Samsung S23 Ultra vs iPhone 14 Pro Max Camera Battle! 

Thanks for waiting for my comparison! ❤ I know I'm late, but I've taken over 1000 comparison shots on each to make sure I'm giving accurate information! Enjoyyyyyy 🙌

It's actually really nice that Samsung hasn't changed the phone design because I LOVE the S22 Ultra design. I'm really hoping that the S24 doesn't change drastically because that's when I'll likely upgrade from the S22 Ultra. Looking forward to even better camera upgrades then!

great pics and videos from both cameras! I have an s21 ultra and have always been android and I'm excited how the s23 ultra has improved- I take a lot of videos of my daughter performing so the 10X zoom is an important feature for me- definitely considering an upgrade! Having said that, I can't deny that there were shots and videos on the Apple phone that I definitely preferred over the S23. Phone cameras have made point & shoot cameras obsolete and even DSLRs are starting to feel the heat.

As someone who can't afford both, I can genuinely say that base on the photos and videos Samsung is way ahead. And it's crazy because whenever you take photos with friends, it's going to be with a friend that has an iPhone. Samsung did such a great job.

I can only imagine the amount of effort and work it took to create such a detailed video that analyses the topic ever so deeply. Respect! He's truly the boss 🙌 👏

I've just upgraded from a much older phone. The whole phone and especially the cameras are absolutely insane. I did not know hdr videos like that with a microphone capturing better sounds than my own ears would ever be possible with a smartphone. The photo processing and editing also is crazy. I feel like Samsung even heavily upgraded the software since release.

I'm actually impressed, unlike the unchanged design, the S23 Ultra's camera has improved so much that it has surpassed the iPhone in many category. Good job Samsung!

The iphone 14 camera is like a fine tuned tool that managed to scrape all the possible potential it had While the S23 is like an untamed beast that is brimming with untouched potential -the only difference is in software, hopefully Samsung's next update will help it catch up in terms of software and processing

As a professional designer, I'm glad that Samsung considered giving us (Powerful zooming) what other huge brands like iPhone or google pixel have never thought of. With the highest number of pixels, you might not need camera lenses, you get sharp & quality images which is very important Also, the videos & photos are already color graded. you just take the shots & share (just as they are marketing). If there's need to edit, you will only do simple touch-ups.

I never understood the need for 10x zoom until my last vacation to Australia. Literally, 10x zoom came in clutch EVERYWHERE. I found myself confidently taking photos of the crocodile feedings, the animals, scenery, crashing waves, and whale watching and literally had at least 5 people in any group we were in wanting me to send them the photos. Not only that, every photo was amazing on the first try. Definitely a confident shooter. Not to mention, object eraser is insane, I was able to remove people from crowded beaches in photos, 2 girls who wouldn't get off a monument, and just remove photo bombers. Not only that, I would come back late to the hotel(s) or get off the overnight flights with over 20% battery after hundreds of photos and videos. This is the go-to phone for real world use and a lot of the 3,000+ photos and 500 4k videos I took would have been possible without the extra features. Especially the SPen that made travel editing super easy. I use both iPhone and Android, but when it comes to travelling, the S23 Ultra takes it hands down. My gf eventually stopped using her 14 PM and just asked me to take all our photos

When I initially got the 14 pro max, I was completely unimpressed with the camera quality as in most cases it was significantly worse looking than the 13 pro max. But when I downloaded the ProCamera app it gave me full 48 mpx images without being in the raw format. The difference was night and day and until apple lets users take still photos in the full resolution I will never go back to the stock camera app.

From what I can tell the only improvement between the S21U and S23U is just software that benefits the S23U with better scene recognition. Hardware wise though the S21U is still a far superior product. The 100mp camera is just better and the 200mp ONLY outperforms at night. I like taking photo's at night so that is a bonus. 2 years later my battery was still good on the S21 ultra but I lost the water seal on the phone and decided to file a insurance claim before it died completely. Good news is the S23U was a free upgrade and i was able to keep my line. I usually give up my number to save cash, Really glad i did not have to.

The trend I’ve noticed is that usually that the Samsung that launches in February beats the iPhone that launches in September the year before, but then the iPhone catches up with their phone in September. This just shows how both companies are insanely good, and neither is really better than the other.

Something worth noting. Samsungs with a stylus will always be the group photo king. Because you can use the S-pen as a remote capture trigger. When you click the button on the pen, it takes a picture, or starts a video. So no need to set a timer and run, you just place, walk, click, done.

I switched from 14 pro max to s23 ultra, trust me it was the best decision . The s23 ultra looks really gorgeous in hand and definately the camera is first class.

For me, speed of snapping a moment is important (my siblings have caught on to my sneak shots, so I must be ever faster) and I personally am not a fan of automatic filtering. 😅 I’m still in the iPhone boat, but I will agree for more immediately post-able and aesthetic photos, the Samsung appears to do the job! ☺️

Great and informative video as per usual. I enjoyed it as I always do and it was a great help for me to figure out if I wanted to upgrade back to android. Also… Please don’t say military protection, because anything labeled military grade just generally sucks and is definitely way worse than civilian grade or consumer grade. 😢

I’m not a fan of the automatic “filter” that seems to appear on the Samsung photos. Like, the smoothing and everything. I would rather have that as an option as opposed to automatic so I don’t get surprised at the sudden appearance of skin texture when I look in the mirror versus my selfies. 😅

I have the S22 Ultra and the main difference in real life is really the zoom. In terms of every day shots both are gonna look good, but being able to take far away shots and still having them look great has been a game changer for me

Good comparison. The one thing that will keep me on iPhone is Proraw. I like being in control of how my photo turns out. It’s also nice being able to decrease the sharpening all smartphones do to their photos.

Speaking about fun, the S-Pen comes in handy when remotely taking a group photos with a gimbal. Recording a video, then quickly editing with a S-Pen is a blast. Hearing Ridley Scott recording a short video with S23 Ultra is a big testament. I am still enjoying my 1TB S22 Ultra.

Have you tested these both in sunlight? how easy is it to see the screen on the s23 compared to the iphone? it's been such an issue with recent Samsungs i'd love to see a comparison by someone like yourself who goes into proper deails

Is it possible to also test which color is more "accurate"? Like sometimes I want to share some nice scenery with friends and either the photo comes out either too bland or too oversaturated compared to what I'm actually seeing, with the former being disappointing and the latter exaggerated. It'd be nice if we could have a side by side of, say, a fruit basket and a reference monitor displaying a photo of said basket taken with a certain phone's camera. The audio equipment world has long championed balance and accurate sounds over overly 'hype' or v-shaped tunning. I wonder if cameras will move towards accurate neutral too.

As an S22 Ultra Owner I am extremely impressed by the step forward the 23 has taken in the camera department, given that for every other area, it basically looks and performs the same as my phone! Thank you for the in-depth review Arun!

A sensationally good comparison of the two smartphone stars. Many thanks for the effort and time. I have the S23 Ultra and am unfortunately very disappointed when I shoot in super wide angle mode (10x). The objects on the side of the image fall extremely obliquely towards the center of the image. It's so skewed that even the paid Lightroom mobile version can't get it right with lens correction. What can I do to make my photos better? I had photographed a few city views on a city tour. A friend, on the other hand, doesn't have this problem with his Samsung A53, even though he had almost the same crop on his photo.

Great review! You are one of the most interesting and fun, while still in depth reviewers!

I noticed in almost every photo or video with both phone display showing side-by-side in the video, the Samsung looks better. Sometimes a little, some soits, especially nightshots and video, way better. That's pretty cool! Now all they need to do is add that nifty adaptive flash! The Apple looked way better in that segment of this review.

I think it's nice to have a decent internal microphone in a smartphone, the customer often has never this data at mind but audio recording should be a criteria as camera quality is.

I give 100% to your great review. I was so confused about buying the S23 Ultra after watching many other confusing reviews. I have already placed an order for S23 Ultra after watching your video. Nothing is perfect but this model is a winner. Thank you so much for your great review 👏

That S23 Ultra camera is going to be scary after a few software updates & feedback. I think the RAW 200MP cropping and zoom will be a game changer for everyday users, it doesn't rely on as many processing tricks like the 14Pro. A great example was a Chinese lantern at night, you could see all the details in a darker shot, the 14Pro was a giant bright blob by comparison. Both great at what they do, I think that Samsung for everyday use really edges it, especially for those who like post editing. It just keeps more detail.

It blows my mind how fast he’s turning out these videos without sacrificing the quality of them 🙌👌

I was sure last year would end terrible for me but I think Amazons AMT99X is spot on with what they do and how they do it. Can't say for how long it's going to work and for sure it is overyhped right now but even if just half a year or something it would be smart to ride the wave and then jump away eventually, but the reason why this is smart right now is because it's so cheap, won't ever find a better entry than now

Exceptional comparison! I am looking at both of these phones right now. Currently, I have the 9 plus and looking to upgrade my phone. I am surprised at the results of this because I phones take good pictures and very clear videos. In the comparisons that you provided to me the I phone looked sharper so maybe I am missing it. There are different S 23's I think and the Ultra is one of them. I am not sure what the differences are and what the Ultra have the others do not. I need to check into that. So, are you saying you would get the S23 over the Iphone even thought the Iphone in some ways maybe better? Finally the score you gave at the end seems to illustrate that the S23 is much better!

I think that all the points that you pointed out are great if you get the shot. the issue that I see is that it relies on you actually getting the shot which the iPhone completely destroys Samsung and when it comes to phone, lag and video lag. also, when it comes to the red colours, you have the option to turn on colour profiles on the iPhone that look like Samsung when you use the high contrast, image processing. So I will say that Samsung has made huge strides, but if you don’t get the shot, it doesn’t matter how good something is after the shothas taken if you can’t get the shot in the first place.

I love both platforms, but Samsung will always be behind. They use INTERPRETED programing language, whereas Apple is closer to the CPU. In laymen terms, this means that for every computing step Apple makes, Samsung has to make two. I just jumped from an S22Ultra to a 14ProMax, simply to be in sync with my family - the 14ProMax is snappier. This is more noticeable when loading the phone with tasks.

Knowing Samsung, the camera software usually improves a lot in the coming OneUI versions as they further fine-tune the camera array after user feedback, so in reality the cameras in a year or so will be even better and snappier.

Both of them are pretty good and it's totally your choice. A great review brother. I always wait for your comparisons and I love both iPhone and Samsung but I prefer Samsung cause I do love the Customization in android. For me they both are winners and people can choose any one of them to have fun using the great camera features. ❤️ from 🇮🇳

Great overview, but if you really wanna determine the microphone quality you also need to test it at a concert. Apple seems to have an automatic gain reduction on the preamp that makes even the loudest of concerts with tons of bass still sound great without harsh clipping. No Android phone has been even remotely close to that, the audio recordings were always basically unusable in louder conditions which made me not even consider anything other than an iPhone as a musician. Any updates in that regard on the S23 Ultra?

As someone who is interested in both technology and finance, it's fascinating to see the innovation happening in the smartphone industry. It's not just about the camera capabilities, but also the underlying technology powering these devices.

I would love to see a comparison of a Samsung camera side by side with release software and then one with the latest software at the end of the gen. Like a s22 review again from first out to last update.

I had a 14 pro Max, brought the phone to Apple store as online Apple care suggested, online Apple care and the Apple store tech said there's nothing wrong with the phone after doing software and hardware diagnostics, but neither one was able to get WIFI calling to work; Apple was a big fail, got rid of phone, now have an S23 Ultra & it works great

Massive respect to Arun for giving us the best possible tech content

As a PC user for work, Android/Samsung makes my tasks a way easier. I switched to IPhone 13 Pro Max sometime ago after having Android for several years, because I needed to have the IPhone experience, and I truly believe that Iphone is better for some things but not for the overall experience. IOS is simple but restrictive, Apple wants you to operate in its way and it definitely works for many because people just got used to operate with IOS through several years, but it limits the user with options, commands, data transfer and so on, for the average user is perfect because you have an operative system that makes you interact in a certain way and wants you to believe it is the most practical and efficient ever, but it is pure marketing, the options and customization are very limited, no multitasking, that’s why they are so “efficient”. And it is the perfect formula for Apple, but it me it is not the best of the best. It sucks that Android suffers a lot in the security and malware department, that’s where Apple wins.

It's interesting that in the two side-by-side sound switches between the videos shot by two phones that had come BEFORE the script came to discussing the sound quality, the iphone sound quality was disastrously worse than that of Samsung, but when it came to discussing the sound quality the difference was, well, very modest. Perhaps it comes to the distance to the speaker.

The S20 FE on its own is a monster, especially at night and low light conditions and can easily go head to head or better than any iPhone of its generation. 4k recording there is also very clean and smooth. In the grand scheme of things, I like Samsung better for ease of use and the right amount of, as you say, "FUN". That to me is the complete package, minus the ridiculous iPhone prices.

@Mrwhosetheboss, I’m a huge fun of how you explain in detail and the tonality is always on point. You do us good . Couldn’t wish for another person to do this 🔥🔥

I actually feel like the S23 Ultra video is better in almost every case shown in this video. The iPhone just looked a bit over-sharpened and over-contrasty by comparison without having what looked to me like any extra real detail. And the skin tones of the S23 are so much nicer.

I'm soo much impressed with Samsung's comback this time. the mic, camera stabilization in videos and night photography got much better. the amount of tech that goes into these phones is awesome. props to both the companies for giving us such fantastic tech. one thing missing is money for me to be able to afford them. thanks for the comparison arun.

I can't believe you were just placed in my suggested feed only 2 weeks ago. Great well balance review. 13M subs is cray for anyone, but it's no wonder why you are so popular. Superior content and editing as well as just intelligent and well presented story. You will certainly be a future resource.

This guy is simply amazing how authentic his research is before delivering a Video 📸! Amazing work brother.

Kuooz to Arun!! Incredible the way you present the comparison. I think you should start a master class on youtube video creation editing and presentation. The transitions from one category to other including the add is so seamless. Best in the business !!

There's nothing wrong with changing the design of the phone.... They could get closer to their users & ask for some design ideas from them, Create something that many the majority loves in term of any extra improvement on the design itself.

I actually just switched from Samsung S21 to Iphone 14 Pro. There's a few things I do miss. Samsung's cameras are just way, way, way, better in my opinion. I think they capture faces incredibly well and make you think, "dang, am I that attractive"? The one thing that made me switch to the Iphone is the ecosystem. It is absolutely incredible to be able to use my Iphone and switch to my mac or my Ipad for work. I also love how I can airdrop things within an instant. Super easy to send and share things. If I'm ever at a place with low cell service, iMessages has my back as love as I have wifi. If Samsung got something similar, I would LOVE it. Samsung and Google need to make a messaging system that works as well as iMessage. Truly incredible and a truly fantastic experience.

The most important thing to me is automatic modes.. and surprisingly apple has improved far better than samsung where you don't need to manually set your camera

It’s ALWAYS worth the wait to watch Arun do a camera comparison! This style of video is one of my favorites, so keep it up! 😁

Samsungs display also is turned to make their photos look even better directly on their phones with that vivid display mode,, but when you take them over to another display or phone that's not tuned in that way the shots do kind of lose some of that pop. However I can say with full confidence Samsungs selfie images blow the iPhone away. Plus with all the extra settings and other enhancements built right into the camera app. Both camera systems are great, but Apple def needs to make adjustments to their approach to selfies and portrait images of humans. Samsung just gets this all the way right.

The both are good but if you want the extended zoom you should go for the Samsung which can take the sharp images when it comes to zoom

Both have their own advantages etc but quality wise I still go for iphone. I hope they can upgrade on zoom and video stabilization. I will be waiting for that before I upgrade my iphone 13. I took some photos of my friend and me using her iphone 14 and its so good like those professional cameras.

For situations where I don't have my camcorder or digital camera with me (I leave it at home, same for the digital camera, unless I actually go out traveling or with family to a memorial place), my smartphone is what gets used. At work, I usually don't bring it due to being outside and I rarely ever see a need to take photos or video. If at home, it's only when I have to take good photos or video.

Best side by side and detailed review, earned a sub. Keep up the great content.

After using the note10 for a few years I finally have finally decided to get a new one and watching Aruns video's is helping me choose a new phone. Thank you Arun for giving us detailed and non-bias reviews.

Samsung, in my eyes, has always been the best mobile technology company in the world and finally they have the best tech youtuber on their side! Good job Samsung and Thank you Mrwhosetheboss for entertaining and informative videos as usual.

Just pre ordered my S23 ultra 512gb, I currently have the S22 Ultra and it's been my favorite phone so far! I'm genuinely excited for all the new camera features!

Fantastic review! You forgot to add this, the battery life of both. Generally Android phones have a better battery life and that alone is very important for me. I have S20 and Iphone 10, contemplating to sell the Iphone 10 and get another phone. I do not know which to go for. Great review!

I don't think that the mic category would be a tie. The external mic is waaaaay much better in the S23 lol. You can see it perectly in the outside shots where it alternates the mics

Even though I only have an A23 Samsung, I'd say the S23 Ultra is a pretty good competitor when Mrwhosetheboss compared them both to each other.

I'd be curious to see the S23 Ultra compared to the Google Pixel 7 Pro, given it's come to the attention of others recently that the Pixel 7 Pro has kinda surpassed the iPhone's photo capabilities as well. Might be curious to see which two kings of the Android world do better, and in what categories.

Both fantastic phones and I had the 14 Pro Max for a short while. However I now have a pixel 7 Pro and with photos being the main reason I use my smartphone it beats them both.

I think with the substantial under the skin improvements Samsung has made at the expense of design change this year, they should do EXACTLY the same with the S24 series. And only use the one chip globally. All this gives results.

I've got the Samsung s23 ultra 512gb and what I can tell you, man the battery, the feeling, the build is amazing.

I am actually wondering if the automated improvement of the taken pictures on iPhone was enable. I get way more constrast and color enhancement on my iPhone 14 Pro in the use cases presented in the video. The strength of Apple is post processing: as it is in the video, it really seems to be disabled! I could take picture in bold dark evening, and I was able to say that the ton and constrast of the picture were really close to what I could see with my eyes. For me, that is what matters, how close to what you see the picture is.

I think it's more about personal preference. I prefer the closer to real life tone the iPhone provides. And really dislike the overly red hue S23 Ultra left in the night portrait you showed. Also the "more handsome" photo of the cow you showed us, Samsung failed to crop the cow correctly and included the white cow in the distance as part of the fore ground object. I'll use iPhone as my main device. Having said all that, I've ordered a Samsung S23 Ultra to replace my Huawei Mate 30 Pro(secondary phone for my oversea sim and work sim). I've enjoyed using it in the last three years but Google is getting very heavy handed on restricting Huawei devices running their apps/services in the last 2-3 months. Google Pay was removed from my Huawei remotely and all the new apps kept crashing while some of the existing apps are not functioning normal.

The camera improvements on the S23 exceeded my expectations

Its always about the competition and no one is actually better than the other - ultimately, whichever brand managed to maintain its high level of consistency in delivering a better valued performing product will eventually grow to be the most reputable brand where they can provide the best to their consumers. I am a S23 Ultra user, and I believe that the next iPhone 15 flagship will trash the S23 Ultra.

The Samsung shouldn't have won the portrait mode category due to the poorly added bokeh. The sheep's butt is crystal clear, which totally breaks it. And also, the Iphone has multple preset styles (Photographic Styles) with different tone and white balance settings. A lot of reviewers seem to miss this option. So if you find that the camera lack contrast, or has a cold tone, or whatever, and you don't plan on editing the photos, simply switch to a different preset that suits you and you preferred preferences.

this guy is the best when it comes to comparison the way he explains everything and how it works not just compare each image

Will some of these issues and "misses" get cleaned up after the S23 comes out for the masses? As in, will software updates help catch it up with iPhone?

I’m very nervous to switch from my iPhone to Android but I have pictures from Samsung S22 Ultra that blew my iPhone 13 away! The question I have is longevity on them. Because this is my 4th iPhone & I’ve found that the camera starts to lose quality after 2 years. I’m assuming this is to get you to upgrade. But if that was not true for the Samsung that would be enough to make me switch

So much of the S23 Ultra's improvements come down to software so I really hope we get some of those updates on the S22 Ultra and they aren't locked off for us.

A suggestion for next year's video: put the same photos taken by each phone, but don't tell which photo from which phone is. That way we could be able to find which camera is better in our opinion

People criticizing the unchanged design have clearly been successfully brainwashed by brands like Apple forcing you to believe your phone is outdated every time they simply change the bezels, curves and colour options. I'm glad they focused on what matters in the phone. I'll be upgrading from my iPhone XR to the S23 Ultra for SURE.

The last Samsung phone I had was the Galaxy Note 4 after owning the S10 Plus for a very few short months and hating it extremely sincerely. I am now officially back in the Samsung boat with the Galaxy s23 ultra and so far I am extremely satisfied. And my first ever smartphone was the Galaxy S2.

Samsung does listen to its customers. Great video! always the absolute best source for tech knowledge. Thank you!

For recording acoustic covers, which one of the two- S23 ultra or 14/15 pro would be better?

Thanks for the very detailed video. You touched every question I was asking in my mind before pre- ordering the S23 Ultra. So excited now, waiting for it to be delivered.

My two cents are if the design is already good then focus on the performance, which they did. I could care less if it looks new especially if the design is already a good design which I think it is.

In my opinion, the comparison is a bit biassed due to the great development of the Samsung camera system, but if we make a fair comparison, the cameras of the iPhone 14 are still better in general.

It's pretty clear from the screenshots on this 1080p video which camera is best. And it still isn't the Samsung. (excepting the second zoom camera shot which is possibly creating false detail from machine learning? I don't know). It's mainly about balanced tonal quality, smooth gradations of tone and color accuracy. When you come down to it, regardless of the post-processing that all phones do now, it comes down to the hardware. It looks like the iPhone has a better sensor, possibly lens also.

One big difference between Apple and iPhone's cameras is that Samsung tends to saturate their images more whereas Apple keep it more natural. So it is about your preference.

The difference in the recording sound is also interesting. In other tests, the iphone does not sound like this. It is worth looking at other tests.

The amount of hard work he puts in his videos is just mind blowing

How does the s23 ultra cope in terms of social media? Are they still uploading the equivalent of a screen shot resolution? This is what glued me to ios for so long but i really am tempted to get an ultra 😅

Since 2020 my friends ask me to take the photos with my Note 20 Ultra and share them on their IGs... Solid camera... Now I'm finally upgrading to the 23 Ultra... Thanks for the review!

I wonder if it would be a great trade from a S20+ 5g for a S23 Ultra?

This dude constantly pushes out quality stuff..I have a pixel 6 and I'm happy with it other than the selfie camera but for now it does just fine. I'm proud of you brother. Keep. It up

I have been a samsung user for 7 years now. It's been 10 months with the S22 ultra and I am now switching to iphone 14 pro max. I have one major complaint with the Samsung cameras and it never shoots the true skin tones. Always makes it brighter and smoother. Also the battery has gotten bad now. I have to charge it twice a day for my usage. I tested the 14 pro max camera and it's amazing. The battery back up is way better too and overall animations and transition between the aps is so much smoother on the iphone. Hope iphone doesn't disappoint me after few months.

In the video sample at 2:50, you can see minor jitters on the iPhone whereas the Samsung lacks those and is very stable! Love to see Samsung improving on EIS jitters.

Is it just me ?! Or has the camera gotten better with one ui 5.1 update in the s22u? Can u do a side by side with the 23u after updating?

I got the iPhone 14 pro max last week and the only worry I have with it is it becoming outdated quick. I’ve always gone for Samsung but this time I can confirm I’m finally super happy with an apple product and it’s exceeded my expectations

i really enjoyed my s22 ultra but the battery life was not great at all charging 1 to 2 times before the end of the day. i hope with the s23 ultra that has changed cause this has never happened to me with iphone before