Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max vs. Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: The Highest-End Phones Compared

Apple’s $1,299 iPhone 18 Pro Max now stands tall as the company’s newest nonfolding high-end flagship phone. Announced at the company’s Surprise and Shine event on Wednesday, it packs big camera and battery upgrades. But with a starting price that’s $100 higher than the iPhone 17 Pro Max, the phone’s 256GB model is now priced closely to Samsung’s $1,300 Galaxy S26 Ultra.

While every iPhone received a $100 price increase that’s likely influenced by the ongoing RAM shortage, Apple’s topline iPhone appears to be a close rival to the S26 Ultra in several key areas, especially when it comes to battery life and cameras.

While Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro Max and Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Ultra are big phones, their design aesthetics are quite different. The 18 Pro Max sports a similar aluminum unibody design to the one that debuted on last year’s 17 Pro Max. It comes in burgundy red, glacier blue, silver and black colors. Its shape gives it a hefty appearance, but one that fits in well when the phone is being used as a professional camera for events like Apple TV’s Major League Baseball broadcasts. And at 249 grams (8.8 ounces), the 18 Pro Max isn’t lightweight by any stretch. The phone has a 6.8-inch OLED display that should be quite expansive for videos, websites and games.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra has a slightly bigger 6.9-inch AMOLED display, but at 214 grams, it’s notably lighter than the iPhone 18 Pro Max. It also comes in six colors: pink gold, silver shadow, cobalt violet, sky blue, white and black. The S26 Ultra is also the thinnest in its line, but its Privacy Display is its most unique feature. The S26 Ultra’s display can make specific apps or notifications difficult to see from off-angle viewing, making it easier to hide content from prying eyes without needing to apply a privacy screen protector. No other company has replicated Samsung’s Privacy Display, which does make the phone stand out.

Both phones have big batteries. While Apple doesn’t disclose its battery specs in the US — instead citing that it can play 45 hours of video — its Ireland website claims the physical SIM edition will have a 5,391-mAh capacity. That’s slightly higher than the 5,000-mAh capacity on the S26 Ultra and might be even higher on the eSIM model that will be sold in the US.

Apple hasn’t yet disclosed the charging speed for the iPhone 18 Pro Max, but this is an area where Samsung already excels — the S26 Ultra has 60-watt wired charging and won our CNET Lab Test award for fastest wired charging phone by recharging from 0% to 76% in 30 minutes. That said, last year’s iPhone 17 Pro Max had a 40-watt charging speed that was one of our top performers, recharging 0% to 69% in the same 30-minute test. We look forward to testing out the 18 Pro Max to see how it fares.

Both phones also have their respective companies’ highest-end cameras, with Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro Max now featuring a variable-aperture camera that can physically open or close to take better photos in darker or lighter environments. This feature comes with the Pro Max’s three-camera setup that includes a 49-megapixel wide camera, a 48-megapixel ultrawide camera and a 48-megapixel telephoto camera with a 4x optical zoom. While the S26 Ultra doesn’t include a variable aperture, it has four cameras on the back that include a 200-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel ultrawide, a 50-megapixel telephoto with a 5x optical zoom and a 10-megapixel telephoto with a 3x optical zoom.

Apple’s A20 Pro processor powers the company’s latest AI features, headlined by the new Siri AI assistant that is built with Apple’s collaboration with Google’s Gemini. It can help you look up specific information buried in your emails and texts and turn them into actionable items like new reminders or calendar events. Apple also made a point of showing off the A20 Pro’s gaming abilities and how the phone’s vapor chamber helps keep it running cool while pushing intensive graphics.

But Samsung’s phone includes Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 for Galaxy processor, powering its own slate of Galaxy AI features focused on proactive suggestions, along with photo editing. It’s also quite capable of high-end gaming.

Check out the specs below to compare both phones further.