iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Google Pixel 8 Pro: Main differences

Apple's new iPhone 15 Pro Max is now official, and it's without a doubt the largest and most advanced phone coming to an Apple Store near you this fall. Not only does it have a fresh new titanium design, but it also comes around with a new customizable Action Button, a USB Type-C port, a periscope camera, and so much more.

How will Android react? Make no mistake, the competing camp will have an answer. In fact, Google's own Pixel 8 Pro will very likely be the Android flagship that will be announced closest to iPhone 15 Pro Max's market release. The next-gen Pixel phone has also leaked profusely, allowing us to draw conclusions with its iPhone rival. 

Without further ado, let's compare the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Pixel 8 Pro based on the existing rumors, leaks, and our educated guess.

iPhone 15 Pro at Walmart: preorder and save with a Verizon subscription

If you're looking for more power, we suggest you consider Walmart's preorder offer on the incredible iPhone 15 Pro. This smartphone can be bought with a carrier subscription to Verizon for just $26.37/mo, saving you a total of $100.

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AT&T-locked iPhone 15 Pro: preorder and save at Walmart

The incredible iPhone 15 Pro is also available with a subscription to AT&T. The device is available for $26.37 a month over 36 installments. In total, your savings amount to $100. This is the 128GB version of the device.

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The iPhone 15 Pro Max is available for preorder at Walmart with a Verizon subscription

Don't miss out on the chance to preorder Apple's newest and most capable smartphone yet for just $31.92/mo at Walmart. To get the iPhone 15 Pro Max at that price, you just need to subscribe to Verizon or upgrade. Your total savings through this preorder deal amount to $100.

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AT&T-locked iPhone 15 Pro Max is available for preorder at Walmart

An AT&T-locked version of the iPhone 15 Pro Max is available for preorder at Walmart. The device sells for $31.92/mo over 36 installments, saving you as much as $100 in total. This is the 256GB configuration of the Apple smartphone. Currently, all colors are available.

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Pixel 7 Pro at Best Buy: save $250 now

You can also buy the Pixel 7 Pro from Best Buy unlocked or on all three major carriers AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. Best Buy currently allows you to get $500 off the Pixel Pro 7's price tag by trading in an eligible device. If you don't have a device to trade in, you still get an instant $250 off the phone's price tag, no matter whether you choose to activate today or later.

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Pixel 7 Pro is now discounted at Amazon

You can now buy a used Pixel 7 Pro with a notable discount from Amazon. The new version is currently available with an incredible $250 discount. Get the device with 128GB of internal storage.

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In 2023, Apple is gracing the iPhone 15 Pro Max with a ton of design changes. First of all, bid goodbye to the stainless steel frame: Apple is switching to titanium. The new material makes the next iPhone lighter and more durable, not to mention impervious to fingerprint smudges. 

The signature hardware mute switch is also getting substituted for a customizable Action button. And the iPhone 15 Pro Max could become the phone with the thinnest bezels around, with 1.55mm-thin bezels. This would trump the current record-holder, the Xiaomi 13, with its 1.81mm bezels. This would help the iPhone attain a more premium appearance, not to mention slightly reduced footprint. 

Meanwhile, the Pixel 8 Pro will most certainly retain the aluminum-glass sandwich design that we've seen on most of the recent Pixel phones. For the moment, we are not sure if Google will apply many changes to the rear camera strip, but judging from recent rather official leaks, Google will introduce some minor design changes. With the Pixel 7 series, it seamlessly swooshed to the side frame of the phone.

Rumors have it that Google might fully switch to flat displays with the Pixel 8 series, bit so far it doesn't seem that plausible. Previously, Pixel phones had small but noticeable display curves, which have probably irked some users the wrong way, while made others fall in love with the Pixel flagships. 

We are not sure what colors the Pixel 8 Pro will be available in, but knowing Google, these will have some fancy and funny names. Meanwhile, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is available in Natural Titanium, White Titanium, Blue Titanium, and Black Titanium. 

Aside from the smaller bezels, there aren't any major changes to the display of the iPhone 15 Pro Max in comparison with the iPhone 14 Pro Max. It still has a 6.7-inch Liquid Retina XDR display with ProMotion and advanced HDR support. The ProMotion refresh rate that varies between 1 and 120Hz allows for a very smooth and rewarding scrolling experience, which is hard to give up once you've gotten used to. 

The latest rumors claim that we will see a 6.7-inch OLED display on the Pixel 8 Pro, with a resolution of 1344 x 2992 pixels and a median sharpness of 490ppi. The display will reportedly be capable of hitting 1600 nits in HDR scenes. Finally, the display will likely be completely flat and be of the LTPS type, allowing it to hit refresh rates of up to 120Hz. 

Apple continues to employ the Dynamic Island cutout, which hides away all the Face ID components as well as the selfie camera and is used throughout the interface to show some useful tidbits of information. Face ID is still the default biometric method for authentication on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. 

While we have no confirmation, we strongly believe that the Pixel 8 Pro will come along with a fingerprint scanner embedded into the display. A photo-based Face Unlock will also be available.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max comes along with the 3nm Apple A17 Pro chipset, its fastest yet. It's the first 3nm mobile chipset we've seen so far. It comes with a slight 10% performance upgrade in comparison with the iPhone 14 Pro Max, which is slightly less than our expectations, but still a decent improvement; we'll take it. 

At the same time, Google will likely equip the Pixel 3 with the third-generation of its custom Tensor chipset, which probably wouldn't be that much different from the existing Tensor chips. Google's custom processor have never been about excessive raw performance; instead, the company has specifically tailored these to be very capable at on-device artificial intelligence and machine learning.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max is scoring a bump to 8GB of RAM, most certainly, while some rumors claim that we might see as much as 16GB of RAM on the Pixel 8 Pro, which would bring an extremely decent boon to overall performance and multi-tasking prowess of the phone. If we have to be more sensible, however, we'd expect between 8 and 12GB of memory on the Pixel 8 Pro. 

In terms of storage, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is available with 256, 512GB, or 1TB of storage. The Pixel 8 Pro could arrive in 128, 256, and 512GB versions, with the possibility for a 1TB version always being on our radar. 

In terms of software support, we expect the iPhone 15 Pro Max to be supported for up to five years, or late 2028 in the earliest. Meanwhile, the Pixel 8 Pro should receive at least five years of security updates, but three years of major Android versions, or until Android 17. 

In early June 2023, Apple held its quite exciting and intriguing WWDC 2023 developer summit. Like any other year, all the upcoming software goodies and functionalities that will be making it to an Apple device near you this fall were previewed, including some interesting features that will be making it to Apple's software in the fall. iOS 17 was a major announcement at WWDC'23.

iOS 17 will be coming along with notable improvements to the essential Phone, Messages, and FaceTime apps, as well as introducing new features like StandBy, which shows useful information when your phone is being charged, interactive widgets, improvements to AirDrop, a new Journal app that will act as your digital diary, and enhanced keyboard autocorrect.

Offline maps, an update to AirPlay, and improvements to Siri, Visual Look Up, Find My, and other parts of iOS are also coming along.

The big novelty with the iPhone 15 Pro Max is the addition of a 5X periscope camera that finally gives the iPhone lineup the zooming capabilities it deserves. After employing relatively short telephoto lenses for what seems like an eternity, Apple is now joining the zooming game with a bang. 

The main camera of the iPhone 15 Pro Max will likely remain unchanged from the 48MP one that debuted on the iPhone 14 Pro Max, but the phone is scoring a higher-res 24MP new default shooting format. This main camera has a few tricks up the sleeve, as it not only allows for regular 1X shots but also uses a sensor crop to achieve a 2X zoom with pristine optical properties. There are also customizable focal lengths on the main camera, allowing the user to switch between 24, 28, and 35mm for artistic purposes.

When it comes to the Pixel 8 Pro, our current expectations are that Google will adorn its next flagship with a triple camera array once again. It might consist of a 50MP or a 64MP Sony IMX787 camera sensor, a wide-angle camera, and possibly a 5X telephoto camera sensor. 

Of course, Pixel phones are well-known for punching above their weight not due to the superb hardware, but mostly thanks to the software algorithms that make the best out of the raw camera input data.

In terms of video, Google is rumored to be introducing some important video-related improvements with the Pixel 8 Pro, namely Video Unblur, which would probably automatically sharpen and stabilize your blurry footage in post. However, we doubt that this will be enough to steal the iPhone's crown as Apple's flagship iPhones have always shot excellent videos, setting industry standards with each generation.

Both the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Pixel 8 Pro will most likely employ dual-speaker stereo loudspeaker systems, each with one bottom-firing and one embedded into the earpiece. Judging from the previous entrants in each respective lineup, we have very high hopes for the audio capabilities of both the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Pixel 8 Pro.

The same applies to the haptic feedback, which is traditionally quite precise and strong on either phone, so excuse us if we have very high expectations about the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Pixel 8 Pro.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max comes with a larger battery than its predecessor: the new phone carries a 4,422mAh battery. However, this hasn't helped it achieve a drastically better battery life, or at least that's what Apple reveals in its official battery stats.

Meanwhile, the Pixel 8 Pro battery size has not been leaked out just yet, but it would be quite possibly in the ballpark of 5,000mAh, similar to the Pixel 7 Pro.

Charging-wise, the iPhone 15 Pro Max supports 20W wired charging on top of 15W MagSafe wireless charging. The Pixel 8 Pro would quite possibly also come with wireless charging on board, possibly 23W. We expect up to 27W of wired charging on deck, too, a slight upgrade over the Pixel 7 Pro. 

Although it's too early to have any complete iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Pixel 8 Pro specs, we will summarize what we know and think we know in the table below.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Pixel 8 Pro are on track to make the second half of 2023 very, very interesting.

Google will have the chance to continue its strong momentum attained with previous Pixel phones, and the Pixel 8 Pro could be just the phone to do that. Alongside the foldable Pixel Fold, Google is looking at a very strong portfolio.

Meanwhile, Apple is also looking at a very strong roster for late 2023, with the iPhone 15 Pro Max being the obvious most exciting new device that's on its way to the shelves. With a new design and powerful new hardware, it will likely be a device that many might be considering when it comes to upgrading from their older iPhones, especially at its unchanged price.