iPhone 16 Pro Max a flagship device? Well, the wait is finally over we have a new line of iPhone 16. But is it a new advancement over the previous generation or merely a yearly update? This year too the iPhone feels similar to the last year, where we got 4 iPhone models including two basic (iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus), and 2 pro models (iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max). Today our main focus will be the iPhone 16 Pro Max (Apple’s flagship device). It would be a short review of what’s new, Apple AI feature updates, and major overhauls to judge whether it’s a flagship worthy or just a yearly update by the company.
iPhone 16 Pro Max has many new features, including:
Looks and feels
The material of the iPhone 16 is again a Titanium Alloy frame taken from iPhone 15 Pro devices. The display size is 6.9 inches in the Pro Max and 6.3 in the Pro model. Apple Introduced the iPhone 16 Pro Max with new 4 colour options Black Titanium, White Titanium, Natural Titanium, and Desert Titanium. This year an extra camera control button is introduced on the right slightly bottom side of the screen below the volume buttons.
Its main function is to open the camera, swiping it helps to switch between various camera settings and tapping on it to click the photos. The curves and edges give you a better grip while holding the phone with one hand. However, it feels slippery with a glass back. The iPhone 16 Pro has a 6.9-inch screen size compared to the iPhone 15 Pro Max 15 6.7-inch screen size.
Software
This year with iOS 18 Apple Intelligence was introduced with several features. This AI-enabled feature makes your task much easier in day-to-day life. The iOS features writing tools that can rephrase and rewrite according to your writing tone, the selected text could be summarized with this tool. This feature can enabled in third-party apps for more usability. Apple enabled transcription in their notes and phone app too.
Now you can directly record the audio in the Phone and the Notes app and get it summarised via Apple Intelligence. AI’s enabled email app helps you prioritize your important tasks and gives you a notification for joining a meeting or checking in for a flight. Apple-enabled AI input can create emoji according to your inputs, introduced as “Genmoji”. You can type any small phrase or keyword and get an AI-generated Genmoji to show your messaging more creative and exciting.
In the photo editing department, Apple Intelligence has taken heads on the competition with the pixel phone’s editing feature of removing unwanted objects or unknown people from the background from your casual selfies and photos. The image Playground Apps lets you turn your ideas into visually creative images. You can animate objects, illustrate, or style match according to your creativity. I think this is something Apple has done something new to their iPhones.
Hardware
With iPhone 16 Pro models Apple introduced an A18 Pro chip with 3nm architecture. It has a hexa-core CPU with 6 core GPU. Apple added 16 core Neural cores to improve Al and machine learning processing. This helps Apple’s iPhone to gain nearly 15% performance gain and a 20% graphical advantage over its predecessor Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max. Also, ray tracing of AAA game titles performance is increased from 1.5x to 2x. It outperforms major Android devices with the Snapdragon Gen 3 but time will tell how good it will keep against the Snapdragon Gen 4.
Display
Super Retina XDR OLED Display with 120 with LTPO display going till 1 hz for battery saving. It serves HDR10, and Dolby Vision as a display prowess. The display produces 1000 nits normal and 2000 nits reaching the highest brightness mode in HDR content. This 6.9-inch display outputs a resolution of 1320*2868 with 460 ppi. It gives a crisp display for text and watching videos.
This year they have thinned the bezel more to give out the best-ever screen-to-body ratio of 91.4%. Well in display regard there is no major upgrade other than the screen-to-body ratio and screen size compared to last year’s iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Camera
No major updates are present in the Camera department apart from the Ultra-wide camera and 4k cinematic super slow motion recording. There are primarily 3 camera sensors in this year’s previous model. 48 MP primary camera, 12 MP Periscope/telephoto, and 48 MP ultrawide camera. The Ultrawide camera only got updates with regards to megapixels from 12 MP to 48 MP, The slo-mo of 4k 120 fps looks better, sharper, and detail-oriented compared to the previous-gen 1080p 120 fps slo-mo video.
On the front camera, it is still the same 4k 60fps video recording and 1080p 120fps slow-mo which is good enough for selfies and video calls. Both front and back cameras perform similarly to last year’s device in night photography. The photography by iPhone 16 doesn’t feel like a major change from the previous year producing similar photos and videos..
Battery Life
The battery life has improved this year by 25-30% compared to previous-gen models. The new Apple A18pro bionic chip delivers a power-efficient performance with better memory bandwidth. The power optimization of this processor is better than its predecessor. The wireless charging by MagSafe has been improved from 15W to 25W wirelessly and with a 30W or more power wired adapter. A larger battery of 4685 mAh is used. It gives extra stand-by and entertainment time.
Operating System and User Interface
With the introduction of iOS 18, Apple introduced Apple Intelligence and personalization features in the home screen. Now you can color change the icons, and resize and rearrange them according to your need. Also, apps can now be secured by password. Now lock screen icons can be more customised according to one’s preference.
Action buttons now can be customized to various tasks i.e. turning on flashlights, quickly launching a music player, etc. iOS 18 is all about customization with the merging of Apple Intelligence in Siri to make your virtual assistant more intelligent and advanced to perform your task more efficiently and smartly.
Our verdict
If you are new to Apple’s ecosystem or planning to buy a new iPhone then the search ends here. If you already have an iPhone 14 or iPhone 15, it’s not worth upgrading to iPhone 16 Pro max. Even the iPhone 16 is a good choice than the iPhone 16 Pro Max. It performs all the same tasks and delivers 90% of all hardware performance of an iPhone 16 Pro Max.
Conclusion
This year’s iPhone is coming out to be a yearly update only rather than being a full-fledged flagship device. For non-Apple users, I would recommend the iPhone 16, as it’s a better choice than the iPhone 16 Pro Max, as it caters to all the demands without needing to pay an extra amount. If you are an Apple fanboy and want to upgrade, it’s better to latch on to your previous generation iPhone 15 model and wait for a worthy successor rather than paying a huge amount for the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
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