These are both big, ultra-high-end handsets, and both come with much of what you’d expect, including top-tier power and near endless features. But while they have a lot in common, the specifics of what they offer also vary in numerous ways.
So if you’re trying to decide between the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and the iPhone 12 Pro Max, this article should help, as it compares the two phones in full.
Design
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra has a slightly curved glass back with a very large camera block in the top left corner, from the front, there’s an all-screen design, with curved edges and a single-lens punch-hole camera in the top center.
The iPhone 12 Pro Max on the other hand is a lot flatter – both on the front and back, but it too has a glass back and is light on bezel, though rather than a cut-out in the screen for the selfie camera, it has a sizeable notch at the top. Its rear camera block is smaller than the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s though, and it’s square, where Samsung’s is more rectangular.
The iPhone 12 Pro Max itself is a similar size to the S21 Ultra though, coming in at 160.8 x 78.1 x 7.4mm, while the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is 165.1 x 75.6 x 8.9mm. So Samsung’s phone is a bit taller and thicker, but slightly narrower. The two phones weigh exactly the same amount though, at 228g each.
The iPhone 12 Pro Max (Image credit: TechRadar)
Both handsets also have IP68 certification, meaning they’re dust and water resistant. In the case of the iPhone 12 Pro Max, that water resistance extends to depths of 6 meters for 30 minutes though, while the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is only tested to depths of 1.5 meters for 30 minutes.
As for colors, you can get the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra in Phantom Black and Phantom Silver, while the iPhone 12 Pro Max is available in Graphite, Silver, Gold, and Pacific Blue shades.
Screen
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra’s screen is enormous at 6.8 inches. It’s a curved OLED screen with a 1440 x 3200 resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. Unlike previous Samsung flagships you can also run it at both full resolution and the highest refresh rate simultaneously.
The iPhone 12 Pro Max also has a big screen, in fact it’s the biggest Apple has ever put on a phone, but it’s slightly smaller at 6.7 inches.
The S21 Ultra has a slightly larger screen (Image credit: Future)
This also uses OLED, but it’s a flat display, and it comes in at 1284 x 2778. In terms of pixel density, you’re looking at 515 pixels per inch on the Galaxy S21 Ultra, and 458 on the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
While we haven’t yet fully tested the S21 Ultra’s screen, Samsung’s flagships typically have among the best smartphone screens of their release year, but so do Apple’s phones, and in our review we found that the iPhone 12 Pro Max had a great, bright screen with excellent color reproduction.
Camera
There’s a quad-lens camera on the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, with a 108MP f/1.8 main sensor, a 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide one, a 10MP f/2.4 telephoto one (capable of 3x optical zoom), and a second 10MP telephoto one, this time with an f/4.9 aperture and support for 10x optical zoom.
The iPhone 12 Pro Max also has a quad-lens camera, but the specs are quite different. There’s a 12MP f/1.6 main snapper, a 12MP f/2.4 ultra-wide one, a 12MP f/2.2 telephoto one (with 2.5x optical zoom) and a LiDAR scanner, for judging depth and distances – which is particularly useful for augmented reality.
Both phones have four rear cameras (Image credit: Future)
On the front meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra has a 40MP f/2.2 camera, while the iPhone 12 Pro Max has a 12MP f/2.2 one.
While the numbers might look less impressive on Apple’s camera, we were certainly impressed in our review, noting that the camera is “powerful” and performs well even at night. It remains to be seen how the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s camera will perform at the time of writing, but we’re expecting good things.
Battery life
There’s a huge 5,000mAh battery in the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, which dwarfs the 3,687mAh one in the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
We don’t know how long the S21 Ultra’s will last yet, but in our tests we found that the iPhone 12 Pro Max lasted over a day comfortably, but was unlikely to stretch to two. With its slightly sharper and larger screen the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra might eat through battery faster, but then it’s got a lot more available as well.
Both phones support fast charging and wireless charging, and the Galaxy S21 Ultra additionally supports Wireless PowerShare – which lets you use it to wirelessly charge other gadgets.
Specs and features
Both of these phones are very powerful, as you’d expect, though the exact specs differ. The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra has either a Snapdragon 888 chipset (if you’re in the US) or an Exynos 2100 (in most other regions), while the iPhone 12 Pro Max has an A14 Bionic. All three of these though are the top of their ranges.
One thing that the Galaxy S21 Ultra has a lot more of though is RAM, with 12GB included in the 128GB and 256GB models, while the 512GB model has 16GB of RAM. The iPhone 12 Pro Max on the other hand only has 6GB of RAM, whichever model you buy (128GB, 256GB, or 512GB). That said, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is a very fast phone, so we wouldn’t read too much into that.
One feature that both of these phones have is 5G, so you’ll be ready to take advantage of the new generation of mobile connectivity, but a lot of their other features differ.
The iPhone 12 Pro Max supports MagSafe (Image credit: TechRadar)
For one thing, while the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra has an in-screen fingerprint scanner, the iPhone 12 Pro Max instead goes all in on Face ID.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra also supports Samsung’s S Pen stylus (though this is sold separately), while the iPhone 12 Pro Max supports MagSafe accessories, which you can magnetically attach to the back of the phone.
Of course, they also have very different operating systems, with the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra running Android 11, while the iPhone 12 Pro Max runs iOS 14.
Price and availability
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra starts at $1,199 / £1,149 / AU$1,849, for which you’ll get a 128GB model. It’s easy to do a direct comparison with the iPhone 12 Pro Max, as that also starts with 128GB of storage, for which you’ll pay $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,849.
So the two phones cost the same amount in Australia, but in the US and the UK the iPhone 12 Pro Max is actually slightly cheaper, which isn’t a sentence you’ll hear very often. There’s not much in it though.
As for availability, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is of course available now, while at the time of writing you can pre-order the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, with it going on sale on January 29.
(Image credit: Future)
Takeaway
The iPhone 12 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra really stand up well to each other on paper. Both have premium builds, top-end power, 5G, quad-lens cameras, up to 512GB of storage, and similarly large screens.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra’s display is marginally larger and higher resolution, it has longer range optical zoom, a bigger battery, and more RAM, plus support for the S Pen stylus. But with the iPhone 12 Pro Max you get MagSafe support, better water resistance, and a LiDAR scanner, plus in most places the iPhone 12 Pro Max has a slightly lower starting price.
If any of those factors are a big deal for you, that should help in making a purchase decision, but you might want to wait for our full Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review before buying either.
Although no one likes a know-it-all, they dominate the Internet.
The Internet began as a vast repository of information. It quickly became a breeding ground for self-proclaimed experts seeking what most people desire: recognition and money.
Today, anyone with an Internet connection and some typing skills can position themselves, regardless of their education or experience, as a subject matter expert (SME). From relationship advice, career coaching, and health and nutrition tips to citizen journalists practicing pseudo-journalism, the Internet is awash with individuals—Internet talking heads—sharing their “insights,” which are, in large part, essentially educated guesses without the education or experience.
The Internet has become a 24/7/365 sitcom where armchair experts think they’re the star.
Not long ago, years, sometimes decades, of dedicated work and acquiring education in one’s field was once required to be recognized as an expert. The knowledge and opinions of doctors, scientists, historians, et al. were respected due to their education and experience. Today, a social media account and a knack for hyperbole are all it takes to present oneself as an “expert” to achieve Internet fame that can be monetized.
On the Internet, nearly every piece of content is self-serving in some way.
The line between actual expertise and self-professed knowledge has become blurry as an out-of-focus selfie. Inadvertently, social media platforms have created an informal degree program where likes and shares are equivalent to degrees. After reading selective articles, they’ve found via and watching some TikTok videos, a person can post a video claiming they’re an herbal medicine expert. Their new “knowledge,” which their followers will absorb, claims that Panda dung tea—one of the most expensive teas in the world and isn’t what its name implies—cures everything from hypertension to existential crisis. Meanwhile, registered dietitians are shaking their heads, wondering how to compete against all the misinformation their clients are exposed to.
More disturbing are individuals obsessed with evangelizing their beliefs or conspiracy theories. These people write in-depth blog posts, such as Elvis Is Alive and the Moon Landings Were Staged, with links to obscure YouTube videos, websites, social media accounts, and blogs. Regardless of your beliefs, someone or a group on the Internet shares them, thus confirming your beliefs.
Misinformation is the Internet’s currency used to get likes, shares, and engagement; thus, it often spreads like a cosmic joke. Consider the prevalence of clickbait headlines:
You Won’t Believe What Taylor Swift Says About Climate Change!
This Bedtime Drink Melts Belly Fat While You Sleep!
In One Week, I Turned $10 Into $1 Million!
Titles that make outrageous claims are how the content creator gets reads and views, which generates revenue via affiliate marketing, product placement, and pay-per-click (PPC) ads. Clickbait headlines are how you end up watching a TikTok video by a purported nutrition expert adamantly asserting you can lose belly fat while you sleep by drinking, for 14 consecutive days, a concoction of raw eggs, cinnamon, and apple cider vinegar 15 minutes before going to bed.
Our constant search for answers that’ll explain our convoluted world and our desire for shortcuts to success is how Internet talking heads achieve influencer status. Because we tend to seek low-hanging fruits, we listen to those with little experience or knowledge of the topics they discuss yet are astute enough to know what most people want to hear.
There’s a trend, more disturbing than spreading misinformation, that needs to be called out: individuals who’ve never achieved significant wealth or traded stocks giving how-to-make-easy-money advice, the appeal of which is undeniable. Several people I know have lost substantial money by following the “advice” of Internet talking heads.
Anyone on social media claiming to have a foolproof money-making strategy is lying. They wouldn’t be peddling their money-making strategy if they could make easy money.
Successful people tend to be secretive.
Social media companies design their respective algorithms to serve their advertisers—their source of revenue—interest; hence, content from Internet talking heads appears most prominent in your feeds. When a video of a self-professed expert goes viral, likely because it pressed an emotional button, the more people see it, the more engagement it receives, such as likes, shares and comments, creating a cycle akin to a tornado.
Imagine scrolling through your TikTok feed and stumbling upon a “scientist” who claims they can predict the weather using only aluminum foil, copper wire, sea salt and baking soda. You chuckle, but you notice his video got over 7,000 likes, has been shared over 600 times and received over 400 comments. You think to yourself, “Maybe this guy is onto something.” What started as a quest to achieve Internet fame evolved into an Internet-wide belief that weather forecasting can be as easy as DIY crafts.
Since anyone can call themselves “an expert,” you must cultivate critical thinking skills to distinguish genuine expertise from self-professed experts’ self-promoting nonsense. While the absurdity of the Internet can be entertaining, misinformation has serious consequences. The next time you read a headline that sounds too good to be true, it’s probably an Internet talking head making an educated guess; without the education seeking Internet fame, they can monetize.
TORONTO – A new survey says a majority of software engineers and developers feel tight project deadlines can put safety at risk.
Seventy-five per cent of the 1,000 global workers who responded to the survey released Tuesday say pressure to deliver projects on time and on budget could be compromising critical aspects like safety.
The concern is even higher among engineers and developers in North America, with 77 per cent of those surveyed on the continent reporting the urgency of projects could be straining safety.
The study was conducted between July and September by research agency Coleman Parkes and commissioned by BlackBerry Ltd.’s QNX division, which builds connected-car technology.
The results reflect a timeless tug of war engineers and developers grapple with as they balance the need to meet project deadlines with regulations and safety checks that can slow down the process.
Finding that balance is an issue that developers of even the simplest appliances face because of advancements in technology, said John Wall, a senior vice-president at BlackBerry and head of QNX.
“The software is getting more complicated and there is more software whether it’s in a vehicle, robotics, a toaster, you name it… so being able to patch vulnerabilities, to prevent bad actors from doing malicious acts is becoming more and more important,” he said.
The medical, industrial and automotive industries have standardized safety measures and anything they produce undergoes rigorous testing, but that work doesn’t happen overnight. It has to be carried out from the start and then at every step of the development process.
“What makes safety and security difficult is it’s an ongoing thing,” Wall said. “It’s not something where you’ve done it, and you are finished.”
The Waterloo, Ont.-based business found 90 per cent of its survey respondents reported that organizations are prioritizing safety.
However, when asked about why safety may not be a priority for their organization, 46 per cent of those surveyed answered cost pressures and 35 per cent said a lack of resources.
That doesn’t surprise Wall. Delays have become rampant in the development of tech, and in some cases, stand to push back the launch of vehicle lines by two years, he said.
“We have to make sure that people don’t compromise on safety and security to be able to get products out quicker,” he said.
“What we don’t want to see is people cutting corners and creating unsafe situations.”
The survey also took a peek at security breaches, which have hit major companies like London Drugs, Indigo Books & Music, Giant Tiger and Ticketmaster in recent years.
About 40 per cent of the survey’s respondents said they have encountered a security breach in their employer’s operating system. Those breaches resulted in major impacts for 27 per cent of respondents, moderate impacts for 42 per cent and minor impacts for 27 per cent.
“There are vulnerabilities all the time and this is what makes the job very difficult because when you ship the software, presumably the software has no security vulnerabilities, but things get discovered after the fact,” Wall said.
Security issues, he added, have really come to the forefront of the problems developers face, so “really without security, you have no safety.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2024.
As online shoppers hunt for bargains offered by Amazon during its annual fall sale this week, cybersecurity researchers are warning Canadians to beware of an influx of scammers posing as the tech giant.
In the 30 days leading up to Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days, taking place Tuesday and Wednesday, there were more than 1,000 newly registered Amazon-related web domains, according to Check Point Software Technologies, a company that offers cybersecurity solutions.
The company said it deemed 88 per cent of those domains malicious or suspicious, suggesting they could have been set up by scammers to prey on vulnerable consumers. One in every 54 newly created Amazon-related domain included the phrase “Amazon Prime.”
“They’re almost indiscernible from the real Amazon domain,” said Robert Falzon, head of engineering at Check Point in Canada.
“With all these domains registered that look so similar, it’s tricking a lot of people. And that’s the whole intent here.”
Falzon said Check Point Research sees an uptick in attempted scams around big online shopping days throughout the year, including Prime Days.
Scams often come in the form of phishing emails, which are deceptive messages that appear to be from a reputable source in attempt to steal sensitive information.
In this case, he said scammers posing as Amazon commonly offer “outrageous” deals that appear to be associated with Prime Days, in order to trick recipients into clicking on a malicious link.
The cybersecurity firm said it has identified and blocked 100 unique Amazon Prime-themed scam emails targeting organizations and consumers over the past two weeks.
Scammers also target Prime members with unsolicited calls, claiming urgent account issues and requesting payment information.
“It’s like Christmas for them,” said Falzon.
“People expect there to be significant savings on Prime Day, so they’re not shocked that they see something of significant value. Usually, the old adage applies: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”
Amazon’s website lists a number of red flags that it recommends customers watch for to identify a potential impersonation scam.
Those include false urgency, requests for personal information, or indications that the sender prefers to complete the purchase outside of the Amazon website or mobile app.
Scammers may also request that customers exclusively pay with gift cards, a claim code or PIN. Any notifications about an order or delivery for an unexpected item should also raise alarm bells, the company says.
“During busy shopping moments, we tend to see a rise in impersonation scams reported by customers,” said Amazon spokeswoman Octavia Roufogalis in a statement.
“We will continue to invest in protecting consumers and educating the public on scam avoidance. We encourage consumers to report suspected scams to us so that we can protect their accounts and refer bad actors to law enforcement to help keep consumers safe.”
Falzon added that these scams are more successful than people might think.
As of June 30, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre said there had been $284 million lost to fraud so far this year, affecting 15,941 victims.
But Falzon said many incidents go unreported, as some Canadians who are targeted do not know how or where to flag a scam, or may choose not to out of embarrassment.
Check Point recommends Amazon customers take precautions while shopping on Prime Days, including by checking URLs carefully, creating strong passwords on their accounts, and avoiding personal information being shared such as their birthday or social security number.
The cybersecurity company said consumers should also look for “https” at the beginning of a website URL, which indicates a secure connection, and use credit cards rather than debit cards for online shopping, which offer better protection and less liability if stolen.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2024.
