For the past month, I’ve been testing out the iPhone 17 Pro Max to see how it compares to the best phones out there. What’s fascinating is that it overthrew the Galaxy S25 Ultra in the process to recapture the top spot, which Samsung occupied for most of the year. Naturally, Apple deserves being in the limelight with the success of its flagship, but that could change when Samsung announces the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
Luckily, the latest rumors point at a late January announcement, which is a welcome relief over the previous rumors about it being in February. I’ve been keeping tabs on all the rumors and leaks that could point the finger at Samsung coming out on top of a Galaxy S26 Ultra vs iPhone 17 Pro Max face-off. Here’s all the ways I think the Galaxy S26 Ultra could beat the iPhone 17 Pro Max, knowing all the rumors that have come out so far.
Thinner design
The renders of the Galaxy S26 Ultra that have been leaked so far prove one thing: there’s definitely going to be a bigger design change. While it’s supposedly going to have much more rounded corners and a tweaked camera cutout, the one rumored improvement that’s getting the most attention from me is how it could be a much sleeker phone.
Currently, the Galaxy S25 Ultra measures 8.1 mm thick, but the S26 Ultra could be much slimmer. Specifically, the rumors give it a range of 7 to 8 mm — which could be attributed to the phone getting taller and wider. By doing this, it could shave more off the S26 Ultra’s frame. It certainly won’t be rail thin like the Galaxy S25 Edge or iPhone Air, but should be impressive for a flagship model.
Under display selfie camera
Apple gave the iPhone 17 Pro Max one of its biggest upgrades with the introduction of an 18MP Center Stage camera. I’ve tested it out against other selfie cameras, including the Galaxy S25 Ultra, with outstanding results — but the Galaxy S26 Ultra could be in store for something unique.
Even though Samsung used an under display camera with some of its foldable phones, the Galaxy S26 Ultra could be the first non-foldable in Sammy’s lineup to have one. This should make the screen look more seamless, whereas the punch hole sometimes obscured some stuff with the display. I’m looking forward to this potential change, just as long as the selfie camera’s performance isn’t compromised.
Brighter screen and more privacy
The iPhone 17 Pro Max has a brighter display than the Galaxy S25 Ultra based on our lab testing, but this victory could be short lived because the Galaxy S26 Ultra could feature an even brighter panel. Even though the rumors hint at a similar sized 6.9-inch AMOLED panel just like before, it wouldn’t take much for it to be brighter considering how the S25 Ultra peaked at 1,860 nits — while the iPhone 17 Pro Max surpassed it by a smidge at 1,899 nits.
More importantly, however, I’m eager to see the rumored CoE depolarizer technology the S26 Ultra is allegedly going to adopt. Paired with a third-generation anti-reflective glass, this could make the screen brighter and more color accurate. There’s another rumor about the S26 Ultra featuring this “Flex Magix” feature that would limit visibility from side angles — much like the privacy screen protector I added to my iPhone 17 Pro.
Better low light camera performance
I’ve captured hundreds of photos with the iPhone 17 Pro Max and even put it through a 200 photo face-off against the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but Apple’s flagship has a low light camera unlike anything else out there. This is one area Samsung needs to improve on if the Galaxy S26 Ultra has any chance at becoming the best camera phone once again.
Even though it’s speculated to use the same 200MP main camera sensor as before, the S26 Ultra could get a boost with a faster f/1.6 aperture. Yes, the f/1.7 aperture of the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s main camera is already wide enough, but f/1.6 would be able to draw in more light in a shorter amount of time — thus resulting in brighter images, with less worry about blurring. I also suspect there will be new updates to its ProVisual Engine that could further enhance photos captured under low light conditions.
Faster Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 performance
Whether or not the rumors about Samsung turning to the Exynos 2600 chipset in some markets end up true, I can only imagine good things with the version that should be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Qualcomm’s latest flagship silicon is already proving to be a beast based on early benchmark scores we saw produced from a reference device.
Apple’s A19 Pro chip that powers the iPhone 17 Pro Max delivered results that put it ahead of the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 paired with an upgrade to 16GB of RAM could put the S26 Ultra in a league of its own.
Much longer battery life
Not only could the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset bring bigger performance gains to the Galaxy S26 Ultra, but it could also boost its battery life. Even though it looks like the Galaxy S26 Ultra is going to stick with the same 5,000 mAh as before, the power efficiency of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 might be enough to eclipse the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s battery life performance.
Faster 60W charging speed
One upgrade I’m excited for is the possibility of faster 60W wired charging with the S26 Ultra. That’s because code from a leaked version of One UI 8.5 suggests that this faster charging speed via USB-C could be in store for the new Samsung phone.
I already thought that the Galaxy S25 Ultra was fast with its 45W charging speed, which yielded charge levels of 37% and 71% with 15 and 30 minutes of charging, respectively. Those figures should get a substantial boost if this 60W charging speed rumor ends up coming true, which would beat the 64% charge the iPhone 17 Pro Max got in 30 minutes of charging.
More Galaxy AI features
Samsung already beats Apple when it comes to AI because the Galaxy AI features in the current S25 Ultra outmatch Apple Intelligence with the iPhone 17 Pro Max. There’s just no comparison here.
However, I suspect Samsung won’t let down this one area because I’m confident we’ll get more Galaxy AI features with the S26 Ultra. The S25 Ultra introduced new stuff like Cross App Actions and the Now Brief. It would be neat if Samsung borrows many of the new AI features that Google introduced with the Pixel 10 lineup, like Pro Res Zoom, which enhances photos captured with the telephoto camera.
Improved Samsung DeX
Finally, Samsung already beats Apple with its DeX software — the desktop-like experience that runs when you connect a compatible Galaxy phone to a monitor. I’m sure it’s coming with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, but I really hope Samsung makes some new changes to improve it. That’s because I’ve already seen what Samsung’s collaboration with Google has done for the Pixel 10’s hidden desktop mode.
Small additions could make it one of the defining features for the Galaxy S26 Ultra. I’d still love to see the return of multiple users with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, along with multiple virtual desktops found with the Samsung DeX experience on the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra.
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