Google Pixel 8 Pro vs. iPhone 15 Pro Max, Galaxy S23 Ultra: Top-End Phones Compared

The Pixel 8 Pro is Google’s newest top-end cellphone, packing a brand new processor, a brighter show and higher cameras than its predecessor. But it faces stiff competitors from two different handsets that dominate the premium smartphone market: the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. How do they actually examine?

The Pixel 8 Pro runs on the brand new Tensor G3 chipset, the third technology in a line of silicon Google has designed to reinforce its on-device AI processing. Tensor chipsets are not fairly as a lot of a efficiency powerhouse in benchmarks like Geekbench because the A17 Pro chip within the iPhone 15 Pro Max or the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip within the Galaxy S23 Ultra. We’ll have to attend till we are able to totally take a look at the Pixel 8 Pro to see the way it performs in contrast with the others.

But the Tensor chipset does allow lots of the Pixel household’s neat media-editing methods, like Magic Eraser for taking parts out of images, Audio Magic Eraser for diminishing background noise, and Best Take for combining the perfect bits of a burst of images. These are the flashiest software program benefits the Pixel 8 Pro holds over the competitors (amongst others), although Magic Eraser is technically out there for different telephones by way of the Google Photos app.  

The different huge benefit the Pixel 8 Pro holds is a assure of seven years of Android working system and safety updates. That’s excess of Samsung telephones just like the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 4 years of OS updates and 5 years of safety updates. And Apple is unclear about how lengthy telephones will probably be supported — the just-released iOS 17 replace, as an illustration, leaves behind the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, each launched in 2017, so 5 years of OS updates is the low-end estimate for a brand new iPhone.

The Pixel 8 Pro’s rear digital camera {hardware} features a 50-megapixel major shooter, a 48-megapixel ultrawide and a 48-megapixel telephoto able to 5x optical zoom. On paper, these cameras will possible produce sharper images than the 12-megapixel ultrawide and 12-megapixel telephoto cameras on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, although we’ll have to check to check it to Apple’s distinctive “tetraprism” know-how in its zoom digital camera (the iPhone’s 48-megapixel major digital camera could also be roughly akin to the Pixel 8 Pro’s major shooter).

As far as rear cameras go, the Pixel 8 Pro would possibly face the largest problem from the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which has a 200-megapixel major digital camera. While it has solely a 12-megapixel ultrawide digital camera, Samsung’s top-of-the-line cellphone has two telephoto cameras: a 10-megapixel 3x optical zoom and a 10-megapixel 10x optical zoom, which is able to as much as 100x digital zoom. But with the cellphone’s beginning price of $1,200, these souped-up digital camera specs make sense contemplating the Pixel 8 Pro’s $1,000 beginning value and the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s $1,100 price ticket.

All three telephones have fairly comparable selfie cameras: the Pixel 8 Pro has a ten.5-megapixel selfie shooter, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Galaxy S23 Ultra each have 12-megapixel front-facing cameras.

Regarding design, the three telephones have very totally different seems to be. The Pixel 8 Pro retains its predecessor’s broad horizontal digital camera block spanning the width of the cellphone. A metallic stripe wraps across the cellphone’s three rear cameras, with a flash and new temperature sensor on the fitting facet (for checking meals and, pending FDA approval, your individual pores and skin). The remainder of the cellphone’s rear cowl is a matte glass, and its sides are rounded.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max has its predecessor’s flat sides and sq. digital camera block, with lenses which can be bigger and stick out farther than these of earlier iPhones. The Galaxy S23 Ultra is the bodily largest of the bunch, although its design has tended towards minimalism, with simply the 5 cameras coming out of the undecorated again cowl (i.e. no huge digital camera block), in addition to rounded sides.

The Pixel 8 Pro’s 6.7-inch OLED show (3,120×1,440 pixels) is similar measurement as its predecessor’s, but it surely’s brighter, maxing out at 2,400 nits with a 1 to 120Hz refresh charge. It has a barely sharper decision than the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s 6.7-inch OLED (2,796x 1,290-pixel) display screen, and it is on par with the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 6.8-inch AMOLED (3,088×1,440-pixel) show (each Apple’s and Samsung’s telephones have 120Hz adaptive refresh charges).

The telephones are additionally fairly comparable by way of different {hardware} specs. The Pixel 8 Pro comes with 12GB of RAM and 128GB to 1TB of storage. Apple by no means specifies the quantity of reminiscence in its telephones, although GSMArena says the iPhone 15 Pro Max has 8GB, and the cellphone comes with 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage. The Galaxy S23 Ultra begins with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, but it surely will also be configured for 12GB of RAM and 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage. None of the three has a slot for expandable storage, so you may must retailer your additional information within the cloud or hook up an exterior SSD.

Similarly, Apple does not disclose battery capability on its telephones, saying solely that it will get as much as 29 hours of video playback (in different phrases, it ought to final all day while not having to recharge). The Pixel 8 Pro has a 5,050mAh battery, whereas the Galaxy S23’s battery has a capability of 5,000mAh.

In a primary for Apple, the iPhone 15 Pro Max has a USB-C port as a substitute of its Lightning connector and has 25 watts of wired charging in addition to 15 watts of wi-fi charging. The Pixel 8 Pro has as much as 30 watts of wired charging and 23 watts of wi-fi, whereas the Galaxy S23 Ultra has the quickest pace, with 45 watts of wired charging and 15 watts of wi-fi.

To see how else the Pixel 8 Pro stacks up towards the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Galaxy S23 Ultra, we have positioned every cellphone into this side-by-side comparability chart: