Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max review: even pro-ier and max-ier

Once again, it hit September o’ clock and Apple dropped a new flagship smartphone. The iPhone 16 Pro Max is, unsurprisingly, the most powerful iPhone yet. But that’s the case every year. Luckily there’s more on offer for those who don’t give a hoot about benchmark scores – or at least there will be eventually.

Apple Intelligence is a big 2024 talking point, but it isn’t ready for prime time just yet. And while Camera control blurs the line between phone and photography like little else, you’ll also find it on the regular iPhone 16 models. So what sets this biggest, bestest iteration apart, and is it worth upgrading?

Design: it’s an iPhone Pro

No surprises here. The new iPhone 16 Pro Max is a continuation of last year’s aesthetic, save for thinner bezels and the Camera Control button. More on those later.

While there are new colours, they’re all painfully tasteful and muted. Compared to the gorgeous hues in this year’s standard iPhone, the Pro feels drab. That said, the natural and black options have a classic vibe. And at least ‘Desert Titanium’ avoids being a zunePhone, instead leaning more towards rose gold.

Beyond the surface, there are subtle changes. The iPhone 16 Pro Max maintains the same thickness as its predecessor, but is 3mm (0.13in) taller, 1mm (0.04in) wider, and 6g (0.18oz) heavier. You won’t care if coming from another Pro Max – unless you had a snug case you loved. More broadly, I find this phone – like every Pro Max to date – feels a bit heavy and unwieldy. But that’s offset by the ginormous display and huge battery.

Apple has also improved the phone’s durability. It uses Grade 5 titanium, which is the same material used in spacecraft. Although probably don’t launch it into ‘orbit’, because it will still smash to bits on ‘landing’, despite the Ceramic Shield now being 50% tougher. 

Screen and sound: bezel the devil you know

The iPhone 16 Pro Max ramps up the display from 6.7in (2796x1290px) to 6.9in (2868x1320px). Apple achieved this by the tiny increase in frame size and by shaving down the bezels. There’s not much left. If Apple wants a bigger display next year, that will require a more radical redesign.

More screen is always welcome, but this change is far from revolutionary. It amounts to about one extra line of text in a Wikipedia article. However, I didn’t spot any apps or games grumpily displaying in letterboxed format due to this new screen size, so that’s a plus.

The only other change of note is the screen’s ability to drop to 1 nit brightness. Which sounds amazing until you realise the iPhone 15 Pro Max could drop to 2 nits. Sitting in a dark room, I could see little difference between the two, but then I’m not an owl. 

Cameras: snap happier

This year’s Pro iPhones have matching sets of sensors, so there’s very little to separate them on the photography front. The main iPhone 16 Pro Max camera now shoots without delay, making it easier to capture sharper shots of moving objects. But my obsession since the iPhone 13 Pro Max has been the macro. The new ultrawide snapper has been ramped up to 48MP, which makes for better zoomed out shots, but also superior extreme close-ups. However, during testing I found it took longer to latch on to objects than the macro on the iPhone 16 Plus. 

Video capture gets excellent upgrades. The new four-mic array and software combine to do clever things with wind reduction and audio mixing. Post-shoot, you can bring focus to voices and sink background hubbub. Apple emphasises this as a pro-grade feature, but it has clear applications for everyday video capture. Note that this isn’t locked to the Pro, though – it’s also on the standard iPhone 16.

Something that is iPhone 16 Pro-only is a new set of slow motion effects. These are ludicrous fun, adding cinematic magic to your videos, even if you don’t have designs on Hollywood. It’s dead simple to use: shoot in 120fps 4K and then use speed controls to pretend your cat is starring in a furry follow-up to The Matrix.

There’s also the new button. Apple’s not the first to add a dedicated shutter button to a phone, but the company has taken things further. You press Camera Control to open a camera app and then again to take a shot. But you can also use gestures to navigate menus and adjust features on the fly.

Two weeks in and it’s still not infused in my muscle memory, and the button feels awkwardly positioned in landscape and portrait. But when I remember it’s there, it clicks, and proves effective for switching cameras without losing perfect framing.

Software: coming later this year

There’s a lot of new stuff going on in iOS 18, which you can read about in my tricks and tips feature. And there’s plenty of promise surrounding Apple Intelligence and major improvements to Siri. But none of that’s officially out yet, and I’m not about to review something that might exist in the future or that only exists in an unfinished beta. So this bit of the review will get updated as and when Apple Intelligence arrives and/or if Apple Intelligence takes over my brain and forces me to write nice things about it.

For now, it’s a case of same old, same old. The iOS app ecosystem – bar very specific use cases – reigns supreme over Android. If you want to do something creative or productive, chances are there’s an app for that. The gaming ecosystem is impressive. But Apple is keen to charge over a grand for a phone that it resolutely won’t allow you to use as anything other than a mobile device.

It’s long past time there was optimal TV output for games and the means to connect your iPhone to a keyboard and display so you can work full-screen with apps like Procreate, Korg Gadget and Ulysses.

Performance & battery life: to the max

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but the new iPhone Pro Max is more powerful than the previous iPhone Pro Max. I know: shocker. Still, what’s going on here is impressive. While I didn’t subject my review unit to endless endurance tests involving video loops (hey, I have things to do), I did find day-to-day usage won out over the iPhone 15 Pro Max. With the iPhone 16 Pro Max, I reckon you’ll get through a day – perhaps even two – with no issues, unless you play a lot of high-end games or mainline 5G.

Speaking of games, while you might narrow your eyes at Apple’s claims that an iPhone 16 Pro Max excels at AAA gaming, such titles are a useful sanity check regarding the sheer power of this device. Apple reckons the A18 Pro is up to 15% faster than the A17 Pro, and the GPU up to 20% faster. I found games like Death Stranding and Assassin’s Creed Mirage that struggled to hit a consistent 30fps on last year’s Pro Max fared better on the latest one. 

For normal people with more normal phone needs, much of this power won’t be tapped. But it will make for a phone that lasts for years without needing to be replaced.

iPhone 16 Pro Max verdict

Is this the best iPhone ever? Objectively, sure. Is it particularly exciting? That depends whether you spend your time shooting video, capturing macro photography, or deluding yourself into thinking your iPhone is a PlayStation 5. And does the iPhone 16 Pro Max come recommended? That’s a different question.

If you want the best iPhone there is, you won’t be disappointed. If you’re upgrading from an iPhone 13 Pro Max, the improvements are significant, including the always-on display, 48MP cameras and 5x zoom. Not to mention things we now accept as the norm, like Dynamic Island and USB-C connectivity.

However, if you’re using an iPhone 14 Pro Max, the upgrade is less compelling unless you need the extra buttons, Apple Intelligence and USB-C. And if you own last year’s iPhone, the relatively small improvements might not justify the outlay. It might be wiser to wait a year and see what the iPhone 17 Pro Max brings.

iPhone 16 Pro Max technical specifications

Screen	6.9in 2868×1320 OLED HDR at 460ppi
CPU	Apple A18 Pro
Memory	8GB
Cameras	48MP ƒ/1.78 main, 48MP ƒ/2.2 ultra wide, 12MP ƒ/2.8 telephoto (5× optical zoom in) rear; 12MP ƒ/1.9 front
Storage	256GB/512GB/1TB on-board
Operating system	iOS 18
Battery	4685 mAh
Dimensions	163×77.6×8.25mm (6.42×3.06×0.32in), 227g (7.99oz)