Two Weeks With the iPhone 16 Pro Max

[haruhiko]

Agree. I was just looking over the side by side spec comparisons on Apple for the 13, 14, 15 and 16 pros. I noticed that the 14 to 15 was las tiny a change as the 15 to 16. There was a more significant upgrade going from 13 to 14. This is why I find it odd when I hear some complain that this is the FIRST time they won't be doing a yearly update -- why did they update from 14 to 15? I did yearly through iPhone 4. Then got the 6, 8, 13 and now 16 pros

I upgraded from the 14P to 15PM mainly due to the dreadful battery life of the 14P (battery health @ 85% in just a year…) plus the USB-C port and 5x zoom on the 15PM. Otherwise internally I don’t think there are a lot of differences, BUT from 15PM to 16PM? That’s another level 😂

 

[AppleTO]

Breaking News: iPhone 16 runs same apps the same way as iPhone 15.

 

[d5aqoëp]

I got the iPhone 16 Pro, my wife the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and our daughter the iPhone 16 Plus.

I can already say that these iPhones are the absolute best we have ever had. I am running iOS 18.1 Beta, and my girls iOS 18, and probably part of the joy is the OS, but the phones... WOW.

Our mobile device ecosystem is complete, with us using one M4 iPad Pro (on iPadOS 18.1 Beta), two M2 iPad Airs, and Apple watches.

WTF? I dont remember writing this comment !

 

[nordique]

Came from iPhone 15 pro max to 16 pro max
Very negligible upgrade all around but I ended up giving 15 PM to my mother

I like the better battery (not that 15 pro max was bad!) and the slight design improvements like the thinner bezels and bigger screen. Similar with the heat control - it’s not a major thing but the 15 pm would get noticeably hot. Not the case with this phone.

I am not a fan of the camera control - at least at this point. It seems to distort some pics when pressed down

But I also feel like it wasn’t worth getting at times…like I felt at times I should have picked up another 15 PM instead cheaper. Oh well. Return period is over for me now, and I am happy with the phone overall.

The battery is incredible on the 16 pro max and I absolutely need that for my work at times so I am happy with the result overall but last year I did not struggle with the upgrade from 14 to 15

 

[daabido]

WTF? I dont remember writing this comment !

And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful house"
And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful wife"
And you may ask yourself, "Am I right, am I wrong?"
And you may say to yourself, "My God, what have I done?"

 

[svish]

Good video. As usual the new iPhone will be good. But don't think there is any reason for anyone to upgrade from 15 Pro Max.

 

[bydandie]

Thanks for the info Dan, I guess I’ll hang onto my iPhone 14 Pro for a while.

I have the 16 Pro, purely due to a really good deal.

In daily use, there’s limited real world differences from the 14 Pro in terms of hardware. The only two differences (for me) are the greater zoom and the ability to get Apple Intelligence.

 

[Agent007]

Got the 16 PM and love it. I upgraded from a regular iPhone 12 so literally every spec is better. I had a 6s+ and 8+ before the 12 and I sorely missed the bigger screen and longer battery life. I probably would be fine with 256GB but AT&T gave me $1,000 trade-in value on the 12 which is how I justified the upgrade to 512GB. Later that evening I realized that the retail cost of my phone is actually more than I spent on my MacBook Air M1.

 

[dmn11]

All the bloggers are killing me.... what are you doing? finally Apple have created a good basic models and you keep on complaining about how poor the pro are...
Yes Apple have made a mistake with the pro models... it's not adding all the features to the base model but it's thinking that the pro models should be for video creators only... personally I think that this is a small niche but maybe Apple knows better... anyway I am finally looking forward to upgrade to the plus - wish it had more storage and cheaper iCloud backup option

 

[The Game 161]

had mine for two weeks and really does feel like 15 pro max. cooling is better but aside from that nothing is different. cameras feel same as well.

still enjoy it like every previous iphone though of course.

 

[majkom]

If only apple gave base iphones at least 90hz display, that would be literally best iphone ever made

 

[Reeneman]

Review in a nutshell:
Best iPhone ever

 

[Rkuda]

Dreaded?

Die a hero or live long enough to become a villain.

I think this describes lightning well.

 

[Charlesrfinal]

Upgraded from a 15PM. The battery life is a notable improvement. Also, this phone doesn't get nearly as warm as my 15PM would when plugged into my 2022 Hyundai Veloster N for hours when doing road trips with the GPS on, which is a key improvement for me. After 1 year my battery health was 94% with the 15PM.

 

[hagjohn]

Only thing that’s better is batt life

Not true at all. There was a lot of internal component updates, including better repairability.

 

[sakamura]

I will say I am a little bit disappointed in this review. As other have pointed out, for once, the base model don't feel like a violent downgrade from the pro models, and this is a great thing. Meaning a review of the Pro model should be considered for Pro features on a pro intention.

This is clear where they position this device. A few elements I truly love on the phone, and to answer the video question:

• I never thought I would love the Camera control so much. I find it unusable to set up things, reusing the controls for many things means I take a lot of useless shots while choosing my settings. But the idea you can Press, then Press or Press-and-Hold. Everything else, IMHO, is to finicky to be precise. While trying the kool-aid, in the spur of the moment, I've had many shots taken when I merely wanted to set up options quickly. Opposite, I've lost shots because my phone wasn't "opened" when I pressed the button, making it a hit-and-miss depending on the situation whether the phone will actually open or not. Compared to my DSLR with real buttons, I can blindly open it, and start taking shots knowing they will register. This is compounded by my usage of protective sheath (not Apple; sosumi), so my camera control is not flush with the device anymore. It sounds like trying to use power button on my iPad M1 with the cover backflap being a little bit bigger: pressing the button reliably is difficult, using it for Touch ID is a very different experience and finger position than with the bare device.
• I begrudgingly migrated from a perfectly viable 14P to a 16P. The reason being the advertised videographer options, and faster USB-C transfer. My wife already had the 15P, and for all the movies she would take, they would transfer at twice the speed than mine on the computer (am saddened it's not faster using the Finder, by the way - it should be nearly instantaneous). Also, we tried using USB-C devices while filming, but they would disconnect randomly (6+ cables, 3+ devices tried) while filming, so we stopped trying to do Log 4k/60 on her device, or even filming Lossy and sending directly to the M.2, since a disconnect meant a broken file, and we lost dozens of minutes of movies that were impossible to get back. The only variable was the phone, so I'll see if it's a Phone issue. I believe the issue is the phone not wanting to charge up, and starting to try sending energy to the USB-C device instead of the PD, only to fail sending enough wattage. But I might be mistaken. Anyhow, I wanted both our phones to keep on working with USB-C, potentially using them interchangeably for video, audio, and photo captures.
• Interestingly, one of the features I am now using with my phone is the resizable flash light. I was already using this for lighting my wife's stills or movies while she would shoot, and having this on my phone means a much tighter and easier control of the light for her stills. It's definitely better to have pro lights, but this is very useful for impromptu shots taken at the spur of the moment.
• The 4K/120 is also a game changer for handheld operations and capturing beauty shots, as you pointed out.
• The Spatial Audio microphone array is actually really good. I moved away from my professional Sennheiser microphone array and Shure lavalier through USB-C with the unreliable port connection on the 15 Pro, so it meant shooting audio through the phone (Better having crappy audio than having no video at all, or cutting randomly after 5-15 minutes of recording, potentially with minutes lost - or even entire movie lost). The difference between the 15 Pro and 16 Pro nearly makes me want to abandon the pro microphone array. After all, I'm not shooting musicians and concerts, so I can survive with crappier audio. The next step for me is to actually set up my microphone array, but use a computer to record audio only, and then, apply it back in FCPX. I cannot wait to have better control of the phone's microphones as post-processing in FCPX.
• Pro Max has it harder, but even the bare Pro itself is starting to be in the "too heavy for 2024" situation. There's a reason I am using protection on my 16P: that slab is heavy. My last broken phone was before phones were water proof. And we're very far from the 80 grams of my first Nokia 1112. I don't complain on features, but while the 1112 was indestructible and so light it could be dropped from a skyscraper and stand a chance to survive (while having a week's worth of battery), I don't expect my phone to always survive a drop from my pocket. Losing my phone for even two days while it gets repaired or replaced would mean lost productivity and lost opportunities, so I treat it with the respect it deserves, even with AppleCare. But it means a 16P is even bulkier than a 16PM and enters the realm of hand cramps. And we're not in the realm of pro DSLR frames, where one can be used as a weapon and still have chances of shooting pictures with it. My Canon 1* cameras are indestructible. Bulky, weighty, but with awesome ergonomics for hand operation, and the only thing I consistently put is a neutral filter in front of my rocks.
• So far, I'm trying to keep my battery usage much like my car's battery: between 20% and 80% most of the times. I tried setting up their new maximum charge option to 80. If I feel like it gets too low at times, I will bring it up to 85, then 90. So far, I am not feeling like I'm losing productivity with battery at 80 max. Especially since I typically have a charger nearby (home, studio, car) and I always have the Charge Brick option if all else fails. This means this is an option I am happy to have. And I'd love my MBP to have the same, since I'm only a moment's away from a charger anyhow, so I am trying to keep it constantly connected, or else the system "loses" the idea it should keep its battery at 80%, leading to Pavlovian behaviours.

That's it for my review. TL;DR I would say Apple needs to check for reliability in a Pro setting. Pressing the camera button and not going to camera is understandable in a pocket-camera-shoot removal, but it means having 1 button press vs 2 buttons presses for the same operation. USB-C needs to be ultra-reliable at all times if you're expected to out video to an external M.2. Camera settings should be useable blindly, with precise controls, and they're close but no cigar. Transferring shots to FCPX on Mac (not only the iPad mode) should be easier. And FCP Camera naming convention means duplicate names between two devices that gets reset to 0001. That, for me, are the drawbacks of 15/16 Pro in Pro settings at the moment.

 

[nonns]

You’ll have to get past the three week review first — and then of course there’s the five week review coming up after that.

And then the 17 is announced and it’s been 6 months since the last release so you might as well wait and save yourself a fortune.

 

[cajun67]

Trading in my iPhone 12 Pro Max. When I take the case and the screen protector off, and clean it up a bit, it'll look as good as the day it came out of the box. I figured I should trade it in before it becomes ineligible for AT&T's $999 off deal in the next year or two, and before I start running into battery issues.

That said, I have a beautiful Pacific Blue phone that I'm losing. I hate the 16 Pro colors. I guess it's back to a generic black iPhone.

 

[davidec]

I’m quite surprised at how much I’m enjoying and prefer my 16P over my 14P. The From factor alone is so much nicer, grippier and lighter than the 14P. Everything else is a bonus.

 

[votdfak]

Trading in my iPhone 12 Pro Max. When I take the case and the screen protector off, and clean it up a bit, it'll look as good as the day it came out of the box. I figured I should trade it in before it becomes ineligible for AT&T's $999 off deal in the next year or two, and before I start running into battery issues.

That said, I have a beautiful Pacific Blue phone that I'm losing. I hate the 16 Pro colors. I guess it's back to a generic black iPhone.

So you're sad to lose your "beautiful Pacific Blue" that you kept under the case. Why do you care about color when you're using case?

 

[QuarterSwede]

So you're sad to lose your "beautiful Pacific Blue" that you kept under the case. Why do you care about color when you're using case?

Could be using the clear case. Pacific Blue is gorgeous. Apple really needs to offer their Pro phones in much better colors if they want to upsell. A lot of people buy their phones based on color as their main priority.

 

[WannaGoMac]

I was surprised so many people were using this AT&T “deal “so I looked it up. It doesn’t seem good when you have to spend at least $75 per month plus tax and fees for 36 months per line to get the $1000 off. In fact, it’s pretty bad and would take very minimal effort to beat this if you choose.

 

[theinstructor]

Batter life on mine still sucks. It is actually the exact same amount of battery remaining at the end of my bus day as the iPhone Pro Max 14 I just traded in. #Sad

 

[gagaliya]

Coming from iPhone 11 Pro Max to IPhone 16 pro max, my user experience has almost zero improvement for my day to day except:

1) USB-C simplified my cables quite a bit

2) 16 pro max does NOT sit flat on the table even with apples own case, it is super annoying I am at a loss for a company supposedly so focused on design how the hell they came up with this. The old 11 pro max also has a camera bump but with the case it sits perfectly flat, looks like we going 2 steps backward….

3) The camera button was cool for the first 5 mins, but it is so awkward to use to switch its options / horizontal scroll, and i always accidentally press it while surfing / in app gaming, which pulls me out of whatever I am doing. I ended up disabling it, the old camera control works perfectly fine

4) The phone feels noticeable thicker and heavier than 11 pro max, because I guess it is.

Overall I see zero improvement to my user experience, usb-c is the only tangible gain here…but not able to lie it flat on surface even with case just annoys the hell out of me.

I will probably extend my upgrade cycle far beyond 5 years going forward until they make the hardware obsolete for new iOS…10 years? And just replace the battery at the 5 year mark

 

[BigT1]

I got my 16 PM on launch day (IUP), and I’m currently on 18.0.1. It is mostly similar to the 15 PM I had before, but the biggest difference is that Siri has become unusable. I used to use it for weather, setting alarms, setting reminders, composing text messages, and mapping destinations, and it has become ridiculously slow or flat out unresponsive. It will pop up with “Siri” or “Hey Siri”, but then it misses or ignores most of my request. I would love to get to 18.1, but I have work apps on my phone so we’re restricted from using beta software, so I guess I have to wait.

Anyone else having Siri issues? I found a Reddit post with others having the same issue…