An action-packed iPhone creates a big impression in the market!
Each year the launch of an iPhone marks a great impact in the smartphone industry with class-leading specifications and this year it is no different with the iPhone 15 series as the most significant feature i.e. the USB Type-C port which feels like a much-needed upgrade from the lightening port present on previous generations of iPhones.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max brings some excellent upgrades over its predecessor, i.e., the iPhone 14 Pro Max in many aspects, including an improved chipset, a slightly newer design, an improved telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom, a newer Action key instead of the mute switch, and a USB Type-C port. So do these upgrades over the iPhone 14 Pro Max make it a valuable offering in the market?
Let's find out in the full review.
iPhone 15 Pro Max Design:
Regarding design, the iPhone 15 Pro Max follows a similar design philosophy as that of the previous iPhone models where the back gets the triple cameras placed tridiagonally with an LED flashlight inside a squared-shaped module. However, in terms of build, this time around, the iPhone 15 Pro Max uses slightly different materials around the sides.
Like on the iPhone 14 Pro Max, we had the stainless steel frame, which has now been replaced with titanium, making it slightly lighter and corrosion-resistant. In terms of weight distribution, the iPhone 15 Pro Max weighs around 221 grams making it 20 grams lighter compared to the iPhone 14 Pro Max. At the back, like its predecessor, you get a matte finish which provides a solid grip while holding in hands.
Around the edges, the smartphone is curved thus making it easier to hold in hands. The sides, the left side house the volume buttons, a SIM card tray and a newer Action key instead of the mute switch. The Action key provides some functionalities - silencer, flashlight, magnifier, Focus, Voice Memo, camera, Shortcut, etc. To the right side, there is a power key that provides some extra functionalities.
On the top, there are no controls and to the bottom, there is a USB Type-C port and two dotted grilles one of them is the primary microphone and the other one acts as a stereo speaker for enhanced sound output. On the front, there is the Dynamic Island that has been carried forward from its predecessor i.e. the iPhone 14 Pro Max and you get the similar Ceramic Shield glass for protection.
iPhone 15 Pro Max Display:
The iPhone 15 Pro Max sports an identical display to its predecessor i.e. the iPhone 14 Pro Max. There is a 6.7-inch Full HD+ (1290x2796 pixels) display with a screen-to-body ratio of 19.5:9. You get the ProMotion feature which means the display can refresh at 120Hz and depending on the content in the display, the display can also reach as low as 1Hz for the Always-On display feature.
While playing games or scrolling webpages, the display maintains a 120Hz refresh rate except for some applications like Netflix, YouTube, etc. the smartphone could only maintain 60Hz on the display. This display provides only one setting - TrueTone adjustments which almost covers sRGB colour space. The display has a well-balanced colour setup even at the highest and the lowest brightness settings.
In terms of brightness, the display can reach a peak brightness of 1000nits which is good and this brightness can even go as high as 1600nits while watching content in HDR. The display supports HDR10 and Dolby Vision so you can stream HDR content on YouTube and OTT platforms like Netflix, Prime, etc.
iPhone 15 Pro Max Performance:
The iPhone 15 Pro Max houses the powerful Apple A17 Pro Bionic chipset which is based on an efficient 3nm process and consists of a hexa core CPU (2x3.78 GHz and 4x2.11 GHz) which provides a 10 percent improvement in performance over the Apple A16 Bionic chipset present on the iPhone 14 Pro Max. The GPU is a 6-core one which is a good upgrade from the 5-core GPU present on the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Talking about the GPU, there are some new features present like hardware-accelerated Ray Tracing which offers around 4 times better raytracing compared to the software-based ray tracing on the iPhone 14 Pro Max. The A17 Bionic chipset is equipped with a Display Engine that supports hardware AV1 decoding and also allows the cameras to take 4K videos at 60fps with ProRes RAW mode.
In terms of benchmarks, the iPhone 15 Pro Max provides better scores compared to last year's iPhone 14 Pro Max. When it comes to multitasking, the smartphone easily handles all the tasks thrown at it. In all heavy games like BGMI, Call of Duty Mobile, etc. the gameplay was very smooth with no lags or stutters noticed. However after longer hours of gaming, i.e. 3-4 hours, the back does feel slightly warmer.
Also with extended usage for longer hours, there was some overheating present but with the latest iOS 17.1 update, Apple seems to have fixed it. In terms of network connectivity, there is support for all bands of 5G and good carrier aggregation. The iPhone 15 Pro Max is available in three different storage variants - 256GB/512GB/1TB with base 8GB LPDDR5 RAM.
iPhone 15 Pro Max Software:
The iPhone 15 Pro Max runs on the latest iOS 17 out of the box and provides some newer functionalities like a Standby Mode which activates while charging the smartphone and consists of different modes, messages have a standard check-in feature, FaceTime leaves messages if you have not picked either the audio or video call, etc.
The most highlighted feature has now been the Action button which can be configured in multiple different ways to use it. If you long press it triggers on/off with some of the predefined actions - flashlight, magnifier, Focus, Voice Memo, etc. There is a Shortcut option where you can use any app within the shortcut.
Now the widgets can be placed in any of the home screens where all widgets support different sizes - 4x2, 2x2 and 4x4 configuration with iOS 17, the widgets are interactive as you can control some of them directly from the home screen for example there is a home widget where you can turn on/off some devices from the widget itself.
Now talking about the home screen, there are a lot of applications present and you get the Notification tray while swiping from the left and there is the Control Center which comes down while swiping from the top right corner. Different focus modes are present - Do Not Disturb, Driving, Night, Work, Pleasure, Gaming, Fitness, Reading, etc.
Dynamic Island provides seamless multi-tasking with a pill-shaped notch with information on both left and right sides where the long pill can split into an i-shape with another application. Other than that the Dynamic Island supports The Photos application and gets some newer features like Shared with Me where you will find all messages shared in the iMessage, there is the Memories feature also.
Now the Messages get a Check-In feature where a friend or any person will be notified to you when they reach a particular destination or vice-versa. One big addition is that if your progress is slower, it can get the battery status and location access of you to the person. Voicemail is a newer addition that shows the message that the caller wants to convey to you if you have not picked up the phone.
There are a lot of features present and overall the software experience feels really good.
iPhone 15 Pro Max Cameras:
The iPhone 15 Pro Max supports a triple camera setup that houses - a 48MP f/1.8 main camera with OIS, a 12MP f/2.8 periscope telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom and another 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera with a 120-degree field of view. Along with these, you have the LIDAR scanner for depth mapping. On the front, there is a 12MP f/1.9 camera for selfies.
In terms of images, the main camera saves 24MP images by default. These images come with sharper details and have a great dynamic range with accurate colours in the background. The noise is almost non-existent and the white balance is perfect. During the night, the night mode gets triggered automatically and the images do come out with sharper details, and great dynamic range and the details in shadows look perfect.
The colours look natural in the background without any noise as such and the exposure is well handled. By default, the images are saved in 12MP. You can also disable the Night Mode and the details still look sharper, less noise is present in the background but the details look slightly less brighter than the ones shot using the Night Mode turned on. The exposure is well handled even without the Night Mode.
The 12MP images from the ultrawide camera come out with excellent details and dynamic range. The colours look natural without any oversharpening as such. The colours look natural and very little noise is present in the background. The contrast is good and there is no oversharpeness as such present. This ultrawide camera also supports dual-pixel autofocus which helps in taking macro shots.
In terms of macro shots, the images came out with excellent levels of detail that look sharper and have great dynamic range and contrast. The colours look accurate without oversharpening; since it has autofocus, the camera can go as close as 3-4 cm. Now talking about the ultrawide camera performance during the night, the images look brighter and have good sharpness with almost less noise present.
The colour saturation is perfect without any oversharpening and all these are the results taken with the Night Mode turned on. However, if you use the Auto mode, the images do come out with good details but look slightly softer, noise is slightly present in the background and colours are slightly washed out compared to the results taken using the Night Mode.
The newer 12MP telephoto camera does an amazing job in terms of images which come out with an excellent level of detail and dynamic range, have saturated colours with great contrast and almost less noise in the background. At 10x zoom, the images come out with good details thus looking sharper and have a great dynamic range with less noise present in the background.
This telephoto camera also captures some very good shots during the night with an excellent level of detail, noise is less in the background, contrast and white balance is well maintained and colours look well saturated without any oversharpening. Just like the main camera, by default, the Night Mode is triggered here automatically and without the Night Mode also, the results come out good except there is slight noise present in the background.
The primary camera of the iPhone 15 Pro Max can take 2x zoomed images that come out with sharper details, good dynamic range and saturated colours in the background. But if you go beyond 2x like around 3x or 5x, then definitely the images have slightly washed-out colours with average dynamic range and noise is more prominent in the background.
In terms of portraits, the images are taken at 2x zoom levels but you can also shoot portraits at 1x and 5x zoom levels. At 2x zoom, the portraits have an excellent level of detail that looks sharper and has good dynamic range. The edge detection is good with a proper amount of background blur also. The skin tones look accurate with almost no noise in the background.
However, the portraits taken at 1x zoom do have some oversharpening in skin tones, though the dynamic range is good and edge detection is also perfect with proper background blur. The 5x zoom portraits come out with sharper details, proper edge detection, good dynamic range and less noise present in the background.
In terms of selfies, the front camera remains unchanged from its predecessor as you get 12MP images with an excellent level of detail and dynamic range, the skin tones look accurate and there is almost no noise present in the background. In terms of selfie portraits, you get good dynamic range and edge detection with proper background blur.
In terms of videos, all four cameras can record 4K videos at 60fps and you get that cinematic video stabilization across all the cameras. The videos taken from the main camera during daylight come out with excellent details, good dynamic range, less noise in the background and accurate colours. Similar goes for both the ultrawide and the telephoto cameras.
The low-light videos from all the cameras come out with an excellent level of detail, good sharpness and dynamic range with almost less noise present in the background but still, there is some amount of softness present around the edges in the images taken by the ultrawide camera. The videos from the front camera come out with good details, dynamic range and less noise in the background with accurate skin tones.
iPhone 15 Pro Max Battery Life:
The iPhone 15 Pro Max sports a 4441mAh battery which is slightly larger than the 4323mAh battery present on its predecessor i.e. the iPhone 14 Pro Max. In terms of normal usage includes streaming social media, playing casual games, scrolling through web pages, etc., the smartphone can easily last for more than two days thanks to the efficient 3nm-based chipset and slightly larger battery.
With heavy usage that includes playing games like COD Mobile and BGMI for longer hours, running benchmarks, taking videos and photos for longer amounts of time, etc., the smartphone easily lasted for one and a half days. The 120Hz LTPO OLED display does yield great battery life, thus returning a standard screen-on time of around 7-8 hours which is really great.
In terms of charging, the iPhone 15 Pro Max only supports 20W fast charging and 15W wireless charging. However, the 20W fast charger is not included inside the box and you need to purchase it separately using that charger, 0 to 50 per cent takes around 30 minutes whereas a full charge from 0 to 100 per cent takes around 1 hour and 50 minutes. For optimized charging during the night, there is the Optimized Charging feature also.
iPhone 15 Pro Max Audio Quality:
The iPhone 15 Pro Max houses a dual stereo speaker setup that sounds adequately loud and clear where both the bottom-firing speaker and the top earpiece provide a stereo output. The loudness levels are great and you get a proper bass level and added to it there is also Dolby Atmos support for enhanced sound output.
Verdict:
The iPhone 15 Pro Max provides a flagship experience as it brings a best-in-class display with support for Dolby Vision, a newer design especially if you have the Titanium variant, a powerful A17 Bionic chipset for daily performance, an excellent battery life and a great camera experience. However, the biggest advantage over previous generation of iPhones is now you get a USB Type-C port.
On top of that, you get a great software experience as the iOS is well integrated with other devices of the Apple ecosystem. However, there are some areas where the iPhone 15 Pro Max could have have been better. Undoubtedly the A17 Bionic chipset is very powerful but there is some overheating noticed while using the smartphone and in terms of charging, there is no still any charger present inside the box.
Even the charging speeds are very slow compared to the competition out there. Overall, the iPhone 15 Pro Max feels like a good upgrade over its predecessor only if you want the USB Type-C port, newer chipset and that Action Key for daily usage and with all these things makes it worth buying over the iPhone 14 Pro Max making it a valuable proposition in the market.
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