The Camera Comparison: iPhone 12 Max vs Samsung S21 Ultra

As I began filming with both devices, it became apparent that there were some notable differences between them. The camera on my iPhone 12 Max was struggling to keep up with the bright sunlight, resulting in a washed-out face and lack of detail. However, when I switched to the Samsung S21 Ultra, I noticed that it handled the direct sunlight much better, producing more contrast and shadows. Additionally, the S21 Ultra had a cooler color temperature, which gave the images a slightly different look.

But what about video? In good lighting conditions, neither device was able to produce significantly smoother footage. However, when shooting at night, the Samsung S21 Ultra began to show its advantages, handling the bright street lights and other ambient light sources much better than the iPhone 12 Max. The S21 Ultra also performed slightly better in terms of reducing vibrations caused by movement, such as my footsteps.

The lidar feature on the iPhone 12 Pro Max is another key differentiator between these two devices. In theory, this should help with focusing in low-light conditions, and indeed it did perform better than the Samsung S21 Ultra in this regard. However, when it came to front-facing video and microphone quality, both devices were able to produce high-quality results.

For those who may be interested in the technical specifications of these devices, it's worth noting that the Samsung S21 Ultra offers 8K video recording at 24fps, with the ability to pull out a 33-megapixel screenshot. The iPhone 12 Max, on the other hand, only records at 4K30 and does not have this feature. However, it is capable of shooting in Dolby Vision HDR, which can produce stunning results when viewed on compatible screens or devices.

The lidar sensor on the Samsung S21 Ultra also has some interesting implications for augmented reality and 3D mapping applications. While I couldn't test these features extensively during my filming session, they do have the potential to be incredibly useful in certain contexts. And if you're planning on using one of these devices for AR or 3D mapping, the lidar sensor is definitely worth taking a closer look at.

In conclusion, both the iPhone 12 Max and Samsung S21 Ultra are excellent cameras, but with different strengths and weaknesses. If I had to choose between them for photography, I would probably go with the Samsung S21 Ultra - its more accurate and true-to-life color rendition is hard to beat. However, when it comes to video production, I think the iPhone 12 Max has a slight edge. Ultimately, it's really just a matter of personal preference, as both devices can produce high-quality results.

So, which one came out on top? Well, that's up to you to decide! If you have any thoughts on this comparison or would like to share your own experiences with these devices, please let me know in the comments below. And if you're new here and want to stay up-to-date on all my latest videos and articles, be sure to hit that subscribe button down below - I'm getting close to a million subscribers now!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enin this video we invade fred the cat's personal space i look like i've seen and actually maybe i'm a ghost and i walk around in the rain at night holding two phones side by side while definitely not looking creepy at all hey guys i'm from the tech chap and i've got the new galaxy s21 ultra with me here along with the iphone 12 pro max and i want to figure out which phone has the best camera so i've got my laptop with me here i'm just going to walk through and give you my analysis of the photos i've taken but i also want to hear what you guys think do you agree with me do you think i've completely missed the mark and i couldn't be more blind either way let me know in the comments below and also if you haven't subscribed yet and you check below i'm like right on that one million mark it could be you actually that tips me over hit that subscribe button it'd be hugely appreciated and hopefully we can hit that one million and as you can see i want to start with a blind test can you tell the difference do you know which is which and also do you have a preference let me know in the comments to be honest i reckon you guys have probably got this right but i can tell you that on the left photo a is the s21 ultra with the iphone 12 pro max on the right so let's go through the different lenses and if we start with the ultra wide then switching to the main lens so now we're at one times essentially now let's move up to three times zoom and on the iphone we actually get a 2.5 times optical so this is going to its maximum optical zoom and then cropping in a little bit to the three times but then this is where things get interesting moving up to 10 times so now this is taking full advantage of the s21 ultra's new periscope zoom and what a difference i mean even in the foreground actually look at the bushes the trees there's a significant difference in quality moving up to 30 times zoom so this is actually uh the 12.5 times max digital zoom of the iphone cropped in further to 30 times what a difference you can even see the people on the s21 shot which just don't appear at all on the iphone i took these the exact same time side by side and then finally 100 times well they're both kind of bad actually but one is a lot worse than the other okay this time back in my kitchen let's go through the zooms one more time and again we are getting that quite significant difference in contrast between the two samsung say that they've increased the contrast by 50 with the s21 ultra which is a bit vague i mean from what what the numbers there but clearly you can see the iphone's got a flatter look up to 10 times and the s21 is doing a fantastic job the clarity of this blue microphone is well significantly better than the iphone and even at 30 times there's bits of noise and artifacting it doesn't look as clean but yeah side by side no competition really and finally 100 times this is actually probably only five meters from me or so so this is very zoomed in at 100 times but yeah i think the difference speaks for itself so there's no question really when it comes to zooming in the s2m1 ultra is the clear winner but let's talk a little bit more about image quality generally no edits or filters i've not adjusted any of these photos it's fresh out of the camera but look at the difference in the colors particularly the grass and again i would say the s21 is closer to reality so it's that question of whether do you want accuracy or vibrancy it's interesting because with this flower photo and if i just quickly jump ahead to this uh close-up of the petal is that what you call it the flower petal the flower itself that difference of contrast does give you a well a very different look for a start but the advantage on the iphone is that you do have more information more detail in those darker areas so if you look say at the top of the vars you are seeing a fair bit more on the iphone so if you are going to edit this afterwards you may have sort of more information to work with again quite a difference in color and contrast this is a tricky one because straight off the bat i'm kind of leaning towards preferring the s21 it just feels like a more realistic photo again we've got that much brighter look on the iphone but actually if we uh so sarah's gonna hate me for this but if we zoom in on her face the iphone is a fair bit sharper this isn't portrait mode it's just a regular photo but we saw that with that initial blind test portrait mode where again uh series features the facial features were just a little bit clearer but then switching it to a portrait mode photo same distance away but there's this clear pattern emerging of iphone is brighter and flatter versus a more shadowy contrasty slightly cooler look on the s21 ultra but looking at these and also if we just move on to a picture of me which one do you prefer because a lot of this is going to come down to your subjective preference aesthetics do you prefer you know bright and airy instagram ready or do you want a more sort of darker realistic contrasty look i'd generally love to hear your thoughts so do let me know along the way what you think in the comments i think if this video has taught me nothing else it's that i really could do with a tan although sadly it's not very likely in the middle of winter here in england so we established the s21 ultra is the king of the zoom but it's also the best when it comes to close-up macro shots just look at this photo these are taken side by side exactly the same distance away from the top of my yeti blue microphone so you can get an idea of what this is and it's such a difference if i just put my hand in front of the lens you can see automatically switching uh between them so now we can get much closer more macro shots now you can turn that off you can just tap a little yellow focusing hand so if you don't want it to keep switching when you're close up to a subject to be honest with you i'm not sure how often i would actually use the macro myself but it's a nice option to have and i think paired with the incredibly impressive zoom with this guy i reckon the s21 ultra is the most versatile camera okay let's switch gears a little bit and look at some low light nighttime shots and on the face of it there's not a massive difference between the two photos the colors on the iphone are a little bit warmer if you look at the walls in the background or indeed the floor under my desk but i think what really stands out is if you look at my light strip behind the desk and also my monitor itself the s21 is doing a much better job with a dynamic range reducing the highlights and the blown out areas on the screen and behind the desk they're both pretty good though but actually another little minor thing i've noticed is that the s21 ultra has a slightly wider field of view if you go from the back of my chair on the far right to the left hand side of those shelves you can see we're getting more in the frame with the s21 oh man i hate this photo so much but it is a good demonstration of how different these can be straight away i am drawn to the iphone which is much brighter versus the more contrasty darker and cooler look of the s21 but if i was going to pick my favorite and maybe even post one straight away onto my social media i would probably go with the iphone here this is actually another good example of how well the s21 deals with the dynamic range i'm not even sure what you call those things in the middle of the road they're sort of medium things um but you can see on the s21 again it's done a much better job at reducing that really overexposed highlight whereas on the iphone the left one in particular is just well completely blown out okay let's switch things around and look at the front selfie camera i must admit while the iphone looks slightly more appealing because again it's much brighter it's raised all those shadows i kind of like the more shadowy realistic look of the s21 ultra i think a lot of this is going to come down to your personal preference and which kind of aesthetic you prefer now this one's really interesting because i actually took this selfie in direct sunlight so it was really really bright on my face you can't see the background in the iphone shot that is much brighter and everything is better exposed but then my face is completely washed out and lacking in detail okay this is the last photo i promise uh before we look at some video and i think there's a definite pattern here with the photography the iphone goes for a slightly brighter flatter warmer and arguably more pleasing look whereas the s21 ultra is consistently a little bit more contrasty more shadows and also a cooler color temperature let's talk about video and this is being shot at 4k30 on both side by side and this is fred the cat here who is uh very kindly letting me film him although he usually hates the camera being thrown in his face and it's interesting to see the stabilization between the two because the iphone 12 max specifically does stand out thanks to its sensor shift stabilization so we should be looking for a slightly smoother video on the iphone but in this good light i can't tell a massive difference however at night things are a little bit different and you can see while neither are flawless the iphone does a much better job at reducing those horrible vibrations that you get with my footsteps and surprisingly a bit of a reverse of what we saw with the photos the iphone seems to be handling the very bright street lights and again those weird medium road things much better than the galaxy so for this test sarah is very kindly uh modeling for me very perfect but i kind of want to see how they compare when it comes to focusing one of the new features of the iphone 12 pro max is the lidar which should in theory especially in low light help with focusing so hopefully that gives you an idea how they compare when it comes to focusing in tricky lighting thank you sarah but what about front-facing video and also microphone quality so this is actually being shot with the front cameras at 4k 30. i'm also jumping between the mic so you can see little speaker icon on screen and as i pan around we change the lighting this is actually behind the scenes of where i've been filming this video hopefully it'll give you an idea of how the cameras compare so if i just keep rabbiting on for a little bit longer i'm about to hit a million subscribers actually so if you guys haven't subscribed yet you may be the one that tips me over the edge so um hit that little subscribe button down below it would be very much appreciated uh but i also need to figure out what i'm gonna do to celebrate one million subscribers that's pretty insane but yeah let me know which one you think has the better camera and the better mic in the comments below so that's the main stuff but each one has a couple of little extras uh for example on the uh samsung we get 8k video still at 24fps but if you want that super super duper high resolution you can and one of the benefits of that is you can then pull out a 33 megapixel screenshots so you could just record yourself for a while and then take a screen grab and you've got a nice high quality picture so that is quite nice extra also on the iphone with this for the first time on the 12 series including the pro max here we can shoot in dolby vision hdr which is quite nice and actually watching it back on the screen is beautiful although make sure if you're going to share with anyone else that they also have a compatible screen or tv or laptop that supports dolby vision another advantage of the lidar aside from helping with low light focusing is you get better augmented reality and 3d measuring now i'm not sure how often people will actually use this but if you are using one of these 3d mapping apps then you can get some pretty cool results that was a lot to take in and awesome i think my voice is getting a bit horsey but my conclusion from that i think the s21 ultra is the most flexible camera and i think i would also call it a tie when it comes to photography they're just different and i don't think one is really always better than the other they trade blows they're both excellent you can't go wrong with either if i had to pick one for photos i would probably go with the samsung just because i kind of like the more true to life accurate even if it's less flattering look of the images but when it comes to video i think i'd probably go with the iphone but most importantly which one do you think came out on top and why let me know in the comments below and if you did enjoy this video and want to see more from me and also help me get over that one million subscriber mark don't forget to hit that sub button below give me a thumbs up if you liked it and i'll see you next time right here on the tech chat youin this video we invade fred the cat's personal space i look like i've seen and actually maybe i'm a ghost and i walk around in the rain at night holding two phones side by side while definitely not looking creepy at all hey guys i'm from the tech chap and i've got the new galaxy s21 ultra with me here along with the iphone 12 pro max and i want to figure out which phone has the best camera so i've got my laptop with me here i'm just going to walk through and give you my analysis of the photos i've taken but i also want to hear what you guys think do you agree with me do you think i've completely missed the mark and i couldn't be more blind either way let me know in the comments below and also if you haven't subscribed yet and you check below i'm like right on that one million mark it could be you actually that tips me over hit that subscribe button it'd be hugely appreciated and hopefully we can hit that one million and as you can see i want to start with a blind test can you tell the difference do you know which is which and also do you have a preference let me know in the comments to be honest i reckon you guys have probably got this right but i can tell you that on the left photo a is the s21 ultra with the iphone 12 pro max on the right so let's go through the different lenses and if we start with the ultra wide then switching to the main lens so now we're at one times essentially now let's move up to three times zoom and on the iphone we actually get a 2.5 times optical so this is going to its maximum optical zoom and then cropping in a little bit to the three times but then this is where things get interesting moving up to 10 times so now this is taking full advantage of the s21 ultra's new periscope zoom and what a difference i mean even in the foreground actually look at the bushes the trees there's a significant difference in quality moving up to 30 times zoom so this is actually uh the 12.5 times max digital zoom of the iphone cropped in further to 30 times what a difference you can even see the people on the s21 shot which just don't appear at all on the iphone i took these the exact same time side by side and then finally 100 times well they're both kind of bad actually but one is a lot worse than the other okay this time back in my kitchen let's go through the zooms one more time and again we are getting that quite significant difference in contrast between the two samsung say that they've increased the contrast by 50 with the s21 ultra which is a bit vague i mean from what what the numbers there but clearly you can see the iphone's got a flatter look up to 10 times and the s21 is doing a fantastic job the clarity of this blue microphone is well significantly better than the iphone and even at 30 times there's bits of noise and artifacting it doesn't look as clean but yeah side by side no competition really and finally 100 times this is actually probably only five meters from me or so so this is very zoomed in at 100 times but yeah i think the difference speaks for itself so there's no question really when it comes to zooming in the s2m1 ultra is the clear winner but let's talk a little bit more about image quality generally no edits or filters i've not adjusted any of these photos it's fresh out of the camera but look at the difference in the colors particularly the grass and again i would say the s21 is closer to reality so it's that question of whether do you want accuracy or vibrancy it's interesting because with this flower photo and if i just quickly jump ahead to this uh close-up of the petal is that what you call it the flower petal the flower itself that difference of contrast does give you a well a very different look for a start but the advantage on the iphone is that you do have more information more detail in those darker areas so if you look say at the top of the vars you are seeing a fair bit more on the iphone so if you are going to edit this afterwards you may have sort of more information to work with again quite a difference in color and contrast this is a tricky one because straight off the bat i'm kind of leaning towards preferring the s21 it just feels like a more realistic photo again we've got that much brighter look on the iphone but actually if we uh so sarah's gonna hate me for this but if we zoom in on her face the iphone is a fair bit sharper this isn't portrait mode it's just a regular photo but we saw that with that initial blind test portrait mode where again uh series features the facial features were just a little bit clearer but then switching it to a portrait mode photo same distance away but there's this clear pattern emerging of iphone is brighter and flatter versus a more shadowy contrasty slightly cooler look on the s21 ultra but looking at these and also if we just move on to a picture of me which one do you prefer because a lot of this is going to come down to your subjective preference aesthetics do you prefer you know bright and airy instagram ready or do you want a more sort of darker realistic contrasty look i'd generally love to hear your thoughts so do let me know along the way what you think in the comments i think if this video has taught me nothing else it's that i really could do with a tan although sadly it's not very likely in the middle of winter here in england so we established the s21 ultra is the king of the zoom but it's also the best when it comes to close-up macro shots just look at this photo these are taken side by side exactly the same distance away from the top of my yeti blue microphone so you can get an idea of what this is and it's such a difference if i just put my hand in front of the lens you can see automatically switching uh between them so now we can get much closer more macro shots now you can turn that off you can just tap a little yellow focusing hand so if you don't want it to keep switching when you're close up to a subject to be honest with you i'm not sure how often i would actually use the macro myself but it's a nice option to have and i think paired with the incredibly impressive zoom with this guy i reckon the s21 ultra is the most versatile camera okay let's switch gears a little bit and look at some low light nighttime shots and on the face of it there's not a massive difference between the two photos the colors on the iphone are a little bit warmer if you look at the walls in the background or indeed the floor under my desk but i think what really stands out is if you look at my light strip behind the desk and also my monitor itself the s21 is doing a much better job with a dynamic range reducing the highlights and the blown out areas on the screen and behind the desk they're both pretty good though but actually another little minor thing i've noticed is that the s21 ultra has a slightly wider field of view if you go from the back of my chair on the far right to the left hand side of those shelves you can see we're getting more in the frame with the s21 oh man i hate this photo so much but it is a good demonstration of how different these can be straight away i am drawn to the iphone which is much brighter versus the more contrasty darker and cooler look of the s21 but if i was going to pick my favorite and maybe even post one straight away onto my social media i would probably go with the iphone here this is actually another good example of how well the s21 deals with the dynamic range i'm not even sure what you call those things in the middle of the road they're sort of medium things um but you can see on the s21 again it's done a much better job at reducing that really overexposed highlight whereas on the iphone the left one in particular is just well completely blown out okay let's switch things around and look at the front selfie camera i must admit while the iphone looks slightly more appealing because again it's much brighter it's raised all those shadows i kind of like the more shadowy realistic look of the s21 ultra i think a lot of this is going to come down to your personal preference and which kind of aesthetic you prefer now this one's really interesting because i actually took this selfie in direct sunlight so it was really really bright on my face you can't see the background in the iphone shot that is much brighter and everything is better exposed but then my face is completely washed out and lacking in detail okay this is the last photo i promise uh before we look at some video and i think there's a definite pattern here with the photography the iphone goes for a slightly brighter flatter warmer and arguably more pleasing look whereas the s21 ultra is consistently a little bit more contrasty more shadows and also a cooler color temperature let's talk about video and this is being shot at 4k30 on both side by side and this is fred the cat here who is uh very kindly letting me film him although he usually hates the camera being thrown in his face and it's interesting to see the stabilization between the two because the iphone 12 max specifically does stand out thanks to its sensor shift stabilization so we should be looking for a slightly smoother video on the iphone but in this good light i can't tell a massive difference however at night things are a little bit different and you can see while neither are flawless the iphone does a much better job at reducing those horrible vibrations that you get with my footsteps and surprisingly a bit of a reverse of what we saw with the photos the iphone seems to be handling the very bright street lights and again those weird medium road things much better than the galaxy so for this test sarah is very kindly uh modeling for me very perfect but i kind of want to see how they compare when it comes to focusing one of the new features of the iphone 12 pro max is the lidar which should in theory especially in low light help with focusing so hopefully that gives you an idea how they compare when it comes to focusing in tricky lighting thank you sarah but what about front-facing video and also microphone quality so this is actually being shot with the front cameras at 4k 30. i'm also jumping between the mic so you can see little speaker icon on screen and as i pan around we change the lighting this is actually behind the scenes of where i've been filming this video hopefully it'll give you an idea of how the cameras compare so if i just keep rabbiting on for a little bit longer i'm about to hit a million subscribers actually so if you guys haven't subscribed yet you may be the one that tips me over the edge so um hit that little subscribe button down below it would be very much appreciated uh but i also need to figure out what i'm gonna do to celebrate one million subscribers that's pretty insane but yeah let me know which one you think has the better camera and the better mic in the comments below so that's the main stuff but each one has a couple of little extras uh for example on the uh samsung we get 8k video still at 24fps but if you want that super super duper high resolution you can and one of the benefits of that is you can then pull out a 33 megapixel screenshots so you could just record yourself for a while and then take a screen grab and you've got a nice high quality picture so that is quite nice extra also on the iphone with this for the first time on the 12 series including the pro max here we can shoot in dolby vision hdr which is quite nice and actually watching it back on the screen is beautiful although make sure if you're going to share with anyone else that they also have a compatible screen or tv or laptop that supports dolby vision another advantage of the lidar aside from helping with low light focusing is you get better augmented reality and 3d measuring now i'm not sure how often people will actually use this but if you are using one of these 3d mapping apps then you can get some pretty cool results that was a lot to take in and awesome i think my voice is getting a bit horsey but my conclusion from that i think the s21 ultra is the most flexible camera and i think i would also call it a tie when it comes to photography they're just different and i don't think one is really always better than the other they trade blows they're both excellent you can't go wrong with either if i had to pick one for photos i would probably go with the samsung just because i kind of like the more true to life accurate even if it's less flattering look of the images but when it comes to video i think i'd probably go with the iphone but most importantly which one do you think came out on top and why let me know in the comments below and if you did enjoy this video and want to see more from me and also help me get over that one million subscriber mark don't forget to hit that sub button below give me a thumbs up if you liked it and i'll see you next time right here on the tech chat you\n"