iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 15 Pro: Differences Explained!

Which one should you go for: the iPhone 15 Pro Max with its larger screen, bigger battery and new 5X zoom camera, or the more petite iPhone 15 Pro which has the same A17 Pro chip, but is so much easier to use with one hand and carry in a pocket?

Let's go over the differences and see just what are the advantages of getting the 15 Pro Max over the 15 Pro, and which one is the better choice for you.

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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These two are both 'Pro' iPhones, which means that they both have a few advantages over the regular iPhone 15 and the iPhone 15 Plus models.

First is the all-new titanium frame. It has a brushed finish and the material itself is very durable and light weight. We don't think durability is the main benefit (after all, most iPhone accidents involve broken glass rather than the frame), but the reduced weight certainly is.

The iPhone 15 Pro weighs at 188 grams, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max weighs 221 grams. The Pro Max is nearly 18% heavier, so the difference is there, but we should say that both models weigh less than their predecessors, which is a great thing.

Both models also get slimmer bezels around the screens, for a more modern look and they are a tiny bit narrower too. One other subtle change is they have slightly contoured edges rather than perfectly sharp edges as on the previous models, which makes them just a bit more comfortable to hold.

The rest of the look is familiar and shared on the two: a matte glass finish on the back of both of them

Oh, and both have one brand new button: the Action button! It's located where the mute switch used to be, right above the volume keys. By default, it's set to silence the phone, but you can assign it to start the camera, a voice memo, or something else, or even run custom actions from the Shortcuts app. Right now, you have to hold the button to use it, a simple press will not do anything, and that sounds like a reasonable measure to prevent accidental presses.

Then, the obvious design difference is the one in size: the iPhone 15 Pro Max remains an extra-large phone that is hard to use with one hand and not at all comfortable to carry in a pocket. The iPhone 15 Pro, on the other hand, is way more compact and is far easier to operate with one hand.

We should also mention the new USB-C port. You can use any standard USB-C cable to charge the phone, so that's great. The only tricky part is when you want to transfer files. Both the Pro and Pro Max support USB 3 fast transfer rates of up to 10Gbps, but you need to purchase a USB 3-compatible cable to use these faster transfer rates. It's not a huge expence and most people probably won't need it anyway, but you should know that the cable that comes in the box is only USB 2 rated, so it has slower transfer speeds.

Last but not least, we have the following color choices:

What's notable here is that Apple has ditched the vibrant colors and the gold color option altogether, and replaced them with more muted tonalities.

Both the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max are powered by the same Apple A17 Pro chip.

This is first ever 3nm chip on a smartphone, a big technological leap over the 4nm chips used earlier. This new density allows for a whopping 19 billion transistors, 3 billion more than the previous generation. This is especially true for gaming as you have a new 6-core GPU that is way more powerful, while for CPU performance, you get a 10% increased speed when using the two high-performance cores.

The 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max also get 8GB of RAM, an improvement over the 6GB RAM in the 14 Pro series. However, the type and speed of the RAM memory has not changed, it's the same LPDDR5 type as before.

The 15 Pro Max thanks to its larger size has one advantage: it can stay cooler for longer, so if you play really heavy games it will throttle less and despite both phones having the same chip, the 15 Pro Max might feel a bit better optimized for gaming.

While we have quite a few differences in hardware, both the iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 15 Pro will run on the very same iOS 17 software.

iOS 17 might not bring ground-breaking changes, but it does bring quite a few new features. The Phone, Messages and FaceTime apps get a ton of new features for once, and autocorrect is also finally getting a lot better!

The Phone app now supports new Contact Posters which is basically a picture you set for yourself and others see full-screen when they receive a call from you. You also have NameDrop, another super cool new trick where you just bring two iPhones close to exchange contacts. Then, in the Messages app you now have stickers and live stickers, which you can create from Live Photos, adding a personal touch.

Others on the iOS 17 new features list are Standby Mode, which turns your iPhone into a mini home hub while it’s charging, plus you get a bunch of smaller improvements too like interactive widgets, mood tracking in the Health app, a brand new journaling app, and more.

In the US, all iPhone 15 models will come with eSIM only, same as the previous models, just keep in mind that you will not be able to use a physical SIM with these phones. International models might still support the physical SIM feature.

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Both the iPhone 15 Pro and the 15 Pro Max have three cameras on the back: you have a main camera, an ultra-wide shooter and a telephoto zoom, but the zoom one is 3X on the 15 Pro and 5X on the Pro Max.

Of course, the new 5X zoom camera is the star of the show. It's a 120mm equivalent lens and it uses a fascinating tetra-prism design which bounces light four times before it hits the sensor. And the sensor itself is the first in the world to use 3D sensor shift stabilization, helping keep things steady and sharp in both zoomed in photos and videos. Why don't we have the same new camera on the smaller 15 Pro model? It's probably because of space constraints, this module is larger and there is siimply not enough space to fit it in the smaller model. But rumors say next year both Pro iPhones will have it thanks to a new and larger design.

The zoom camera, however, is not the only change at all.

The main 48-megapixel sensor is now 25% larger and comes with sensor crop lossless zoom at 1.2X (28mm) and 1.5X (35mm). These focal lengths are great and allow for some change from the quite wide 24mm 1X mode.

Another huge improvement is the new Super High Res picture. This is not a mode in itself, but simply it's the new default. Basically, it gives you 24-megapixel shots with much better detail than 12-megapixel shots which we used to have before, but at more reasonable sizes than a full-res 48-megapixel capture. Speaking of full resolution, you can now capture 48MP shots not just in the ProRAW format, but in HEIF as well, which is really nice.

Apple also promises improvements to the ultra-wide camera and the front cameras thanks to an improved Smart HDR algorithm. Expect better overall night time performance and cleaner detail.

In terms of video quality, the big new feature is Spatial video which uses the ultra-wide AND main cameras to capture depth information. You will be able to play that immersive 3D-like video later on on the Apple Vision Pro headset.

Both iPhone 15 Pro models come with a main bottom-firing speaker and a secondary speaker located in the earpiece.

With the iPhone 13 family, Apple made a big leap in loudspeaker quality, but since than it has hit a limit and we do not expect to see huge improvements in audio quality this year, but still some slight improvement is possible. The larger 15 Pro Max model because of its sheer size usually has boomier audio than the more compact 15 Pro.

In terms of haptics, Apple has been using the industry-leading Taptic Engine for years and it will continue doing so in the iPhone 15 Pro series. Expect the same excellent haptics as before, no changes on that front. 

The iPhone 15 Pro Max comes with a 4,422 mAh battery, while the iPhone 15 Pro features a battery sizeof 3,274 mAh. That is a big difference: the Pro Max has a 35% larger battery!

You can also see the official battery life numbers for the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the 15 Pro models below:

In real life, expect this to translate to around 6 hours of screen time from the 15 Pro, and around 8 hours on the 15 Pro Max. This still means that the iPhone 15 Pro is a one-day phone, while the 15 Pro Max averages around two days on a single charge.

Charging speeds have also not changed, despite the new USB-C port.

Too bad, iPhones are one of the slowest charging phones around. Apple officially says both support 20W charging, but unofficially you should be able to get 23W from the 15 Pro and 27W from the Pro Max.

And yes, both have the same MagSafe wireless charging technology, which works at up to 15W.

Here is an overview of the specs of the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the 15 Pro:

Don't forget that we have an in-depth iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 15 Pro specs comparison here with a lot more details.

This year, you have one more reason to buy the iPhone 15 Pro Max over the more compact iPhone 15 Pro: the 5X zoom camera. If you plan on using that longer zoom range, and if you care about the longer battery life and larger screen, the 15 Pro Max is a no brainer.

For those who prefer a compact phone, however, not much has changed. The 15 Pro Max still feels quite gigantic and despite the reduction in weight, it is still on the heavy side. Those people would be better off with the more petite iPhone 15 Pro.

Which camp do you belong to?