{"id":225898,"date":"2026-03-21T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T04:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/21\/i-shot-200-photos-with-galaxy-s26-ultra-vs-iphone-17-pro-max-theres-a-clear-winner\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T00:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T04:30:10","slug":"i-shot-200-photos-with-galaxy-s26-ultra-vs-iphone-17-pro-max-theres-a-clear-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/21\/i-shot-200-photos-with-galaxy-s26-ultra-vs-iphone-17-pro-max-theres-a-clear-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"I shot 200 photos with Galaxy S26 Ultra vs. iPhone 17 Pro Max \u2014 there&#8217;s a clear winner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomsguide.com\/phones\/i-shot-200-photos-with-galaxy-s26-ultra-vs-iphone-17-pro-max-theres-a-clear-winner\">I shot 200 photos with Galaxy S26 Ultra vs. iPhone 17 Pro Max \u2014 there&#8217;s a clear winner<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomsguide.com\/phones\/i-shot-200-photos-with-galaxy-s26-ultra-vs-iphone-17-pro-max-theres-a-clear-winner\">https:\/\/www.tomsguide.com\/phones\/i-shot-200-photos-with-galaxy-s26-ultra-vs-iphone-17-pro-max-theres-a-clear-winner<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-03-21 00:01:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.tomsguide.com\">www.tomsguide.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"46522252-c566-4931-9705-e867dd009bd8\">Now that I\u2019ve spent time with the Galaxy S26 Ultra vs. iPhone 17 Pro Max, it\u2019s time to finally determine which is indeed the best camera phone around. Apple\u2019s flagship has remained at the top ever since its release last fall, but Samsung is looking to reclaim the crown.<\/p>\n<p>Apple\u2019s 48MP triple camera setup has proven to be as reliable as ever for a number of different shooting situations, but it also received a big upgrade in the form of its 18MP Center Stage selfie camera. In our iPhone 17 Pro Max review, my colleague Mark Spoonauer showed how it continues to be a master in low light.<\/p>\n<p id=\"46522252-c566-4931-9705-e867dd009bd8-2\">Meanwhile, Samsung has stepped up its game too with its quadruple camera system \u2014 which consists of a beefy 200MP main camera, 50MP ultrawide, 10MP 3x telephoto, and 50MP 5x telephoto. Around the front, there\u2019s a 12MP selfie shooter. While the specs indicate nothing\u2019s changed, two important upgrades we point out in our Galaxy S26 Ultra review are its wider apertures for the main and 5x telephoto cameras.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"article-continues-below block py-2 text-sm\">Article continues below <\/span><br \/>\n        <span class=\"\n            flex\n            after:content-[''] after:flex-1 after:ml-4 after:my-[0.7rem] after:border-t after:border-solid after:border-t-[#ccc]\n            before:content-[''] before:flex-1 before:mr-4 before:my-[0.7rem] before:border-t before:border-solid before:border-t-[#ccc]\n            font-article-heading pb-0 !text-base uppercase sm:text-sm font-bold\n        \"><br \/>\n            You may like<br \/>\n        <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Are these upgrades enough for the Galaxy S26 Ultra to supplant the iPhone 17 Pro Max? I went out and captured over 200 photos to see how they compare across different scenarios, grading each one after inspecting the images on my monitor. Here\u2019s what I found.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"article-body__section\" id=\"section-galaxy-s26-ultra-vs-iphone-17-pro-max-daytime\"><span>Galaxy S26 Ultra vs. iPhone 17 Pro Max: Daytime<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><iframe allow=\"\" height=\"452\" width=\"100%\" id=\"\" style=\"\" class=\"position-center\" data-lazy-priority=\"low\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.knightlab.com\/libs\/juxtapose\/latest\/embed\/index.html?uid=67320bc4-2470-11f1-ba1b-0e6f42328d7d\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p id=\"952feeb1-0bdb-47de-b68c-bf8bf75b8601\">I\u2019ve been enjoying the 2026 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray for nearly a week now, and it gets the proper treatment from each phone. This one\u2019s a tough call, but I\u2019m giving it to the Galaxy S26 Ultra because it\u2019s much sharper with the details and handles the strong light source hitting the grass in the foreground better \u2014 plus, it has nicer contrast.<\/p>\n<p>Even though the iPhone 17 Pro Max produces a brighter picture, it results in a more low-contrast look. When I zoom into different parts of the shot, I also notice it&#8217;s not as sharp.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Winner:<\/strong> Galaxy S26 Ultra<\/p>\n<p class=\"newsletter-form__strapline\">Get instant access to breaking news,&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomsguide.com\/phones\/i-shot-200-photos-with-galaxy-s26-ultra-vs-iphone-17-pro-max-theres-a-clear-winner\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I shot 200 photos with Galaxy S26 Ultra vs. iPhone 17 Pro Max \u2014 there&#8217;s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":225899,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/Phm3fEVjKRvmJfriDCFF2j-2560-80.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[80],"class_list":["post-225898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iphone","tag-iphone-17"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225898"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225898"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225900,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225898\/revisions\/225900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}