Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max Review: The best of everything packed by Apple that every user needs!!

The iPhone 13 Pro Max makes for a complete flagship package. 

Apple has been a most successful manufacturer in the smartphone segment with their iPhones which when launched each year bring some innovative things to the table that are trickled down to the next generation iPhones. Last year, the iPhone 12 Pro Max was a massive success and until now holds a very strong position amongst Android smartphones thus still providing the best performance and cameras until now.

Lately, in 2021, Apple launched the iPhone 13 series where we could see that the iPhone 13 (Review) did not bring any huge upgrades over the iPhone 12 except for the slight change in design, main camera, better battery life, and a smaller notch. And each year you also get the latest Apple Binoc chipset. With the iPhone 13 Pro Max, Apple seems to bring some very nifty upgrades over the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

With the Pro models, Apple is introducing the 120Hz ProMotion display, and also like the iPhone 13, the notch is also smaller. So when compared to the iPhone 12 Pro Max (Review), is it worth upgrading to the iPhone 13 Pro Max, and is this the ultimate flagship that the consumer need? Let's find out in the full review.

iPhone 13 Pro Max Design:

When compared to the iPhone 12 Pro Max, the iPhone 13 Pro Max does not have any change in the design except for the smaller notch and a slightly larger battery compared to the iPhone 12 Pro Max. On the front, there are minimum bezels around and you do have the Ceramic Shield protection made by Corning which makes it shatterproof and strong.

As usual like all the previous Pro models of iPhone, you do get a square camera module that houses triple cameras with an LED flashlight and the Lidar sensor carries unchanged from the iPhone 12 Pro Max. The side frame is made up of stainless steel instead of aluminum which is only found in Pro models making it very premium to hold. 

The left side houses the volume buttons, mute switch to change the sound profiles, and the SIM card slot whereas the right side only gets the power button. The bottom has the Lightning port and two loudspeaker grilles as there is no 3.5mm headphone jack present. The smartphone has an IP68 rating and the back also supports wireless charging.

Overall, the design feels premium and feels like it is built to last.

iPhone 13 Pro Max Display:

One of the biggest upgrades that this year iPhone 13 Pro models bring is the 120Hz ProMotion display compared to the standard 60Hz display on the iPhone 12 series launched last year. The notch has been slightly narrower this year but still, you have the TrueDepth camera system for face unlock and the screen size remains the same at 6.7-inches.

As it is an OLED panel, the color reproduction seems great and viewing angles are far better even when compared to the iPhone 12 Pro Max. When it comes to brightness, this display panel can achieve 1300nits of peak brightness which is higher than the 1200nits on the iPhone 12 Pro Max so as a result, you get better visibility under direct sunlight.

The 120Hz ProMotion display does make a significant difference as multi-tasking between applications, playing games, and scrolling through webpages feel smoother and this refresh rate is just like the LTPO panels used in some Android flagships like the Galaxy S21 Ultra, OnePlus 9 Pro, etc. as the refresh rate scales from as low as 10Hz all the way to 120Hz depending on the application in usage.

The display also has support for Dolby Vision HDR so you can stream Netflix, Prime, etc. contents in HDR. Overall, the display is much more improved and is great for media consumption.

iPhone 13 Pro Max Performance:

The iPhone 13 Pro Max sports the newer Apple A15 Bionic chipset which is found on the iPhone 13 also. The performance remains great without any stutter or lag. However, there is a small difference when it comes to GPU as the iPhone 13 sports a Apple 4-core GPU whereas the iPhone 13 Pro Max has a 5-core GPU which provides slightly better performance and is also faster in most of the scenarios compared to the iPhone 13.

All heavy games ran smoothly at the highest graphics settings and here the 120Hz ProMotion display works extremely well and the touch response feels great. After long hours of gaming, the back does not feel warmer as thermals are well under controlled thanks to the great heat optimizations by the A15 Bionic chipset. There is also support for 5G both mmWave and sub-6GHz band.

iPhone 13 Pro Max Software:

All the latest iPhones launched this year come with iOS 15 out of the box which seems to be a good upgrade over the iOS 14. There are a couple of new features introduced with iOS 15 like a dedicated Focus Mode with different modes like Personal, Driving, Work, and many others. There is an App Library where all the applications are arranged and the numbering and naming cannot be changed.

As the iOS 14, there is the Control Center while swiping from the top right of the notch whereas swiping from the left shows the notification tray. There is the new Safari browser and the weather application. The FaceTime app gets a new look and now supports background blur. The Apple Wallet also gets some tweaks.

The Photos app gets a new feature Shared With Me as you can find those images shared through iMessage. The Camera application now supports the Live Text feature where when the camera scans the text written on an object, the text is available to read in a proper format. The Maps application also has been improved with AR guidance and Apple TV is present to store movies and videos.

iPhone 13 Pro Max Cameras:

Like the iPhone 12 Pro Max, the iPhone 13 Pro Max sports a triple camera setup at the rear which includes a 12MP f/1.5 main camera that comes with sensor-shift stabilization, a 12MP f/2.8 ultra-wide camera, and a 12MP f/1.8 telephoto camera. To the side of the camera module, there is a Lidar sensor to gather more light while clicking images or during videos. There is a 12MP f/2.2 camera on the front with a 3D ToF sensor.

The main camera is the same 12MP unit from the iPhone 12 Pro Max but now it has a slightly larger 1.9num pixel size compared to 1.7num on the iPhone 12 Pro Max as this allows more light to enter and as a result, the images come out with great dynamic range, excellent color close to natural and very low amount of noise in the background.

The images taken during the night come out with good details and the dynamic range works very well. The noise is very less present and colors look true to the source. There is no scene of blown away highlights as such and when you trigger the dedicated Night Mode, there is not any such difference as with/without the Night Mode, the smartphones take excellent well-detailed images without any noise as such.

The 12MP ultrawide camera does a very good job in terms of images as the dynamic range is excellent and levels of details look sharper without much noise. However, when you do zoom in on the images, there is quite some noise present and the colors look slightly oversharpened. Now there is also autofocus which works well when you go closer to a subject.

At night, the ultrawide camera takes images with a good amount of detail and the dynamic range is also perfect. However, there is some amount of noise present though but when you switch on the dedicated Night Mode, things improve as the noise reduces, the details look better and it is better to use the ultrawide camera with the Night Mode turned on.

The images from the telephoto camera come out with excellent details and the dynamic range is very good. But Apple has increased the aperture to f/2.8 from f/2.2 on the iPhone 12 Pro Max which seems to be downgraded but this results in better 3x zoom when compared to 2.5x zoom present on the iPhone 12 Pro Max. The colors look well saturated, the noise is very low and the contrast is also good.

At night, the telephoto camera takes images with a good amount of detail with very less noise. The dynamic range and contrast are good. The colors look natural also and when you turn on the Night Mode, things remain the same but the noise gets reduced to a larger extent. However, still, you do miss out on the 50x or 100x zoom provided by other smartphones.

There is no dedicated macro camera but you can use the main camera for close-up macro images. The details look good and the dynamic range seems to be good. When it comes to portraits, the iPhone 13 Pro Max either uses the main camera or the telephoto camera. Using the main camera, the dynamic range and contrast remain excellent with very low noise in the background.

The edge detection is proper and background blur is spot on with the main camera carving out the depth of field around the human subject or any other. The 3x zoom portraits come out with a good dynamic range and colors look natural but the level of details do look slightly softer while the edge detection looks almost on par with the portraits taken from the main camera.

In terms of selfies, the main camera does a very good job in terms of dynamic range and colors look well saturated with a natural skin tone. The details come out sharper and the same goes for portrait selfies which have good edge detection and there was no area of oversharpening as such. Though the portrait selfies come out in a 7MP resolution as it does apply some crop to reduce noise.

The videos from the main camera come out at 4K at 60fps with good details and dynamic range. The colors look well saturated and the details look sharper with very little noise. The Smart HDR works very well and there is also the Cinematic Mode which works in portrait videos where the main focus is on a subject and the background is kept blurred and you can shift focus between different objects.

The 4K videos at 60fps come out good on the ultrawide camera as well as the telephoto camera. The dynamic range is good and the details look sharper with very less noise in the background. Videos during the low-light come out with good dynamic range on the main camera whereas the videos come out with slightly softer details from the ultrawide camera.

The videos from the front camera come out with good details, natural skin tone for human selfies and the noise is also very low. All the videos from the rear cameras are converted into the Dolby Vision format. Overall, when it comes to images and videos, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is the best smartphone you can get right now.

iPhone 13 Pro Max Battery Life:

The iPhone 13 Pro Max sports a massive 4325mAh battery which is the highest capacity battery for an iPhone to date. With the 120Hz ProMotion display turned on, the smartphone easily lasted for two days with heavy usage and this is much better than the iPhone 12 Pro Max. With normal usage, the iPhone 13 Pro Max lasted for more than two days and the standard screen on time was around 7-8 hours.

Like the iPhone 12 series, the iPhone 13 series also do not have a charger inside the box. However, with the 20W fast charger provided by Apple in earlier iPhones, the smartphone can go from 0 to 100 percent in around 1 hour 30 minutes which is not the fastest as the flagship OnePlus 9 Pro supports 65W fast charging. There is also support for 15W fast wireless charging and a MagSafe charger is best suited for this.

But the iPhone 13 Pro Max can support 27W fast charging using some dedicated fast chargers in the market also. Overall, the battery life is a big step over the previous iterations of iPhones. 

iPhone 13 Pro Max Audio Quality:

The iPhone 13 Pro Max has a set of stereo speakers which sound very loud and have much clear bass and treble. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack which is mostly not found on iPhones but using the Apple AirPods, the sound comes out great and loudness levels are excellent. There is also Dolby Atmos support for enhanced sound output.

Verdict:

The iPhone 13 Pro Max is a complete package as it provides the best build and design, a 120Hz ProMotion display for multimedia consumption, the Apple A15 Bionic chipset provides great performance and gaming and the battery life also feels great. iOS 15 provides a smooth software experience thus making the whole smartphone experience great.

However, the charging speeds are still slower than what most Android smartphones offer. Overall, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is the perfect smartphone for performance and camera lovers.