iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 13 Pro Max: is the time to upgrade coming?

Apple has just unveiled the iPhone 15 series and we finally know what the new Pros have got for us! The question is, should you rush to upgrade to one?

Well, if you have an iPhone 13 Pro Max, you are pretty good in terms of having a 120 Hz screen, a 3x zoom camera, and a processor that is still very much a performer. In fact, you are probably not even itching to upgrade to that "Dynamic Island" slab.

But the iPhone 15 Pro Max will give you a new 48 MP camera with improved image processing, a new titanium frame with a beautiful brushed finish, and a more powerful SoC that will be able to play actual console-level games. Well, we assume slightly downgraded... Anyway, here's what we know about the iPhone 15 Pro Max vs the iPhone 13 Pro Max:

The iPhone 13 Pro Max still has the "old style" design — with a notch cutout at the top of the screen, that is. The iPhone 15 Pro Max has the new Dynamic Island cutout, as on the 14 Pro Max... for better or worse.

Also, you will immediately spot the pretty brushed finish of the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Its frame is now made of titanium, meaning it's slightly lighter than the iPhone 13 Pro Max with its shiny stainless steel frame.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max has an increased screen-to-body ratio up front, meaning the frame around the screen is now very, very thin. That also slightly reduces the overall size of the phone.

Another first for the series — the mechanical mute switch is gone from the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Instead, it is replaced by an "Action Button" — a-la Apple Watch Ultra. By default, it's still a mute toggle button. But you can program it to launch any app, Siri shortcut, flashlight, Focus Mode, or accessibility feature you choose.

And to round off the list of firsts — the iPhone 15 Pro Max comes with a USB Type-C port, all thank the EU for that. With USB 3 speeds at that, while the Lightning-equipped iPhone 13 Pro Max is still stuck to USB 2.0 — about 10 times slower than the newest standard. However, Apple's press release is worded in a way that makes us believe that a) the iPhone 15 Pro Max will not ship with a cable that supports USB 3.0 speeds and b) such cables will be locked via MFi chips and you will have to buy an Apple-made or -certified cable to make use of that.

The Pro Max series hasn't changed much about its screens for some years now — the iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 13 Pro Max both have 6.7-inch OLED panels, 120 Hz ProMotion, and 1290 x 2796 resolution. Of course, the iPhone 15 Pro Max will get the Dynamic Island where the iPhone 13 Pro Max has a Notch. Which one do you prefer?

Furthermore, the iPhone 15 Pro Max has a higher peak brightness of 2,000 nits, which is pretty insane at this point. Are we going to be watching HDR movies while at the beach? No, we don't recommend you do, imagine the heat.

The iPhone 13 Pro Max taps out at 1,200 nits during HDR playback, and we'd say that was already plenty enough. But hey, the 15 Pro Max will give you more brightness headroom.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max's A17 Pro chip is built on a 3 nm process — it's the first 3 nm smartphone chip at that. It comes with more powerful performance cores and a GPU that now supports hardware ray tracing. It is absolutely not... a small deal.

And it's definitely a big jump over the 5 nm A15, which powers the iPhone 13 Pro Max. What does that all mean for you, though?

More transistors inside the chips, smaller pathways for the electrons to travel — we expect better energy efficiency from the Apple A17, and better performance. The iPhone 13 Pro Max already has a pretty good battery life — the 15 Pro Max should beat it by a small but noticeable margin. The iPhone 13 Pro Max already has great performance, the 15 Pro Max should come with more and more headroom for future-proofing.

Also, it's worth noting that the A17 Pro comes with Wi-Fi 6E connectivity for the latest-and-greatest in wireless speeds.

iOS 17 will be coming to the iPhone 13 series and it's actually getting pushed out on the 18th of September. With it, we will get a new Journal app, nice improvements to iMessage that'll let you use any photo as a sticker and read through voice messages with speech-to-text. And a new Contact Poster that will let you customize how your calling screen looks to other people as you ring them up. The iPhone 15 Pro Max will, of course, ship with the new OS on board.

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The iPhone 13 Pro Max already feels behind the times with its 12 MP main camera sensor — the 14 series upgraded that to a massive 48 MP one, which takes much improved photos — still 12 MP, but using clusters of quad pixels for better light collection. Now, the iPhone 15 Pro Max will make better use of that 48 MP sensor, taking 24 MP photos by default. And, of course, it unlocks full 48 MP mode for RAW photos in Pro Mode.

The main camera lens has been treated for anti-glare — we'll see how that goes — and the new iPhone 15 Pro Max gets a 5x telephoto lens for optical zoom. The iPhone 13 Pro Max has a 3x lens there.

Apple talked up much improved image processing and HDR algorithms, which should make the iPhone 15 Pro Max better at Portrait Mode shots, night photography, and video. But, of course, we do want to test that once we get to play with the new toys.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max will certainly be a good jump up for pros that want to use their iPhone for videography. Thanks to the new USB 3 port, you can actually record ProRes video straight to an external drive, which is incredibly convenient.

The iPhone's speakers are pretty good — especially the Pro Max models, which have the space for bigger drivers and acoustics. They get loud and detailed, and even the bass is well audible. Our only complaint is that they can get harsh in the highs, especially with some genres, and maybe that they lack some details in the mids. We don't find it likely that the iPhone 15 Pro Max will change that in any way. It will probably sound pretty much the same as the iPhone 13 Pro Max, but here's one for the dreamers.

And the haptics won't be changing, we don't believe. The Taptic engine has been clicking and brrr-ing inside iPhones with accurate accents for years now. So — more of the same, but you won't see us complain!

The Pro Max models have always had the best battery life in their generation. Having the room for a massive battery probably helps with that. So, we have nothing bad to say about the iPhone 13 Pro Max's endurance, and we certainly expect the iPhone 15 Pro Max to meet it or outperform it. After all, that new A17 Pro chips should be more efficient — two generations worth of more efficient.

As per Apple's stats, the endurance of the iPhone 15 Pro Max is comparable to that of the iPhone 13 Pro Max, citing 29 hours of video playback for the former and 28 for the latter. Don't worry, we'll put them through the ringer when the time comes.

The iPhone 13 Pro Max can comfortably give you a day-and-a-half to two days with casual usage. So will the iPhone 15 Pro Max, unless something goes terribly wrong. Will we get fast charging, though? Nah — we expect to stick to 20 W wired and 15 W wireless (MagSafe).

Let's see the main specs for both phones here. If you want to take a deep dive with the sheets, do visit our dedicated page for iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 13 Pro Max specs comparison.

While the screen won't be changing, we definitely see differences under the hood — and in the hood design itself. The iPhone 15 Pro Max is to be slightly leaner, while packing more impressive performance and camera tech.

We don't know the exact battery capacity yet — Apple doesn't talk about these numbers, neither does it mention RAM. We'll have to wait for 3rd party teardowns to see what's inside.

So, will the iPhone 15 Pro Max be the one to upgrade to if you own an iPhone 13 Pro Max? Yeah, especially if you care about the camera changes. The 48 MP sensor was a pretty good jump last year, and it sounds promising what Apple is doing with it this year.

Plus, that titanium frame looks lovely, and the processor upgrade sounds quite impressive.

That said, if you would rather hold on to the iPhone 13 Pro Max for another period — we are pretty certain it will do perfectly well. So long as you are happy with your camera and you don't insist on having that Dynamic Island — sure, keep it, enjoy it, and see you next year!