Jalen Sigh Tech

Verdict

The iPhone 16 Pro Max is undoubtedly the most capable iPhone to date, not only boosting the power with the A18 Pro but bringing small, yet meaningful, upgrades including impossibly thin bezels, an upgraded camera setup and most importantly of all, impressive battery life that’ll see the majority of users through the day and then some.

Apple Intelligence is still in its infancy with only a handful of features available at the time of writing, and only for those in the US. It has the potential to improve massively with the release of bigger, handier features in the coming months, but it shouldn’t be the reason you get this iPhone. 

That said, there might not be enough here for iPhone 15 Pro Max users to upgrade, but if you’re coming from an older iPhone, you’ll enjoy the refreshed experience on offer here. 

Introduction

The iPhone 16 Pro Max is the best iPhone Apple has ever made, but should you actually buy one?

With a similar set of features to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, there’s probably not much point in upgrading, but there’s a lot to appreciate about Apple’s latest top-end iPhone if you’re coming from something slightly older. 

Alongside additions from recent iterations of iPhone like the Action Button and new titanium frame, the iPhone 16 Pro Max boasts an upgraded camera setup, some of the slimmest bezels on any smartphone I’ve seen and battery life that just seems to keep on going, no matter what I throw at it.

Then there’s also Apple Intelligence, Apple’s big push for the iPhone 16 range in general. It’s still early days for Apple’s AI plans with a limited US-only rollout and what I’d describe as pretty basic AI features available right now, but that is going to change over the coming months with some of the biggest Apple Intelligence features like ChatGPT integration that could make it way more tempting.

That all said, is the iPhone 16 Pro Max the iPhone for you? Keep reading to find out.  

Design

• New Camera Control button
• CC button can be hit-and-miss
• Larger screen without an increase in dimensions

The iPhone 16 Pro Max takes many of its design cues from the iPhone 15 Pro Max – though that’s hardly a surprise at this stage. Apple has long done away with design refreshes every year, and even every few years, with the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s look consistent with the iPhone 12 Pro Max released in 2020.

That’s not a bad thing; like the old adage, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And it certainly isn’t broken. Apple’s latest iPhone sports a rather boxy, industrial look with a completely flat profile, a look that has become ubiquitous even on Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy S24. However, there’s a refinement of the design on offer this year.

That comes not only in the form of the new Desert Titanium finish that provides a golden tone to the titanium frame of the 16 Pro Max alongside the Natural, White and Black Titanium we saw last year, but completely new elements like Camera Control. 

The idea behind the new touch-sensitive button that lives in the bottom-right of the phone makes sense; press it to access the camera, tap and swipe to change modes and adjust settings and press the button to take the photo, much like you would on a regular camera. 

The reality of using the Camera Control button is a little different, however. I can best describe the experience as fiddly, with swipes often not registering and it taking a very specific amount of force (forceful, but not enough to depress the button completely) to switch modes from, say, zoom to aperture control. 

In my experience, it actually takes more time to use Camera Controls to change the camera lens, zoom or adjust the aperture than it does to do it on-screen. I do use the new button to quickly launch the Camera app, but that’s about it. 

The pressure required to fully depress the shutter is way more than expected, often resulting in a slight shake of the phone that renders some photos a little soft. A dual-press button for focus and capture, as you find on DSLRs and phones like the Sony Xperia 1 VI, would’ve provided a much better experience than Apple’s needlessly high-tech option. 

It doesn’t sit where my finger naturally rests when taking photos in both portrait and landscape mode either, requiring me to rethink the way I’ve captured photos on my phone for 10+ years if I do want to make better use of the button. That’s not happening. 

Beyond the new Camera Control button, it’s pretty much the Pro Max iPhone we’ve seen for the past few years, with a titanium frame that allows it to be surprisingly lightweight for its size while remaining durable, along with the customisable Action Button first introduced on the iPhone 15 Pro collection.

It also comes with staples of protection including Apple’s Ceramic Shield on both the front and rear, and it’s protected from both dust and water with IP68 certification. That should mean it’s ready to rock and roll in practically any weather, though unlike Android alternatives like the OnePlus 12, it doesn’t have the ability to ignore the accidental input from water droplets in the rain.

Screen

• Bigger 6.9-inch OLED screen for the first time
• Slimmest bezels around
• Dynamic Island is starting to stick out

This is a big year for the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s screen – literally. For the first time, the size of Apple’s Pro Max iPhone has increased from its regular 6.7 inches to 6.9 inches. The phone does have a slightly larger footprint as a result, but not massively. Instead, much of that extra screen space is down to slimmer bezels – and when I say slim, I mean slim.

Even after seeing the impossibly thin 1.44mm-thick bezels during the iPhone 16 reveal, I wasn’t quite ready for how exquisite the screen would look in real life. The bezels around the screen really are vanishingly small, and that gives the already-premium screen an even more top-end look, especially when looking at the comparatively chunky iPhone 16. 

It makes things that little bit more immersive when playing games, browsing through apps and even just looking at photos. The 92.3% screen-to-body ratio on offer from the 16 Pro Max is basically unmatched in the Android space right now.

Larger dimensions and slimmer bezels aside, it’s pretty much business as usual with the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s screen – and business is good. The OLED panel remains pixel-perfect with a 460ppi pixel density, boasts impressive levels of brightness of up to 2000 nits, and remains buttery smooth in everyday performance thanks to Apple’s 120Hz ProMotion support. 

Yet again, the latter (somehow) remains a Pro-level exclusive, with the regular iPhone 16 shipping with 60Hz screens we’ve not seen on Android flagships in literally years at this point. Regardless, it means if you want that smooth screen experience, the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max are your only options.  

Refresh rate aside, the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s screen is one of the best around for HDR content, truly excelling when playing back Dolby Vision content from the likes of Netflix – and even your own videos if you record in Dolby Vision. 

The Dynamic Island has made a return, and although I do personally enjoy the way that Apple made a previously annoying notch into a charming blend of software and hardware, it does stick out like a sore thumb alongside the new ultra-slim bezels. 

Functionality-wise, things haven’t changed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see the Dynamic Island begin to sink beneath the waves of the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s screen for a less distracting experience. 

Cameras

• Same main and telephoto lenses as last year
• New 48MP ultrawide doubles up as a capable macro lens
• Some of the best video capture capabilities around

The iPhone 16 Pro Max’s camera upgrade isn’t as exciting as the iPhone 16 Pro, with the smaller Pro-level iPhone not only getting the same 5x periscope lens that was exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, but an upgraded 48MP ultrawide too. The iPhone 16 Pro Max also receives the same 48MP ultrawide upgrade, but the telephoto and main cameras remain unchanged. 

That said, even with minimal changes to the camera hardware, a bevvy of under-the-hood software and algorithm upgrades mean that camera performance is even better from this year’s flagship. 

The camera capture experience is pretty much flawless on the iPhone, with the new dual autofocus capabilities also delivering a marked improvement in not only the time it takes to focus on your subject, but the accuracy too. 

Of course, the main lens is the most capable of the bunch. It has a 48MP 1/1.28-inch sensor, a fairly wide f/1.8 aperture, and sensor-shift OIS that delivers impressive detailed, well-lit, and balanced photography, even in challenging lighting. It’s the ideal point-and-shoot, especially with a cropped 2x zoom that fills the gap between the 1x and 5x camera sensors without much degradation in overall quality.

It also does impressively well in low-light conditions, capturing stunning evening scenes on a recent trip to Hawaii and a photo of the Milky Way taken without using a tripod. Sure, it’s still a little soft in places, but it’s an impressive feat nonetheless.

The new 48MP ultrawide does have its benefits, using the same pixel-binning tech as the high-res main sensor to improve levels of detail and light. It’s fairly noticeable in everyday use, with slightly sharper images when shooting those scenic vistas, but it’s arguably the macro mode that benefits most from the additional pixels and pixel-binning tech. 

The 12MP 5x periscope lens feels like a bit of an outlier next to two 48MP lenses, so much so that I think we can all predict which camera will get an upgrade next. That said, the 5x periscope continues to deliver stunning results at its native 5x, both in terms of photo and video quality, and importantly, the colour and light are consistent with what you capture from the main lens. 

It’s a handy way to close the gap between you and your subject, though I do find that 5x is a little too intense for portrait photography – ironically, it’s the 3x of the previous telephoto that I find ideal for those kinds of shots. I’d also advise against pushing the digital zoom too far beyond the 10x point, with images getting progressively soft and blurry as the noise reduction algorithm goes out of control. 

Flip the phone over and you’ll find the same 12MP selfie camera we’ve seen for the past few generations. Despite the lack of TLC, it remains one of the better selfie cameras on the market not only for video calls but actually recording videos – there’s a reason why plenty of iPhone owners record TikTok videos using the selfie camera, after all.

That said, there are plenty of video features to play around with, especially when it comes to the rear cameras, offering support for the likes of 4K@60fps Dolby Vision HDR, spatial video recording and new audio mixing features that helps you change how audio is captured in videos. The iPhone has long been a leader in video capture, and that very much continues with the iPhone 16 Pro Max. 

Performance

• A18 Pro is the fastest around – for now
• iPhone can handle anything that’s thrown its way
• Doesn’t get uncomfortably hot

The Pro-level iPhones have always led the pack when it comes to performance, and that trend continues with the A18 Pro within the iPhone 16 Pro Max – for now, anyway. 

Early benchmarks from the competing Snapdragon 8 Elite set to make an appearance in flagships in the coming weeks and months suggest it performs significantly better than Apple’s silicon in CPU and GPU tests, but we’ll have to wait and see for now.

Regardless, the iPhone 16 Pro Max has ample power under the hood with the A18 Pro, leaving practically every other smartphone available right now in the dust in testing. The iPhone 16 Pro Max scored very highly in both CPU and GPU tests, suggesting it can handle just about anything you throw at it, from video editing to gaming to good ol’ social media browsing. 

Of course, benchmarks only tell part of the story, but that top-tier performance is also reflected in everyday performance. To say that the iPhone 16 Pro Max is rapid would be an understatement; this thing absolutely flies in day-to-day use. 

Apps open instantly with buttery smooth animations, camera capture is near-instantaneous and I’m yet to see even a hint of sutter or lag, even when playing particularly demanding games on the phone. 

Don’t get me wrong, it can get hot over extended use, particularly when powering those high-end games, but it doesn’t get uncomfortably hot like some of the Android competition. 

Some might argue that this much power is much of a muchness, and right now it very well might be. However, it also means the iPhone 16 Pro Max will essentially stay powerful for longer, even as app and OS demands continue to grow over time. It’s a purchase for the future, as well as right now. 

It’s just as rapid when it comes to connectivity with support for tri-band Wi-Fi 7 connectivity alongside staples like 5G, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC for Apple Pay and even satellite connectivity, complete with the ability to send and receive messages as part of the iOS 18 update. 

Software & AI

• Apple Intelligence rollout is limited for now
• iOS 18 brings Home screen customisation and more
• Great long-term software support

As with the rest of the iPhone 16 collection, Apple is betting big on Apple Intelligence with a massive worldwide marketing blitz that coincided with its launch – but it’s worth remembering that, at the time of writing, it’s only available in the US (albeit accessible to UK users with a region change) following a late-October release. 

In fact, the main reason why our iPhone 16 reviews were delayed was to properly assess Apple Intelligence before rendering our verdict – and I’m not that impressed just yet.

iOS 18.1 brought with it what I can only describe as fairly standard AI enhancements when compared to Android rivals. This includes features like writing aids for texts and emails, subject removal from photos and AI call transcription and recording – all fairly standard when looking at the likes of the Pixel 9 Pro XL, Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and co.

Don’t get me wrong, there are a few unique AI capabilities thrown into the mix, like creating custom movies in the Photos app by describing what you want to see, as well as notification summaries – though I’ve found the latter to be unreliable in everyday use, so much so that I ended up turning off the feature after a week. 

The big caveat here is that the best and most impressive Apple Intelligence features are still pending. ChatGPT integration, Genmoji, Image Playgrounds and a smarter Siri are all slated for release in iOS 18.2 and beyond, along with a wider rollout including the UK. 

So the AI experience is likely to improve significantly in the next few months, but right now, it’s not a compelling reason to upgrade. 

AI aside, iOS 18 is a solid upgrade to the iPhone experience with genuinely useful new additions like an adjustable Torch, RCS support for an iMessage-like experience when messaging Android users, a fully customisable Home screen and more. 

It’s a great update that builds on an already impressive operating system, and with a new focus on Home screen customisation, it could even tempt some long-time Android fans. 

There’s also a lot to love about Apple’s long-term software support for its products. Even the six-year-old iPhone Xs received this year’s iOS 18 update, suggesting the iPhone 16 could eventually get the iOS 24 upgrade. 

Battery Life

• Best battery life of any iPhone yet
• Can last up to two days depending on the usage
• Increased 45W charging  provides 50% in 30 minutes

If there’s one reason to go for the iPhone 16 Pro Max over practically any other iPhone on the market, it’s battery life. The Pro Max models have had solid battery life over the past few years, down to a combination of a power-friendly LTPO screen and a larger battery than its smaller siblings, but I’ve noticed a real boost in battery longevity with this year’s big-screen iPhone.

It’s not an understatement to say that it just keeps on going; this thing has served me through a full two days of use on a few occasions in my month of testing, and even on extremely busy days – including a few where I was flying and, thus, watching movies/playing games more than usual. 

I’ve found that, even with around seven hours of screen-on time, the battery only drops to around the 30-40% mark. In fact, I’ve only hit the 20% battery warning once, and that’s when I purposely stopped charging it to run my battery charge benchmarks. 

It completely alleviates my battery anxiety in a way I’ve not felt for some time, even compared to long-lasting Androids like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and Google Pixel 9 Pro XL.

When it comes to charging, It takes around an hour and 45 minutes to regain a full 100% charge in tests, but it only took 30 minutes to regain 50% charge. 

For most phones, that wouldn’t be enough, but I’m confident that even 50% could see you through an average day with the iPhone 16 Pro Max. 

There’s also souped-up 25W MagSafe charging, along with 7.5W Qi wireless charging, offering a trifecta of charging options depending on what you require. 

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