Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max Review | Two Months Later...
Here we go again
So for the last few weeks I've been testing out Apple's most expensive, most premium iPhone of 2022. This massive slab right here. The Iphone 14 Pro Max. You've got yourself upgraded camera Tech, a jazzy new Notch, beefy performance and battery life, And it's all wrapped up in a glass of metal frame that is roughly the size of Bulgaria. But is it actually any good? and more importantly, is it actually worth that extremely Hefty asking price?
Well, here's my full Iphone 14 Pro Max review and for more on the latest and greatest Tech. Please do pug, subscribe, and ding that notifications Bell! Cheers! So no surprises at all really when it comes to the look and feel of the Pro Max.
Design
This thing is once again an absolute brick. That screen is only a 6.7 incher, which isn't exactly wildly crazy in 2022 when most Androids are touching that sort of near seven inch Mark. But that rather chunky frame does wait an extremely Hefty 240 grams. so it's a full-on bicep Buster. This thing isn't just a smartphone, it's a freaking mobile worker out in your pocket Feel: The Burn: Apple serves up a decent selection of color choices black, silver, gold, or this hair Deep Purple model, which is rather fetching, although sadly and strangely in no way affiliated with the classic rock band Deep Purple which frankly, is a massive missed opportunity. Come on Apple, that bottle land. let's get some proper Rock action on the go around back.
The matte finish does a great job resisting nasty fingerprints. Plus, those materials are tougher than a concrete Jess and steath them. No scratches, chips, or anything after all this time. Well, those cameras are also protected with sapphire glass.
Unfortunately, however, the Iphone 14 Pro Max's display hasn't fed as well at all. I've been handling this thing with extreme care and yet still. We've got a massive scratch right down the middle of that display, several smaller scratches scattered around as well. So if you're gonna spend this amount of money on a smartphone, definitely slap some sort of screen protector on there. And as usual, you got full Ip68 water and dust resistance here. My phone 14 Pro Max has been submerged a good few times in the past few weeks. No troubles whatsoever. If you try charging while there's some water still in that bottom orifice, then it just says straight up nope.
But anyway, let's have a squint at the software and Apple's latest Ios 16 is slapped on here, which packs in a fair new features, including some Pro Max exclusives.
iOS 16 & features
One of the most highlighted features here on the Iphone 14 Pro Max is that Dynamic island or Morphin flutter if you will, and this is an undeniably clever way of making the most of this Notch style situation. Although I've got to say a few days on, you do realize that it doesn't really have much impact on your everyday use. I do still love how a miniature bit of album art pops up when you're listening to music, even on third-party apps like Deezer. And if you give that a poke, you'll jump straight into the app to skip tracks or whatever else. It's also quite useful for drawing your attention to that selfie camera whenever a bit of fierce authentication is happening for payments or whatever else. But apart from that doesn't really make much difference, and certainly not exactly the massive feature that all of those countless adverts would have you expect. I'm also endlessly bemused by Apples Always on display, which isn't really an always-on display, it's more just a dimmer version of the lock screen.
Thankfully, this doesn't really prove to be a problem because Spoiler Alert: The 14 Pro Max's battery life is really bloody good. Otherwise, it could have been a really serious issue. That would have meant just having to disable it completely if you can even do that. As it is, it's just a bit baffling. A couple of months on, I'm having less issues with Ios 16 than I did at the beginning as well. Thank the baby Jesus.
When I first got this phone and I was trying to stream music to a speaker or headphones via Bluetooth, quite often it would just cut out in the middle of a track, despite the fact that the phone assured me that it was still playing. I would also have apps completely freeze on me, especially if the keyboard popped up in the middle of something. It'll just be completely unresponsive until I close the app down and start it all over again. But all of these problems Touchwood haven't appeared again for the last few weeks. Hopefully they've been ironed out. However, one particularly irritate it's an issue that does still get on my tits is downloading any kind of media be It music, video podcasts, especially in third-party apps. If you kick off a download and then dare to minimize the app to do something else on your smartphone, well, it's gonna bugger it right up. Crunchyroll, Audible, Netflix, Etc. you've got to leave your phone unlocked and open to that app until it's done otherwise. And on top of that, Apple still hasn't worked out how to do notifications in a less painful manner. Hopefully they'll get to it by Ios 20..
And while us Brits have a single Sim slot to play with if you're over in the States, hey, you guys apparently get full. not so smug about that strong dollar. now are we huh? Thankfully, E Sims work absolutely fine.
Adam T1 bunged on here for my recent trip to the states and while I didn't see as much 5G connectivity as I would have hoped, you do have support for millimeter wave as well as sub 6. I thought despite it being supported, I once again could not get the mobile hotspot into work whatsoever. Between my iPhone and my Macbook Pro, that's a whole other gripe that I won't get into right now.
On the flip side, Fierce Id is one of the best facial recognition jobbies out there right now. Even in near complete darkness, it tends to work, which is just as well because there's still no fingerprint sensor storage.
Unfortunately, started a rather misely 128 Gigs, which is kind of Bonkers and crap considering how expensive this phone is and the fact that there's no microSD memory card support. This is the Bs 128 Gig model, which still cost me 1 200 pounds or whatever, and I finally ran out of that space in just a couple of weeks because of that trip to the states. I downloaded just a few hours of Crunchyroll on Netflix to keep me amused on the plane, and yeah, that ended up in a jiffy. So if you do find yourself traveling a lot, you know, as much as I hate to say it, definitely consider choking more money at Apple for at least the 256 Gig model.
Now Apple has once again slapped a 6.7 inch Super Retina Xdr display on the iPhone 14 pro Max and it's a proper Feast for your peepers.
Display & audio
The 2796 1290 pixel resolution means supremely sharp visuals, while the Hdr video in particular looks incredibly lifelike. There's no issues here with the auto brightness, which can merely counter any glare. The only time I really struggled to see what was happening involved some serious mid-year Hawaiian Sun, and all of Ios's animations look silky, super smooth thanks to that 120 hertz refresh rate.
Unfortunately, the big problem here is that obnoxious flutter, which really gets in the way when you go full screen in apps like Youtube and Netflix, and also when you're on gaming. I also found that screen responsiveness could be a bit of a problem. it's an issue I also had with Sony's Xperia Flagship smartphone. So for instance, when you're trying to tap a tiny little link or an icon on a website or something, sometimes it takes a couple of pokes you're not quite sure whether that first one registered or not. And also if you're trying to shoot something with a projectile weapon in games like Genji Impact, I found the responsiveness could be a little bit too Keen in those cases.
But back on the positives, I'm a massive fan of the Iphone 14 Pro Max's speakers. The shitty size of this Smartphone are going to pump out some rich, beefy audio with decent sound quality even when you smash up the volume. And recently, that Bluetooth 5.3 support has been solid as well. Very stable connection and impressive range even in really busy areas like airports and train stations.
Performance and Apple's A16 Bionic is an unsurprisingly powerful chipset which makes for smooth everyday running even with limited memory to work with.
Performance & gaming
Judas are extremely rare, and I haven't had any app crashes whatsoever for several weeks now.
while the Iphone 14 Pro Max can merely keep dozens of apps running in the background, albeit not actually doing that much, especially if you want them to download stuff and game, it should be more than satisfied with the performance you get out this thing as well. Even more demand? Unfair.
Like Gentian, Impact runs absolutely perfect on the highest detail settings. At 120 frames per second, it's a gorgeously smooth experience. And while Ios still doesn't serve up any proper dedicated gaming tools, you can at least set up a game and focus mode, so on, the utterly vital apps and your least annoying friends or family numbers can actually interrupt your Gentian sesh. Now, one of the biggest advantages of getting this enormous Pro Max model is the excellent battery life.
Battery life
Even if you're the sort of person who leaps merrily out of bed at half four in the morning to maximize their day, chances are you won't have to plug this massive bastard in again until you finally slide under the sheets, even if that's after midnight because you've been out partying like some kind of No Sleep need and weirdo.
I found that with the Iphone 14 Pro Max Model, I get generally at least six to seven hours of screen on time, and that's with plenty of mixed use, including some heavy camera use, lots of media streaming, a little bit of gaming here and there as well, and when you do need to refill this Smartphone, Suddenly It's still a lightning port on this thing. Gonna have to wait a wee bit longer for that type C to finally arrive and that also definitely gets rather toasty when you do.
Plug in the iPhone 14 Pro Max and it's been charging for a little while, although not to like finger melting sort of temperatures. Thankfully you do have the option of wireless charging as well Now Finally, those Optics and the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Cameras
Boston upgraded 48 megapixel primary camera sensor now with improved Optical image stabilization. but does that mean that your photos and videos will look even nicer than ever before? Well, in general, the iPhone performs really well with natural light and even quite harsh conditions like shooting into the sun won't automatically mean you get a terrible pick. Halo effects and flowing aren't too bad at all, if not quite as good as rival phones with the Zeiss lenses. Snap a pic of a vibrant subject like a pretty flower or this frankly ugly pumpkin which looks like a stomach twist and close-up of a teenager's facial Paws and you'll get eye cream in the pleasing results sweep. Investors also tend to come out well packed with impressive detail and Boston natural Sky tones. My portrait shots also looked rather lovely, with a successful bit of bokeh style blurring, unusual filters for more extreme effects. Unfortunately, ambient and the light shots can look rather flat and grainy still, despite the larger sensor and pixel been in, while moving subjects will inevitably end up all blurry.
It's here that the Pixel phones show their superiority, especially is Apple's night mode isn't quite as Dependable as Google's night sight.
Once again, The Pro Max comes pack in a 12 megapixel Ultra wide angle lens with 120 degree field of view and this can again cope quite well with strong Hdr situations with only slightly warmer colors on display, and this is also automatically swapped to for macro shots if that's right up your alley. When you start to zoom, the primary sensor handles the action until you hit the three times level, at which point the dedicated 12 Meg telephoto shooter takes over. This serves up more basic Optical image stabilization, but it's still more than good enough to get a stable shot without much trouble. Unfortunately, however, the maximum Zoom here is 15 times, which is inferior to many Android Rivals, But what the likes of the Pixel 7 Pro offers sharper, better looking telephoto picks?
The iPhone Should satisfy anyone who's home to get a perfect touristy shot or just an unobtrusive staff of their kids cats, whatever.
For horror movies, you can capture footage at up to 4K resolution with your choice of 24, 30 or 60 frames seconds. This once again stumbles somewhat in low-like conditions, offering murky visuals and some soft focus which pills in comparisons to Rivals like couples find X5, but in better light you will get sharp, attractive looking video with minimal disruption when you're cycling between the different lenses. You've also got a cinematic mode which adds bokeh style blur into your footage, and you've got an action mode too, which helps to smooth out your video when you are moving and shooting simultaneously. No bother with audio capture either. Those mics do a bang-up job and then last up For your selfie needs. you've got a 12 Meg camera with autofocus and it's the same old story here. This works just fine in most lighting conditions, but things do get gritty and blurry when they lighten in great.
And with that front facing selfie cam, you can also shoot up to 4K resolution Ultra Hd footage only the 24 or 30 frames per second and again, absolutely spot on for a bit of Skype and Zoom and whatever else you need to do.
Solari
There is my full final Frank review of Apple's Iphone 14 Pro Max, and as usual, despite the abundance of 9 out of 10 reviews out there on the Googles, I remain unconvinced.
Verdict
It's certainly not a bad phone, but it is a flawed Flagship. It is stupidly massive and heavy. Some of those Ios features definitely need a bit of work that Dynamic Island is, you know, nice and all, but it is still hideously intrusive and you will find Superior Optics and better specs in General on more affordable Android phones. That all said, the Iphone 14 Pro Max does undeniably absolutely rule when it comes to battery life.
absolutely Stellar performance from this thing as well, and if you're already an iPhone fan, you'll in doubtedly enjoy it because it does improve on several aspects of previous smartphones. Although, if you've got last year's iPhone 13, I definitely would see it hold off on upgraded because it doesn't do enough to justify that expense. So that's what I think.
Anyway, I'm braced for the comments below. Please let me know your own thoughts how you're getting on with the Iphone 14 Pro Max. If you've got it, or if you just think I'm talking a lot of toss, then definitely feel free to fire your thoughts down below. Please do Pog, subscribe and ding that notifications Bell for more on the latest and greatest. I can have yourselves a really wonderful rest of the week! Cheers Everyone love you! [Music] [music]
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