The latest iPhone 14 Pro Max is great for both daylight and night-time photography thanks to Apple’s recently introduced ‘Photonic Engine. If you turn on the auto mode on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, the camera will then automatically choose between pixel binning and High Res. photos
| Launch date | Released | September 16, 2022 |
| Price | ₹ 139,900 | |
| Processor | Chipset | Apple A16 Bionic (4 nm) |
| CPU | Hexa-core (2×3.46 GHz Everest + 4×2.02 GHz Sawtooth) | |
| GPU | Apple GPU (5-core graphics) | |
| Memory | RAM | 6GB, LPDDR5 |
| Storage | 128GB, NVMe | |
| Body | Dimension | 160.7 x 77.6 x 7.9 mm (6.33 x 3.06 x 0.31 in) |
| Weight | 240 g | |
| Build | Glass front (Corning-made glass), glass back (Corning-made glass), stainless steel frame | |
| Water Resistant | IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 6m for 30 mins) | |
| Colors | Green, Red, Burgundy, Phantom Black, Phantom White | |
| Display | Type | LTPO Super Retina XDR OLED, 120Hz, HDR10, Dolby Vision, 1000 nits (type), 2000 nits (HBM) |
| Size | 6.7 inches, 110.2 cm2 (~88.3% screen-to-body ratio) | |
| Resolution | 1290 x 2796 pixels, 19.5:9 ratio | |
| PPI | ~460 PPI density | |
| Protection | Ceramic Shield glass | |
| Camera | Triple | 48 MP, f/1.8, 24mm (wide), 1/1.28″, 1.22µm, dual pixel PDAF, sensor-shift OIS 12 MP, f/2.8, 77mm (telephoto), 1/3.5″, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom 12 MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120˚ (ultrawide), 1/2.55″, 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF TOF 3D LiDAR scanner (depth) |
| Videos | 4K@24/25/30/60fps, 1080p@25/30/60/120/240fps, 10-bit HDR, Dolby Vision HDR (up to 60fps), ProRes, Cinematic mode (4K@24/30fps), stereo sound rec. | |
| Selfie | 12 MP, f/1.9, 23mm (wide), 1/3.6″, PDAF, OIS 4K@24/25/30/60fps, 1080p@25/30/60/120fps, gyro-EIS | |
| Capacity | Li-Ion 4323 mAh, non-removable (16.68 Wh) | |
| Wireless | MagSafe fast wireless charging 15W Qi wireless charging 7.5W | |
| OS | Version | iOS 16, upgradable to iOS 16.0.3 |
| Updates | 5 years system (to go until 2028 — or iOS 22) | |
| Sound | Speaker | Dual stereo speakers |
| Audio Jack | NO | |
| Connectivity | Sim | Dual SIM (Nano-SIM and eSIM) or Dual sim – International Apple Pay (Visa, MasterCard, AMEX certified) |
| 5G Bands | 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 12, 20, 25, 26, 28, 30, 38, 40, 41, 48, 66, 70, 77, 78, 79 SA/NSA/Sub6 – A2894, A2896 | |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, dual-band, hotspot | |
| Bluetooth | 5.3, A2DP, LE | |
| NFC | Yes | |
| AnTuTu Scores | Overall | 392936 |
| CPU | 241999 | |
| GPU | 403717 | |
| UX | 146483 | |
| Geekbench Scores | Single-core Multi-core | 1887 5455 |
| USP/Highlights | The latest iPhone 14 Pro Max is great for both daylight and nighttime photography thanks to Apple’s recently introduced ‘Photonic Engine. If you turn on the auto mode on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, the camera will then automatically choose between pixel binning and High Res. photos |
Review
Design
The iPhone 14 Pro Max was released on September 16, 2022, with starting price of $1,099/₹ 139,900. The starting storage remains 128GB which, I guess is quite on the lower side, but can be upgraded to 256/512GB and even 1TB which is insane.
As we see this phone, we immediately notice two things. The first is the pill-shaped cutout more known as the “Dynamic Island”, and the second one is that the camera bump is now bigger than the previous version of iPhone 13 models. Dynamic Island acts like a mini dashboard, providing access to the info you need no matter what app you are in.
If you open up Apple Music or Spotify, for example, and then swipe back to the home screen, you’ll see the album art displayed on the left side and there is a mini waveform visualizer on the right of the Dynamic Island. You can see the status of your timer, the next direction to take in the Maps, the status of incoming and outgoing calls, and many more. You can even have two live activities displayed side by side on the Island.
Display
As the iPhone 14 Pro Max had a display of 6.7 inches with a variable refresh rate that can scale way down to 1Hz from 120Hz, Apple designed its Always on Display to mirror the lock screen but with a much lower brightness level. So, you can still see the wallpaper, lock screen widgets like weather, calendar, activity ring, and notifications coming through.
It has a Super Retina XDR display which is amazingly bright and vivid. The panel reaches a brightness of 1,600 nits with HDR content and up to 2,000 nits outdoors in bright sunlight. Also, this panel registered 117.5% of the sRGB color gamut and 83.2% of the DCI-P3 color space, which is an upgrade from iPhone 13 Pro Max’s 109.3% and 77.4% respectively.
Cameras
The major update we got to see this year in the iPhone is a bigger sensor of 48mp. By default, it uses pixel binning and is optimized for better light capture in 12MP photos. But we can go 48MP in Pro RAW Mode if we want the most detail possible. This 48MP camera enables a new 2x zoom option with a 12MP 3x Telephoto zoom lens.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max also features a new 12MP ultrawide camera with f/1.9 aperture for better low-light photos. The better low-light performance is a big upgrade as there is Photonic Engine powered by the A16 Bionic chip that is designed to offer brighter and more colorful photos for every camera. The macro mode is also amazing in the phone and it defeats even Samsung S22 Ultra’s Macro shots.
Two upgrades in the video department; the first is Action mode capped at 2.8K resolution, and the second is bumped-up 4K Resolution in Cinematic Mode. Unfortunately, if you want to shoot videos in 4K Pro Res, you will need to buy an iPhone 14 Pro Max with at least 256GB of storage.
Performance
The iPhone 14 Pro Max’s A16 Bionic chip is Apple’s first chip built on 4nm architecture and it’s once again the fastest chip in the phone. The CPU is rated to be only 10% faster that the previous version A15, but it offers 50% more memory bandwidth which is beneficial for gaming.
On Geekbench 5, which measures overall performance, the iPhone 14 Pro Max hit 1,882 in single-core and 5,333 in multicore. Turning to graphics, the iPhone 14 Pro Max notched 12,363 or 74 frames per second on the 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited benchmark.
Oddly, the iPhone 14 Pro Max turned in a slightly slower time in our video editing test, which involved transcoding a 4K video to 1080p in the Adobe Premiere Rush app.
Battery
The iPhone 14 Pro Max lasted a very long time on the battery test. We are talking about around 13 hours and 39 minutes which is more than amazing considering the battery size of about 4323mAh. Unfortunately, the iPhone 14 Pro Max sticks to 20W charging, so we got only 42% charging in 30 minutes.
Emergency SOS via satellite and crash detection
Apple launched two key safety features for the iPhone 14 Pro Max. The for is the Emergency SOS via satellite, which combines new antennas and software to connect the satellite when you can’t get a cellular signal or Wi-Fi signal.
The second safety feature is Crash Detection, which leverages the iPhone 14’s improved accelerometer and gyroscope to detect whether you are in a car crash. If yes, the phone will automatically dial emergency services, as well as notify the emergency contacts you designated.
iOS 16
There is a lot to like in this new software update. You can now customize the lock screen with the widgets, photos, and more, and choose what will show up on your AOD(Always On Display).
Other Highlights include the ability to unsend texts and edit them, a replacement for passwords called Passkeys, a new fitness app, and finally, a battery percentage indicator for the first time.
Verdict
The iPhone 14 Pro Max is the best big-screen phone around, and it justifies the high price by providing a stellar display with always-on capabilities, the best cameras in a phone, and extra-long battery life. Dynamic Island is by far my favorite feature because it saves you time having to jump between multiple apps just to get key bits of info, and it will get even better as developers focus on it in the upcoming updates.
Overall, though, the iPhone 14 Pro Max is a beast of a phone that’s Pro-level powerful while also being a joy to use. It’s the best iPhone you can buy.
Also, check out the Top New Features in macOS Ventura
and Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G