The Galaxy S26 Ultra drop test is finally here where we're comparing it side by side to our iPhone 17 Pro Max footage. Now, this year, Samsung made some changes that could have an impact on the results. The biggest one being they followed Apple's lead and went from titanium back to aluminum, which just doesn't seem to handle being dropped as well. That said, Samsung did round out the corners on the phone a bit, so they won't dig into the floor as much, and the phone is also 4 g lighter. But when it comes to the actual glass, it's the same as last year. Gorilla armor on the front and Gorilla Victus on the back, which might actually give the iPhone an advantage here with it having that semi-

metal back instead of having all glass like Samsung's. Whether or not that's enough for the iPhone to get the win here, well, there's only one way to find out. Quick reminder, though, for these tests, we're now dropping the phones onto sandpaper instead of the concrete block that we used to use. And the reason is with a concrete block, every new drop slowly wears the surface down and smooths it out, which over time can affect the results. But by using sandpaper, just like Corning does in their lab, we're able to get a fresh, consistent surface on every drop simply by swapping out the sheet. And we didn't just use any sandpaper. Using a professional roughness meter and taking

dozens of samples on actual sidewalks and asphalts, we found that 80grit sandpaper is the perfect blend. So, with that said, let's get right into it. After that backdrop, unfortunately, both phones have their rear glass cracked. But the real story here is what happened to the Galaxy's camera system. It looks like it took the brunt of that impact with the ultrawide getting this hairline crack while the telephoto full-on shatters. I mean, that does not look good at all. The good news though is that the camera system is still technically fully functional. Although because of the cracks, there is obviously a bit of flaring that occurs until this thing gets repaired. The iPhone on the other hand honestly looks

pretty good. Yes, it did crack, but the cracks are obviously contained only to the glass portion of the phone with the metal part looking just fine outside of a few light scuffs from the sandpaper. But the big thing is the camera lenses are still fully intact. So, it's a clear win for the iPhone in round number one. Round number two, 1 m corner drop. 3 2 1. That corner drop scuffs the aluminum frames on both phones. It's definitely more visible on the iPhone, probably due to it being orange compared to the silver color that we got the Galaxy in. But honestly, the bigger difference is this dent on the iPhone. You can actually see the deformation on the aluminum. Whereas on the Galaxy, outside of the scuffs, the corner looks

perfectly fine. Not as good as the S25's Titanium did, but at least compared to the iPhone, it gets a clear edge in round number two. Round number three, 1 m face drop. Three, two, one. All right, moment of truth. And after the face drop, oh man, both phones unfortunately crack. That said though, the cracks are more contained on the Galaxy than they are on the iPhone with the iPhone's spiderweb even up to the selfie camera causing flare issues similar to what we saw with the Galaxy's Telephoto. The Galaxy did scare us for a second though with it looking like the fingerprint scanner had failed. But after wiping the screen clean, it seems

to be okay. And yes, that privacy display feature is still working just like you'd expect. So, a better result for the Galaxy overall, giving it the win here in round number three. Round number four, 1.5 meter backdrop. Three, two, one. So, at first glance, that 1 and 1/2 m backdrop didn't seem to inflict too much additional damage on either phone. Maybe a little bit more spiderweb on the rear glass panels and a little bit more shattering on the Galaxy's camera, but honestly, not as bad as I thought it was going to be. But then after doing our 15-point inspection, we found that the fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy is no longer functional. And this time it seems to be for real. It looks like the

sheer impact created this hairline crack right here that goes straight through the fingerprint area. And we couldn't do anything to get it to work again. Whereas on the iPhone, Face ID is working just fine, giving the iPhone the clear win in round number four. Round number five, 1.5 m corner drop. Two. One. Oh man, that corner drop sounded like it hurt. But at least on the surface, neither phone looks like it suffered too much additional damage. Now, one thing I did want to address here is in our last drop test with the iPhone, at the time

of testing, the iPhone's main camera was having trouble focusing on things with it even making this weird clicking sound as we were trying to use it. However, shortly after that video went live, the issue went away. So, it may have just been a temporary jam or something with the focus motor. But either way, I wanted to issue this official correction. And with the two phones performing roughly the same here, I'm calling it a tie in round number five. Round number six, 1.5 m face drop. 3 2 1. Wow, that last face drop was brutal. It's actually not too much worse than it was before on the Galaxy. There's just a bit more spiderw webbing on like those initial cracks. Whereas on the iPhone,

it definitely spread out a lot more. It actually goes heavily across that Face ID area, but miraculously it still works. Unlike the Galaxy's Fingerprint scanner. However, one of the bigger things to note here were all the chunks of glass that just came out of the Galaxy's telephoto camera. I mean, you could really see it here in the slow motion, but there just so much glass popping out to the point where if you were to pull this phone out of your pocket, it could easily cut you. Obviously, this is just a continuation of the original damage from the very first drop in this test. So, I don't want to hold it against the phone too much, but at the same time, the damage is causing more flaring than before,

plus a potential safety concern. So, I'm going to give the slight edge to the iPhone in round number six. All right, with all six rounds in the books, let's take a look at the scorecard. In round number one, the iPhone had the clear advantage with the S26 Ultra's camera lenses cracking. In round two, it was the opposite result with the iPhone suffering this major dent to its aluminum frame. In round three, the extra spider webbing on the iPhone led to its selfie camera lens flaring. In round four, the Galaxy's fingerprint scanner was rendered completely unusable. In round five, both phones performed pretty much the same. And then in round six, the Galaxy's just started falling apart. So, in total, the iPhone

scores more points overall, giving it the win here in this drop test. Anyways, that is it for me in this video. Thank you for watching and as always, I'll see you in the very next episode.