Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs iPhone 17 Pro Max: Main differences

Samsung has just revealed the Galaxy S26 Ultra, its newest flagship device for 2026, which improves on the Galaxy S25 Ultra without aiming to reinvent the wheel. A familiar-looking device with fast new chip on deck, a cool new privacy feature, a thinner design, and improved image-processing. 

The battery size, however, remains stagnant for a sixth year in a row, but overall, the phone is shaping up to be a strong contender for the best Android phone in early 2026.  

Naturally, picking one over the other is not so simple due to the fact that pretty much all consumers have already rooted themselves in an ecosystem. So, buying a Galaxy if all of your other devices are Apple-made ones makes little sense. The same applies to the opposite scenario as well: you probably won’t be looking to buy an iPhone 17 Pro Max if you’re an Android fan at heart and have surrounded yourself with Android devices. 

Pre-order the Galaxy S26 for up to $500 off

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$899
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$500 off (56%)

The “vanilla” Galaxy S26 has finally been announced. With a next-gen Galaxy AI and a powerful chip, this phone checks all the boxes. Right now, you can pre-order the phone for up to $500 with trade-ins.

Pre-order at Samsung

Pre-order the Galaxy S26+ for up to $700 off

$399
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$1099
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$700 off (64%)

The Galaxy S26+ is here, bringing improved software and a more powerful processor. The device can now be available for up to $700 off at the official store with eligible device trade-ins.

Pre-order at Samsung

Pre-order the Galaxy S26 Ultra for up to $900 off

$399
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$1299
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$900 off (69%)

The Galaxy S26 Ultra has been announced, bringing a Privacy Screen feature, insanely fast processor, and multiple Galaxy AI enhancements. Right now, you can pre-order the flagship for up to $900 off with eligible trade-ins.

Pre-order at Samsung

iPhone 17 Pro Max: $0.00/mo at Verizon

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$33
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$33 off (100%)

You can now get the iPhone 17 Pro Max for $0.00/mo at Verizon. The deal requires a new line activation on the Unlimited Ultimate plan, so keep that in mind.

Buy at Verizon

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max differences:

Table of Contents:

The Galaxy S26 Ultra has not scored any major or noteworthy design changes. The aesthetics that were unveiled with the Galaxy S25 Ultra are here to stay. So, we still get the rounded corners design language, which honestly looks great and is a far cry from the oddly angled design of the Galaxy S22 Ultra, Galaxy S23 Ultra, and Galaxy S24 Ultra.  

The phone is made of Armor Aluminum 2.0, as Samsung follows in the footsteps of Apple and switches materials for the sake of better thermal management. 

Meanwhile, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is reiterating the flat design language but now switches the titanium unibody for an aluminum one for cost-reducing and temperature-decreasing reasons. The design is also two-tone, with the rear of the device dominated by a glass cutout that complements the Liquid Glass design language well.

At the front of the Galaxy S26 Ultra, we get Gorilla Glass Armor, while the iPhone uses Ceramic Shield 2. Both of these provide the highest levels of scratch and drop resistance right now, but we hope you never have to find out just how resistant those are. 

Image by PhoneArena

The iPhone 17 Pro Max now features an incredibly wide and tall camera island at the rear, which has logically been granted the “camera plateau” moniker. It’s certainly something very different from what we saw on previous iPhones, but it isn’t something that took too long to get used to.

Size-wise, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is slightly thinner than the iPhone 17 Pro Max, but also marginally taller and wider. Not that you’d notice that, though. What you’d definitely notice is the weight of it all: the Galaxy S26 Ultra is much lighter than the iPhone 17 Pro Max. 

The 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display has scored a slightly higher peak brightness of 3,000 nits, bringing it up to par with the iPhone 17 Pro Max and the Pixel 10 Pro range. As a refresher, the Galaxy S25 Ultra had a display rated for up to 2,600 nits of peak brightness. There’s anti-reflective coating here, just like there was on the Galaxy S24 Ultra and the Galaxy S25 Ultra. 

On the other hand, we have the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which features mostly the same display as the iPhone 16 Pro Max but got slightly brighter and also scored several layers of anti-reflective coating, which subtly reduce glare. The effect is slightly less intense than what the Galaxy S25 Ultra offers, which means that the Galaxy S26 Ultra has the chance to beat that. 

The Galaxy S26 Ultra comes with a new thermal interface material and a redesigned vapor chamber that’s some 20% better at dissipating heat away from the chip. This enables the device to sustain its peak performance for longer before throttling. 

Meanwhile, the iPhone 17 Pro Max comes with the super-fast Apple A19 Pro chip, a third-generation 3nm chipset, which delivers excellent performance. It’s also the first iPhone to have a vapor chamber inside for improved thermal management.

And we have a surprise: the Galaxy S26 Ultra beats the iPhone in the Geekbench 6 multi-core test, and by a significant margin. Both are also pretty much identical in the single-core test. This means that the days of iPhones having a comfortable lead over Qualcomm’s chips are mostly over.

CPU Performance Benchmarks:

In the 3DMark Extreme stress test, the Galaxy S26 Ultra also serves a surprise: it easily beats the iPhone in peak graphics performance by a pretty significant margin! The sustained graphics performance is slightly better on the iPhone 17 Pro Max, but let’s be honest here: both are neck and neck.

GPU Performance:

One UI 8.5 is the software of choice on the Galaxy S26 series, and besides seven years of software support, this one comes with many key new features, including important visual changes.

First, the software scores a new floating app bar at the bottom, which should improve the readability. Next up, One UI 8.5 now offers even more customization options and lets you personalize the Quick Settings panel even more by reordering and removing existing controls.

If you set a picture of a person or a pet as your lock screen wallpaper, the layout will automatically move around so that neither the clock nor the widgets obscure key parts of the image. There are a few extra customization options for the lock screen clock, too.

Galaxy AI has been upgraded with continuous image generation, which lets you generate several images without stopping and pick from the ones you want afterward.

Call Screening is another new feature that will let Galaxy AI answer calls for you and see who’s calling and for what reason. You will be provided with a transcript and only then decide if you want to answer the call.

Bixby can now understand you better when you talk to the assistant in your words. This lets you use it to find specific settings or features without having to sift through numerous menus. It now has an easy way of accessing your conversation history with Bixby.

The Galaxy S26 now comes with an AI-powered screenshot analyzer, which will automatically sort your screenshots into one of eight categories. You can then find these screenshots by simply searching for said category.

The Weather app has scored a more detailed new widget that will showcase a graph of any upcoming precipitation that is expected. Your daily alarms can also show the current weather as a background when they ring, which is a neat quality-of-life upgrade.

Samsung has also enhanced the battery info menu, making it easier to check the remaining battery life left, the battery usage, as well as your charging status. There are also two power-saving modes now: Standard, which is more temperate, and Maximum, which disables all non-essential features to boost battery life.

Few things are as consistent as Samsung’s battery sizes for the Galaxy S Ultra lineup ever since its inception in 2020. Since then, every Galaxy S flagship from the Galaxy S20 Ultra to the Galaxy S26 Ultra has a 5,000 mAh battery in the trunk. It’s great to be consistent, but it’s probably high time we got some upgrades, eh, Samsung?

Back in 2020, a 5,000 mAh battery was pretty much the cream of the crop, but fast forward to today, and battery technology has improved immensely, making 5,000 mAh batteries something that even mid-rangers scoff at. Pretty much all of Samsung’s rivals now use larger batteries, surpassing it in terms of capacity: Apple, Google, OnePlus, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, all offer phones with larger batteries.

That’s right, the iPhone 17 Pro Max comes with the largest battery ever fitted on an iPhone, a 5,088 mAh battery that helps the device achieve excellent battery life. Of course, it’s the efficiency and tight integration of hardware with software that stretch the battery life here.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 17 Pro Max scored faster 40W wired charging, a neat improvement after years of dwelling in the ~30W range. Wireless charging is capped at 25W MagSafe 2.0 here.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is undoubtedly the best iPhone to get if you’re deeply entrenched in the Apple ecosystem. Yet, if you are looking for the pound-for-pound rival that could give it a run for the money, it’s the Galaxy S26 Ultra that’s shaping up to be your best bet.