The iPhone 14 Pro Max’s intelligent Dynamic Island, strong cameras, always-on display, and super-long battery

The iPhone 14 Pro Max isn’t only the most powerful phone available. It’s a pleasure to use, thanks to the innovative new Dynamic Island, which displays notifications and current activity. Apple’s biggest Pro model also boasts amazing cameras, including a new 48MP main shooter, an always-on display, a compelling Action mode for video, and an impressive battery life.

The iPhone 14 Pro Max is the iPhone I suggest for hardcore users. Why? Based on my tests, you get the best cameras on a phone, a new always-on display, and a brilliant Dynamic Island that replaces the notch with a smaller area that displays alerts and live activities in real-time. I like utilizing the camera’s new Action mode to capture video. Other smartphones offer a comparable feature, but the combination of the iPhone 14 Pro Max’s video quality and ultra-stable film is almost magical. Also remarkable is the ease with which you can switch between several phone numbers with this flagship’s eSIM capabilities, though some will be disappointed by the lack of a traditional SIM card tray.

With its A16 Bionic chip, Apple has once again created the quickest phone on the market, but the focus is not on benchmarks. Instead, it’s about what this chip allows, from the always-on display to the strong 48MP camera, and what it can accomplish. Add in the extra-long battery life, and you have the best iPhone and one of the best phones you can buy in general. If you want a smaller phone, check out our iPhone 14 Pro review, as well as our iPhone 14 review if you want the most affordable new iPhone.

Price when reviewed: $788.09 | Check price at Amazon

iPhone 14 Pro Max KEY FEATURES

iPhone 14 Pro Max Good-looking quality construction and design. This phone is a significant boost and no more notch. Performance Apple’s A16 Bionic is an upgrade. Cameras are the iPhone’s improved array that now supports pixel binning. Batteries are Battery life varies more based on usage than on most phones. Software iOS 16 is one of Apple’s most significant platform improvements in recent years. Value people appear eager to pay for Apple’s top iPhones.

APPLE IPHONE 14 PRO MAX UNBOXING

The presentation of the iPhone 14 Pro Max has hardly changed from last year’s model. The half-height box has a color-matched image of the phone printed on the lid and opens with two paper tear-off pull tabs.

Inside, the phone is lying face down, with its back welcoming you as you lift the lid. Although no charger is included, there is a USB-C-to-Lightning cable. And an Apple sticker for free advertising.

CAMERA

• Finally receives a 48MP quad-pixel sensor.
• Upgrades to the three-lens array
• TrueDepth camera gets focusing.

While the iPhone 14 Pro Max’s (and iPhone 14 Pro’s) camera array appears to be similar to that of the iPhone 13 Pro Max, the lenses and sensors are all different.

The 48MP quad-pixel primary camera is the highlight of this triumvirate. Apple took years to produce a high-pixel-count sensor like this, and sure, quad-pixel binning is being treated as a new feature.

It is not. The main sensor on the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is 108MP and uses nine-pixel binning. In both cases, the sensors aggregate the data from several pixels into a single larger, richer effective pixel for better color and low-light performance.

Most iPhone 14 Pro Max users will photograph in 12MP mode. To enable full 48MP raw format shooting, go into the settings and add the ‘raw’ option to the camera interface.

Shooting in RAW (or ProRAW, which is Apple’s clever computational combination of RAW and processor smarts) doesn’t appear to make much difference to image quality when viewed on the iPhone’s display, but that’s because it’s intended for pro photographers who want to manipulate uncompressed images in, say, Photoshop.

Raw photos are saved as huge DNG files on the iPhone. Opening such photographs in Photoshop’s Camera Raw editor allows you to make minute adjustments to the image for amazing visual results. You may also edit raw photographs with the iPhone’s native camera app, or install Adobe Lightroom on your phone for even more editing power on the move. It’s an underappreciated feature that you should experiment with.

• 48-megapixel main camera (24mm, f/1.78)
• 12 MP Ultra Wide (13mm, f/2.2).
• 12 MP, 3x Telephoto (77mm f/2.8)
• 12 MP front-facing TrueDepth camera (f/1.9)
• The 48MP sensor has another purpose. The iPhone camera app now offers a 2x optical zoom option.

Rather than using the specific 12MP 3x optical zoom lens, this mode employs a center 12MP sub-section of the main 48MP sensor to generate what amounts to an additional 48mm, f/1.78 aperture lens.

In this approach, it achieves full-resolution optical zoom without the need for a separate 2x sensor. That larger aperture results in even better portrait-mode photographs than you would get with the primary lens as standard.

While Apple’s 3x optical zoom 77mm f/2.8 lens is fine (it shoots great photos), it feels inadequate when compared to Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra’s 10x optical zoom. It will provide grainier photographs than simply moving closer with the main sensor, and the difference is pretty noticeable.

Apple has no solution for Samsung’s 100x Space Zoom. In practice, the iPhone 14 Pro Max’s 15x digital zoom falls short when it comes to long-range images, but it’s evident that the firm considers moon-shooting a fad rather than a requirement.

Apple has also improved the series’ video capabilities to include 4K 30fps Cinema mode, which looks great. The new Action mode is a wonderful feature, provided you understand that it smoothes out excessively shaky video by smartly clipping in on material. It’s good, however we’re not sure how often we’ll utilize it.

Interestingly, Apple has chosen not to include 8K video recording (a rumored feature in the run-up to the phones’ release), but while some may view this as a disadvantage, we see it as a blessing. 8K videos would swiftly consume even the greatest iPhone storage capacity, and for what? How many of you own 8K televisions at home?

Sure, many professional users would benefit from this function, but we believe it will be at least a year before it becomes a must-have feature, especially given the expense of storage.

In general, Apple’s camera system and image-capture capabilities remain top-tier, ensuring that it retains its position as one of the best camera phones on the market, with stunning photographs from the 48MP sensor and better macro mode shots.

Apple’s new Photonic Engine improves photo quality (as discussed in our dedicated iPhone 14 camera explainer). This explains why low-light photographs and night-mode photos of a starry sky look better.

DESIGN AND SCREEN

Aside from the stunning new Deep Purple paint, the iPhone 14 Pro Max may easily be mistaken for the iPhone 13 Pro Max. It’s similar. Nonetheless, there are some slight variances.

The iPhone 14 Pro Max measures 160.7 x 77.6 x 7.85mm, making it somewhat shorter, narrower, and slightly thicker than its predecessor. None of this is obvious when you look at or handle the phone; possibly this is because the weight remains constant at 240g, as it was with the iPhone 13 Pro Max.

The iPhone 14 Pro Max (and 14 Pro) offers Apple’s premium material experience, which includes a polished stainless steel frame and frosted glass on the back and front. The front display is protected by Apple’s transparent Ceramic Shield, which should protect it from damage (we did not drop or intentionally scratch the screen to test it, but recent drop tests have shown that the front of the phone is better able to withstand drops than the rear glass.

During our testing, we inadvertently dropped the iPhone 14 Pro Max, and it escaped unscathed – however, a nice iPhone 14 Pro Max case is recommended. The positioning of the power/sleep/Siri buttons, volume controls, and silent switch are all identical to those of the iPhone 13 Pro Max. The most notable difference is that our test device (and all those sold in the United States) lacks a SIM card slot. It creates a cleaner, more attractive appearance.

The remainder of the screen is as amazing. The most significant improvement is in brightness, both during HDR usage and when you’re outside on sunny days. This is the brightest screen I’ve used outside, and it easily blocks direct sunshine.

I go into more into on the display in my iPhone 14 Pro review, but it truly does tick all the boxes. The smooth adaptive 120Hz ProMotion display ramps up and down depending on what you’re doing, making everything from web browsing to gaming much smoother than on the 60Hz iPhone 14.

Apple has reduced the screen refresh rate to 1Hz for the 14 Pro series, allowing for an Always-On option that keeps the screen viewable in a darker environment. While other Android phones do this by highlighting specific areas of the display, such as the clock, the iPhone 14 Pro Max slows down the entire screen so that it only refreshes once per second.

I’ve been using the Always-On display for over a month, and I find it both beneficial and aggravating. Once activated, you have very little control over it; you can’t change the brightness levels, and anything that appears on the Lock Screen will be reflected. If you have a loud wallpaper, it will always be visible.

It has occasionally been too bright for me, making the phone a distraction when placed on a table. However, it might be useful to see the time and other warnings at all times, particularly when working at a desk. You can disable the function if it bothers you, and it shuts off automatically when the phone is in sleep mode, so it won’t be too distracting on a bedside table at night.

Keeping the screen on all the time has an impact on battery life as well, but I observed this far less on the Pro Max than on the smaller Pro.

HOW’S THE PERFORMANCE?

• Apple’s new A16 Bionic
• Based on a more efficient 4-nanometer technology.
• One billion more transistors than the A15 Bionic.
• Around 6GB of RAM, with no possibility for extra.

Aside from the multi-element lenses and larger sensors, Apple’s new A16 Bionic chipset powers the iPhone 14 Pro Max’s photography capabilities.

This new technology contains 16 billion transistors, which is one billion more than the A15 Bionic in the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus. At its unveiling ceremony, Apple stated that the new chip can perform 17 trillion operations per second. It is also based on a 4-nanometer technology rather than the A15’s 5-nanometer process, which could result in a more efficient mobile CPU.

The iPhone 14 Pro Max’s A16 Bionic is Apple’s first chip produced utilizing the 4-nanometer technology, and it is once again the fastest chip in a phone. The CPU is just 10% faster than the A15 Bionic, but it has 50% more memory bandwidth, which improves gaming.

In my testing, I found the iPhone 14 Pro Max to be incredibly snappy, whether I was switching between apps or playing games like Asphalt 9 Legends. Racing on the Himalayas circuit, I experienced fluid action even though several other vehicles jostled for first place onscreen.

On Geekbench 5, which evaluates overall performance, the iPhone 14 Pro Max scored 1,882 in single-core and 5,333 in multicore. That’s significantly better than the iPhone 13 Pro Max (1,720/4,549) and well above the Galaxy Z Fold 4 with its Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 CPU (1,328/3,831). The S22 Ultra was even further behind, thanks to its Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor (1,249/3,392).

Buy it if...

• Superior design, water resistance, and durability.
• Class-leading OLED screen with 120Hz refresh rate, AOD, Dolby Vision, and 2000nits brightness.
• Class-leading performance, with excellent stability.
• Longest battery life in its class.
• Excellent photo and video quality across all four cameras.
• Best video stabilization on a smartphone, with a high-quality action mode.
• Excellent stereo speakers.
• Every iPhone includes at least five years of iOS updates.

Don't buy it if…

• Dynamic Island is a love-or-hate affair.
• Larger and heavier than most.
• There is no charger in the box, and the charging is somewhat slow.
• Apple’s iOS restrictions can be discouraging to newbies to the ecosystem.

FULL SPECIFICATION