iPhone 14 Pro vs. Galaxy S23 Ultra: Camera, Battery, Display Comparison

Speaker 1: I wanna see how my iPhone 14 Pro compares to the Samsung Galaxy S 23 Ultra. A few months ago I went from being a diehard Galaxy owner to a sellout iPhone owner, but when Samsung announced the Galaxy S 23 Ultra, I knew I had to get my hands on it and try out everything from the camera to the battery life and see how the design of it compares to my iPhone. So let's see if I have any regrets about switching [00:00:30] over to the dark side. Speaker 1: Now, I would love to say that I'm the kind of person who wakes up at Dawn, gets her morning coffee and then reads the news. But in reality, I wake up, reach for my phone and then scroll through TikTok for 20 minutes. So that's where the display comes in. Now I love the display on the S 23 Ultra. It's bright and it's vibrant and the colors really pop on the iPhone. I do like the sharpness of the images [00:01:00] and the best comparison, the best way that I can get the iPhone to match up to what the S 23 Ultra offers is when I turn off true tone on the iPhone. So that true tone is really kind of what kind of matches your environment. So it's not super bright in your face, but I kind of like that brightness. But I like that you have the option on the iPhone to kind of turn that on and off. Speaker 1: And even on, on the S 23 Ultra, you can play with like the blue light settings and kind of tone down that brightness if you need. So when it comes to brightness and vibrancy, I do like that on the S 23 Ultra a little bit more, [00:01:30] it makes those videos pop a little bit more. As I'm scrolling through TikTok and Instagram, one of the things I really miss on Galaxy phones is the keyboard, because when you're typing on there, you have the numbers and the letters all in one spot. So you don't have to jump between like the numbers and the letters like you do on the iPhone. It sounds like a really small thing, but honestly it's something, it's like a learning curve for me to have to be like, all right, gotta type a number now I gotta type the time, let me go hit that number button and then type it in. Speaker 1: So it's, it's been really nice to have that all in [00:02:00] one place. Again, now I have the iPhone 14 pro and not the Pro Max, so I'm not gonna compare screen size. Obviously that would be comparing apples to oranges. But you know, one of the downsides to having such a massive screen here is that you have to figure out how to fit it in your pocket. Having the iPhone 14 pro, it fits a lot better in my hand and then also a lot better in my pocket, which is really nice. So if you want that nice big display, which is great for videos, you're gonna pay the price of having to figure out where to put it. It [00:02:30] fits well in jacket pockets and in my purse and in my backpack obviously, but I do kind of worry when I just put it in like my pants pocket that it might fall out. Speaker 1: So that's the one downside to having that larger display. Now the battery is also a really big deal to me because I hate carrying an external charger. They're heavy, they're annoying, very convenient, but very annoying. So I, I really wanna make sure I have a film that will last me throughout the day when I'm taking pictures and videos and again scrolling through TikTok. So I have had this iPhone [00:03:00] 14 pro for probably about five months now. And obviously when you get a new phone, the battery is, you know, top performance at that point and as you use it, the battery wears down. But I don't feel like I've seen, you know, a huge degradation in the battery on my iPhone 14 pro over these few months. But as 23 Ultra, this battery blows my mind. Honestly, I can spend a full day of taking pictures and videos and scrolling through social media and I will still have juice left over at the end of the day. Speaker 1: Again, this is not surprising considering [00:03:30] this is Samsung's top the line phone. It has a 5,000 million amp power battery. Apple doesn't share its battery capacity for the iPhone 14 Pro or any of its phones really, but it says that it has up to 23 hours of video playback and I fix it, which did a tear down of the iPhone 14 Pro says it has eight 30 200 million power battery. So obviously different capacities there, but the iPhone will still last me a full day of use. This is just going to take you a little bit further and I've, I've really been, my mind [00:04:00] has been blown by this to be honest. Speaker 1: Now the most important thing to me because I am a millennial who takes way too many pictures and is a little too obsessed with social media, is the camera, I've always sworn by the quality of the Galaxy cameras. I love that they really bring out the color in photos and they're very vibrant. And honestly, I have fooled many an iPhone user into thinking that my really nice pictures were taken with my iPhone [00:04:30] when in reality they were taken with a Galaxy phone. So we need to dispel the rumor that iPhones are the best at everything. So I do love that on the Galaxy S 23 ultra colors are a lot more saturated and vibrant and in most cases that works. Like I took some pictures of TEACs and it, they really like brought out the color of the design and the flowers really pop and outdoors. Speaker 1: I honestly think it really shines in nature because it really just brings out the colors of plants. Um, and [00:05:00] the sky always looks so much more beautiful and blue on the iPhone. It is a bit more toned down. But I do think that there are a lot of pictures that look a lot more natural on the iPhone. So sometimes the saturation on the galaxy is a bit too much and it looks a little unrealistic. But on the iPhone, you know, you do get that more natural look at the expense of having sometimes harsher shadows. Like there's a picture I took of the sky where the clouds are a little bit too contrasted with with the sky and, and I like the look better on [00:05:30] the Galaxy S 23 Ultra. The one thing that I will give iPhone is it really knows how to take the best portrait mode photos, in my opinion. Speaker 1: I took a portrait photo of my friend using the S 23 Ultra and then the iPhone 14 probe. And I noticed that on the iPhone there were parts, so she had sunglasses at the top of her head and there were some parts of the sunglasses that were blurred. So the bridge of the nose was blurred and the side of the glasses were blurred and it's really hard to pick out those details, especially when they're tiny. But then I looked at [00:06:00] the picture that was taken on the ultra and every part of the sunglasses was in focus. And I was kind of surprised by that because Apple was a very early pioneer of portrait mode and I kind of expected to have him have that figured out. I was kind of surprised that the Galaxy actually won over in that case, again, that picture was a little bit more saturated than I would've liked. Speaker 1: I did like the colors more on the iPhone, but the detail is what made the ultra win. In that case, I take a lot of photos and videos, not just for work, but [00:06:30] also for my personal social media accounts, including my very niche tea account. Follow al, he tea t get it, it's like T. And so I wanna make sure I have a camera that makes my content pop. And one of the things that I had to play with on the S 23 Ultra is that new 200 megapixel sensor. So I took a picture of a teacup that has gold trim around it. I took a regular 12 megapixel photo and then I took the 200 megapixel photo and I really loved [00:07:00] the amount of detail that popped with a 200 megapixel sensor. You can see like every little bit of that gold trim, the colors are more vibrant, it automatically kind of blurs out the background a little bit more. Speaker 1: So you're focused on what you need to be focused on. So in that case, I did like the photo that was taken with the 200 megapixel sensor more, but there are some instances where I actually preferred just the regular 12 megapixel. It depends on the lighting. So I was outdoors and I took a picture from Twin Peaks in San Francisco and I took a regular 12 megapixel [00:07:30] photo and then the 200 megapixel. And what that did is it kind of eliminated a little too many highlights. So I look at the grass, it's a little bit darker, you're missing some of that contrast and that detail. And even in the background, some of those highlights are gone, so you're missing some of the detail there too. So in that case, I would've gone with the 12 megapixel option. Of course, all these photos are customizable, you can play around with the settings, but I am just the everyday user. Speaker 1: I just wanna be able to take that picture, push a couple buttons and be ready to go. We have to talk about the ridiculous [00:08:00] 10 x zoom on the ultra. This is something that I had to play with up at Twin Peaks in San Francisco. And what I did is I took a regular one x three X and then 10 x Zoom. And from all the way back there I could zoom in on Salesforce tower and then even see the ferry building out in, you know, in the way distance. But even when I punched in really close, I didn't lose that Christmas or that clarity in the photo, which was really, really cool. The iPhone has three x Zoom, that's pretty good too, but [00:08:30] I, I really was very impressed with that 10 x zoom. And that's something that these phones are, are known for. And I get y Speaker 1: I miss taking selfies on the Galaxy phones because they just smooth over your face. You just look nice. Those shadows are gone on the iPhone. It has been an adjustment for me to take selfies on there. Again, they don't look bad, but I do wish there were, you know, those shadows were a bit toned down. I do wish it just kind of smoothed things over on their own too. [00:09:00] But yeah, I, I've really enjoyed taking selfies on the galaxy. Nighttime photography is another thing that I have always loved on the Galaxy phones, but it looks like iPhone has really stepped it up too. So I took some side by side photos at night and I actually really like the darkness of the sky on the iPhone. It does come at the cost of kind of muting the colors around it a little bit more on the galaxy. Speaker 1: This building has a bit more color and brightness to it, but the sky isn't as deep black [00:09:30] as it is on the iPhone. I still prefer the photos on the galaxy at night, but I've been really impressed with how much iPhone has stepped it up. One thing that both companies have really been focused on is that cinema quality video. It's not really surprising that companies are focused on video right now. I mean, you think about how big TikTok and Instagram reels are right now, so it makes sense. And personally for my own TikTok and Instagram account, I have really enjoyed taking videos on my iPhone. I do think the videos look [00:10:00] a lot better. They, especially with cinematic mode, that's something that I've really loved. Just the way it blurs out the background makes that subject stand out and it's not overly saturated or or unnaturally colored. Speaker 1: So I do think iPhone takes the prize when it comes to video and I've been really happy with that side of things. I mentioned cinematic mode on the iPhone, on the Galaxy, it's called Portrait Video and this basically has the same effect. So the subject stands out and then the background is a bit more blurred. And you can take that more kind of cinematic style video. [00:10:30] What absolutely blew me away on the galaxy is video stabilization. So we took some videos of walking down the stairs and on the iPhone you can still kind of tell that you're taking some steps and the camera's shaking a little bit on the galaxy. It looks like you're using a gimbal. It is so smooth, you can't really see all those little shaky movements. This isn't really anything new. I had a Galaxy S nine a few years ago and I was in a helicopter taking videos and I was worried that everything would be incredibly shaky and just not look good, but [00:11:00] it was very smooth when I checked the footage later. So it's cool to see that Samsung has had this figured out for a while and just to see how smooth that entire walking and stepping motion was on the galaxy. Speaker 1: I have loved the experience of having an iPhone. I think the design is great, but I was kind of taken aback by how much I loved the design of the S 23 Ultra as well. One of the things that I really appreciate is that even though you have all [00:11:30] these cameras, when you set it on a table, they don't stick out as much, so it doesn't wobble, I think. I think these iPhone cameras are doing a little too much. I think they're sticking out too much. So when you set it on a table, it definitely wobbles even with my case, cuz a lot of the cases kind of stick out to protect the cameras too. And it just wobbles the downside again, to having a larger screen is not just having that bigger space to have to fit into pockets, but also it's kind of thick. Speaker 1: It's a bit thicker and chunkier than I would like to carry all the time. This is even without [00:12:00] a case. So once you put a case on it, it's going to become even more bulky. So I like that the iPhone fits better into my hands and also just fits better wherever I need to put it. And is a little bit, a little bit easier to handle. The S 23 Ultra also has that really nice S pen. To be honest. I think it's more of a nice to have versus a need to have. I never really find myself reaching for it because A, I don't really ever feel compelled to write anything by hand, especially not on a phone. And then b, I can just tap things [00:12:30] with my fingers. It's what I'm used to. I don't necessarily need that stylist, but I do think that it's really nice that the legacy of the Note can live on in the S 23 Ultra and I hope they continue to add that S pen cause I know that there are people who are really big fans of it and would be really sad if that went away. Speaker 1: One feature that I think has significantly improved on the Galaxy phones is face recognition. So on my old Galaxy phones, I used to have a really hard time unlocking them if I was wearing glasses or in a dark room, but I've had much better luck on this guy. [00:13:00] It's been much better at recognizing me with glasses without glasses in bright light not. And so I'm pleasantly surprised by that. The other really nice thing is that there is a fingerprint sensor in the screen. So if you don't wanna deal with face recognition, you can do that. And also the fingerprint sensor is actually a more secure way to unlock your phone. So it's nice to have that option. I did miss having that fingerprint reader when I got the iPhone, but I kind of quickly got over it because face ID is really, really solid and I do think [00:13:30] it is a little bit more of a seamless process and I, I think face ID really has that figured out. Speaker 1: If price is your determining factor for which phone to get, you are going to pay a little bit more for the S 23 Ultra, which is to be expected because this is Samsung's top of the line phone. So you're gonna pay $1,200 for 256 gigabytes of storage on the S 23 Ultra and then on the iPhone 14 Pro you're going to pay $1,100 for the same amount of storage. I do wanna note that the S 23 Ultra is the same price [00:14:00] as iPhones top of the line. iPhone 14 Pro Max. So that's the bigger version of my phone. Speaker 1: Overall, it has been really fun to revisit a world that I've abandoned and see what kind of phone I might have had if I hadn't switched teams and switched over to the iPhone. At the end of the day, I think there are aspects to having an iPhone that go beyond things like battery life that will keep me in the Apple ecosystem for a long time. [00:14:30] And those are things like iMessage and airdrop that have really made that user experience more seamless. It's been a lot easier to communicate with my friends. It's been a lot easier to send things to my MacBook, so I think I'm going to stay team Apple for a while. And also the iPhone suits my needs. The battery life is perfect for me. The camera's really great, even if there are some slight trade offs, like less flattering selfies or some really harsh shadows in some pictures. Speaker 1: I think overall it really does fit what I need and I don't really have any regrets just yet. [00:15:00] But at the same time, I do find myself wishing that I could just kind of keep this handy for when I wanna take a picture that really makes people's jaws drop and then blow their minds that it was not taken with an iPhone. Now after a full day of testing out these phones, it's time to end my day the way I started it by scrolling through TikTok. But which phone will I reach for? Let us know in the comments which phone you're more impressed with and which specs are most important to you. And if you're into that whole iPhone versus Android war, be sure to check out my other [00:15:30] video on what made me switch from a Galaxy to an iPhone. Don't forget to give this video a thumbs up and subscribe for more videos from cnet. Thank you for watching.