running android is that you do have a lot more customization options, so you can actually go into the advanced features, enable reduce animation time. You can even go into the developer options and reduce how long the animation duration is, and so then paired with the 120hz screen. It just feels so much faster than the iPhone, so there's lots of nice extras with the notes, but what about the iPhone? Well, of course, we've got things like iMessage air drop, FaceTime, iCloud Apple Pay. These are huge deals for some people. If you are part of that ecosystem you'll definitely miss them.

By going with a note, and I'd also argue, the app store still has higher quality apps in the Google Play Store and some apps like Instagram, just work better on iPhone with more features and higher quality video on iPhone. You can also access Apple Arcade, which has some pretty fun games in it. Although, while the gaming experience generally, I found to be a little more consistent on the iPhone, it obviously can't take advantage of higher frame rate options in games that offer it. So, to sum up reasons to buy the note well, I think it feels faster. We get the s pen and lots of productivity features like decks.

The camera and the zoom are very, very good. We also get nice to haves like USB, thinner, bezels, and personally, this is just me. I prefer android, especially on a big phone like this. However, the iPhone does last longer. I think it has a slightly better all-round camera, particularly the front selfie camera.

The 3d face, locking is very useful when it comes to unlocking it, and also we haven't really talked about this, but we have the LIDAR sensor on the back, which helps with faster, focusing on low light and also makes the experience using augmented reality much better. It's a lot more precise. You can do measuring and sort of 3d scanning with this, not everyone's going to use it, but it is a nice extra. You of course get all those iOS exclusives like FaceTime and iMessage and airdrop. It's also 100, cheaper and not forgetting that this will actually hold its value for longer than the note.

So if you come to trade this in or sell in a couple of years, you'll get more back for this than you would the note. So I never thought I'd say this, but I think between the two, the iPhone is actually slightly better value for money. Objectively, I would probably say the iPhone is the better bet for most people, but for me, I would go with a note, but I think more than any other phone comparison when you've got android and iOS device like these two flagships that cost over a grand there's no right or wrong answer they're, both incredible phones and, as I said in the title of the review, it really is a very personal decision. So what do you think? Which one would you go for and why? Let me know in the comments below. Thank you so much for watching guys.

I do hope you enjoyed the video, and I'll catch you next time right here on the tech chat.

Source : The Tech Chap