Galaxy Note 9 vs iPhone XS Max - Which is Worth Your $1,000

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and iPhone 10s Max are two of the most highly anticipated smartphones of the year, both packing impressive specs and features that set them apart from their competitors.

One of the main differences between these two phones is their screen size and resolution. The Note 9 has a slightly larger screen at 6.4 inches with a resolution of 29 60 by 1440, while the 10s Max's screen is slightly smaller at 6.5 inches but it doesn't pack quite as much resolution in everyday use, though I couldn't really spot a difference in sharpness.

There are some major differences between these two phones and depending on how much you care about them it could matter a lot or not matter that much at all. The Note 9 comes with expandable storage, fingerprint sensor, and a headphone jack none of which are available on the iPhone. Instead of a fingerprint sensor, Apple's pretty much gone all in with Face ID, which is very fast and reliable and works in most situations but in situations where it doesn't work I kind of wish there was a fingerprint sensor because entering in your passcode is kind of annoying.

The biggest and most major difference is of course the S-Pen, this has been the signature feature of the Note line ever since the original Galaxy Note but it's never been a reason as to why I've ever used a Galaxy Note as a daily driver. I've personally never found it to be all that useful but you can use it for productivity purposes and Samsung added Bluetooth functionality so you can kind of work as a magic wand of sorts for pausing and playing music or remotely taking a photo with the camera on.

The cameras on the Galaxy Note 9 and 10s Max are pretty similar, both having dual 12 megapixel cameras with a secondary telephoto zoom lens and optical image stabilization on both lenses. The Note 9 does have that mechanical aperture though for letting in more light and creating a shallower depth of field while the aperture on both lenses of the iPhone are fixed.

They both are capable of taking portrait mode photos and now the iPhone lets you adjust the blur after the fact which has been available on Samsung phones since the note 8. The Note 9 tends to over soften the details in people's faces, skin tones are much more washed out when compared to the iPhone. The Note 9 and 10s Max handled themselves very well in pretty much every lighting situation but the 10s Max has much better dynamic range giving you a lot more detail in the shadows and highlights.

This can probably be attributed to Apple's new smart HDR feature which stacks a bunch of photos together for better exposure and detail. The Note 9 also tends to skew towards a warm look which doesn't look quite as attractive as the iPhones more neutral color tones.

The software experiences on these two phones are obviously not going to be the same, the Note 9 is running Android 8.1 Oreo with Samsung's custom skin and the iPhone 10s Max is running the latest iOS 12. Samsung software has gotten much over the past couple of years that I don't mind using it exactly the way it is out of the box and there are some advantages to using it like having Samsung pay.

But there are also some bad sides as well like the duplicate apps and Bixby if you've used an iPhone before iOS 12 is going to feel very familiar aesthetically, it pretty much looks the same as the last few versions of iOS but this year's update was focused on better performance and refining the OS.

iOS 12 is quicker at launching apps quicker to open the camera and the keyboard pops up slightly faster notifications are now bundled together by apps so it doesn't feel so cluttered and iOS 12 finally shows screen time numbers and breaks it down on a per app basis so you can see how much time you're spending within each app.

If I had to pick which one I like better, I'd have to go with the 10s Max, which might surprise a lot of you guys but here's why.