The new iPhones no longer have a white sticker in the box. End of an era. Quite how will we overcome this setback, an unknown. Now on to the important matters at hand. This year’s iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are still work in progress. Uncharacteristic of Apple with little choice dictated by timing, or a flexible approach by Apple to not upset the norm? The biggest selling point about the iPhone 16 series, and that’s particularly true for the iPhone 16 Pro phones, is Apple Intelligence. The artificial intelligence (AI) suite. But that begins to arrive as part of an iOS 18 update in October, with a rollout that’ll stretch well in 2025.
Apple Intelligence isn’t the reason why you’re buying an iPhone 16 now, but is the reason you’re buying this, in the long term. You can subscribe to either of the two very distinct opinions on that, but isn’t a properly optimised AI integration more palatable than something that isn’t? I know what I’d choose, which is why, I’ll not base conclusive opinions on iOS 18.1 beta versions either. In the here and now, an iPhone 16 Pro Max is actually less expensive than its predecessor. That is a big deal, reasons for which HT had explained earlier
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Before Apple Intelligence arrives, you’ll have time to appreciate improvements the latest iPhone Pro range imbibes. The displays are ever so slightly larger and who doesn’t love an immersive screen (add another line or two of text into what you’re viewing; that’s the difference). That said, I do begin to wonder if the even thinner bezels will make the screen more prone to cracking or damage, with even less intense clattering into tables or slipping on to harder surfaces? After all, there is a thinner layer of shock absorption between an offending hard surface, and the screen.
The A18 Pro chip is a significant step forward and that’ll worry Qualcomm a bit. I’m not entirely sure if the neural processing unit, or NPU, is any different (it doesn’t need to be), else Apple would have detailed that. RAM and memory bandwidth improvements surely provide the headroom for AI processing.
A personal favourite is further improved battery life, which in my experience, can eke out a couple of hours more usage time on a single charge. Ending a typical workday with around 30% battery still remaining, is reassuring. I’ve been averaging 2 hours and 20 minutes of screen time for every 20% battery usage. Most Android phones don’t get close. The Galaxy S24 Ultra might, if you cajole it. The iPhone’s advantage—a factor of larger battery capacities, and improvements elsewhere, including thermals.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max, owing to its physical footprint and therefore room for a larger battery, will continue to have longest stamina. By far. Additionally, what’s noticeable is much lesser heating (the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max struggled with heating often), and that prevents battery usage from becoming a rapid drain instead.
I can say with certainty, a question many of you will inevitably grapple with in the coming days and weeks is quite simply whether an iPhone 16 Pro Max is worth rushing to splurge on. The answer to that, in my opinion, quite clear—it’s not imperative to rush into any retail therapy if you already have an iPhone 15 Pro Max (lines at Apple Stores have their own tale, little do I know). Any iPhone Pro from a prior generation to that, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is a significant step forward in most respects.
But then again, unless you find Apple Intelligence a must have (even if for early adoption bragging rights among friends), you may still have a lot of potential remaining in your iPhone 14 Pro Max too.
The screen, now a 6.9-inch canvas, throws up a rather perplexing scenario. As someone who often uses the screen manually set at 10% or 20% brightness (all other things, such as dark mode constant), the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s screen is more usable, text more legible, than the iPhone 16 Pro Max in its current state of display tuning. Hard to explain, but it seems a case of uneven illumination, and text is barely readable. Things only become slightly better if dark mode is turned off. Is this something Apple can tweak in a subsequent iOS update?
That said, scoff at the slimmer bezels, at your own peril. It’s why despite a screen size increase, the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s footprint isn’t much different from its predecessor.
Nothing takes away from the fact that by far the most attractive addition to the iPhone 16 Pro Max (and indeed the iPhone 16 Pro) is the Camera Control button. The effect Apple is going for here, is an ode to the digital camera controls from a bygone era. Something that many of us miss. It does more, and not just a tap to take a photo implementation. The capacitive nature means it supports swipe and can differentiate between light tap and harder taps—you can set zoom and aperture, or choose the Photographic Styles (there are a bunch of new additions to the existing set; your choice whether you’d want to choose when shooting, or later in edits).
There’s work in progress here too, much like Apple Intelligence. Apple says an iOS update at some point in the year, will enable two-stage shutter functionality. That is, half press to focus and harder press to take a photo. That’ll be neat, I say that as someone who often manually focuses when framing a scene. It is a habit. For now, getting the hang of swipe and tap pressures takes time. The trick here is, as someone who helped develop this told me, is to not lift the finger off the sensor for the entirety of the time you’re navigating settings layers.
Apple’s Photonic Engine captures as many as nine frames every time you tap the shutter button, so as to have different exposures ready, which can be handy for complex elements such as accuracy of the sky or lighting reliant detailing on human faces. There are two schools of thought about computational photography, and while you may have an opinion, what’s clear is Apple’s artificial layering is still less aggressive than Samsung’s choices with the latest Galaxy flagships.
In the real world, some photos tend to come out a bit flatter than you’d like, by multiple exposures available on tap mean there is a great deal of data for editing. There are only subtle upgrades in colour accuracy (a little more vivid, but just about) and detailing from the primary camera, with the big change being the iPhone 16 Pro Max returning more detailed ultra-wides than its predecessor—the new sensor makes its presence felt. A pro-tip for anyone who’d prefer less AI in their photos, Halide’s new camera app and the “Process Zero” may be a good port of call.
Apple has added two ProRaw high res photography formats, that is JPEG-XL Lossless and JPEG-XL Lossy. You may select either on the device if that’s your ecosystem, but any intention of sharing it on Google Photos or sending them for a layer of edits on third party apps such as Lightroom, may see you running into some unnecessary complications. That’ll change with time. As will the unavailability of tone control options in the camera app, or while editing.
A big addition is 4k video at 120 frames per second, or fps, and with Dolby Vision (seen that already?), but also with the ability to change playback speed between 24fps, 30fps and 60fps for instance. You may have shot the video with a certain perspective, but you can essentially edit it for a completely different look. That extends to audio too, with absolutely amazing processing to switch between in-frame audio (ideal choice for videos shot in noisy environments, such as with wind noise), studio sound (great for interviews and general conversations), snd cinematic (this adds depth, and a sense of place to the visuals). Each makes a perceptive difference.
That’s the complexity with an Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max, which despite being a collective step forward in more ways than one, still doesn’t have that one pull factor for anyone with an iPhone 15 Pro Max. Any phone from an earlier generation, an iPhone 16 Pro Max as definitive as it gets. The Camera Control button, photographic styles and audio mix take forward a Pro spec iPhone’s camera proposition forward significantly. As do a combination of a new, powerful processor, more RAM and bandwidth as well as redesigned innards for better thermals.
This benchmark setter, which when it gets down to it, has unfinished business. A part of that gets completed when the first phase of Apple Intelligence rolls out in a few weeks from now. And my gut feeling is, one of the next iOS updates will further tune the cameras for photography specifics. Those are the transitions, borne by the passage of time, that’ll definitively define the legacy of the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max.
In the coming months, expect more Android phones to tout slimmer bezels, some sort of artificial intelligence and of course, a camera button. ‘Market feedback’, they’ll say. We’ll listen.