iPhone 15 Pro Max Intro
Happy iPhone month! The iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max have been revealed and they bring... some upgrades to the portfolio.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is, of course, the biggest, meanest, most expensive of the bunch, and often the most desired one. It now comes with a new 5x zoom camera, a USB Type-C port with USB 3 speeds, and other performance improvements. Is it time to give that pre-order button a nice, longing stare? Well, let's see what Apple announced:
What’s new about iPhone 15 Pro Max
- New A17 Pro processor
- USB Type-C charging and data port with USB 3 speeds
- New 5x zoom camera
- Camera now shoots 24 MP photos, instead of 12 MP
- Same screen size, thinner bezels
- New titanium build material
- New Action Button instead of Mute switch
Table of Contents:
iPhone 15 Pro Max Specs
Another year another processor... oh, is that USB C?
Here's a quick overview of the numbers that matter, but for a full specs sheet, do check iPhone 15 Pro Max specs:
| Specs | iPhone 15 Pro Max |
|---|---|
| Size and Weight | 6.30 x 3.02 x 0.32 inches (159.9 x 76.7 x 8.25 mm) 7.80 oz (221.0 g) |
| Display | 6.7" OLED 120Hz ProMotion 2,000 nits peak |
| Processor | A17 Pro 3 nm |
| Storage and Price | 256 GB - $1,199 512 GB - $1,399 1 TB - $1,599 |
| Software | iOS 17 |
| Cameras | 48 MP main 12 MP ultra 12 MP 5X zoom 12 MP front |
| Battery Size | 4,323 mAh* |
| Charging Speeds | 20 W wired 15 W MagSafe |
*highly speculative, still no official numbers
It's no shock that we will get a new processor this year, sure. However, the new Apple A17 chip has earned a new name — not Bionic, it's called the Apple A17 Pro. It now allows for USB 3 speeds for data transfers over the USB C port (10 gigabits per second or 20 times faster than USB 2.0 and Lightning). The bad news is that the press release wording is a bit dodgy — it kind of sounds like Apple will sell its own (or certified) USB 3 cables with MFi chips to allow for the quick transfers. It definitely sounds like you won't get one in the box — Apple says the USB 3 cable is "optional".
iPhone 15 Pro Max Design & Colors
Attack on Titanium
The iPhone 15 Pro Max looks very much like iPhone 14 Pro Max before it, but there are some notable differences. One, the frame is now a brushed titanium finish, so no more smudges on a stainless steel frame. Secondly, the bezels around the iPhone 15 Pro Max's screen are noticeably thinner, making the entire phone ever so slightly smaller.
The rest is as it should be — a massive camera bump with three lenses on the back, a flat metal frame, and a screen with a Dynamic Island cutout on the front.
By default, the button will work just like a mute switch. But you can also customize it to do various actions upon holding it down — turn on the flashlight, open an app, start a specific Siri Shortcut, enter a Focus Mode, so on and so forth. It's an interesting addition to the iPhone and we are curious if it will become an integral way of interacting with the device. One thing is for certain — we will miss fidgeting with that mute switch.
As for that port on the bottom — the EU regulators have now said that small electronic devices need to adhere to a standard, that being the USB C standard. So, the iPhone 15 Pro Max will say bye-bye to Lighting. And the new Apple A17 Pro chip allows for super-fast data transfer speeds (finally), which will let you copy files from your iPhone at up to 10 Gbps.
iPhone 15 Pro Max Display
The iPhone 15 Pro Max will stick to a 6.7-inch OLED panel, as before. And yes, it still has the Dynamic Island cutout we first saw on the 14 Pro series.
We'll get to enjoy that 120 Hz ProMotion refresh rate, the Always On feature (which used to be a bit too "on", but iOS settings now let us tone it down), and super-high brightness capabilities for watching HDR video in any situation.
There was no upgrade to the peak brightness this year, but that's fine — 2,000 nits peak is still plenty of light, more than you would typically need.
The Dynamic Island should, supposedly, have more uses with iOS 17 — we still have to wait and see what the final build of the operating system brings.
iPhone 15 Pro Max Camera
Up periscope! Uh... I mean — up tetraprism!
Familiar stove design
The iPhone 15 Pro Max has the familiar triple camera with a LiDAR system, and now uses its internal room to house a new 5x zoom lens (120 mm equivalent).
- 48 MP main/wide camera
- 12 MP ultra-wide
- 12 MP 5x zoom telephoto lens
Of course, that 48 MP sensor was introduced with the iPhone 14 Pro series and was a leap from the 12 MP of before. But, this year, Apple improves the way it processes data from that sensor. Instead of taking 12 MP photos by default, we will now get 24 MP pictures for more detail without sacrificing light data thanks to upgraded Photonic Engine and HDR algorithms.
The telephoto lens now has a tetraprism design, which allows for a 5x optical zoom — that's an upgrade over last year's 3x. When you punch in the digital zoom, the iPhone 15 Pro Max can go up to 25x, which is up from the previous model's 15x.
Tetraprism lens
What about zoom levels between 1x and 5x? Especially for portrait shots? Well, Apple is very confident in its ability to harness the power of the 48 MP sensor to give us "lossless" 2x zoom — at least good enough for portraits. Our experience with the iPhone 14 Pro Max shows us that is indeed to case. But we will have to test the iPhone 15 Pro Max extensively, especially since Apple touted new and improved Portrait Mode algorithms for background detection.
iPhone 15 Pro Max Performance & Benchmarks
3 nm of goodness
Another year, another new chip for the iPhones — it is called the Apple A17 Pro this time around. And it sounds like a respectable jump up — with a 20% faster GPU that now provides for hardware-accelerated raytracing and a 10% improvement in the performance cores of the CPU.
The Apple A17 Pro is the world's first 3 nm smartphone chipset. Long story short, the nm here signifies transistor size. Smaller transistors means you have more room on the chip. Plus, the pathways between them are much shorter. So, you get more transistors that can do more work, but transfer information to one another with less energy needed. That's why we say it will be more energy-efficient — more calculations for less battery drained. In theory.
Some big games coming to the iPhone 15 Pro — Assassin's Creed, Resident Evil are two of the big names
Apple does not talk about RAM on its phones. Supposedly we are getting 8 GB of RAM now — a small bump over the 6 GB in the iPhone 14 Pro. But we will have to wait for 3rd party benchmarks or teardowns to reveal the truth. iOS is pretty efficient at freezing background stuff, which is why Apple rarely pushes the RAM envelope. In 2023, 8 GB isn't that insane a number, but it does "catch up" with what Android flagships will have at a baseline.
As for storage, the 128 GB base variant is gone, the iPhone 15 Pro Max starts from 256 GB, then goes up to 512 GB and 1 TB. Don't be quick to celebrate though — Apple did not upgrade the lowest tier, it removed it. Meaning that the iPhone 15 Pro Max now starts at $1,199 for 256 GB — the $1,099 option is gone.
We will also get Wi-Fi 6E on the Pro models, for the fastest Wi-Fi protocols.
iPhone 15 Pro Max Software: iOS 17
Apple showed us what iOS 17 is going to look like way back at WWDC and, of course, we were playing around with betas all summer. The first official build will launch on September 18th, coming to all eligible iPhones.
Of course, these features will also be landing on any phone that support iOS 17 (that'll be iPhone XS era and newer).
Apple's iPhones are known to get iOS updates for years on end — commonly 5 years of support is what you should expect. So, the iPhone 15 Pro will launch with iOS 17 in 2023 and should get:
- iOS 18 in 2024
- iOS 19 in 2025
- iOS 20 in 2026
- iOS 21 in 2027
- iOS 22 in 2028, end of life
iPhone 15 Pro Max Battery
Pro Max battery for a Pro Max life
Of course, Apple doesn't like to talk about such tiny details like "battery capacity". We'll have to wait for a teardown to see what's inside that titanium chassis. But, considering the design info about the iPhone 15 Pro Max, it should have a battery about the same size as the one in the iPhone 14 Pro Max.That'll be about 4,323 mAh, which doesn't sound massive when compared to other premium large phones out there. However, with iOS' optimizations, the iPhone 14 Pro Max was already a marathon runner when it comes to battery life. We expect nothing less from the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
iPhone 15 Pro Max Charging Speeds
The iPhone 15 Pro Max may be getting USB Type-C but Apple is in no hurry to add some kind of crazy-fast charging. We get the same 20 W power draw on the wire and 15 W charging with a MagSafe puck. The iPhone 15 series is also ready for the new Qi2 wireless charging standard, with the first pucks ready to hit the market by the end of 2023. It's basically no different for iPhone users — it sticks with magnets and charges with 15 W.
iPhone 15 Pro Max Audio Quality and Haptics
The iPhones always have a clear, detailed sound, with a noticeable bottom end and a V-shaped EQ. They sound good, but have been beaten out by other premium devices like Asus' excellent ROG Phones, or even the Xperia 1 V, which may sound a bit boxy but doesn't distort in the high end like the iPhones sometimes do.
All that said, we don't see Apple changing direction with the iPhone 15 Pro Max speakers, but we'll be happy with any sort of small tweaks.
As for haptics — don't fix what's not broken. In the case here, it's the Taptic engine, which has been excellent for years now, and has been the standard in "how phone feedback should feel".
iPhone 15 Pro Max Summary
At the end of the day, it's another upgrade cycle in the tick tock style (not to be confused with TikTok). It's not huge if you are coming from an iPhone 14 Pro Max, it'll be noticeable if you are on an iPhone 13 Pro Max (battery, performance, camera), and it will be a leap for people coming from the iPhone 12 Pro Max (refresh rate, camera, battery life, and performance).
iPhones are predictably solid and we don't expect many surprises from the iPhone 15 Pro Max — pleasant or unpleasant ones. We kind of can't wait to see that titanium frame in real life, and we do want to know... how does it not ship with a USB 3 cable in the box?
