this is the Samsung Galaxy s24 Ultra
this is the iPhone 15 Pro Max these
phone cameras are about to go to
battle and so am I last year we tested
the iPhone 15 Pro Max against the
Samsung Galaxy s23 Ultra and the iPhone
1 with 6.5 points to 3.5 so let's see if
Samsung's AI powered 2024 Flagship can
claim Redemption oh and the loser of
this video gets shot by an actual
tank so I want to start with
slow-mo can you see the happy look on my
face this is the look of a man who has
been asking nay begging companies to
show some love to the feature for about
5 years and finally finally the s24
ultra brings it the phone's capable of
shooting 4K footage at 120 frames per
second and I can confirm this is true 4K
slow-mo with no strings attached will
you notice the difference versus the
iPhone when watching back on your phone
screen probably not but can you tell
when you blow it up onto a TV absolutely
plus combine that with the fact that any
video on the Samsung can now be
instantly slowed down even further on
the spot by just holding down on it and
I think we can safely say that Samsung
has once again become the slow King now
because slow-mo itself is probably not
important enough to be its own category
we bundle it together into the overall
category called special modes which also
includes portrait mode video as well as
Ultra close-up macro shots but since
both of those features are very
comparable between the two phones like
this right here is portrait mode video
and this is what both phones macr shots
look like the iPhone can get closer
which is really useful but Samsung's
processing makes their shots look
crispier I think it's time to hand the
overall category of special modes to
Samsung selfie wise well I mean
Samsung's last phone beat the iPhone so
its successor naturally wins too the way
I see it is the iPhone is a very
consistent 8 out of 10 for selfies never
exceptional but always good the Samsung
though swings between a nine most of the
time with Samsung's best being
definitely better than the iPhone's best
and than the occasional six where it
seems to either not quite capture in
time leading to slightly softer than
expected face details or just blurs the
face of someone you've unwittingly
pulled into your photo where the iPhone
often still manages to keep it sharp but
85% of the time I think this takes
better shots they're crispier they're
more impressive they often look as good
as rear camera photos and they make you
look nice whereas often times when I
take photos with the iPhone I just feel
like I look so rough that I'm half
tempted to run the photos through face
tune before showing them to anyone now
one of the biggest changes we've been
told the s24 ultra is going to come with
is improved noise reduction and I'm
going to be honest with you if Samsung
actually managers who fix their noise
problem well that's bigger than slow-mo
that's bigger than all of this AI stuff
why because noisy videos are the single
biggest weakness of Samsung's cameras by
far and so if they're actually gone now
that's like finally cutting off the
weights and letting this thing fly
allowing people to finally focus on all
the awesome stuff these cameras can do
without having to constantly caveat it
with this annoying side effect that
seems to follow Sam around like a shadow
so is it better I would say it is faces
are crisper than they were on the s23
ultra and it does get less noise in the
videos you take and you know at times
the s24 ultra shoots such good front
camera video that looks so real it can
make the iPhone's footage look fake and
unnatural Samsung's done a lot of things
right here but the main problem of the
darker areas of your shot suffering from
ugly amounts of noise that hasn't been
solved especially when you move the
camera it's 5% better than last year but
like you know still 50% behind the
iPhone I really want to give some the
draw here because of how good I know it
can be but in their current states if
someone offered me one of these two
cameras for the purposes of vlogging
until Samsung fixes this and also
improves the dynamic range to the
iPhones level I would pick the iPhone so
far though in this battle that is 2
points to one point so this camera
comparison is already a very different
story to the last one and we might just
be shooting an iPhone today and what
really starts to cement Samsung's lead
here is the camera app itself which is
actually one of the biggest changes
compared to when the s23 is launched
last year it looks better for starters
with icons having been cleared up and
animations updated but it's also
functionally better it's smoother like
navigating between the different modes
and more surprisingly being able to zoom
all the way in and out is now nearly as
smooth as the iPhone I have no idea why
it's taken this long to get here but let
me tell you it feels pretty good to be
here you can now just tap to change your
photo resolution and changing your video
properties makes way more sense too this
right here is the kind of practical
compact menu design that it would be
really cool to see apple do too cuz I
get that the iPhone's camera really
tries to keep things simple but this is
now pretty decluttered but also while
being able to access all your different
camera options without having to
navigate to a completely separate part
of the phone to change half of them and
you actually just get way more options
with the Samsung 2o you know those kind
of ultra Niche things that you think
only you care about and no one would
actually make a setting for yeah Samsung
gives you that level of control things
like if you set the camera to 50 map or
200 map mode whether or not the camera
should keep those as the default the
next time you open the camera app or
like whether you want to swipe down of
your shutter button to either burst fire
photos or create an instant GIF and the
biggest thing with this s24 Ultra is
that it's faster to take photos too now
it's still not as fast as the iPhone but
there's no longer a massive gap between
them and I'd say the Samsung shoots fast
enough now that it doesn't feel like a
problem it doesn't stand out as a
sluggish camera like it used to the only
remaining weakness of this camera app is
the fact that it's a little hard to use
one-handed it's slightly the sharp boxy
shape of the phone but mostly just the
fact that many of the options are fixed
at the top instead of how the iPhone can
bring them all to your thumb with a
single swipe so I came pretty close at
this point to just calling this category
a draw and moving on but the thing
that's really tipped the scales for me
is the screen brightness on the Samsung
I did not expect to find it as useful as
I have but if you allow Samsung's
automatic brightness to take over it
gets so bright that even though I've
never felt like shooting Outdoors was an
issue on the iPhone this screen is so
clear that it makes it feel like an
issue in comparison so yeah I think
Samsung's done enough this generation to
turn the camera app all the way from A
Loss into a win and related to this I
think Now's the Time to introduce a new
category into our camera comparisons
going forward editing features I've
thought about doing this for a long time
but the s24 feels like a very obvious
place to start it feels like we're on
the brink of a new era in which thanks
to really powerful artificial
intelligence it's no longer just about
the photos and videos you can take but
also about the photos and videos you can
make or to put it another way a lot of
the camera's capability now comes after
the shot has been captured so who does
that side of the experience better well
in the iPhones Corner the editor is
fairly simple it definitely leaves you
wanting more like I really wish there
was the ability to make a video that
you've taken two times or three times
speed I've needed that quite a bit but
credit where credits due everything that
is here is so fast you're never waiting
for any action there's no loading bars
making photo and video edits happens
literally as smoothly as changing your
volume and you want to crop something
you don't even need to be in the editor
you just zoom in while browsing and
click the crop button but then in
Samsung's corner you absolutely have
more options like you just swipe up on a
shot now and thanks to the new Pro
visual engine that understands photos
better you have a bunch of suggested
edits like background effect which is
actually pretty cool you can add the
portrait mode background blower but also
change the style of an existing portrait
mode shot to make it look like you're
having a particularly action-packed kind
of day I love this feature there's a lot
of options now there's remaster which is
usually a general brightening and
sharpening of a photo more often than
not it does make a positive difference
but it's more for older shots taken on
much worse cameras than this it doesn't
really do much to already good photos oh
but also the ability to erase
Reflections which if you like me find
yourself on a London balcony with the
most incredible view but a massive glass
sheet in front of you can be a very
powerful effect and I love that these
features are mostly just a tap away it
takes away that whole uh can I really be
bothered to fully jump into an editor
for this one specific spefic photo the
phone takes away that load from you and
I haven't even talked about the biggest
change to Samsung's editing which is the
new generative AI image editor which is
pretty good if you're like I used to be
and your current default for repairing
photos is like the healing brush then
this very much will be a revolutionary
Step Up in being able to move subjects
to extend your image and erase things
you didn't want to be there it does need
an internet connection and it's not
super fast but the upside is that it's
kind of like those really powerful AI
websites without needing a monthly
subscription like most of ask you for oh
at least not yet Samsung's saying that
these AI features will only be free till
the end of 2025 which I mean it makes
sense they do create a significant load
on Samsung servers but that's all the
more reason that we should be demanding
AI features that run offline on your
phone and don't require them but even
with that caveat I have to say Samsung's
editing Suite is way ahead of Apple's
and the pressure is really on for the
iPhone to start integrating AI in a more
explicit way very soon right I think
it's time we address the zoom zo
situation ever since Samsung decided to
go all in on this whole Space Zoom thing
with the s20 ultra regardless of how
important or unimportant you think Zoom
is one thing you can say is they have
consistently dominated the category but
within the span of just a few years the
iPhones have kind of under the radar
gone from pretty bad to very good at
Zoom 2 partly because the zoom lens
magnifications have gone up from 2x to
3x to now 5x on the iPhone 15 Pro Max
partly because of New Image processing
techniques like photonic engine which
can sharpen up photo has taken beyond
that five times number and partly
because the iPhone takes particularly
clear noise-free zoomed in video or
leading Apple to for the first time
taking home the draw in last year's
comparison now the reason for the entire
backstory is so that you can also see
how strange it is that while all of that
is happening this time round Samsung has
decided to scale back their Zoom the
previous 10 time zoom lens and three
time zoom lens combo has been swapped
out for a five times and a three times
and it brings me no joy to say this but
as much as Samsung wants you to believe
that this 5x lens is just as good
because it's a higher resolution camera
compared to the previous 10x your
ability to zoom in far is actually
slightly worse let me show you so this
is a side by side of the s24 ultra
versus last year's s23 Ultra and you'll
see that as we start to zoom in beyond
the phone's Optical ranges it looks okay
the AI processing on the new phone is
more sophisticated than it was so your
photos don't look Ultra grainy like you
might expect them to but at the same
time you can absolutely tell that the
new phone is seeing less that it
understands what it's shooting less well
and is having to use more processing to
bring it back into line here's another
example at 100 time zoom s24 Ultra again
the actual core details less real more
artificial and okay that's fine that's
one thing but what I didn't expect to
say today is what that translates to
which is that actually now the iPhone is
the better camera for zooming in long
distances I was pretty shocked I tested
it many times in many different lighting
conditions and yet yes eight times out
of 10 the phone that doesn't even
technically let you go beyond the 25
times Zoom Ark in the camera app is
actually capturing more information than
the phone that's been letting you zoom
in a 100 times for 4 years now Samsung
is doing a lot more software processing
than the iPhone when you zoom into
things and it does sometimes work but it
also sometimes looks so clearly
oversharpened or almost like it's had to
use its imagination to guess what the
thing actually looks like that youd just
rather it didn't you'd rather the phone
just told you yeah I don't do 100 times
as opposed to you having to take the
shot first to realize one of the things
that Samsung constantly advertises
themselves as is the definitive way to
record a concept from far away and
that's kind of accurate it's something
the iPhone is distinctly not good at
with its reluctance to switch into its
zoom camera paired with those absolutely
heinous internal glass Reflections you
get from bright light sources but
Samsung does still have a noise problem
enough of a noise problem that as soon
as the lights start to fade or you start
to shoot something even remotely not
bright the iPhone video just starts to
look way more comfortable at 5x
magnification and also at 10x and Beyond
the one thing that Samsung Zoom cameras
do unarguably do better is zoom
consistency while the iPhone starts to
noticeably dip in quality when you get
to three times or four times you know
just before that five times zoom camera
activates because Samsung also has this
separate three times optical zoom camera
it can make sure that your Zoom quality
stays close to full quality anywhere
between 0.5x and 5x leading to what I
would say is an overall draw again in
the zoom category where this extra three
times lens really helped Samsung out
though is in the next one the ability to
take three times Zoom portrait mode
shots as well as five time zoom portrait
mode shots is an absolute godsend when
Apple announced that the iPhone 15 Pro
Max would have a five time zoom lens
instead of the three times that the 14
pro Max had there was a very split
reaction 50% of people loved the fact
that you now had a higher magnification
50% of people relented it for being too
much Zoom see because your zoom lens is
also generally the best lens to take
portraits now now that the phone only
has a five times that's so much Zoom
that you know when you're sitting
opposite the table from someone and you
want to take a portrait of them you are
going to have to stand up and step back
to fit them in but with the Samsung now
you don't have to compromise you get
both options at full Optical quality and
that takes it from what was already a
beastly camera for portraits with
excellent Edge detection flattering
image processing and one of the most
natural DSLR style background blow
effects to Elite here if I had to call
something this phone's specialty I'd
probably say it's this while the iPhone
can shoot portrait mode shots in 24
megapixel compared to Samsung's 12 it
can only do that when shooting portrait
modes at one times magnification which I
actually tend not to do much of because
1X isn't as pretty all right let's do
some audio testing so right now you're
hearing the microphones on the Samsung
which do sound very good indeed as they
do on the iPhone I mean not every
company pays attention to the microphone
quality of their phones these two do you
can't really go wrong either way what's
actually kind of crazy is that both
microphones are so sensitive that you
can even whisper and as long as you're
in a quiet environment you can still
pick up the sound clearly phones are
crazy nowadays where they start to
diverge though is when you get
significant background noise you know
like the sound of an active tank in the
background Samsung doesn't actually make
it sound so bad it's just that the
quality of my voice is cut into as the
phone aggressively tries to remove that
background noise whereas with the iPhone
you hear my voice pretty clearly but you
also hear the tank pretty clearly now
just before we bring this all together
and shoot one of these guys we have to
tackle the three big questions who takes
better quality photos who takes better
quality videos who handles nighttime
better so for photos does the Galaxy s24
Ultra with its Hardware improvements its
software improvements and its new Pro
visual engine significantly improve upon
the core photo quality of the s23 ultra
well I do notice the contrast of shots
looking better now it's very rare to
have a washed out photo on the s24 and
also color science it's refined although
I was would definitely be clear to say
not perfected you will still notice some
funky Lighting in the background being
enough to rock the phone's perception of
an entire scene like I took some shots
with some of you guys that I met while
filming and you can see the lighting of
the surrounding area very much bleeding
onto our faces on the Samsung or for
another example you know when you're
zooming into something very often every
one of the different Zoom magnifications
has a slightly different color profile
so my skin tone actually changes as you
go but it isn't bad and it's not always
one way there are also occasions where
the iPhone goes too far with color and
the Samsung gets it right dynamic range
used to be a blanket Samsung win iPhones
used to suck at being able to control
the overexposure of the sky but that's
not true either anymore there are cases
where Samsung does it better still but
also cases where the iPhone leads like
Samsung might overexpose your face when
Apple gets it right so they're about
even on that front but the detail is
what secures the iPhones win
interestingly just like the new iPhones
Samsung's s24 Ultra is now capable of
shooting photos in in 24 map resolution
instead of 12 sadly for Samsung though
while Apple's now made 24 mapix the
Default Resolution that just happens in
auto mode without any compromise
Samsung's 24 megapixel is restricted to
the expert raw camera app they've not
said it as a default I'm not exactly
sure why maybe they decided that it
makes the shutter time longer and
they've just worked so hard to get it
down whatever the reason the default in
auto mode and therefore what Samsung
recommends you use is their 12 map mode
and that means detail does still lag
behind the Apple sometimes you'll notice
the difference Clarity a lot like you
can zoom in a whole extra time on the
iPhone and get the same level of clarity
other times it's pretty negligible but
the Gap exists of course this being a
200 megapix sensor means you do get
options like the Samsung can shoot in 50
megapix mode although I still think the
iPhone's High reses 48 megapix mode is a
little better it retains the same
quality image processing as your normal
photos whereas for Samsung you actually
notice the quality of processing go down
you're kind of having to trade but then
Samsung also has a fullon 200 100
megapix mode which even though it takes
a long time to process the image is a
cool idea I love the concept of sitting
in front of a momentous landscape that I
know will be a once in a lifetime View
and deciding yeah this is where I go all
in on maximum resolution but I still
wouldn't necessarily say the 200
megapixel shots are better than the 50
megapix shots in the same way that you
notice the level of processing go down
as you go from 12 to 50 you notice it go
down again as you go from 50 to 200 to
the point where brighter parts of the
image for example might just now end up
Overexposed one of the new things for
Samsung is that they now allow you to
shoot photos in HDR where everything's
ultra bright and contrasty you'll be
able to see the preview in HDR while
you're taking the shots and then post
directly in HDR to social media like
but me I mean I've kind of gone off the
idea of HDR there's actually so many
times where I'm purposefully trying to
keep my brightness low so that I can
properly sleep at night and in those
times HDR is actually pretty annoying I
turn it off whenever I can so it may be
a factor for you but it's not personally
ative for me so iPhone is going to take
it for average photo quality the only
exception to that is the ultra wide
cameras which I would say both phones
are pretty balanced with their well
matched 12 megapix sensors the iPhones
is a tiny bit wider and sometimes does
come out with more balanced colors but
also pretty often it feels like
Samsung's image processing has cleaned
up a scene better so that's one key
question answered what about video
Samsung made pretty big strides last
year with the s23 Ultras video I
remember taking that phone out for the
very first time and nodding my head like
a proud father as I noticed the
significant strides in noise reduction
the improved dynamic range and the
ability to shoot 8K video without it
sucking so where does the s20 force it
well I would say it's a refinement it's
a subtle neatening up an S 23.5 Ultra if
you will the level of noise is a tiny
bit further lowered the general
day-to-day stabilization a tiny bit
better thanks to the phone now using its
gyro sensors to better understand how
you're moving your phone and so what it
isn't is more detailed than the iPhone
when you're shooting really well-lit
shots during the day you can look at
both and think well they're basically
the same and even in a standard night
scene to be fair there's not a massive
amount in it which is absolutely awesome
to see but it's in the details when
you're cropping in close to a certain
part of a video or showing your family
or favorite Clips on a big TV the iPhone
has enough of a leading Clarity that you
probably would notice and that is a key
key factor and it's especially true when
you've got really challenging mix
lighting like this I like the fact that
when things are dark Samsung keeps them
dark but in these situations it's too
much it's like there's a black hole
under this tank that I've just
disappeared into or like Watch What
Happens as this tank passes in front of
us you see how it goes really dark for a
second yeah it's too much it makes it
feel like a less balanced camera than
the iPhone by the way yes that is
actually me driving the tank shout out
to Armageddon this place is absolutely
mental as for what happens when you try
and run after the tank as most same
people do the stabilization during video
is very much on car and very high tier
on both considering how much motion
there is but if you want to go all in on
stabilization with the phone's
respective super steady and action modes
well then the iPhone just runs away with
it literally I don't know what Apple did
when designing this feature but from the
moment they launched it no other phone
has overtaken them for their sheer
ability to take smooth and yet still
high resolution action scenes the only
final question on our minds then is
night photos which based on Samsung's
event is what they've paid particular
attention to and these two phones are
very good and very similar so much so
that when you're using light mode it's
in most situations as if you basically
got the exact same photo but just
processed it two different ways Samsung
with a cooler tone and lots of
sharpening applied apple with a warmer
tone and much less sharpening and one is
not really worse than the other I mean
Samsung absolutely slays the iPhone at
moon photos if that's your coverty the
iPhone has no idea what to do or which
camera to use but I also don't want to
overweight that cuz it's not a reg
regular thing you're going to be doing
and then the iPhone is slightly better
at night portraits just in the sense
that it manages to make them feel like
normal photos whereas the Samsung really
makes it look like it's using a special
mode and filter and also something that
we've been seeing in other parts of the
comparison too but that's particularly
noticeable at night the iPhone is better
able to deal with color like this shot
of me on the bench we took it like 15
different times as the bench cycled
through every single color and each time
the iPhone just got it the exposure was
better controlled and the colors much
more realistic to what we were seeing so
what does that leave us with well 6.5 to
Samsung 4.5 to the iPhone Samsung has
clawed back a lot this generation Less
in terms of the actual output getting
significantly better although there are
improvements there too the biggest thing
is the experience of taking photos the
much smoother camera app the much faster
shutter speed the highly Advanced new
editing tools and so even though this
doesn't mean that Samsung wins at
everything cuz the iPhone does win some
important
categories well I can't believe we're
actually doing this but a promisees a
promise on you go oh and if you're
enjoying this video then you sub to the
channel would be
wonderful right this tank is about to
fire a 100 mph highly explosive paint
grenade trust me you would not want to
get hit by one of these and now we just
shoot 3 2
1 did we kill it did we kill it did we
no we didn't phone is completely alive
and unmarked balls in your court for
next time
Apple
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