Samsung S21 Ultra vs iPhone 12 Pro Max | Camera Test Comparison By Alex Gear & Tech

Oh, welcome to the first round of this mega fight between these amazing smartphones from these two giants: apple and Samsung. If you're new to the channel, welcome and if you're a returning subscriber hello again, we do down to earth tech reviews here with a bit of fun on the classic gold corner. We have the undefeated champion of the world, arguably the iPhone 12 Pro max and on the beautiful, elegant phantom brown corner, we have the s21 ultra. Oh snap, the s21 ultra here in the UK has the Enos 2100 processors. Not the snap dragon see what I did there should this matter, though, in terms of processing power, the Enos and snapdragons seem to be quite similar. Although there's been reports that in sustained performance, there is a slight disadvantage on the Enos 2100, but we'll cover that in a different video in this first round, the iPhone 12 Pro max will go head-to-head with the s21 ultra fighting for the best camera title.

Should we just give this to the s21 ultra? No, that must be a fight. Okay, then round one fight. First, let's look at the camera. Experience, I have to say my first impression was that the s21 ultra was looking a little jittery at times, especially when I was using autofocus or in low light situations or looking at the screen as a viewfinder, particularly in AK mode. I thought it was much smoother action on the iPhone in both devices, though there's as annoying pause when the UI becomes blurry between camera modes kind of expect, it has been there for a long time, and I'd say it's about the same delay in both devices no difference there both also have the ability to switch between photo and video without leaving the same screen apple calls it quick, take and Samsung achieves the same by holding the shutter button.

When you let go the video just stops recording, but on video recording in 8k mode. I noticed some weird distortion on the s21 ultra that I hadn't noticed before, and here you can see what I mean around the edges of the shot. Now this could be down to the Enos version of this processor. I heard that the camera behavior is slightly different between the snapdragon and the Enos. So I don't know, I don't have the snapdragon version here, but would be interesting to hear from you if you have the snapdragon and if you have experienced that same behavior when shooting in 8k mode.

Let's talk about camera features. Now look at these additional features here by Samsung. It's not an exhaustive list guys, but just look at some of them. They're quite unique AK video at 24 frames per second on a phone, that's incredible hundred times. Zoom! Basically lets you see rovers on Mars, really, no, no, it doesn't I'm just kidding, but pretty close macro camera.

Well, it's called focus enhancer, which is amazing. I mean you'll see later in this video. The quality on this thing is incredible: single take lets you take up to 12 second shot and the phone will then pick the meaningful moments for you, and it creates these amazing effects and different shots that you probably wouldn't know if you hadn't done it that way, it's really fun very clever, and he's also got pro mode with things like white balance, color temperature. All of that great info here that you don't really get on the iPhone unless you spend extra on a pro camera, app like film, pro or photoshop, or something like that and, let's not forget the AR doodle. I know it's not a new thing, but I didn't think much of it at first.

But how fun is this? It's so cool again, you could probably do the same thing on the iPhone and there are loads of AR apps that I've reviewed in the channel as well. But this is out of the box, and it's pretty cool, and there are a couple of features on the Samsung that you do also have on the iPhone. But it's a lot easier to use on the s21 ultra, because it's all there within the app for example, scene optimizer, is called scene detection on the iPhone. But you have to go into the settings here to toggle that on or off on the iPhone, whereas on the s21 ultra, that is within the app itself on the camera, app itself much more convenient. I mustn't forget that the iPhone does have apple pro raw format, which should allow for better post-processing of photos.

Samsung also allows you to save raw format, but that's probably going to be a separate video to discuss the difference between the two so in terms of camera features, I'm going to give this one to the s21 ultra much more feature rich, in my opinion, much more fun to use before we go into the next section. Can I just remind you: this is a very small channel, so if you hit that like button, it would be really, really helpful to the channel? YouTube will then share this content with other people and hear the upcoming fights between these two flagship phones so make sure you subscribe to the channel as well and hit that bell right next to to subscribe. There's a little bell hit that because then you won't miss out in the next fight in one of the next rounds. I will be choosing a suggestion from one of you in my viewer community, so comment down below what fight you'd like to see between these two phones and the winner will get featured in one of the next videos right. Let's get back to the fight.

Let's talk about photos for these tests. I left the scene, optimizer or scene detection option on. I wanted to make sure that the shots are closer to what most people would use. The s21 ultra came out punching really hard on this one in good lighting conditions. The shots are very clear, well-defined, and just look at that beautiful contrast as well.

The iPhone takes great shots too, but in some cases it was very close between the two, and it was hard to pick one. I was expecting the Samsung, though, to have a more saturated picture, but in some cases it was the other way around. It's not that noticeable. Until you look at the photo on a bigger screen. In most cases, the iPhone was more saturated, which for me, was a big surprise.

I'm going to say, though, that this is probably a preference thing in my initial reaction, when I saw the photos coming out of the Samsung, the s21 ultra was very positive. I was really impressed at how good they are, but overall, in the majority of cases, especially when you're you know in good lighting, the iPhone is just a little better, so standard point-and-shoot photos will go to the iPhone. Let's talk about night mode, oh wow, the iPhone has taken a night mode shot. That is a killer. Let's see how the s2100 responds.

It is worth noting that these shots all vary in aperture and ISO as each device is making their own decisions on what to focus on and what exposures to sets and things like that. You can of course, mess around with the settings manually, but for this comparison I left it as automatic, because that's probably what the majority of people would do, I think in low light the iPhone pictures come out a little more natural. Even though it's a little darker, I think I prefer the darker shots of the iPhone. For me, it's about making a good night mode picture, look natural rather than making it just bright. Don't get me wrong the night mode shots on this are great, but on the iPhone they're more natural, but when you go to the ultra-wide camera in night mode, the s21 ultra is much better.

There seems to be less distortion and just a little sharper than the iPhone so on night mode. I think the iPhone just edges it a little. Let's talk about macro shots. This is probably not for everyone, but I love this feature. The experience in using it could be improved a little, but once you've taken the shot and looked at it in a bigger screen.

This is where you can see how cool this feature is, and the iPhone well no point trying really so on the macro shot clear winner portrait photos, the s21 ultra pictures look perfect. Just look at that lovely blurred background, which you can change as well, how much blur to add and even other effects as well on the go, lovely detail. I think the iPhone responds really well to this one. Alright, let's take a look at a couple of comparison, shots in portrait so that you can see how they do here. The s21 ultra look great, but I have to give this to the iPhone the shots.

Just look a lot more natural can almost believe that the shots were taken with a real camera, especially with skin tones as well. The s21 ultra seems to mush it all a little in the skin tones. I will say, though, that this look on skin tones could actually be the desired effect for a lot of people, maybe in the fashion or lifestyle arena. I look a lot younger on the s21 ultra, which is a good thing, but yes, the iPhone for me just looks a bit more natural and true to life. So this one goes to the iPhone in video they're, both impressive.

You know. Shooting videos is great with these really nice and stable lots of detail and clarity on the videos, but I just think the video quality of the iPhone is superior right now, either in 4k, 30 or 60 frames per second, the videos look great on this. I'm not saying that the video quality on the Samsung isn't great. I actually filmed an entire video for this channel on this phone, and I was really pleased with it. But when you move around, and you try to take videos of something- that's that's running like children or dogs, it becomes a little jittery.

I hope this sort that out sounds like a software issue because it is usable, but it's just not as nice as the iPhone. So basic video will go to the iPhone slo-mo. I love slo-mo shots for my content creation, but also in general. I have a young kid who is always on the go and my ROG who loves running as well. Sometimes I need the slo-mo shots to be able to capture them properly.

I've been pretty happy with the iPhone 12 Pro max, even the 11 per max. Actually, this feature was great, so I wondered how good the s21 ultra would be, especially given it can slow down much further than the iPhone now, and I wasn't disappointed and that's despite the fact that on the s21 ultra, you can only shoot slo-mo on the primary camera. Still pretty amazing. So slow motion goes to the s21 ultra as well. Zoom, well, there's zoom and then there's the s21 ultra zoom.

Both phones do okay until about 12 times, but the s21 ultra completely smashes it out of the park with that hundred times. Zoom really cool, don't know really when you would use it, but it's its just fantastic. Now. Let's talk about the fun aspect: fun in a camera comparison, sure, okay, the s21 ultra is just more fun to use, there are loads of new things to try like the AR doodle there's a director's view as well, which I really like you can move. This picture-in-picture placement here switch between cameras.

It's just really fun to use, so this one also goes to the s2100, and that's that guys, the Alex gear in tech camera champion trophy goes to the s21 ultra. You get to decide what they will fight for in the next round, so comment down below what you would like to see. These two great phones go head-to-head on. I've already got display and performance coming up here and here so head over. To that one and I'll see you there watch my face stretch my legs.

Source : Alex Gear & Tech