Apple unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro Max on Wednesday at its Surprise and Shine event, positioning the $1,299 phone as its newest nonfolding high-end flagship. The 256GB model lands within $100 of Samsung鈥檚 $1,300 Galaxy S26 Ultra. Every iPhone in the lineup received a $100 price increase, a move likely tied to the ongoing RAM shortage.
The two phones differ sharply in design. The iPhone 18 Pro Max keeps the aluminum unibody look introduced on last year鈥檚 17 Pro Max and comes in burgundy red, glacier blue, silver and black. It weighs 249 grams and carries a 6.8-inch OLED display. The Galaxy S26 Ultra is lighter at 214 grams and slightly larger with a 6.9-inch AMOLED screen, offered in pink gold, silver shadow, cobalt violet, sky blue, white and black.
Samsung鈥檚 Privacy Display is the S26 Ultra鈥檚 most distinctive feature, letting specific apps or notifications become hard to read from off-angle viewing without a privacy screen protector. No other company has replicated it. The S26 Ultra is also the thinnest phone in its line.
Battery capacity favors Apple on paper. Apple does not disclose battery specs in the US, citing 45 hours of video playback, but its Ireland website lists a 5,391-mAh capacity for the physical SIM edition, above the S26 Ultra鈥檚 5,000 mAh. Apple has not disclosed charging speed for the 18 Pro Max. Samsung鈥檚 phone offers 60-watt wired charging and won a CNET Lab Test award for fastest wired charging after going from 0% to 76% in 30 minutes. Last year鈥檚 iPhone 17 Pro Max charged at 40 watts and reached 69% in the same window.
Camera hardware diverges as well. The iPhone 18 Pro Max adds a variable-aperture camera that physically opens or closes for darker or lighter environments, joining a 49-megapixel wide, 48-megapixel ultrawide and 48-megapixel telephoto with 4x optical zoom. The S26 Ultra lacks variable aperture but carries four rear cameras: a 200-megapixel main, 50-megapixel ultrawide, 50-megapixel telephoto with 5x optical zoom and 10-megapixel telephoto with 3x optical zoom.
Inside, Apple鈥檚 A20 Pro powers new AI features led by a Siri assistant built with Google鈥檚 Gemini, which can surface information from emails and texts and turn it into reminders or calendar events. Apple also highlighted the chip鈥檚 gaming performance and a vapor chamber for cooling. Samsung鈥檚 Galaxy S26 Ultra runs Qualcomm鈥檚 Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 for Galaxy, driving Galaxy AI features centered on proactive suggestions and photo editing.
More gadget news from TechManNews.
