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iPhone 16 Pro Max: Review and Unboxing

I hear Dan mention boring a lot :p, I also hear some google pixel features like voice isolation when recording video.

I guess Dan hates big phones, I welcome the increased size, I just need larger pockets.

Overall great first impressions, I look forward to the next video testing the camera amongst the competition.
 
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My biggest gripe is it sometimes doesn’t register touches repeatedly if I’m palming it in my hand because the new bezels are so small my skin overlaps onto the display. I figured their software would do a better job of correcting for that, but it doesn’t. Figure a case will solve this, but the case I ordered still hasn’t arrived yet. And yes, I used the iPhone 15 Pro Max without a case at launch for a short time last year and didn’t have this problem.
 
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Macrumors journalists did a very good job reviewing this brand-new brick. Looking at the footage on different monitors I can already assess that camera is pretty bad😂 And I mean camera processing.

First of all, bokeh. Well it’s ugly, looks like sandpaper texture. Literally same as one on iPhone XR camera. It happens because of excessive noise reduction, sharpening on top and HDRing artifacts which are all around and everywhere. Because of the given artifacts image looks like it has small shadows here and there.

Also is it just me or I noticed some weird stabilization quirks during shooting? Maybe it is iOS bug or smth but I had seen that in several other reviews, especially with selfie camera.

About photographic styles: well those are disaster. It just looks like a filter slapped on same old denoised and oversharpened watercolor. With Apple’s capabilities they could have actually implemented vintage camera emulation with smarter controls over such parameters as noise and sharpness. As of now to imitate vintage looks or keep realism in photo, users have the only option – shoot Process-Zero in Halide or use regular RAW (not ProRAW) in any 3rd party app.

I have a conspiracy theory that Apple specifically downgrades camera performance in certain models to make them look much worse than next gen they will show in a year.

Look: iPhone 6 had much worse camera than 5 and 5s. 6s was just a minor leap thanks to 12mp upgrade but still had dull photos, and iPhone 7 was a huge leap forward. And iPhone XR/XS had weird “plastic overexposure” bug that was fixed in 11 and 11 Pro, but these phones had another problem – poor software sharpening and noise reduction that is only fixed with RAW, also telephoto on 11 Pro is trash, like literally trash. And 12,13 were subsequently better. Then 14, 15 and 16 entered the market and tbh 15 has better shots and processing among all of them, much more natural.

Also I noticed, iPhone again started to drift towards warmer tones in photos and videos. I had not noticed this since iPhone 6. Back in the days it ruined many shots for me unless I tried a white balance hack by moving phone a little down, “catching” preferred cool white balance, fixing exposure and focus (and white balance too), moving phone up and taking a shot.
 
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AndyUnderscoreR said:
Then Apple tarnished its eco-friendly reputation by sending 2 deliveries instead of one - why would I need the case and charger 3 days before the phone?
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It’s a no-win for Apple there. In general, it’s seen as bad when any company holds back an entire multi-item order because a single item is out of stock. I know I wouldn’t be impressed if -say- Amazon did that to me.

Plus, a few years back it was the other way round. People had pre-ordered iPhones for Day 1 delivery, but because they’d ordered a case at the same time which had already hit delays, their phones weren’t sent out till the cases became available. That didn’t go down well!

And how do Apple know what your orders are for? The charger isn’t iPhone 16 specific so maybe you needed it urgently for your current phone? And maybe you ordered the case early to be able to give it as a gift?
 
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kevingaffney said:
Upgraded to gold 16max pro from 14. Buying through my company makes it a lot cheaper and I’ve always passed on my phones to one of my daughters. Only for All that it’s a waste of money upgrading anymore. Lovely phone but only difference in 14 is camera
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Bigger screen. Less borders. More battery life.

There are a lot of little things that also add to the impact. The processor I am finding is using Face ID much faster and more accurate than my 13 did.
 
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kevingaffney said:
Upgraded to gold 16max pro from 14. Buying through my company makes it a lot cheaper and I’ve always passed on my phones to one of my daughters. Only for All that it’s a waste of money upgrading anymore. Lovely phone but only difference in 14 is camera
Click to expand...

Your old 14 will not run Apple Intelligence. That’s a huge difference. I’ve been using AI on Mac and iPhone in .1 betas since the developer betas were available. I use the writing tools every day. I don’t want to go back to a system without them, nor do I want to go back to copy and paste to and from an external AI app.
 
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NightFox said:
It’s a no-win for Apple there. In general, it’s seen as bad when any company holds back an entire multi-item order because a single item is out of stock. I know I wouldn’t be impressed if -say- Amazon did that to me.

Plus, a few years back it was the other way round. People had pre-ordered iPhones for Day 1 delivery, but because they’d ordered a case at the same time which had already hit delays, their phones weren’t sent out till the cases became available. That didn’t go down well!

And how do Apple know what your orders are for? The charger isn’t iPhone 16 specific so maybe you needed it urgently for your current phone? And maybe you ordered the case early to be able to give it as a gift?
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They could ask, like Amazon do.
 
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creediddy said:
Apple is missing out in foldable revenue. Not that they need nor do they care about the segment, but I would love to see more risks from Apple. Investors may start to lower their grade based on lack of innovation. Next year Apple should have a foldable, Apple Ring, etc…
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Apple will never sell a phone that the screen creases. So until the technology is there, there's never going to be a folding apple phone.
 
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spazzcat said:
What would this redesign look like?
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"I'll know it when I see it"... the client from hell for designers ;)

there's little new that hasnt been iterated through already.

we;ve had rectangular screens, we've had curved corners, we've had flat screens and tapered.
we've had hard buttons and onscreen buttons.
icons have settled into curved boxes in grids.

we've had flip phones that still show creases and look weak on their folds. and are expensive.

in a mature product line you get colour changes and upgraded internals.

the rest is just now a case of what works best for most people.
you pick anyone's phone up and you know how to use it.
the design is really meant to be transparent. it's an appliance.
 
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Spotlighter9 said:
The game where my kids do something memorable and I'm still fumbling to unlock, swipe, open the photos app swipe to select video and hit record ... and I've missed capturing the moment. You clearly don't have kids.
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perhaps you should just be better prepared and have that camera app open before the action starts? :)

photography has always been about prep work.
what's the stat? 50 hours of nature wildlife photography results in 1 minute of air time?

i think McDonalds actually did an ad with parents at a sporting event more interested in coffee than watching... :)
 
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creediddy said:
Apple is missing out in foldable revenue. Not that they need nor do they care about the segment, but I would love to see more risks from Apple. Investors may start to lower their grade based on lack of innovation. Next year Apple should have a foldable, Apple Ring, etc…
Click to expand...
Apple will never sell a phone that the screen creases. So until the technology is there, there's never going to be a folding iPhone phone.
AndyUnderscoreR said:
My initial impressions of the 16 Pro, which is replacing my ageing iPhone XR:

Firstly, the ordering process was really clumsy - a pointless pre-pre-order phase, Apple charged my credit card for the accessories individually before charging for the phone, which looked like fraud to my bank, who cancelled my card. Then Apple tarnished it's eco-friendly reputation by sending 2 deliveries instead of one - why would I need the case and charger 3 days before the phone?
...
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Your phone dropped shipped in one shipment with millions of other phones at the same time from the manufacturing plant. All the other stuff came separate because it was already in the US.
 
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What a bunch of whiners! So many of these negative comments border on ridiculous. What do you expect a new iPhone to do in 2024?

I have owned iPhones since day one, and upgraded from a 13pro to a 16pro. Great upgrade! Love the better camera, bigger screen, action button, camera control, always on display, battery improvements and the phone feels faster as well.

Apple intelligence is the “killer feature” that unfortunately we don’t have yet. Apple missed an opportunity on that one. Apple should have released at least some of what was promised at WWDC with the new phones. Maybe then the whiners wouldn’t be complaining as much.
 
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wbeasley said:
The added button might encourage more people to use landscape mode for videos - fewer of those vertical shots on tv news with blurry sides to fill the frame. Yeahhhhhh!
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Maybe it's because I've always been a photography enthusiast even before smartphones but I've always shot photos and videos on my phone in landscape orientation unless the situation specifically works better for portrait mode. I don't get the people who never rotate their phones.
 
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Next big change will be under screen front camera. That is what I want. ZTE makes a phone with one. Need the big 3 (Google, Apple and Samsung) to start doing the same.
 
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