Review: Four Months With the iPhone 16 Pro Max

[MacRumors]

Four months have passed since Apple released the iPhone 16 lineup. MacRumors videographer Dan Barbera has been using an iPhone 16 Pro Max since launch, and over on our YouTube channel, he did a multi-month review to provide his thoughts on durability, battery life, Camera Control, and other features.

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The titanium chassis has held up well, with just minor scratches and scuffs on the edges. Battery health remains at 100 percent at 101 cycles and battery life has been impressive, but this is the iPhone 16 with the biggest battery.

Camera Control has been a hit or miss feature. It's useful for opening the camera quickly to snap photos, but digging into the extra menus with swipes and gestures is clunky and takes too long.

Apple Intelligence is about the same, and it's not always super useful. One of the better features is Clean Up, which removes unwanted images from photos. Clean Up has improved over time since it was first introduced in iOS 18.1, and it's more useful than it was initially. Genmoji is fun, but it needs improvement because a lot of simple requests just don't pan out.

Unsurprisingly, the camera has been great, especially the improved 48-megapixel Ultra Wide lens that Apple added. Photographic Styles adds useful customization options, and it's easier to make quick edits that give your images a uniform look.

Have an iPhone 16? Let us know what you think of it after using it for a few months.

Article Link: Review: Four Months With the iPhone 16 Pro Max

 

[Boeingfan]

I’m loving the lighter phone. I’ve got the 1tb model and it’s much lighter to hold than my 14. Apple intelligence is not anywhere near as revolutionary as I was expecting, perhaps I got sucked in to the hype. Overall a great piece of hardware let down somewhat by the software.

 

[0186279]

Review: It's another iPhone.

 

[FoxyKaye]

Apple Intelligence as, "...not always super useful," is the understatement of the year, so far.

 

[LoveToMacRumors]

Camera control button might be already gone on the iPhone 17 air. It’s a flop

 

[vertsix]

It's good. I like that it runs much cooler than my 15 Pro Max. I can't really find a downside besides the RAM which I wish was 12 GB or something for better futureproofing, but other than that it's pretty flawless IMO.

 

[klasma]

but other than that it's pretty flawless IMO.

The review said it has some minor scratches and scuffs on the edges.

🤪

 

[WilliamG]

Camera control button might be already gone on the iPhone 17 air. It’s a flop

Agreed. Absolute waste of time and space and money.

 

[yustas]

"Battery health remains at 100 percent at 101 cycles and battery life has been impressive, but this is the iPhone 16 with the biggest battery."

What is "impressive?" The battery life on my 16 PM is far worse than it was on my 13 PM on ios 17.

 

[DunedinD]

Agreed. Absolute waste of time and space and money.

Except for every time I quickly need to take a picture. Way more effective than having to long press the Lock Screen camera button.

 

[CharlesShaw]

It's only been four months with the 16? I've been so consumed by the iPhone 18 rumors that I lost track of time.

 

[Markgnyc2]

At the end of the day its still the best iPhone ever made. There may not have been much innovation year over year. However all things considered, and all features added up, its really been great.

 

[Ifti]

Can't wait for the 'Five months with the iPhone 16 Pro Max' video!

 

[darthbane2k]

I’m not enjoying it. It’s too cumbersome, the design is stale and too many buttons now. It will take a complete redesign to convince me to upgrade next time.

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

will this be a series? 4 months, then 4 years?

 

[LogicalApex]

Camera control button might be already gone on the iPhone 17 air. It’s a flop

I don't think so. It brings a lot of interesting functionality to the table.

I use Camera Control occasionally and it is alright. To be fair though, I don't take pictures all that much... That said...

You can argue that it is underutilized for Camera Control perhaps, but the button itself is far from a flop. I'd love it to be used for the action button where we could scroll through options and have different triggers for different levels of pressure.

 

[now i see it]

Here is my review:
Returned it after 5 days due to eye strain caused by its flickering display

 

[marinersaptcomplex]

AI is for shareholders not consumers. This trend of adding it to everything needlessly needs to end.

 

[SactoGuy18]

I actually thought about getting the iPhone 16 Pro 6.3" but I ended up with an iPhone 16 Plus 6.7", mostly because of the 4,674 mAh battery. I never considered the iPhond 16 Pro Max because of the sheer weight of the phone.

 

[WilliamG]

Except for every time I quickly need to take a picture. Way more effective than having to long press the Lock Screen camera button.

Except it’s slower than pressing the Action button on the left side when phone is locked.

Phone is locked and screen off: press and hold Action button to go straight to Camera.

That doesn’t work with the Camera control button unless phone is awake.

 

[bigjnyc]

This phone is fine, but it's such a blah update over the previous model tbh.... Had I not dropped my 15PM on its screen and killed a few pixels I never would have gotten the 16PM.... But apple offered me full trade in value for the 15PM so it was a no brainer.

- the camera control button is a glorified camera shortcut for me.... Doing anything other than just opening the camera app becomes clunky and cumbersome... It's a terrible implementation

- Battery life is pretty good, probably the only notable improvement over my 15PM

- I don't really use AI, but that could just be my personal usage I guess. Image playground is horrible, it can never generate exactly what I ask for... I played with it a few times and quickly got over it.... the photos cleanup tool also terrible, it never cleans up well, always leaves a distortion in the background or odd shape

- I don't have the keen photographers eye so to me the camera looks the same

 

[jaster2]

I was excited about the camera control button until I tried it at the Apple Store. The light touch function was really difficult to work. I see how it’s useful for opening the camera and starting video recording as well. But adjusting camera parameters with light touch…I’m skeptical that will work as well as advertised.

 

[Reeneman]

"Battery health remains at 100 percent at 101 cycles and battery life has been impressive, but this is the iPhone 16 with the biggest battery."

What is "impressive?" The battery life on my 16 PM is far worse than it was on my 13 PM on ios 17.

Beside the Max/Plus models there isn’t a single iPhone with a really god battery life under heavy usage.

 

[OneMike]

AI is for shareholders not consumers. This trend of adding it to everything needlessly needs to end.

AI is the future. I’m not saying that because i necessarily feel it should be but it’s a reality.

 

[tonygig]

I'm still with my 15PM, and still indecise if changing or not. But I think I'll wait for next one.
Any relevant improvement on camera shots image quality over the 15PM? That's the only thing on I could fall...