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Video Review: Four Days With the iPhone 14 Pro Max

mattopotamus said:
Picking up a pro max today, and I am very curious how the transition to e-sim is going to pan out. I have Verizon prepaid with a phsyical sim at the moment. I tried to be proactive and reached out to Verizon yesterday, and they said it should work without an issue, fingers crossed.
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Same situation so my experience might be helpful - upgraded from a SE with physical SIM to Pro 14. I also have a VZW pre-paid plan. Transfer would not work at home, so I went to a local VZW store. Rep tried a few things that also didn't work, so put me on the phone with a support agent. I finally had to update the SE in the store to iOS16 (was on 15.7) to get the SIM xfer to take. I still consider it a minor miracle lol. Good luck!
 
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rittchard said:
While I sympathize with having eSim issues in general, this doesn't seem like the video to complain about it since as others mentioned it has more to do with the carrier than the phone itself. A friend of mine was complaining that no SIM card might be a problem when traveling but someone else addressed that earlier as well. As for me, it was 100% seamless but I was going from eSim to eSim. Last year I had problems with the transition, but that was completely because of Best Buy's ineptitude. But similarly it makes no sense for me to spend a bunch of time complaining about that here.

Other comments:

I never viewed dynamic island or always on as features that would make me want to upgrade, but more as "nice to haves." And I would say so far they have both exceeded my expectations so I'm happy with the updates. I like being able to just glance over at my phone at any time (whether I had turned it on or off) and see the time, as well as the widgets like number of steps that I added. The island is kind of fun to see what will happen with it, but doesn't really change my day to day usage (aside from the pong game which is a pretty fun diversion).

I haven't had a chance to test the camera yet, but I assume it's going to be a win. Battery life definitely seems better; I saw a review from Tom's Guide saying something like 2 hours better in testing but I haven't experienced anything like that. But even with Always On, I seem to be getting slightly better life so far. Oh - 5G - I read about the chip improvement the other day and didn't think much of it, until I was in the bathroom at work yesterday and got a remarkable 1492 Mbps on Speedtest. I was really surprised; that's the fastest download speed I've seen on my phone ever, including WiFi. I did another test in a conference room and got 947 so I don't think this was a fluke. If this holds up in other locations, that would have been worth the upgrade for me personally.

Oh and about the color. I guess since I'm always using a case (even clear ones), it doesn't matter much to me any more which one I get, but I went with the Space Black, and I do really like it. The purple looked nice to me as well but I'm glad I went with black.
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The complaints are more than valid for those like Dan (and probably me in couple weeks) who have to spend hours and hours and then switch carriers and pay more, when it doesn't work. All Apple had to do was press pause on 100% eSim until it becomes more standardized. Like, who out there was demanding all eSim? I thought ditching the lighting port was the big request?
 
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Attirex said:
Same situation so my experience might be helpful - upgraded from a SE with physical SIM to Pro 14. I also have a VZW pre-paid plan. Transfer would not work at home, so I went to a local VZW store. Rep tried a few things that also didn't work, so put me on the phone with a support agent. I finally had to update the SE in the store to iOS16 (was on 15.7) to get the SIM xfer to take. I still consider it a minor miracle lol. Good luck!
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Gone are the days of "It Just Works."
 
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Attirex said:
Same situation so my experience might be helpful - upgraded from a SE with physical SIM to Pro 14. I also have a VZW pre-paid plan. Transfer would not work at home, so I went to a local VZW store. Rep tried a few things that also didn't work, so put me on the phone with a support agent. I finally had to update the SE in the store to iOS16 (was on 15.7) to get the SIM xfer to take. I still consider it a minor miracle lol. Good luck!
Click to expand...

Good to know. Already on 16, so hopefully that was the only hiccup. I appreciate the feedback. Literally the same scenario and carrier :)
 
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SSDGUY said:
The complaints are more than valid for those like Dan (and probably me in couple weeks) who have to spend hours and hours and then switch carriers and pay more, when it doesn't work. All Apple had to do was press pause on 100% eSim until it becomes more standardized. Like, who out there was demanding all eSim? I thought ditching the lighting port was the big request?
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I upgrade two phones to 14 PM last weekend - one with physical sim and one I had converted to esim (both ATT). No issue in either case. You think that someone who worked for Macrumors might have a more up market cell plan though.
 
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tomtad said:
Got a 14 Pro and immediately regretted it when I picked it up, the thing is just too heavy. And for a handheld device that is a big deal. Everything else is wonderful, the screen is smooth and bright, the camera's amazing. But for holding, texting and reading, what I do 99% of the time, it's just uncomfortable.

It's a shame the regular 14 lacks so many features but it's what I had to change to.
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your muscles must be made out of paper cause this thing is not heavy at all. If its uncomfortable holding upside down in bed just get a pop socket
 
Sounds like a very frustrating experience, Dan. It's what I was worried about going into it. I went from my 13 Pro to 14 Pro but still had a physical SIM because I've been wary of eSIM. I am on Verizon and it swapped my number to eSIM in about 1-2 minutes just fine during the height of activation on launch day, luckily. Really sounds like the issue here was your carrier, although of course due to Apple forcing your hand to move to eSIM in the first place. Hope you get your phone number back soon.
 
wgaller said:
I upgrade two phones to 14 PM last weekend - one with physical sim and one I had converted to esim (both ATT). No issue in either case. You think that someone who worked for Macrumors might have a more up market cell plan though.
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I guess just because you work for a successful Mac Rumors site doesn't mean you don't need to save money where you can.
 
whyamihere said:
Sounds like a very frustrating experience, Dan. It's what I was worried about going into it. I went from my 13 Pro to 14 Pro but still had a physical SIM because I've been wary of eSIM. I am on Verizon and it swapped my number to eSIM in about 1-2 minutes just fine during the height of activation on launch day, luckily. Really sounds like the issue here was your carrier, although of course due to Apple forcing your hand to move to eSIM in the first place. Hope you get your phone number back soon.
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IMO this is Apple being Apple.
They've decreed SIM dead, and will move ruthlessly to finish it off.
People will get angry, it will inconvenience many, industry will make fun of it, but they will follow.
Agree with them or not, SIM will die, and now joins the CD-ROM, USB-A, etc in the Apple Hit List Graveyard.
 
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newton4000 said:
IMO this is Apple being Apple.
They've decreed SIM dead, and will move ruthlessly to finish it off.
People will get angry, it will inconvenience many, industry will make fun of it, but they will follow.
Agree with them or not, SIM will die, and now joins the CD-ROM, USB-A, etc in the Apple Hit List Graveyard.
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True. Apple has spoken. Fall in line.
 
he shouldve noted the silver is a much different shade of white/silver than previous 13 pro.
 
thadoggfather said:
I could see a huge difference with outdoor visibility too personally (from 12 pro to 14 pro max), even with sunglasses on

Nice video, Dan!

I also agree with team Space Black
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Agree agree and agree.

Noticed the brightness difference first trip outside. Coming from 13 Pro to 14 PM.

I have prescription shades that are polarized so it’s like a literal night and day difference.

Also team space black. :cool::cool:
 
wgaller said:
You can always get an Android. I love how people on this site love to complain about Apple continuing to buy their products.
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I don't get it either. It's like people insist on being perpetually unhappy. I guess that's so one can have something to complain about and then feel good.
 
julit0 said:
Great video, Dan.

I as well had a terrible eSIM migration. Already on eSIM from 13PM last year on ATT. Activated successfully out of the box, updated the 14PM to 16.0.1 then Erased for Restoring from Backup. After that, Cellular service never came back. Took me about 6 hours on the phone with 5-6 different levels of ATT Tech support and about 24 hours without any cellular service. Finally got back online after doing a second full Erase and Delete all eSIMS, and getting another eSIM pushed from ATT.
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I went from 13pm to 14pm with AT&T cellular. Process asked if I wanted to transfer cellular plan. I said yes. Was then asked for a texted code to my cell phone from AT&T.
But cellular was already disabled on the 13
After 5 hours of transfer ( 500gb) over wifi
it was completely done.
And the esim was activated!
So all in all everything worked.
 
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Have been using physical AT&T SIM for a long time. Did my upgrade to 14 Pro Max on Sunday, and move to eSIM went smoothly, wasn't really watching time, but could have been completed in about a minute.
 
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citysnaps said:
I don't get it either. It's like people insist on being perpetually unhappy. I guess that's so one can have something to complain about and then feel good.
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My complaints with Apple, or any tech for that matter, don't affect my happiness quota in the least.
 
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