Samsung Galaxy S26 / Apple iPhone SE (3rd generation, 2022)

Samsung varies the processor by market: the US, China and Japan versions use the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy. This entry covers the Exynos 2600 SM-S942B version.

The viewable area is smaller than the rectangular measurement because of the corners and camera hole.

Typical maximum brightness is 625 nits and typical contrast 1400:1. As an LCD, blacks are not as deep as on OLED and the screen runs at 60 Hz; the small size makes one-handed use easy but leaves little room for video and games.

The panel lowers its rate to match the content, slowing down on static images to save power and rising to 120 Hz for scrolling and games.

This is Samsung's peak figure, not a brightness held across the full screen.

Samsung says this GPU supports hardware ray tracing and is up to 50% faster at it than its predecessor.

Samsung states up to 29% better heat dissipation for the S26; this is a figure from the maker's own testing.

Usable space is lower than the total because of preloaded software. Options vary by country and carrier.

Storage cannot be expanded later; 64 GB can fill quickly if you shoot 4K 60 fps video.

The 2x optical-quality zoom uses the centre of the main camera's Adaptive Pixel sensor; it is not a separate lens.

Samsung quotes up to 30 hours of video playback; the typical figure was measured by a third-party lab to IEC 61960.

The figure was measured from 0% with a 25 W Samsung adapter and 3 A USB-C cable, screen off. The adapter and cable are sold separately.

PowerShare works only with certain Qi-compatible phones and wearables and may not work below 30% battery.

Wi-Fi 7 speeds need a Wi-Fi 7 router; 6 GHz use varies by country.

USB 3.2 Gen 1 carries up to 5 Gbit/s of data, which speeds up wired transfers of large video files to a computer.

Band support varies by market.

Weight may vary by country and configuration.

Water and dust resistance can decline over time with normal wear.

It is the same chip as in the iPhone 13 and 13 mini, which is the main reason it handles heavy tasks such as 4K video editing and keeps getting updates for a long time.

Apple notes this resistance is not permanent and may decrease with normal wear.

There is a single rear camera with no ultra-wide or optical telephoto. Apple’s list does not include Night mode for photos, only Night mode time-lapse video.

There is no Face ID; the phone unlocks and approves Apple Pay payments with a fingerprint instead of face recognition.

The model on the UK page is A2783; supported 5G and LTE bands vary by model and country.

No adapter is in the box. MagSafe is not supported, but standard Qi chargers work. The port is Lightning, not USB-C.