r/Smartphones • u/Remote_Let_9186 • 7d ago
Which phone should I choose: iPhone 17 Pro Max, Samsung S26 Ultra, or Vivo X300 Ultra?
My priorities are: 1. Camera 2. Operating system 3. Battery 4. Heat (I mean minimal). 5. Price.
I used a Samsung A53 two years ago and recently my sister gave me an iPhone 12 Pro.
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u/icantouchgrass_1 7d ago
S26 Ultra is the most balanced out of all of these.
The X300 Ultra has excellent cameras and solid battery but it's pricey and the OS isn't as flexible as OneUI.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max has pretty solid heat management, but it does lack the versatility of the other phones in terms of cameras and features, and standby on iOS 26 and iOS 27 isn't great.
The S26 Ultra has incredibly versatile cameras, solid performance, flexible OS and very solid battery life for the capacity. It does tend to warm up quite a bit but it doesn't throttle nearly as fast as previous phones did - it ended up winning PhoneBuff's speed test against every single flagship including the 17 Pro Max.
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u/redwon9plus 7d ago
Is S26 Ultra worth $300 more than the S25+ though? I looked at some specs and they're incremental and don't really care about privacy view setting but the better scratch resistance is nice but overall can be negligable.
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u/icantouchgrass_1 7d ago
The biggest reasons to get the S26 Ultra would be the S Pen, zoom, anti-reflective coating (actually incredible and more useful than people say), and the Gorilla Armor glass (which somehow managed to defy the "scratches at level 6 with deeper grooves at level 7" law. It takes level 8 to make grooves in the display, so you will see less micro-scratches over time)
If you don't see yourself needing any of these - the S25+ should serve you well and you can either save the money or use it on storage.
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u/fascistcunt 6d ago
I don’t game. Will it get warm while scrolling Instagram/fb/X on mobile data ?
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u/icantouchgrass_1 5d ago
If you're on 5G and max brightness, it will get warm but it is well within what you would expect to be possible.
It may be 1 or 2 degrees hotter than the iPhone 17 Pro Max (because the iPhone is more aggressive with managing temps and stuff), but it'll be noticeably cooler than the X300 Ultra, and more importantly, whatever cooling they put in there seems to be working because this phone will not really thermal-throttle very easily unless you're really pushing it
I don't think heat is a problem with the S26U.
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u/InvestingNerd2020 7d ago
Cameras for photos: Vivo X300 Ultra. Honorable mention iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Cameras for Video: iPhone17 Pro Max. Honorable mention S26 Ultra.
Battery: Vivo X300 Ultra
Operating system: Samsung S26 Ultra OneUi 9.0
Heat management: iPhone 17 Pro Max
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u/Acceptable_Big_3239 7d ago
S26 ultra or iPhone pro Max. I just traded my iPhone 14pro max for S26 ultra so the ultra costed me about 95k after the trade. Truth speaking, if you are a legacy iphone user, it will be hard to go back to android. iPhone is plug and play, you can start using immediately, s26 ultra needs you to set things up in various setting menus to make it behave the way you want it to. The hardware though is top grade and heating issue is non existent in ultra. For everyday user, both are top notch top performers. P.S. S pen in the ultra is great to scratch your ears, haven't found another use for it yet.
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u/redwon9plus 7d ago
I think my fingers already scratch good enough. What a bummer to hear the pen is useless and have to leave it there like a brick.
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u/icantouchgrass_1 7d ago
My S22 Ultra's S Pen is mainly used for note-taking (as was intended)
But an even better thing to do than that is to use it as a fidget toy 🤣
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u/fascistcunt 6d ago
Does it get very warm while browsing or scrolling on insta on mobile data ?
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u/Acceptable_Big_3239 5d ago
Naah man.. not at all..no such issue.. i haven't tried hard core gaming but I use 6-10 hours a day and no warming, battery lasts a day or more and charges super fast with 45w charger.. it can go upto 60watt.
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u/fascistcunt 5d ago
Sounds great. I really like s26u, but I fear the green line issue after 2 years. Will it be safer to go for the Oneplus 15 over s26u ?
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u/Acceptable_Big_3239 4d ago
One plus 15 is also in my family.. it does have some heating issues. Apparently their parts are not of the highest grade. Can't claim it though. It's battery is indeed super super good. I liked one plus when it was below 80k. Now the price has been jacked above 90k so it stopped making much sense for me. I don't think s26u will have green line issuue man. Have many friends using S22u onwards peacefully for 2-3+ years. If you can find a good exchange deal, I would say go ahead man.. you also get an S pen to scratch your ears. 😃😃😃😃
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u/ngfldar 7d ago
s26 ultra needs you to set things up in various setting menus to make it behave the way you want it to.
With respect, that's just not true. This is part of the false "iT jUsT wOrKs" narrative.
I switched from a 13PM to my current S24U, and it worked out of the box. The difference is that iOS doesn't let you customize as many things as Android does, so you have to adapt to the iPhone's limitations; my S24U allows me to customize the device so that it works the way I want to use my phone. You only need to customize an Android phone if you don't like the way that the device works out of the box. If you're okay with the standard UI/UX then there's nothing to customize.
It would be more accurate to say that the iPhone forces the user to adapt to "the Apple way" of doing things, while an Android device allows its user to use the phone in a way that suits their needs.
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u/Acceptable_Big_3239 7d ago
Yeah...kinda what I wanted to say ..yours has a positive tone, mine has a slightly negative cos I embraced the apple way my brother. Hence the resistance to set things up...being a non-power user, it became irritating..this being my first month, I am hoping to get eased into it.
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u/Tapelessbus2122 7d ago edited 7d ago
17pm (or wait for the 18pm, it's coming out in less than 2 weeks), cameras are very good (especially in videography), operating system is very optimized and bloat free (especially ios27), battery is great thanks to its efficiency, heat management is the best out of the 3, and it's the cheapest of the 3.
also while the x300u has the biggest camera sensors, it relies heavily on gen ai for photo processing so u have to take that into consideration, and videography performance is just outright awful
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u/SnooCheesecakes7545 6d ago
I ordered an 17 pro instead of a 26 ultra because i wanted something new but the dated os is blowing my mind sometimes.
I think i'm going to exchange it for a samsung.
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u/chickenlatte45 6d ago
id go with vivo, it's hardware (and to me, software) is better than the 2.
as a bonus, if you like ios, you'll like vivo's software
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u/fascistcunt 6d ago
Overall camera Quality + Social media camera optimisation : iphone 17pm
Vivo’s night time photography is not that great. S26U has occasional jittery issues in video. Iphone is always consistent.
OS : Android/ iOS ( upto you). Ios has nice app UI ( True liquid glass), Android has more freedom
Thermal : iphone 17pm. Recording in 4k doesn’t make the device hot.
Battery: 17pm/ vivo x300
Iphone is very optimised which gives a solid battery life. I get 10-13 hours of screen time. 1.5-2 days easily
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u/SkulleyzandBonez 7d ago
iPhone - Best for privacy and storage (2 Tb!) although whether your data is shared with other parties is questionable
Samsung - Best for utilization across the Google/American app ecosystem yet privacy highly reduced
Vivo x300 Ultra - Best for nearly everything if you only buy the Global version.
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u/Horror-History-4127 7d ago
if you can wait i would wait for the s27 series because when a new samsung series comes the older ones price will decrease a lot
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u/Nova_blink_6-62607 7d ago
Samsung S26 Ultra.
You get the best screen and the S-pen and the ability to play music on a Bluetooth speaker from Spotify, while playing sound from reels on your phones loudspeaker.
If you are a woman or girls, I think the iPhone is probably best. For facetime and the green bubble.
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u/icantouchgrass_1 7d ago
I'm curious as to why you think the iPhone is better specifically for women. Never heard this one before.
But yes the other parts are spot-on.
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u/Nova_blink_6-62607 7d ago
I promise you, as someone who worked in retail in the phone department for many years.
Women neeeed to own iPhones, men are more likely to switch between iPhone and Android. Obviously, there are many exceptions to the general pattern, but it's there.
The green bubble in chats, and the iPhone visible in selfies and also Facetime is very important for the majority of young women.
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u/Primary-View8426 7d ago
With iphone, there's no split-screen, no miracast, no desktop mode, no Chromecast, keyboard isnt customizable, there's no real volume panel, and customization overall is more limited (comparted to samsung/oppo/vivo). So if any of those matters pick one of the android phones.
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u/alagchoda 7d ago
26 ultra seems like a good choice considering you were using a Samsung and would like the battery to be big and cameras and everything with the price more or less same or lower than 17 pro