Galaxy S20 vs iPhone 11 series specs, sizes and prices

Gather around, phone lovers, as it is going to be a wild ride. We pit the bet of Samsung and Apple that will be clashing this spring, with the goal of helping you choose whether you should jump the gun and buy the new Galaxy S20 series, or stay within the warm confines of the iOS carriers from the iPhone 11 line.

Stuffed to the gills with every modern hardware spec you can think of, the Galaxy S20 will be looming formidably over Apple's trio that has never had the latest and greatest inside, save for the processing part of it, of course. 

The S20 series is expected to hit the shelves at your local carrier shop in March but while you wait there will be an announcement at a February 11 Unpacked event to fill in the blanks for you. In the meantime, have a look at how the 2019 iPhones will stack up to the Galaxy S20 in 2020.

Oh, the places you'll go, Samsung! Yep, the world's largest phone maker really went there, and there will be no phone with less than 6" display in its flagship roster this spring. Even the lowly Galaxy S20 starts you off from 6.2 inches, and its specs are no different than those of the S20+, indicating that, this time around, it will only sit lowest on the totem pole in terms of size, not hardware. 

If we take the compact iPhone 11 Pro size, all comparison bets are off, but then again, it "only" has a 5.8" display, the smallest of the whole sextet, so it won't really be a fair size comparison. Therefore, it's best to compare Apple's largest to Samsung's biggies, lest we forget that size seems to be everything these days (and weight, too, but we digress). 

Both the S20 Ultra and the S20+ will be taller than the already large iPhone 11 Pro Max but more narrow which will make them easier to hold and carry around. When it comes to the Galaxy S20 vs iPhone 11, the difference in phone widths is even more startling considering that both have almost the same display sizes and ratios, and that's thanks to the thicc iPhone 11 bezels. 

Now comes the fun part. Whatever camera island and all-screen design similarities the iPhone and Galaxy may have to the eye of the uninitiated, are rendered moot by what's under the hood of the new S20 series. Here's a quick rundown of the expected spec against what Apple has to currently offer.

Galaxy S20+/S11 and Ultra preliminary specs comparison with the iPhone 11 Pro Max

 

While even the best of the newest iPhones is certainly no match to any of the S20 series in, well, most everything as far as specs are concerned, and it's not even close so there is no point of dwelling over zoom levels, 5G connectivity, memory amount or battery capacities. The only part where the iPhone 11 Pro Max might be superior to the S20 family members is, as usual, the chipset. Here's a comparison of the S20 and iPhone 11 processor specs and features for a quick overview.

Apple's homebrew A13 Bionic endeavor is usually a year ahead of whatever the other mobile chipset makers manage to churn out, but with the arrival of Snapdragon 865, the performance part gives way to the number of new imaging and display features that Qualcomm introduced. 

Support for ultra high-res cameras like the one on the S20 Ultra? Check. 5G connectivity with every band under the sun? Check. Up to 144Hz display refresh rates and 16GB DDR5 memory support? Check. These are things that Apple's A13 or whatever comes after it, has yet to demonstrate it can support. 

While the Apple A13 may lack in features compared to the Snapdragon, at least on paper, when it comes to sheer raw processing power, though, the iPhone has the upper hand. We have a benchmark comparison to demonstrate what are we to expect in terms of per clock power.

As usual, while the new Snapdragon will hold on its own in the multi-core scores part, the Apple A13 fares way better per core. It is also clocked way higher than the Snapdragon in the benchmark, though, so in real life the performance between the Samsung and Apple finest will typically boil down to how heavy the visuals and animations of the two interfaces are.

What can we say, at the rumored $1299 price tag, the Galaxy S20 Ultra is quite a bit more than the $1099 starting tag of the 11 Pro Max. 

It is also much better in terms of sheer specs and connectivity power, and even if we get the S20+ for a comparison, which will presumably have the same starting price as Apple's finest, it still beats the 11 Pro Max in all directions. 

The real mass market fight, however, will be between the Galaxy S20 and the iPhone 11, and there Samsung will have a very clear advantage, as you will be getting so much more for a Benjamin and a half or so over the price of the basic iPhone, that it is going to get chilly if you are sitting around the iOS campfire.