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I went from 13PM to 16P and couldn't be happier. I loved my Pro Max the first two years but I grew a bit tired of the size over time. My usage pattern had changed and didn't really use the iPhone in a way that justified the screen size. So finally downsized and I think the screen is perfect for my usage and being able to use it one-handed really is a game changer for me. Only negative I've found is the battery life. Battery is not quite up to Pro Max level not even my old 13PM. Could be me using my new phone more so I'll give it a few weeks to settle.
Just curious how the battery life compares? I’m coming from a 12PM and thinking about going to a 16Pro for pretty much all the same reasons you stated. But I’m a little concerned about the battery life
 
This has definitely been my hardest decision the last couple year. Currently using a Max and as much as I love it, I hate it. The size and the weight and how it feels in pocket make it awful. I literally just got home from Best Buy and Verizon and I am 85% sure, I’m gonna do the Pro. I’m still on my 12PM so even with the pro, I’m sure I’ll be pleased with the battery life. I’m just not sure if I can get used to the screen size or not.
I upgraded from 12 pro max to 16 pro also. To me 16pro screen is about the same screen size of 12 pro max without bezel. So I feel like I’m looking at the same size screen without unnecessary spacing of pro max. For the battery, I’m getting about same battery life as I did with my 84% 12 pro max. Maybe a bit better. It is up and down with battery for the first week but just started getting better now and I have had this since 9/20. Your hands and fingers might need some time getting used to the regular pro size with all the stretching and tension from the past years with pro max.
 
I had a 13PM, then a 15PM and this time a 16 pro. Ultimately this comes down to personal use case. For me, the smaller phone was so much easier to go to the gym with and my runs afterwards. Made that part of my life that much better that if there was a battery trade off, I would take it. I also realized it’s a lot better for one handed use. I have to pick up my young toddler at times with a phone in the other hand and the smaller phone size makes accessing the whole screen a lot easier. Cameras the same this year. The smaller 16 pro is perfect for me. On the other hand, if you sit around watching videos all day or travel a lot and need the extra 2 hours of battery life definitely go Max.
 
Came from the 14 Pro Max to the 16 Pro. Battery does not come close. Full day use on the 14 Pro Max would result in 20% battery left at the end of the day. 16 Pro is dead by 8:30pm-9pm unless I actively use it less or top up. Picked up the 16 Pro Max, and really dislike the size. I think I am just sick of the huge size and this year, the PM is even bigger (I don't have small hands either...the phone is just huge to carry around, not pocketable at all.) For ***** and giggles, I tested the battery burn rate when recording 4K 120Hz in full sun, and the phone drains about just a bit over 1% per 1 minute so depending on how you are using it and in what conditions, the Pro may last well below a normal day if I am vacationing and recording at the beach or under water. Despite this, I am still facing a huge dilemma on which one to keep. I genuinely dislike the huge size of the Pro Max.

FWIW, I also have the 16 Pro Max. Battery life per day is no better than the 14 Pro Max and it is pretty much exactly 20%-30% better than the Pro, which is basically the size difference between the two batteries.
 
Just curious how the battery life compares? I’m coming from a 12PM and thinking about going to a 16Pro for pretty much all the same reasons you stated. But I’m a little concerned about the battery life
Battery is okay for now. It lasts me a full day of medium/heavy use, but it’s dead or very close to at bedtime. This never happened with my 13PM which easily lasted a full day and some even with heavy use. Somehow I feel like battery life will increase moving forward (first iOS 18 release is a bit buggy).
 
Battery is okay for now. It lasts me a full day of medium/heavy use, but it’s dead or very close to at bedtime. This never happened with my 13PM which easily lasted a full day and some even with heavy use. Somehow I feel like battery life will increase moving forward (first iOS 18 release is a bit buggy).

13PM was battery king. It was 2 days of light use easy, which was unimaginable for me since Nokia times.

In that iOS they changed something in regards to FindMy (probably AirTags) so a new constant battery drain was introduced (1% per hour), which has been propagated from then on. No newer phones were ever this good.
 
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Ahhhh, yes, gotta love these yearly threads. Not bashing on you op, by any means, but you’ll have to figure out what you want to prioritize (I did see you went with the Pro)!

As with pretty much anything in life, it’s all about tradeoffs!
 
This is one of those topics that is purely down to personal taste. I have a Pro Max and prefer the larger screen over the Pro, however my wife see's a larger screen as a negative and feels her Pro is superior, its just a subjective choice. At least this year the Pro's are identical in regards to hardware so you have a more simple choice to make.
 
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Ahhhh, yes, gotta love these yearly threads. Not bashing on you op, by any means, but you’ll have to figure out what you want to prioritize (I did see you went with the Pro)!

As with pretty much anything in life, it’s all about tradeoffs!
This is one of those topics that is purely down to personal taste. I have a Pro Max and prefer the larger screen over the Pro, however my wife see's a larger screen as a negative and feels her Pro is superior, its just a subjective choice. At least this year the Pro's are identical in regards to hardware so you have a more simple choice to make.
Thanks guys, totally agree, it’s a personal and active choice for everyone! I have made my jump to the 16 Pro and trying it out for my user case, still on the fence to keep it but at least I get to really test it out properly 😀 This is what this thread is about, sharing what are our personal caveats and positives ”downgrading” size to 16 Pro. Just think it’s really interesting what everyone have shared 🤓 nerd warning lol.
 
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1. this year the specs are the same on both pro and pro max
2. the pro max is bigger and heavier again (I already struggle a bit on the 15pm)
3. around 10% battery increase for the 16p on 15p
Last year I wasn’t really enough interested switching, still couldn’t see myself downgrade to 15 Pro. Did consider the 15 PM for a while since it was lighter and smaller, but decided that it wasn’t enough to jump from a perfectly fine 14 PM, and there was the heat issue that definitely made me wait. Then from there my user case changed on a personal device with having a dedicated 15 plus as a work phone. The fact that they made the pro just a little bigger now probably pushed me over to switching and the fact the specs otherwise is the same between pro and max. Not a fan either of the max getting bigger.
Edit: 95% of the time I don’t use a case so this also a parameter of course
 
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Came from the 14 Pro Max to the 16 Pro. Battery does not come close. Full day use on the 14 Pro Max would result in 20% battery left at the end of the day. 16 Pro is dead by 8:30pm-9pm unless I actively use it less or top up. Picked up the 16 Pro Max, and really dislike the size. I think I am just sick of the huge size and this year, the PM is even bigger (I don't have small hands either...the phone is just huge to carry around, not pocketable at all.) For ***** and giggles, I tested the battery burn rate when recording 4K 120Hz in full sun, and the phone drains about just a bit over 1% per 1 minute so depending on how you are using it and in what conditions, the Pro may last well below a normal day if I am vacationing and recording at the beach or under water. Despite this, I am still facing a huge dilemma on which one to keep. I genuinely dislike the huge size of the Pro Max.

FWIW, I also have the 16 Pro Max. Battery life per day is no better than the 14 Pro Max and it is pretty much exactly 20%-30% better than the Pro, which is basically the size difference between the two batteries.

I’m biased since I picked up an iPhone 16 plus on Monday and returned the 16 pro

But also came from 14 pro max and never happy with battery life in the 10 days I was trying it. It was inferior

16 plus battery life is blowing away my expectations. If you can deal with non pro concessions may be worth a look especially if you’re finding 6.9” to be too big on 16 pro max
 
I’m biased since I picked up an iPhone 16 plus on Monday and returned the 16 pro

But also came from 14 pro max and never happy with battery life in the 10 days I was trying it. It was inferior

16 plus battery life is blowing away my expectations. If you can deal with non pro concessions may be worth a look especially if you’re finding 6.9” to be too big on 16 pro max
Great suggestion. I’m now settled on the Pro Max for this round despite its gargantuan size, but will certainly look towards other options next time around. The 16 Pro? It’s back with Apple.
 
Great suggestion. I’m now settled on the Pro Max for this round despite its gargantuan size, but will certainly look towards other options next time around. The 16 Pro? It’s back with Apple.

yeah the battery life was shocking bad for me on 16 pro once dust settled. To the point where I wonder if it'll get ironed out by software down the road or I had a bad unit - but I dont think so considering iOS 18.0 has to have lots of similarities with other 16 models and previous ones to where unless its some 16 pro battery bug oversight, its still weak next to some other latest devices and even older ones.

I thought at first it was because I was using the device a lot, but it didn't even feel THAT much better than my 100% battery health 13 mini on iOS 18.0 :O

I was expecting a slight boost at min from 14 Pro Max, not a regression. I dont really trust these #'s apple put out, iirc they pitted 16 pro as better than 15 pro max in hours by a bit but if 15 pro max battery is as good or better than 14 pro max which I thought it was from anecdotes and such - that seems like a dubious claim unless all you're doing is watching Netflix on wifi.

Mixed use was not my experience.

I wouldn't be surprised if 15 pro battery life is in the same league as 16 pro, and not some 'massive' boost to 16 pro over it - or if that's true that it is an appreciable bump, battery life must've potentially been really bad on 15 pro (and 14 pro as well.. I never had any of those but I did have a 12 pro before 14 pro max and found battery on that one even less frustrating from memory than this 16 pro)
 
OK sure this is a repetitive subject every year, but for a lot of people a new phone can be an expensive endeavor and I understand why they want to get the best fit for themselves. I myself and torn between going to a Pro coming from a Max. And while I understand, you have a grace period, I’d rather not have to pay a restocking fee, not to mention any money I would put out for a case and screen protector. So I actually enjoy seeing posts like this to see people‘s opinion on whether or not they’re happy with their choice. But that’s just me.
 
yeah the battery life was shocking bad for me on 16 pro once dust settled. To the point where I wonder if it'll get ironed out by software down the road or I had a bad unit - but I dont think so considering iOS 18.0 has to have lots of similarities with other 16 models and previous ones to where unless its some 16 pro battery bug oversight, its still weak next to some other latest devices and even older ones.

I thought at first it was because I was using the device a lot, but it didn't even feel THAT much better than my 100% battery health 13 mini on iOS 18.0 :O

I was expecting a slight boost at min from 14 Pro Max, not a regression. I dont really trust these #'s apple put out, iirc they pitted 16 pro as better than 15 pro max in hours by a bit but if 15 pro max battery is as good or better than 14 pro max which I thought it was from anecdotes and such - that seems like a dubious claim unless all you're doing is watching Netflix on wifi.

Mixed use was not my experience.

I wouldn't be surprised if 15 pro battery life is in the same league as 16 pro, and not some 'massive' boost to 16 pro over it - or if that's true that it is an appreciable bump, battery life must've potentially been really bad on 15 pro (and 14 pro as well.. I never had any of those but I did have a 12 pro before 14 pro max and found battery on that one even less frustrating from memory than this 16 pro)
1 week tomorrow with the 16 Pro, and last couple of days I’ve started to see quite ok battery performance, clearly getting better. On top of that it’s capped on a charge limit of 90%, as well as updates still finishing in the background, which is really weird actually still popping up after a week… getting 6-8 SOT easily now. So starting to be quite happy 🤞 well my 15 plus work phone whips it’s ass double, but I can accept the amount battery performance I’m starting to see, I can adapt I feel 😀
OK sure this is a repetitive subject every year, but for a lot of people a new phone can be an expensive endeavor and I understand why they want to get the best fit for themselves. I myself and torn between going to a Pro coming from a Max. And while I understand, you have a grace period, I’d rather not have to pay a restocking fee, not to mention any money I would put out for a case and screen protector. So I actually enjoy seeing posts like this to see people‘s opinion on whether or not they’re happy with their choice. But that’s just me.
You’re not alone! Interests me a lot and enjoy to follow posts on these kind of subjects, on a personal device as a smartphone its quite close to heart for many 😉
 
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Isn't the size of the text and UI elements the same with the Pro now at 6.3"? My understanding is you get an additional line or two of text with the Max, but the zoom options are the same? I could be wrong as I just use the default UI and text size (no eyesight issues, yet 🤞)
Yes, for the majority of the UI you can adjust them to be the same size. What you lose out is on additional lines from the Max. I have both phones.

This has definitely been my hardest decision the last couple year. Currently using a Max and as much as I love it, I hate it. The size and the weight and how it feels in pocket make it awful. I literally just got home from Best Buy and Verizon and I am 85% sure, I’m gonna do the Pro. I’m still on my 12PM so even with the pro, I’m sure I’ll be pleased with the battery life. I’m just not sure if I can get used to the screen size or not.

I'm in the same boat and have both phones currently. I've flipped sizes every device since the 6. I went to the 8 plus -> XR -> 12PM -> 14P. I got the 16P initially and without AI, it felt like a laterally upgrade so it made me curious (for the sake of change) about the 16PM which I picked up a week later. The screen is enormous and beautiful and it's great when I'm stationary. But man, it's really the absolute limit for portability/pocket-ability for me. As far as I can remember, it actually feels more unwieldy than the 12PM because of the increased thickness. I also currently have a secondary galaxy S24+ and the max feels significantly bigger in hand with only ~1-2mm of extra width/thickness. I guess it's starting to push the limits of my normal sized hands. I have a couple days to decide on the 16P.


Came from the 14 Pro Max to the 16 Pro. Battery does not come close. Full day use on the 14 Pro Max would result in 20% battery left at the end of the day. 16 Pro is dead by 8:30pm-9pm unless I actively use it less or top up. Picked up the 16 Pro Max, and really dislike the size. I think I am just sick of the huge size and this year, the PM is even bigger (I don't have small hands either...the phone is just huge to carry around, not pocketable at all.) For ***** and giggles, I tested the battery burn rate when recording 4K 120Hz in full sun, and the phone drains about just a bit over 1% per 1 minute so depending on how you are using it and in what conditions, the Pro may last well below a normal day if I am vacationing and recording at the beach or under water. Despite this, I am still facing a huge dilemma on which one to keep. I genuinely dislike the huge size of the Pro Max.

FWIW, I also have the 16 Pro Max. Battery life per day is no better than the 14 Pro Max and it is pretty much exactly 20%-30% better than the Pro, which is basically the size difference between the two batteries.

I think the 16PM should definitely outpace (at least by some) the 14PM if all usage is identical. But I think your estimate on the 16PM and 16P is pretty accurate. I have both and +30% sounds about right so far.
 
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Yes, for the majority of the UI you can adjust them to be the same size. What you lose out is on additional lines from the Max. I have both phones.



I'm in the same boat and have both phones currently. I've flipped sizes every device since the 6. I went to the 8 plus -> XR -> 12PM -> 14P. I got the 16P initially and without AI, it felt like a laterally upgrade so it made me curious (for the sake of change) about the 16PM which I picked up a week later. The screen is enormous and beautiful and it's great when I'm stationary. But man, it's really the absolute limit for portability/pocket-ability for me. As far as I can remember, it actually feels more unwieldy than the 12PM because of the increased thickness. I also currently have a secondary galaxy S24+ and the max feels significantly bigger in hand with only ~1-2mm of extra width/thickness. I guess it's starting to push the limits of my normal sized hands. I have a couple days to decide on the 16P.




I think the 16PM should definitely outpace (at least by some) the 14PM if all usage is identical. But I think your estimate on the 16PM and 16P is pretty accurate. I have both and +30% sounds about right so far.
Please let me know what you decide on the Pro. I’m so close to pulling the trigger on it but, that amazing screen on the Max is absolutely stunning
 
Seeing reports already that the touch issue apparently is fixed! 😀
Fixed for me!

Please let me know what you decide on the Pro. I’m so close to pulling the trigger on it but, that amazing screen on the Max is absolutely stunning

Yesterday I leaned towards the pro but today it’s the max. What I’m doing on a particular day definitely influences. Such a 1st world struggle 😬. Using a phone grip helps but it’s still a 2 handed phone most of the time. I don’t think anything can change how it is in a pocket though. I can’t believe people use cases on this thing, it’d be an absolute brick.
 
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Came from the 14 Pro Max to the 16 Pro. Battery does not come close. Full day use on the 14 Pro Max would result in 20% battery left at the end of the day. 16 Pro is dead by 8:30pm-9pm unless I actively use it less or top up. Picked up the 16 Pro Max, and really dislike the size. I think I am just sick of the huge size and this year, the PM is even bigger (I don't have small hands either...the phone is just huge to carry around, not pocketable at all.) For ***** and giggles, I tested the battery burn rate when recording 4K 120Hz in full sun, and the phone drains about just a bit over 1% per 1 minute so depending on how you are using it and in what conditions, the Pro may last well below a normal day if I am vacationing and recording at the beach or under water. Despite this, I am still facing a huge dilemma on which one to keep. I genuinely dislike the huge size of the Pro Max.

FWIW, I also have the 16 Pro Max. Battery life per day is no better than the 14 Pro Max and it is pretty much exactly 20%-30% better than the Pro, which is basically the size difference between the two batteries.

Find you a 15 Pro Max. It's the perfect size and weight.
 
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