There are a lot of things to like about the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, but they’re definitely not perfect. There are things that Apple’s latest flagships lack, and that could give Samsung an advantage with the release of the Galaxy S27 Ultra next year.
Success over Apple is not guaranteed, but with Galaxy S27 Ultra rumors arriving quite regularly, we get a good idea of what the next Samsung flagship will offer. There could be some pretty big changes, including a brand new design that hides the vertical camera array from past generations of Galaxy phones.
That’s only scratching the surface. These 5 things in particular could help the Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra beat the iPhone 18 Pro – but there are two ways Apple could stay on top.
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A bigger battery
Samsung has already proven that it has what it takes to boost battery capacity without affecting the design of the device – as we saw with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra’s 5,000 mAh silicon carbon battery. Rumor has it that Samsung could use the same technology in the S27 Ultra, which makes total sense considering how long the Ultra models have been stuck with 5,000 mAh batteries
Regulatory documents have already revealed that Samsung could add a 5,700 mAh battery to the phone. That’s a 14% increase over the Galaxy S26 Ultra, and while it’s nowhere near as big as the 7,300 mAh OnePlus 15, it’s still a noticeable jump in available power. That should hopefully increase overall battery life. That said, we don’t know if it will beat the iPhone 18 Pro Max’s 18 hours and 27 minutes.
That would require an extra two hours of battery life on Samsung’s part, so it’s better to work on the efficiency side of things.
An improved privacy display
The privacy display is the S26 Ultra’s stand-out feature, but it wasn’t perfect, and what we’d really like to see are some improvements to the technology. We hope this means a brighter overall display, even when Privacy Display is turned off, and more versatile use of the dimmed sections of the screen.
The latter may come true, with Lecker Ice Universe claiming that Samsung will adopt a feature that Xiaomi included in the newly released 18 Pro – a split-screen privacy display. This feature would work together with the S27 Ultra’s multitasking, and would expand or contract according to how big the different windows are. The other window is fully lit and visible.
S pen
While the iPhone Duo is set to get Apple Pencil support, the iPhone 18 Pro is not. The Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra will likely stick with the same level of S Pen support that Samsung has offered for the past few years.
We don’t expect any major changes with the S27 Ultra’s S Pen. This means that you should not expect to see the return of Bluetooth or other more advanced functionality that we have seen in previous years. But even the simplest S Pen around is something Apple doesn’t offer on its flagship. So if you like to use a stylus to draw, take notes or edit fine photos, the S27 Ultra is a more attractive device.
Better camera hardware
Ultra-tier Galaxy phones already have great camera hardware, thanks to the 200MP main sensor, but things could get even better with the S27 Ultra – front and back of the phone.
The first upgrade rumored is the addition of a 16MP selfie camera, which would be a notable upgrade from the 12MP shooter on the S26 Ultra. While that’s still a bit less than the 18MP center stage camera on the iPhone 18 Pro, it’s still a welcome upgrade. However, Samsung could be ahead with rumors of a large sensor on the telephoto lens.
Some rumors suggest that Samsung could offer a larger 1/1.9-inch telephoto sensor, but as a result reduce the amount of optical zoom from 5x magnification to 4x. However, this has been disputed by some leakers who claim that Samsung is sticking with the same 5x 1/2.52-inch sensor as the S26 Ultra. But either way, it’s a telephoto lens that offers higher resolution and sensor size than the 48MP 1/2.55-inch sensor on iPhone 18 Pro Max.
A 16GB RAM option
While it’s unlikely we’ll see the S27 Ultra get a full 16GB of RAM in its cheapest form, there’s still a good chance that more expensive 1TB models will get that memory boost. This should in turn give those models a slight advantage when it comes to processing, especially where on-device AI is concerned.
Considering that on-device AI is a big focus for Apple, the 12GB of RAM in the iPhone 18 Pro doesn’t seem quite as impressive. The S27 Ultra, with more advanced Galaxy AI and computer hardware, could leave the iPhone 18 Pro in the dust here.
2 ways Apple can still win
performance power
We can’t say for sure how powerful the Galaxy S27 Ultra will be, but we tested the chip that should power the phone when it arrives next year – the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. We did some benchmarking tests with a Qualcomm Reference Device, which gives us an idea of how the chip should perform. As powerful as it is, it doesn’t really compare to the Apple A20 Pro in many areas.
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| Row 0 – Cell 0 | Geekbench 7 (Single Core) | Geekbench 7 (multi-core) | 3DMark Solar Bay Extreme | 3DMark Wildlife Extreme |
Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 (QRD) | 4161 | 12464 | 2262 | 9941 |
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra) | 3110 | 10578 | 1372 | 6632 |
A20 Pro (iPhone 18 Pro Max) | 4741 | 12789 | 2904 | 8344 |
As you can see, the A20 Pro pulls ahead in most areas, including single- and multi-core benchmarking tests, and 3DMark’s Solar Bay Extreme graphics test. The figures are close in many places, but the only time the Gen 6 chip is more than Apple is with the 3DMark Wildlife Extreme graphics test.
We don’t know how the Qualcomm chip on the S27 Ultra will perform, especially if Samsung gets another custom “for Galaxy” chipset, but for now it seems Apple certainly has the upper hand.
More storage
As small a difference as it may be, we know that Apple currently offers more storage space than Samsung – offering a maximum storage space of 2TB to Samsung’s 1TB. There is always the possibility that this could change, but the rumors suggest otherwise. In fact, the S27 series will apparently have the same storage options as the S26 series. This means that the Ultra will max out at 1TB.
The larger storage variants can get LPDDR6 RAM and UFS 5.1 storage, which would be an advantage for performance and load speed. Unfortunately, your maximum limit will be the same 1TB as always, if these rumors are to be believed.
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