Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
The iPhone 15 Pro Max make up a few safe , predictable melioration over last year ’s good example . It ’s the good iPhone you may buy , but none of the features are worth get very frantic over . This is a unspoilt upgrade for phones 3 + age former , but young telephone set can await for next class .
Price When Reviewed
This value will show the geolocated pricing text for mathematical product undefined
The iPhone 15 Pro USB-C port (top) looks similar to the Lightning port (bottom) but offers greater flexibility.
Best Pricing Today
Best Prices Today: Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max
[ September 2024 : The iPhone 15 Pro Max has been discontinued by Apple and replaced with the iPhone 16 Pro Max . The Modern phone is better , as you’re able to see from ouriPhone 16 Pro Max review , but if you find an iPhone 16 Pro Max on cut-rate sale at a good discount we do still urge it . ]
Apple ’s latest , most expensive , good iPhone is better than last yr ’s role model . It ’s a little lighter , a little faster , a little better camera , a little more commodious .
And yet , it ’s hard not to find decidedly underwhelmed . After solar day of use and a battery of trial run , I ca n’t help but feelboredwith it . All the improvements are welcome , but they ’re for the most part uninspired . It ’s as if Apple is out of ideas , or the iPhone is just too significant to take any risks with , or all the company ’s good efforts have been spent working onApple Vision Pro .
The iPhone 15 Pro USB-C port (top) looks similar to the Lightning port (bottom) but offers greater flexibility.
The right font one can make for the latest iPhone is thatit ’s an iPhone — it extend iOS , it runs iPhone apps , it ’s fairly concealment - minded , and it works great with all your other Apple products and services . But you could say that of every modern iPhone , so why choosethisone ?
Because , though somewhat uninventive , it ’s still thebestiPhone . And if you desire the upright iPhone , the iPhone 15 Pro Max is it .
Read ourcomparison of the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max .
Replacing the mute switch with a programmable button has been a long time coming.
Design and build
The first thing you ’ll remark upon picking up an iPhone 15 Pro Max ( or the regular Pro model ) is how much lighter it feels than former Pro phones . Apple ’s switch from stainless steel to titanium for the outer frame has only reduced weight by about 10 per centum , but all that exercising weight amount from the out edges , so itseemslike an even bigger weight reduction .
This does n’t really make it alightphone , mind you . Other insurance premium smartphones of this sizing — the Pixel 7 Pro and the Galaxy S23 + for exemplar — have been lighter than the iPhone Pro Max models for some clock time , and this change brings Apple in dividing line with them . It ’s welcome , but not revolutionary , or even a private-enterprise advantage .
You also wo n’t find that the titanium ( bind to aluminum ) frame offers better durability . It ’s not more scratch - insubordinate , hard to indent or ding , or really less prone to record fingerprint – though the natural Ti color seems to blot out them well . Otherwise , the brushed and matte finish of the titanium incline feel a small dainty than the glossy untainted steel , and the recess are smoothed out a little , make the earpiece a piffling nicer to hold without a case on it .
The Action Button menu looks nothing like any other Settings menu.
Speaking of colors , they ’re all a moment boring , though that ’s not uncommon in the Pro modelling . Gold is gone , replace by a Natural Titanium colour that is … grey … but look quite handsome and sophisticated . White and Joseph Black are still usable , but ashen is n’t as bright , and black is n’t as dark as previous iteration . So three of the four colors are tincture of Second Earl Grey , more or less . This year ’s special color is Blue Titanium , a moody blue ghost that feels classy but conservative .
Much has been made of Apple ’s move forth from the Lightning embrasure , supplant it with USB - C. Apple is n’t giving us quicker charging than the iPhone 14 Pro Max , but the USB - C port is quite a bit more convenient to apply the same cablegram to charge your iPhone , MacBook , and probably most of your other digital devices . On the Pro models , this port supports USB3 transfer speeds , handy for offload slews of video recording . you’re able to plug in an external drive and shoot picture forthwith to it – in fact , this is required to burgeon forth 4K/60 ProRaw data formatting ( shoot to internal storage top out at 30fps ) . you could plug in an external show straight into your iPhone and get a very dispirited - reaction time mirror , perfect for playing premium game that are made for using a paired Bluetooth controller . you may read photos off a USB - C card referee . I secure in my USB - 100 to Ethernet adaptor and become online without WiFi . USB audio interface work too , provided they get enough power .
Jason Cross / Foundry
It ’s all very convenient , and very frustrating that Apple only made this jump when hale to by EU regulations ( which they opposed ) . The switch to USB - C is unambiguously an improvement , and one Apple could have well madeyearsago . This is far from cutting - boundary technology and has been received in Android phones for a very long time . It ’s hard to give point to Apple for doing better by its customers only under protest .
The move to USB - C is n’t the only mode in which Apple has made the iPhone 15 Pro more commodious . The on / off silent switch has been replaced with what Apple calls the Action Button . crush and admit it for a indorsement to mute or unmute , with a discrete oscillation practice so you could shift between mode without looking . you’re able to also vary the button to perform a variety of dissimilar action in scope : set a Focus modal value , launch the Camera app ( and act as a shutter ) , turn on the flashlight , start recording a voice memo , launch the magnifier , turn on an Accessibility feature film , or launch a Shortcut .
That last pick is perhaps the most powerful if you know how to make crosscut ( if not you’re able to copy one you receive online ) . It provides almost infinite tractability to make the Action Button do whatever you need . you could launch any app instantly , and even do some actions within . you may make it conditional , so it does unlike things at different locations .
Changing a switch into a release is n’t on the button what I would call a creative innovation – OnePlus and Samsung have paddle with this in the past – but it is well - action . One oddity : The preferences menu to conform the Action Button looks oddly out of place , stylistically whole different from any other preferences card , but it ’s uncomplicated to understand . Perhaps good of all , because the functions of the clitoris are delineate by software , the Action Button ’s capabilities can ( and should ) be amend in further iOS software package update . However , it ’s hard to understand why the Action Button is a “ Pro ” feature and was n’t bring to the standard iPhone 15 model as well . It feels arbitrary and capricious .
metalworks
At a coup d’oeil , this is recognizably an iPhone Pro model , but casual beholder would n’t even necessarily sleep together it ’s the iPhone 15 Pro without being up - to - appointment about coloring option .
With 5x optical zoom, pushing into 10x digital still produces very usable results.
Screen and speakers
On the exterior , the rest of the iPhone 15 Pro models seem very much like last class ’s . There are no differences in the show ’s size or capabilities , though the bezels around it have quail ever - so - slightly ( making the phone torso just a teensy piece smaller ) . It still boast nice people of color truth with great HDR quality , peaking at 1,000 nits for stock dynamical range , 1,600 nits for peak bright expanse on HDR content , and crank up to a blistering 2,000 nit for a little time in bright sunshine out of doors , make it very easy to see on a gay day .
The speakers fathom similar , as does the mike quality . Apple has made some internal design adaption to make components easier and therefore less dearly-won to renovate , which is a courteous thing we hope you never have to deal with .
Cameras
Let ’s get this out of the way : Mostof the television camera on the iPhone 15 Pro Max are identical to those on the iPhone 14 Pro Max . The independent 48MP spacious camera , ultra - wide , and front camera remain unaltered . The telephoto camera is a new sensor and periscope electron lens array that enables 5x optical zoom , equivalent to 120 mm . This is only useable on the iPhone 15 Pro Max – the iPhone 15 Pro has the same 12MP , 3x optical tv camera as last twelvemonth .
That rapid growth level is nice , and a scrap of catch - up to premium Android phones that have employed this engineering already . It produces noticeably “ zoomier ” snapshot and when you use digital zoom to crusade in to around 10x , you get a cleaner shot than on the received iPhone 15 Pro or earlier iPhone Pro manakin .
It ’s not such a ace - zoom that you may take awesome photos of very distant or bantam objects … your hummingbird picture taking game is not going to be everlastingly changed . But it does get you closer to the action for sports , or just getting a nice natural bokeh taking candid pic at a Mungo Park or cookout or whatever .
The thermal performance throttling of the iPhone 15 Pro is similar to the iPhone 14 Pro.
It ’s the software side of things where picture taking on the new iPhone 15 Pro models gets interesting . Apple has enabled a new nonremittal 2MP image sizing with unexampled image processing , and it works in HEIF or JPEG modes . The 48MP “ Pro ” shots can now be saved in a “ HEIF Max ” format rather of requiring ProRaw , which think of a small less control if you do raft of post - processing but the ikon take up about 15 times less storage space .
What ’s more , you now have three unlike options for the standard wide shot . The nonpayment 1x is equivalent to 22 mm , but beg that “ 1x ” push in the television camera app you and can toggle between 28 mm and 35 mm crops . These young options still produce 2MP images but use different sets of pixels from the double sensor through parts of the image processing pipeline . It ’s a form of digital zoom , but delivers clean , sharp answer than what you ’re used to with digital zoom .
One handy new trick : when you take a photo of a person , dog , or guy , the iPhone 15 recognize that open and mechanically salve the depth map data along with the image . Then , even if you were n’t in Portrait mode , you’re able to go back andenablePortrait fashion after the fact in the Photos app , adjust depth - of - field and selecting the focal point . So for most shots of people or pets ( frankfurter and true cat anyway ) , you wo n’t have to say “ I wish I took a portraiture mode shot ” or “ I bid I did n’t take a portrayal mode shot . ” Just frivol away , and occupy about it after . Handy !
Video shot has two young useful tricks . If you require to shoot ProRaw at 4 K and 60fps , you could , supply you punch in an external drive and record immediately to it ( those single file are so big you ’re going to want to do that anyway ) . You ’ll demand a USB-3 compatible cable television to do this ; the one that come in the box is only snitch for USB2 swiftness , which is typical of near every smartphone ’s include cable .
More interesting is the power to shoot in a Log color format . This is a true “ Pro ” feature , a flatten color gamut that need post - processing . Apple provides LUTs ( look - up - tables ) to convert these Log encode ProRaw videos to HDR , but the idea is that they contain a wide compass of datum to give you much better restraint when color grading videos in Wiley Post - production .
For the Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro crowd , it really is a killer lineament . There are just two pregnant drawbacks . First , playback on your iPhone does not have any sort of LUT lend oneself , so you could only see the flattened color space . You should have the selection to see the restored HDR with a default LUT apply ( and perhaps tap to change between them ) . secondly , the Log color space option is only available when take in ProRaw , which accept an enormous amount of place . I think the tractableness to shoot more thickset HEVC file cabinet with Log colour space would be greatly apprise and seems like something Apple could easy manage in a software update .
There ’s nothing to “ wow ” you about the iPhone 15 Pro Max ’s camera . Apple ’s image processing still seems a slight aggressive and can give your images a bit of an over - smoothened and over - saturated spirit , but the bump to 24 megapixels does facilitate give acute detail without as many sharpening artifact . But you ’re not going to be floored by what you get . There ’s no big breakthrough , no never - see - that - before feature of speech that makes this a must - have .
get hold out all about the new features in the iPhone 15 series in our guide : Best new iPhone 15 Pro Max features .
Battery life and charging
It ’s not clear if the A17 Pro central processing unit in the iPhone 15 Pro Max uses less power than the A16 Bionic did , but the entire phone system as a whole gets roughly the same stamp battery life as last twelvemonth ’s iPhone 14 Pro Max . In our battery rundown exam , where we loop the Geekbench 4 test with a fixed screen brightness of 200 nit , it last 13 hours and 2 minutes , just a couple per centum longer than last year ’s Pro Max phone .
That may not be an improvement , but it ’s still fantastic battery life sentence , especially for a earpiece with a 120Hz display . Apple ’s prescribed specs list the exact same shelling life as the iPhone 14 Pro Max , and that ’s in all probability what you ’re work to experience in regular everyday use ; you wo n’t really mark just a few per centum here or there .
Despite the shift to USB - C , charging carrying out has n’t changed either . Apple says you still get about 50 percent in 35 minutes , which is passably accurate .
But the shift to USB - C does add one welcome improvement in the ability to tear other devices that stomach USB power livery , albeit at a rate of only 4.5 Isaac Watts . That includes accessory like AirPods or Apple Watch , and even other telephone set , including Android phones ( if they patronage USB Power Delivery ) . You probably wo n’t rescue one telephone with your iPhone very often , but topping off your almost - dead AirPods or Apple Watch is a very real possibility .
Performance
The A17 Pro is the flap spunk of the iPhone 15 Pro models , while the received iPhone 15 gets the A16 Bionic that was found in last year ’s Pro speech sound . The name change is interesting , and probably measured : we would n’t be surprised if future intersection get an A17non - Prochip .
It ’s a bigger and more complex chip , but still sports six CPU cores : two performance and four efficiency . The SoC is tie in to 8 GB of RAM , up from 6 GB in last year ’s Pro iPhones . We measure CPU performance about 10 - 12 percent quicker , which is the form of functioning uplift that you see in benchmark charts but do n’t really palpate in pattern . iPhones have been more than tight enough for a long time , and every year run circle around the unspoilt Android phones . Nothing has changed there .
The GPU is an all - newfangled six - heart design , up from 5 cores in the A16 . Apple says it ’s 20 percent faster , but that ’s what we would expect from 20 percent more inwardness . But the nitty-gritty are an all - new design , and support ray trace hardware acceleration and mesh shaders , plebeian features in PC graphics chips for years now and found in the latest smartphone chip for Android phones .
In the GeekBench 6 GPU compute test , which measures using the GPU for general figuring project rather than computer graphic rendering , we see a carrying out jump-start very near the take 20 per centum . In the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme high - ending graphics trial , again , there ’s about a 20 percent cost increase .
New this yr is the 3DMark Solar Bay test , which run a very high - end trial run using light beam tracing with three different timbre levels . Here , the phone execute 50 - 60 percent faster than the iPhone 14 Pro Max .
Apple is pitching the iPhone 15 Pro as capable of running cabinet - quality games , as evidenced by theResident Evil : Villageport that it say is equivalent to the Xbox and PlayStation cabinet versions . Well … no . It ’s the full game , yes , but at a noticeable reduction in resolution and overall graphics fidelity . It ’s still an incredibly telling exploit , but you should disabuse yourself of the idea that the A17 Pro grow your iPhone into a scoop games console . That ’s only true if you rise back to the anterior contemporaries of game console table , and we ’ve get wind the “ as powerful as a console ! ” disceptation about iPhones before . It was amajor selling point of the iPhone 5 , which as well all know , did not replace anyone ’s PlayStation or Xbox .
This fresh GPU is most exciting in what it means for Macs . When this new architecture makes its mode to M - serial central processing unit , it will really help Mac to catch up to the characteristic place that Windows gamers take for concede , and may help oneself get up on operation as well .
A quick aside about thermals . Some have noticed that the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max get very hot when running high - end premium plot . This is true , but so did the iPhone 14 Pro , and the seems at most just a few degrees hot . However , I really felt the heat while using the phone while it was charge , where it sometimes sire hot enough to be uncomfortable to hold .
Is there thermal throttling that lessen the execution of the A17 Pro when scat extended dense workloads ? Yes , but again , this was true of prior chips as well . Consider these final result from the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme tension test , which loops the gamy - ending benchmark for 20 instant . Both the iPhone 14 Pro ( left ) and iPhone 15 Pro ( right ) lose about a third of their performance very quickly – after the first run!–and then brace . The main dispute is , at all times , the iPhone 15 Pro runs about 20 per centum faster than last year ’s good . This is n’t a lurid result , really . The best high - end smartphones have a “ Stability ” grudge in this tryout of less than 70 per centum , and it ’s not rare to see some below 60 percent .
Should you buy the iPhone 15 Pro Max?
In almost every manner , the iPhone 15 Pro Max is full than its predecessor . It ’s a little lighter , a little faster , a little more commodious , has a little bit better tv camera , and has the same electric battery life . And yet , the improvements are rather deadening . USB - C is finally here and if it wasn’tyearslate that might be exciting . The unclouded atomic number 22 frame only brings Apple in light with the weight of its competitors . The 5x optical zoom is fun and can be utile , but it ’s no secret plan - auto-changer . shoot telecasting in the Log color space is an awe-inspiring pro characteristic hamstrung by requiring you to fritter away ProRes and the lack of any LUT diligence in playback .
The best novel feature is the Action Button , which should really be on every iPhone and not relegated to $ 1,000 + models , but even that just make unnecessary a tap or two .
Perhaps this is just where smartphones are now ; modest yearly improvement are apprise , but hardly a reason to upgrade . Like laptops and desktop , the technology is at a plateau . You either do something gimmicky that wo n’t last or you keep making lowly improvements yr - over - year , expect user to hang on to their onetime machine for three or four years before view a new one . I ’m indisputable a big breakthrough is out there , somewhere , but it may take years to make it .
So should you buy the iPhone 15 Pro Max ? Well , if you want the best braggy iPhone , this is it , so get it . Once the “ fresh phone euphory ” wears off you likely wo n’t detect much of a remainder in your daytime - to - day life if you ’re come up from an iPhone 14 Pro Max or 13 Pro Max .
Essentially , if your old iPhone is three years old or older , this is a dainty climb . If it ’s newer than that , you’re able to safely wait another class . With a new higher starting price of $ 1,199/£1,199 ( not a price increase per se ; Apple just got rid of the cheaper 128 GB good example ) , this is a heavy phone but not a phone worth having FOMO over .
iPhone history
The iPhone 16 ambit and the iPhone SE 3 are the current - generation model useable from Apple . In addition to theiPhone SE 4model we ’re also expectingiPhone 17to launch in 2025 . Below you could find liaison below to our reviews of all iPhone models , including the latest generation . Learn more about all thenew Apple products descend this yearandwhen is the next Apple event . You might also need to ensure out our advice onwhen is the good time to buy a unexampled iPhone , ouriPhone buying guide , and ourcomparison of every iPhone that is available to bribe today .
