Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs iPhone 17 Pro Max: I didn’t expect this winner

The new Galaxy S26 Ultra is out, and it’s appealing enough to bring back Android fans who went into the Apple camp. While Samsung has made some weird choices with the Ultra over the last few iterations — keeping the design largely unchanged and even downgrading the iconic S Pen — this year feels a little different. The Galaxy S26 Ultra comes with tons of tiny improvements that make it so much more tempting when put together.

If you got yourself an iPhone 17 Pro Max, and it’s making you pull your hair out with all its Apple-y quirks, the Galaxy S26 Ultra may be the perfect phone that brings you back home.

Samsung’s priciest slab phone has stayed visibly unchanged for far too long. It almost felt like Samsung was playing it too safe, even while charging a premium for it. The Galaxy S26 Ultra seems to be the variant that fixes a lot of the complaints we’ve had so far.

Last year’s Galaxy S25 Ultra was a fantastic phone, per se, except for its ergonomics. It was too big, too rectangular, and too sharp to be used comfortably — even with two hands. It’s as if Samsung was listening to us and has fixed literally every single one of those issues. The corner radius of the Ultra model now matches the regular Galaxy S26 models, so its sharp corners won’t dig into your palm during one-handed use. The phone is also thinner and a touch lighter than the iPhone 17 Pro Max this time, which is a much-welcome change in the era of ever-growing phone sizes.

Despite the newfound thinness, the Galaxy S26 Ultra now comes with an improved vapor chamber for better thermals, taking inspiration from the iPhone 17 Pro Max. But it’s still a feat that Samsung could achieve that while making the phone thinner and lighter.

I’m genuinely pleased to see the Galaxy S26 Ultra jump to 60W wired charging, which is claimed to take the phone to 75% in just 35 minutes. I know it’s not OnePlus-level crazy fast charging, but it’s still much faster and better than what the iPhone 17 Pro Max offers. The same is true for wireless charging, which has been upped to 25W this time around.

Though with a very heavy heart, I have to say Samsung has once again missed out on Qi2 magnetic wireless charging, like what the Pixel 10 series got. That’s such a blatant miss, especially when coming from phones like the iPhone and the Pixel 10 — I’ve gotten so used to snapping my phones onto wireless chargers and accessories around the house. It’d be another year of buying cases with magnets built in or sticking rings on top of your phone to recreate that experience.

Even though Samsung decided to downgrade the S Pen — the Galaxy S26 Ultra still has one, and the iPhone 17 Pro Max doesn’t. For actual Pro-level users who prefer using a pen for handwritten notes and don’t want to carry a separate tablet just for note-taking, the S Pen works like a charm. If you don’t want to use it, it can stay tucked inside the phone, but it’s there whenever you need it. That kind of versatility the iPhone simply can’t offer.

While I’ll have to properly test the Samsung phone to validate its claims, the rear camera setup on the Ultra is supposed to be much brighter than its predecessor. Even the telephoto lens is quite a bit larger to allow for more detail, especially in challenging lighting. We already liked what the Galaxy S25 Ultra offered in terms of camera quality, and I’m optimistic its successor won’t let me down.

But that’s not all of it. The 2026 Ultra comes with a ton of AI tools built in. For starters, the audio erasure feature now works even inside third-party apps like YouTube and Instagram Live to isolate voices. Samsung has also brought over a Pixel-like Screenshot Analyzer, offering AI-based analysis and organization built right into the Gallery app — not as a separate app like on Google phones. Compare that to the sorry state Apple Intelligence is in right now, and I wouldn’t even need to make a case for the Samsung phone here.

And finally, the rumors were true. Samsung not only included a new, more colorful 10-bit display on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, but it has also introduced something called a Privacy Screen that can selectively hide sensitive content from prying eyes. The content remains visible when you’re looking straight at the screen, but darkens for those viewing from the sides, and the feature is deeply customizable. This is such a relief for those who travel on subways and buses, where everyone seems to be trying to peek at your phone.

Samsung is really hitting the ball out of the park in recent iterations — first with an almost-perfect anti-glare display, and now with a built-in privacy screen. I just wish more companies that portray themselves as flag bearers of personal privacy would adopt something this genuinely useful (hint: it’s the fruit company).

Samsung has clearly borrowed some decisions from other handsets, like including a Pixel-style Screenshot Analyzer and upping the base storage to 256GB, much like the iPhone 17 series. What I really wish the Galaxy S26 Ultra copied from both the Pixel 1o Pro XL and the iPhones is magnetic charging. Once you’ve lived with it, it’s hard to go back — it’s that kind of tech. It’s frustrating that even in 2026, I still have to compromise on MagSafe’s convenience just to get faster charging speeds. Why can’t I have it all, Samsung?

What’s more concerning is Samsung’s reputation for being bloatware-heavy, which hasn’t entirely changed. The company has decided to pre-load phones with another needless app: Perplexity. If Samsung could take a page out of Apple’s book, it would stop overloading its phones with unnecessary pre-installed crap, especially when the device costs upwards of $1,200.

Still, if you noticed, my complaints with the Galaxy S26 Ultra are far fewer this time around. It’s inching closer to feeling like a more complete phone than the iPhone 17 Pro Max does. If you’re planning to jump from iOS to Android, the Galaxy S26 Ultra feels like the right choice.