Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max Review: The Best iPhone Till Date

Anupam Das
July 22, 2024

1. Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max: Initial Looks

Launched in September 2023, Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max is the latest iPhone offering to date. At first look, the iPhone appears to be a typical iPhone albeit a bit bigger and broader compared to the other offerings of the iPhone 15 series. Unlike Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra, the iPhone 15 Pro Max does not try to be too flashy or smug with its looks but tries to follow the iPhone’s proven schema.

Like other recent iPhones, it has a rectangular frame with rounded edges. At the top-middle section of the front side, the iPhone 15 Pro Max proudly displays its front camera with a thin cylindrical shape. The camera lens peaks out from the right side of that thin cylindrical strip. At the bottom end, the iPhone 15 Pro Max has a USB-C connector. Just above the halfway of the right side, a side button is located. On the left side – from top to bottom – An action button, a Volume button, and a SIM tray can be found. However, the SIM tray may not be available in all models.

On the top-left backside of the iPhone 15 Pro Max, three cameras, a flash, and a LiDAR Scanner are huddled in a square-shaped form. Two of the cameras are at the left of the square-shaped form while the third one is at the right. The flash is above this third camera while the LiDAR Scanner is at the bottom. The iPhone is equipped with a built-in stereo speaker and mic at the top and the bottom end of the phone.

2. Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max: Dimensions, Weight, & Glass Shield

The iPhone has a length of 159.9 mm/6.29 inches, a width of 76.7 mm/3.02 inches, and a depth of 8.25 mm/0.32 inches. The smartphone weighs 221 grams, making it the heaviest among the iPhone 15 series but lighter than the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

One of the reasons for the lightness of the iPhone 15 Pro Max is its frame which is made of Grade 5 Titanium alloy. Grade 5 Titanium alloy is 90% titanium mixed with vanadium, aluminum, and iron. This mixed titanium alloy is light yet has amazing strength, high durability, low elasticity, and good corrosion resistance. The smartphone can withstand falls with minimal dents. It comes with IP68 dust and water resistance. According to Apple, the iPhone 15 Pro Max can remain submerged in water for 30 minutes for about 6 meters.

iPhone 15 Pro Max has Corning-made glass with ‘Ceramic Shield’ which Apple claims to be the ‘toughest glass on smartphones’. ‘Ceramic Shield’ is the glass that is mixed with nanocrystals in a high-temperature environment. The temperature can be more than 1,600 Degrees Celcius. The ‘Ceramic Shield’ also goes through a dual-stage-ion exchange in which the glass in the process goes through two ion baths, making it stronger. Apparently, Croning makes these glasses exclusively for Apple.

The backside of the iPhone 15 Pro Max does not contain any ceramic shield and contains a textured matte finish. This way the minor wear and tear at the back side may go unnoticed. Although the ceramic shield works amazing, the lack of it at the backside does dent the prospect of Apple’s smartphones, including this one. The backside glass can be damaged upon exposure to sufficiently strong and concentrated force.

3. Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max: Display

Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max comes with a 6.7 inches or 17 cm (diagonal) screen that has a total area size of (15.99 cm x 7.67 cm) = 122.64 cm². The screen has rounded edges with curved slanting. The screen has an LTPO Extended Dynamic Range (ExDR) OLED display. OLED stands for ‘Organic Light-Emitting Doids’ and LTPO stands for ‘Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide’ which is a backplane display technology patented by Apple.

Normal OLED technology is definitely better than LCD technology in that OLED consumes less power and provides more intense colors than LCD. However, LTPO OLED goes even beyond ordinary OLED as LTPO OLED is even more power efficient and adjusts itself with the changing refresh rate. It allows the iPhone 15 Pro Max to provide better battery life and takes care of the heating issues. This new technology also provides better and more vibrant colors as the colors in the LTPO OLED display have more depth, contrast, extent, and reach. So each color and its different hues are properly expressed in the images and videos.

The display of the iPhone 15 Pro Max has a maximum resolution of 2796 x 1290 pixels with 460 Pixel-Per-Inch (PPI). Although the resolution is more than the iPhone 15 Pro version, the Pixel-Per-Inch is the same for both versions. In fact, the iPhone 14 Pro Max also has similar resolution and PPI settings. However, compared to the iPhone 14 Pro Max, the iPhone 15 Pro Max has a better screen-to-body ratio (almost 90%).

The display of this Apple iPhone 15 pro Max is equipped with a dynamic and adaptive refresh rate of 120 Hz which provides differentiated refresh rates depending on the variations in the videos or games. This enhances the video and gaming experiences immensely with a better viewing experience that adjusts according to the brightness, contrast, hue, and depth of the scenes. The low-light or night scenes become more dynamic while the bright or day scenes become more soothing to the eyes.

Just like the earlier version, this iPhone also has an always-on-display which keeps on displaying minimal but important pieces of information. The display also boasts Dolby Vision which provides vibrant colors in all the ranges of color spectrum. It works amazingly in both low and high brightness with adjustable contrast, hue, intensity, and saturation. For example, the difference while a scene happening in mid-day gets much more pronounced, the scene happening in the afternoon remains subdued compared to the previous one. The iPhone 15 Pro Max also has variable nits suitable for different brightness. While the default nits in 1000, it can operate on 1,600 nits in peak brightness and 2,000 nits outdoors.

4. Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max: CPU, GPU, & OS

Apple A17 Pro Chip — Image Credit: Apple

Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max is powered by Apple’s A17 Pro chip which is equipped with 3 nanometer transistors. The nanometer or nm stands for one Billionths of a meter. Currently, it is the latest chip that is available in the market and many smartphone makers, including Apple, are adopting these chips. The reduced transistor size makes the CPU smaller and it takes less space. It also makes the CPU more power-efficient & battery-friendly, and it generates less heat.

The iPhone comes with a Hexa-core CPU. Out of the six, 2 of the cores have a maximum clock speed of 3.78 GHz. It means that two of these cores (performance cores) can perform 3.78 Billion tasks in 1 second. The other four cores (efficient cores) have a maximum clock speed of 2.11 GHz that is these four cores can perform 2.11 Billion tasks in one second. It makes the processor of the smartphone better than the iPhone 14 Pro Max version.

Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max comes with a 6-core GPU that is embedded in the A17 Pro Chip. It is an upgrade compared to the other smartphones in the iPhone 15 and iPhone 14 series. Apart from the iPhone 15 Pro Max, the iPhone 15 Pro version also uses the same CPU and GPU settings. Along with the CPU and GPU, both iPhone 15 Prom Max and iPhone 15 Pro also come with a 16-core Neural engine that is integrated into the A17 Pro CPU. The Neural engine works as a Neural processing unit that helps the device with faster machine learning. With this Neural engine, the iPhone executes various AI tasks with ease.

Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max comes with iOS 17 version which can be upgraded to iOS 17.5.1. The iOS 17 has many new features that make the iPhone better and smarter compared to the earlier versions. With iOS 17, the apps have become more interactive and can be accessed or modified from the apps themselves without moving to overall settings. The new iOS allows users to find other connected Apple smart devices such as Apple Smartwatch. It also provides better accessibility by providing better management of text messages.

The iOS 17 has also upgraded Siri’s ease of access and made Siri more user-friendly. In iOS 17, Siri can be activated without the usual initiation and it can now perform multiple tasks without any pause. Siri can also be used to read out text without any need to read it. iOS 17 also provides users with better ease of access by smarter use of passcodes, hassle-free passcode recovery, and the ability to share with private groups.

5. Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max: Camera

Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max -Cameras — Image Credit: iken3.com

Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max comes with an impressive collection of cameras. It has three rear cameras, nestled in a square shape at the top left side of the back of the phone. The main camera is a 48 MP wide camera with a 1.22-micron pixel unit, a 24 mm focal length, and f/1.78 aperture. 1.22-micron pixel unit denotes that each pixel in the image taken by the cameras has a length of 1.22-micron or micrometer. 24 mm focal length allows the users to capture a wide area of landscape.

The f/1.8 aperture is good for capturing a lot of light and is suitable for low-light and dim environments. It is ideal for shallow-depth photography in a dim and deary environment while keeping the subject at the focus of the image. The main camera is also equipped with dual-pixel phase-detection-auto-focus (PDAF) and sensor-shift optical-image-stabilizer. Both these technologies allow for better focus even in a turbulent environment where the image subject is susceptible to moving from the focus.

The other two rear cameras are both 12 Mega Pixels but come with different configurations. One of them is a 120-degree ultra-wide camera which enables the user to stuff as much field of view as possible. This camera has an f/2.2 aperture, a 13 mm focal length, and a 1/2.55″ image sensor. It has a pixel length of 1.4-micron. This camera may not be as good as the 48 MP camera for low-light and shallow-depth photography, but it compensates by providing broad peripheral camera vision.

The other 12 MP camera is a telephoto camera with 5X zoom. It has by far the least aperture size in terms of width with the measurement of f/2.8. Less wide aperture means that less light can enter the camera, limiting its ability to take sharper images in the low-light environment. However, this camera is not intended to work in dim surroundings but rather to focus on a particular subject for photography. With 5X zoom and 120 mm focal length, this 12 MP camera provides a powerful tool to take amazing close-up shots of a subject.

Apart from the three rear cameras, the iPhone 15 Pro Max has a front/selfie camera that is located at the top-middle section of the front screen in a thin barrel-shaped space. The selfie camera of the iPhone 15 Pro Max is a 12 MP camera with f/1.9 aperture, 23 mm focal length, and a 1/3.6″ image sensor. With a 23 mm focal length and f/1.9 aperture, the selfie camera allows for a relatively wide photographic view and is decent for low-light environments. The size of the image sensor of the selfie camera is much smaller compared to the rear cameras and hence, it provides images with less resolution and diminished quality.

The rear cameras provide video recording options in 720P, 1080P, and 4K qualities. While 720P allows up to 30 frames per second (fps), 1080P and 4K allow up to 60 fps. Users can also shoot a slow-motion video in 1080P at 120 fps or 240 fps. The rear cameras also have 10-bit HDR that makes certain videos, especially the ones that have more colorful landscapes, come alive. The 10-bit HDR has 2¹⁰ shades of colors Red, Blue, and Green, making the total color shades for 10-bit HDR more than 1 Billion. However, if a landscape has more grey and dark shades, 10-bit HDR may make its contrast skewed.

6. Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max: Battery & Charging

Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max - Battery and Charging — Image Credit: Pixabay

Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max comes with a non-removable lithium-ion battery. The battery has a capacity of 4441 mAh. The phone provides both wired and wireless charging facilities. iPhone 15 Pro Max has a USB-C connector for wired charging while the smartphone has internal MagSafe and Wireless Power Consortium’s Qi standards for wireless charging. While MagSafe allows for 15 W charging, Qi allows both 15 W (Qi2) and 7.5 W (Qi1).

Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max has impressive battery life. The battery could last for up to 90 hours of normal usage. For heavy-duty tasks, it may require charging within 24 hours. Although the battery capacity of 4441 mAh is not extraordinary, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is able to deliver some amazing battery time due to its efficient CPU, GPU, and other hardware and software configurations that concentrate on efficient usage of power, less heat generation, and adaptive graphics techniques.

7. Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max: Comms, Variations, & Prices

Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max comes with 5G connectivity. It also provides Wifi 6E connectivity which can operate in the 6 GHz (5.925 to 7.125 GHz bands) band that translates to 1200 MHz spectrum in the USA and 500 MHz in Europe. It is to be noted that in India, the 6 GHz band is yet to be allocated by the Indian Government so 6E Wifi can not be used there. This iPhone also has Bluetooth 5.3 version and a UBS C 3.2 Gen port that can be used for wired connectivity, charging, and display.

Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max comes in 4 color variations – Black Titanium, White Titanium, Blue Titanium, and Natural Titanium. In terms of storage, it has three varieties – 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB. Throughout all the variations, it has 8 GB RAM. iPhone 15 Pro Max is one of the costliest smartphones in the market. The prices of this iPhone vary according to the storage. The 256 GB variant costs ₹1,59,999 in India, $1,199 in the USA, and £1,199 in the UK. The 512 GB variant costs ₹1,79,999 in India, $1,399 in the USA, and £1,399 in the UK. The 1 TB variant costs ₹1,99,999 in India, $1,599 in the USA, and £1,599 in the UK.

8. Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max: Main Specification, Pros & Cons, and Score

Specifications

Chip: Apple’s A17 Chip
GPU: Integrated 6-core GPU
Operating System: iOS 17
Storage: 256 GB/512 GB/ 1 TB
RAM Memory: 8 GB
Battery Life: Up to 84-90 hours (Normal Usage). 22-24 Hours (Continuous Heavy Duty Tasks)
Wireless Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth, 5G
Bluetooth Version: 5.3

Pros & Cons

Pros

Amazing Battery Life
Blazing fast performance
Good Collection of Cameras
Superlative Display
Powerful A17 Chip
iOS 17 and an array of Apple’s own Apps

Cons

Fall short of some of the main competitors (Such as Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra)
Comes with a huge price tag
Not much differentiation from the iPhone 15 Pro

Score

Functions	Score
Performance	8/10
Power	9/10
Display	9/10
Storage	8/10
Battery	9.5/10
Connectivity	7.5/10
Overall Score	51/60

(1 = Lowest. 5 = Highest). (0.5 increments)

Verdict

Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max faces a lot of competition from smartphones of many of its competitors. If someone is looking for value for money, then this iPhone may not be a suitable one. Also, if someone already has an iPhone 15, 15 Pro, or even 14 Pro Max and budget is a legitimate concern, then the iPhone 15 Pro Max may be unnecessary.

Still, the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max is one of the top smartphones in 2024 and even though it comes with a hefty price tag, it is an amazing smartphone that provides all the iPhone swag and is loaded with some of the best features available in the market. We are definitely bullish on this incredible smartphone.

*The prices are taken from Apple’s official website and are subject to variation and change.

**This article is for informational purposes only. Do not make your decision based solely on the information provided here. Do your own research.

Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max Review: The Best iPhone Till Date

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