iPhone 17e vs Galaxy S26 FE

Samsung promises security updates until a month and a number of Android upgrades. For recent models Samsung's own page gives the month; for older promises the site works it out from the years Samsung announced, and says so under the row. Apple gives no end date: its security releases page lists each update and which iPhones it is for.

On the Galaxy side you see the month Samsung's promise runs until, or that Samsung no longer updates it; on the iPhone side, the latest update Apple has released for the newest iOS that iPhone can run. One is a promise about the future and the other a record of the past, so neither is marked as a gain or a loss.

Matters most if: You plan to keep the phone for many years, or you are buying one used.

The launch price of the smallest storage option both models were sold with.

Starting prices can be for different amounts of storage. This row compares the same storage on both, so you can see what the newer model costs for what you have now. It is shown as a difference, not a gain or a loss.

Each maker's own battery test. Apple's figure and Samsung's figure are both hours of video playback on recent phones, but each maker runs its own test.

The tests are not the same, so the site shows both without picking a winner.

Matters most if: You often run out of battery before the end of the day.

mAh (milliamp-hours) measures how much charge a battery holds, like the size of a fuel tank.

Samsung lists a capacity for each Galaxy. Apple's iPhone tech specs give no capacity in mAh, so the iPhone side says "Not published by Apple". A bigger number alone does not mean longer battery life.

How many cameras are on the back. Each one has a different lens: standard, wide, or zoomed-in.

More cameras means more ways to frame a shot without walking closer or further away: fit a whole room in with the wide lens, or get a close shot of something far away with the zoom lens.

MP stands for megapixels. One megapixel is one million tiny dots. A 12 MP photo is made of 12 million dots, a 48 MP photo of 48 million dots.

On a phone screen, a 12 MP and a 48 MP photo look almost the same. The difference shows when you zoom in, crop part of the photo, or print it large: more dots means detail holds up longer. More megapixels also lets the phone zoom 2x by cropping without losing quality.

Matters most if: You crop photos, print them, or zoom in on details later.

More in the glossary →

A second lens that sees a much wider area than the main camera.

You can fit a whole room, a tall building or a big group into one photo without stepping back. On many models it is also used for macro (very close-up) photos.

Matters most if: You take photos indoors, of landscapes, or of groups.

More in the glossary →

A zoom lens: a separate camera that sees things far away as if you were closer.

Zooming with a real zoom lens keeps the photo sharp. Without one, the phone has to cut out part of the image, so it gets blurrier the more you zoom. It also makes portrait photos look more flattering, because you can stand further back.

Matters most if: You photograph kids' sports, concerts, pets or wildlife from a distance.

More in the glossary →

How much the zoom lens (telephoto camera) magnifies with glass, so the photo stays sharp. Where a phone has two zoom lenses, the longer one is compared.

Only lenses are compared. Samsung's Space Zoom and Apple's "optical-quality" steps are made with processing or by cropping a high-resolution camera, not with a separate lens, so they are not counted.

Matters most if: You photograph kids' sports, concerts, pets or wildlife from a distance.

Each maker's own words for the screen: Samsung's names such as Dynamic AMOLED 2X, and on the iPhone side the screen technology Apple lists (OLED or LCD).

A name alone does not tell you which screen is brighter or sharper, so the row is marked "Different" without a winner.

How fast the phone charges with a cable, in each maker's own words.

Samsung names its charging speed in watts (such as Super Fast Charging, 45W) and Apple states how much charge you get in a set time. The two are not the same measure, so the row shows both side by side as "Different". Older iPhones whose Tech Specs give no fast-charge figure say "Not published by Apple".

RAM is the phone's working memory for the apps you have open right now, measured in GB (gigabytes). It is separate from storage.

Samsung lists RAM for each Galaxy. Apple's iPhone tech specs do not list RAM, so the iPhone side says "Not published by Apple" and the site does not estimate it.