Apple iPhone 16 vs Samsung Galaxy S24 vs Honor Magic 6 Pro
Apple’s new top-end smartphone, the iPhone 16 Pro Max, is facing tough competition from Samsung and Honor in South Africa.
Apple’s latest iPhones became available for local pre-order on Friday, 13 September 2024, and will become generally available from Friday, 20 September 2024.
Among their most noteworthy upgrades for the Pro models are a bigger display with thinner bezels, an upgraded chip, and AI-powered Apple Intelligence software.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max’s biggest rival in South Africa will be Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Samsung is South Africa’s best-selling smartphone brand. It is well-established locally for its alluring smartphone line-up covering the budget, mid-range, and premium segments.
Samsung’s flagship S-series has been the iPhone’s primary Android rival for many years.
Another emerging rival for Apple is China’s Honor, a former subsidiary of Huawei.
Honor’s sales in South Africa have recently surged, primarily due to its high-value budget offerings.
However, Honor could become a bigger player in the premium category due to its unofficial status as the new “Huawei with Google”.
Honor’s smartphone hardware has benefitted from many years of shared research and development, but it is exempt from the trade bans imposed on its former parent.
Honor’s top-end smartphone currently on sale in South Africa is the Magic6 Pro.
We compared these three premium smartphones — the cream of the crop in South Africa — to see how their hardware and features stacked up against one another.
Starting with the displays, the Galaxy S24 Ultra has the upper hand.
This is no surprise, considering Samsung is the world’s leading display manufacturer. It makes screens for Apple’s iPhones.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra’s OLED screen boasts a resolution of 1,440×3,120 with a 120Hz refresh rate and peak brightness of 2,600 nits.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max’s OLED offers a lower resolution, although it is 0.1 inch larger. If size matters more to you than pixel density, it might be your preferred option.
However, the iPhone’s peak brightness is quite a bit below that of the S24 Ultra, maxing out at 2,000 nits.
That being said, the iPhone 16 Pro Max trumps the Magic 6 Pro’s display, which is smaller and has a lower resolution and peak brightness.
Performance — iPhone 16 Pro Max, by a small margin
Flagship smartphones are designed with top-notch performance front and centre.
Both the Samsung and Honor boast Qualcomm’s latest top-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chips, offering incredible performance.
Benchmarks have shown this chip performs similarly to the Apple A17 Pro in last year’s iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Typically, the Snapdragon chip is better at multi-core workloads, while Apple’s silicon performs best in single-core applications.
Considering Apple’s claims that the A18 Pro will be about 15% faster than that chip, it could outperform the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
However, that difference may be negligible in real-life usage for all but the heaviest power users and mobile gamers.
Photos and videos — iPhone 16 Pro Max and Magic 6 Pro
The quality of photos and videos is another important metric for flagship smartphone buyers.
Comparing megapixel counts is no way to gauge which phones offer the best performance in this category.
The combination of hardware and software ultimately determines the end result.
The Magic6 Pro currently ranks second overall on DXOMark’s smartphone rankings, tied with the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL and its score of 158.
While the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s camera has yet to be put through its photographic paces, its predecessor’s performance can be a useful point of reference.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is ranked 7th with a score of 154.
iPhones are generally highly regarded for their excellent photographic and videographic capabilities, so it would not be surprising if the new model’s performance jumps over the Honor Magic 6 Pro.
With the improvements from 2022’s iPhone 14 Pro Max to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, the smartphone camera system’s score improved by eight points.
If Apple added just half those points with the upgrades to the new model, its overall score would be on par with the Honor Magic6 Pro.
Despite its big megapixel count on its main sensor and impressive zoom capabilities, the S24 Ultra’s camera cannot hold a candle to its competitors.
It ranks 25th overall on DXOMark’s rankings, below the iPhone 14 Pro, regular iPhone 15, as well as 2023’s Honor Magic 5 Pro and Honor Magic4 Ultimate, a two-year-old phone.
Battery life — iPhone 16 Pro Max
For those who consider battery life the most important factor, the pure battery capacity numbers should be ignored.
In GSMArena’s battery tests, the iPhone 15 Pro Max achieved an active use score of 16 hours, compared with 13 hours and 49 minutes for the Galaxy S24 Ultra and 14 hours and 6 minutes for the Magic6 Pro.
That is even though it had a smaller battery pack than those two phones.
Even if the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s battery efficiency shows zero improvement over its predecessor — which would be highly unlikely given Apple’s claims — it will trample the competition.
A series of certifications for the iPhone series in China has also revealed that the entire range will support much faster charging at up to 45W, on par with the S24 Ultra.
The table and images below compare the specifications and designs of the iPhone 16 Pro Max, Galaxy S24 Ultra, and Honor Magic6 Pro.
| Feature | iPhone 16 Pro Max | Galaxy S24 Ultra | Honor Magic6 Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| OS | iOS 18 | OneUI 6.1.1, Android 14 | MagicOS 8, Android 14 |
| Display | 6.9-inch 1,320×2,868 OLED with 120Hz refresh rate 2,000 nits peak brightness | 6.8-inch 1,440×3,120 OLED with 120Hz refresh rate 2,600 nits peak brightness | 6.8-inch 1,280×2,800 OLED with 120Hz refresh rate 1,600 nits peak brightness |
| Chip | Apple A18 Pro | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 |
| Memory | 8GB | 12GB | 12GB |
| Storage | 256GB | 256GB | 256GB |
| Rear camera | 48MP main 48MP ultrawide 12MP telephoto | 200MP main 12MP ultrawide 50MP periscope telephoto 10MP telephoto | 50MP main 50MP ultrawide 180MP periscope telephoto |
| Front camera | 12MP main 3D depth sensor | 12MP main | 50MP main 3D depth sensor |
| Cellular | 5G | 5G | 5G |
| Wireless | Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3 | Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3 | Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3 |
| Ports | USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 | USB-C 3.2 | USB-C 3.2 |
| Battery | Unknown | 5,000mAh | 5,600mAh |
| Confirmed charging speeds | 45W wired 25W MagSafe wireless 15W Qi2 wireless 4.5W reverse wired | 45W wired 15W Qi wireless 4.5W reverse wireless | 80W wired 66 wireless 5W reverse wired |
| SIMs | Single physical and multi-eSIM | Dual physical and multi-eSIM | Single or dual SIM (Physical and/or eSIM) |
| Biometrics | Face ID facial recognition | Ultrasonic under-display fingerprint reader | – Optical under-display fingerprint reader – Facial recognition with depth sensor |
| Dimensions and weight | 163×77.6×8.3 mm (227g) | 162.3×79×8.6mm (233g) | 162.5×75.8×8.9 mm (229g) |
| Price | R31,999 | R26,999 | R21,599 |
Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
Honor Magic6 Pro
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