Galaxy S21 Ultra vs iPhone 12 Pro Max

 we are gonna have a showdown of the two
most popular flagship devices on the planet
earth this is the brand new
s21 ultra from Samsung it has ultra in
the name so you know it's gotta be good
 it also should
mention we have later cases
for both of these devices both flagships
fully covered i
sent both mo and kirk out with one of
these rigs one of these things right
here
and they placed one of each flagship in
this unit
and went into the wilderness for some
reason in order to test
each of these two flagship-level cameras
without me knowing
which is which that's why I have a video
right here
of a b of both of these devices and
I'm gonna have to try to tell the
difference
not knowing which is which I'm going to
examine each frame
attempting to distinguish the attributes
that I like
on each of the two cameras, Samsung went
for the massive sensor
108 megapixels they also have the
periscope style
zoom so yes there are some features on
this site that is not
exactly here however the iPhone approach
is to have a lower megapixel count
and to do more work I suppose after the
the fact with the neural processing and all
the rest of it
we have tons of ram up to 16 gigabytes
inside of the ultra uh the high end
model 512 gigs of storage so that's
comparable across the two
we have a slightly bigger display on the
Samsung side 6.8 inches versus 6.7
and it's a slightly better screen to
body ratio as well
IP rating is the same across both but
the Samsung device does have a much
larger battery at least on paper on the
iPhone side you have arguably the best
processor in
a smartphone at the moment in apple's
latest a14
and then over on the Samsung side we
have the latest snapdragon
that's the triple-a so without further
ado
let's get into the video you're going to
watch it along with me
and we're going to discover the
differences between
the s21 ultra and the iPhone 12 pro
max or we're at least going to try to
see if we can tell the difference
first up we have the ultra-wide shot
and immediately we see a significant
the difference we have way
more black on the image on the left
definitely more contrast and a shift
towards blue a cooler tone definitely
warmer on the right I already have my
inclination as the witch's witch I think
the important thing
about this test since you're playing
along is to know
that each phone is going to stay on the
same side the whole time so whichever
way your brain is trending then keep
that in mind as you
attempt to be a detective here exposure
I mean
definitely, the right-hand side is trying
to keep the shadows
up to maintain some level of detail both
images
are nice I think either is acceptable
even in the foreground here on the log
on the snow
I feel like I'm getting a little more
detail
on the image on the left, I'm gonna keep
going here okay
all right next up we have the wide image
here it's a similar type of frame
now the right image has added a little
bit of blue in the snow so it has
interpreted this frame a little
differently
i mean if you look at the jacket that
kirk is wearing there
it's certainly darker and more black and
more contrasty on the left-hand side
here we go with telephoto so this photo
is around 3x zoom it's the first tap on
the zoom this white on the left looks
more accurate to me
and there's more detail in the jacket
huh that's quite interesting let's let's
proceed
now we're into the video 4k 30fps
[Applause]
now here we're going to be looking at a
a couple of things obviously exposure
somebody fell that's the second wipeout
you took today
but that's kind of a good test I guess
it looks quite a bit different
the right one remains a little smoother
through your fall
the green is more saturated on the image
on the left, it's more
muted in the image on the right however
I've seen this jacket in real life and i
feel like the right one is probably a
little more accurate
then the left but it's subtle it's a
subtle difference
both are really nice 4k video and
even without the extra stabilization
turned on okay now the right one is far
more stable than the left
and this is with just default settings
on the video mode, I see flickering
in the snow a little bit there's an
exposure thing happening
where the exposure is shifting a little
bit it's struggling a little bit
4k 60fps
oh wow so what's interesting here
is the footprints in the snow on the
left-hand side it's
tremendously more detail where it's a
A little bit blown out on the right
or at least tougher to pick up all the
details in the snow
the left one just looks a lot higher
the resolution I mean I know that they're
both 4k but it just
seems I don't know if there's some
sharpening added there or
if it's an exposure choice that's
happening automatically in the camera
but certainly the left one
is resolving a lot more detail
but I'm still getting a little weird
flickery thing
as the pan takes place and the right
image still has a greater
starting to figure out which is which
smoothness to it now this is where I'm
because I'm seeing what it's doing with
kirk's complexion
like these are quite a bit different
these approaches
he has a lot more color
in the image on the left and he's a lot
paler in the image on the right
wow that's a much different approach
here
now now I'm now I'm a bit screwed up
now I am a bit screwed up I'm the only
one in here by the way that doesn't know
which is which but
interesting here we get a sense for the
depth of field as the focus shifts to
the bark
and this is good for an autofocus test
as well
close focusing test interesting
the camera on the right for sure can
focus closer
they both can focus pretty close but the
a camera on the right
can focus closer huh
[Music]
wow
we're gonna check out some portrait mode
now the skin tone the skin
colors it's a there's a little more
yellow on the left and a little more
pink on the right and the focus fall off
around
the head and this is not
particularly easy because of all the
branches and stuff
and I actually noticed a little segment
around it the ear
on the photo on the right where maybe it
didn't grab it and a little section near
the jacket as well where it kind of
screwed up the portrait mode
ever so slightly yeah I think the left
one probably nailed it a little bit
better
it's uh both are nice images in
different ways
here we have mo's version whoa those are
wow
the question is which is the better
the image depends what you're looking for
if you really like crushed blacks if you
like that really dark black color
the camera on the left almost never
gives to you the camera on the right
brings you there immediately
it's tough it's a lot of this is is
personal taste
the left does have more detail
it does have more detail in the skin
low light wow I mean the image on the
left
for sure look at the noise and stuff on
the image on the right
I mean this is so noisy the image on the
right
the image on the left wins slow motion
so it's 240 fps 1080
there are interesting things that are
happening to the exposure here in the
indoor environment
especially around color temperature
oh this is an interesting clip the clip
on the left
is really struggling with the exposure it
has blown out
his thumb and the wall
is nowhere near black it's very gray so
it's a there's some guesswork
going on there the right-hand side is a
a lot more true to life here
wow this is a tough challenge right
here close focus
oh so the one on the right has like
basically macro
that's on the main camera the dollar
bill is touching the phone
wow super close focus
tremendous detail I guess the photo on
the left is in the same range
but it's picking up the grass in the
background because it can't
focus quite so close
autofocus now this was kind of the
there was an autofocus issue
its ultra looks like the

i anymore the autofocus is acceptable on
both of these at this point the
obviously the left one the approach is a
slower transition
between focus points which some may
prefer it's a
more action-like type of footage on the
on the right-hand side
it snaps into focus faster
it's hard I mean in certain
circumstances I preferred what was
happening on the left
in certain circumstances I preferred was
happening on the right oh this is harder
then I expected it to be honest
It went back and forth
I'm gonna go ahead and guess that
the left is the Samsung and the right is
the iPhone
the left is the iPhone and the right
is the Samsung
are you sure wait for a second the iPhone is
on the left, the Samsung is on the right
wow interesting
wow this is really interesting I feel
one thing that kind of surprised me is
how close
these have become and the fact that it
wasn't as easy as I thought it would be
to tell the difference between the two
at least
immediately the portrait mode maybe
should have
been the giveaway for me that I when
once I saw the complexions and I saw
that sort of
yellowish more yellowish hue in the skin
tones
I probably should have said okay that's
got to be the iPhone but the thing that
threw me off was the struggling the
exposure struggling on the snow I was
like that's got to be the new phone
with the new software and because I had
autofocus issues
with the last generation of the ultra i
was like maybe that
maybe there's some sort of software
problem or update necessary because that
looked really
bad to me but yeah it's a little bit of
this and a little bit of that I guess
maybe that's to be expected when you're
talking about two leaders
in the segment at this, you know at this
type of price point
but I guess I kind of expected the
iPhone to do a little better
maybe if I had to post this picture
immediately I would pick the one on the
left
the wide here I think I still take the
iPhone photo
that one is the tough only reason I'm gonna
give it to the iPhone again
is because of the snow
being what I perceive to be the color of
the snow and the Samsung going blue
our first video was weird man
because here he
falls and Samsung device
is super stable now maybe it's just the
the way you fell and then you look at this
the frame here with him uh laughing and
the face is just so much more detailed
on the right-hand side
I'm gonna take in this video clip I'm
gonna take the Samsung
this one really surprises me in this
case the iPhone
looks a little less natural in the coat
the color which I've seen in real life so
I'm going to take the Samsung one here
as well
this 4k 30. now the running one is
really what screwed me up
the iPhone is just going nuts trying to
figure out
exposure and so much so that it would be
distracting to have that in your clip
and also in the default stabilization
mode the there
there are more stabilization modes on
the Samsung the right
is just a more pleasing smoother
movement
4k 60fps we have blue snow from the
Samsung devise again
but I can't accept the flickering I'm
taking the Samsung again yeah I'm taking
the Samsung again
it feels like photo mode is going to the
iPhone in video mode as going to the
Samsung
because now I'm into portrait mode and i
remember
that the iPhone was the superior one
there as well so I give the portrait to the
iPhone
night mode iPhone wins slow motion
the hand is blown out it's just not
good looking yeah I mean the Samsung
slo-mo here look
way better close focus we already
covered this it's not even close
it goes the to the ultra model and
then autofocus where i
expected the iPhone to kill the Samsung
is right now
i think most people can appreciate just
fast find the focus fast so I give that
to
Samsung as well in that exact
circumstance and then Samsung gets the
bonus
because it has the extra cameras
a 10x I mean that's ridiculous that is a
really usable 10x that's optical 10x
100x is obviously the software coming
into play here
you have it if you want to I don't know
be a weirdo but and then and then it can
shoot an 8k whoa
it can shoot in 8k 24 frames and that is
cinematic
 is still blue but yeah Samsung
wins
I think the if
one won the photo
compartment
just as an overall package for what I do
and how I use my camera
I'm gonna go with the s21 ultra they are
both
fantastic though like they'd just be
shooting this caliber of content off of
a smartphone
but yeah I mean tough choice you saw i
even
had the two devices wrong it is a tough
match it's a tough battle
it's a split decision so there you have
it camera showdown complete s21 ultra
versus iPhone 12 pro max
I thought this was kind of a fun way to
do it really test yourself
what you see and what you're looking for
and even
to just figure out what you like in an
inside of video so hopefully, you had fun
taking part and
guessing yourself remember I do have an
s21 ultra giveaway coming up
very soon so make sure to subscribe for
that we're gonna do it live
like I did for that iPhone giveaway
previously I have
one silver s21 ultra and two phantom
black s21 ultras
and I also need to remind you of the
later case launch
for the new devices as well as some of
your favorites like the new blue
for the variety of iPhone 12s so
go check out later case the link will be
down in the description and pick up what
is
I mean I think one of the best
accessories you can throw on your
smartphone.

sort of plaguing the previou