Now this is the matchup I’ve been waiting for: a battle that without question will determine which is the best camera phone. While my iPhone 18 Pro Max vs. Galaxy S26 Ultra face-off gave the overall win to Apple, I’m strictly going to focus on their camera performance here.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra has kept the top spot for most of the year, beating out strong challengers like the Pixel 11 Pro XL and OnePlus 15. That’s largely attributed to the quadruple-camera array it packs, consisting of a 200MP main shooter, 50MP ultrawide, 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom, and a 50MP periscope lens with an even longer 5x optical zoom — plus a 12MP selfie shooter around the front.
Meanwhile, Apple pushed computational photography and hardware limits once again with the iPhone 18 Pro Max. What’s notable about the camera gear is how its 48MP main camera features a mechanical variable aperture that gives shooters more control over the light. The rest of the package includes a 48MP ultrawide, 48MP telephoto with 4x optical zoom, and an 18MP Center Stage camera on the front.
While the variable aperture certainly delivers authentic focus falloff, my 200-photo shootout between the iPhone 18 Pro Max and Galaxy S26 Ultra will strictly focus on what they produce shooting the same scenes in automatic mode. Here are the results.
Without inspecting all the details, I’m immediately drawn to the photo I shot with the Galaxy S26 Ultra down by Bryant Park — mainly for how it balances out the highlights and shadows, resulting in a brighter overall picture that pops.
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