The iPhone 16 Professional Max is the most important iPhone Apple has ever produced. It is an absolute powerhouse, however the sadly shaky rollout of Apple Intelligence has taken away a few of its shine. Nonetheless, this can be a logical improve for these nonetheless utilizing a years-old handset, and it could even tempt iPhone 15 Professional Max house owners with its immersive display, great images options, and AI potential.
For
- The most important iPhone show ever
- Digital camera Management performance
- Unimaginable efficiency
Towards
- No Apple Intelligence at launch
- Very costly
The iPhone 15 Professional Max stays a strong purchase, particularly contemplating it will be getting the complete suite of Apple Intelligence options alongside the iPhone 16 Professional Max. Certain, it is a bit of smaller, and would not have the brand new Digital camera Management, however total this stays considered one of Apple’s best flagships.
For
- Nice efficiency
- Wonderful cameras
- Gorgeous titanium construct
Towards
- No Digital camera Management
- No quick charging
The iPhone 16 lineup has arrived. Apple’s newest line of smartphones is available in shops and on-line proper now, and as our opinions of the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max present, Apple has delivered one other batch of high-performance premium handsets.
The iPhone 16 Professional Max arrives as Apple’s new ultra-premium flagship, with a bigger show, a brand new Camera Control button, and an up to date A18 Pro chipset to interchange the now-discontinued iPhone 15 Pro Max.
That stated, there’s lots carried ahead from the iPhone 15 Professional Max, which has the identical most important digital camera, show expertise, and development as Apple’s latest flagship.
So, simply how related are these two telephones? On this information, we evaluate the brand new iPhone 16 Professional Max to the iPhone 15 Professional Max, what Apple’s modified about its highest-end cellphone within the house of a 12 months.
iPhone 16 Professional Max vs iPhone 15 Professional Max: Specs comparability
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This information features a detailed breakdown of all the important thing elements of the iPhone 16 Professional Max and iPhone 15 Professional Max, however if you happen to’re simply after a easy specs comparability, try the useful desk under:
| Header Cell – Column 0 | iPhone 16 Professional Max | iPhone 15 Professional Max |
|---|---|---|
| Show: | 6.9-inch Tremendous Retina XDR OLED | 6.7-inch Tremendous Retina XDR OLED |
| Decision: | 2868 x 1320 | 2796 x 1290 |
| Refresh price: | Adaptive 1-120hz | Adaptive 1-120hz |
| Chipset: | A18 Professional | A17 Professional |
| Rear cameras: | 48MP (most important), 48MP (ultra-wide), 12MP (telephoto with 5x optical zoom) | 48MP (most important), 12MP (ultra-wide), 12MP (telephoto with 5x optical zoom) |
| Entrance digital camera: | 12MP | 12MP |
| RAM: | 8GB | 8GB |
| Storage: | 256GB, 512GB, 1TB | 256GB, 512GB, 1TB |
| Battery: | 4,685mAh (unofficial) | 4,422mAh (unofficial) |
iPhone 16 Professional Max vs iPhone 15 Professional Max: Value and availability
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The iPhone 16 Professional Max is on the market now from $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,149; the primary models hit retailer cabinets on Friday, September 20. The maxed-out 1TB storage choice will set you again a hefty $1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,849.
As talked about in our iPhone 16 Pro Max review, Apple’s newest flagship isn’t low cost by any stretch of the creativeness, however we’re a minimum of glad costs weren’t elevated this 12 months.
The iPhone 15 Professional Max has already been discontinued by Apple, but it surely was offered for a similar costs because the iPhone 16 Professional Max within the US and UK. In Australia, all storage choices of the older cellphone truly value AU$50 extra.
The iPhone 15 Professional Max is at the moment on sale at a slight low cost from third-party distributors within the wake of the iPhone 16 launch, and you’ll fairly count on costs to drop additional because the 12 months progresses.
Nevertheless, demand – and due to this fact costs – for the iPhone 15 Professional and iPhone 15 Professional Max could stay greater than different discontinued Professional iPhones, as these two fashions will each assist Apple Intelligence, Apple’s suite of AI instruments and options.
iPhone 16 Professional Max vs iPhone 15 Professional Max: design and show
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Design-wise, the iPhone 16 Professional Max is similar to the iPhone 15 Professional Max – simply barely larger.
The show on the iPhone 16 Professional Max is the most important ever fitted to an iPhone. Our evaluation discovered the brand new 6.9-inch display impressively sharp and immersive, thanks partly to the newly thinner bezels. For comparability, the iPhone 15 Professional Max is similar measurement because the earlier three generations, with a 6.7-inch show.
This elevated measurement brings the iPhone 16 Professional Max a small enhance in decision; 2868 x 1320 to the iPhone 15 Professional Max’s 2796 x 1290. This implies each telephones keep the identical 460ppi pixel density.
Aside from the dimensions, there actually may be very little distinction between the 2 panels. Each are OLED shows with an adaptive 1-120hz refresh price (which Apple manufacturers as ProMotion), each attain a peak outside brightness of two,000 nits and a peak indoor brightness of 1,600 nits for HDR content material, and each function the Dynamic Island and an optionally available At all times-On show.
Nonetheless, the distinction in show measurement means the general dimensions of the 2 telephones are barely totally different, an impact considerably mitigated by the iPhone 16 Professional Max’s smaller bezels. The iPhone 16 Professional Max measures 163mm x 77.6mm x 8.25mm, whereas the iPhone 15 Professional Max measures 159.9mm x 76.7mm x 8.25mm.
The iPhone 16 Professional Max additionally sports activities the brand-new Digital camera Management capacitive button on the decrease right-hand aspect, positioned optimally for taking pictures in panorama (extra on that later).
The 2 telephones in any other case have a near-identical titanium development, with a barely rounded body, USB 3.0 port, energy, quantity, and Motion buttons, down-firing audio system and a slither of a speaker grille for cellphone calls and stereo audio. Each are rated IP68 in opposition to mud and water, which means they’ll resist mud of any measurement and may survive submergence in 1 meter of water for as much as half-hour.
As for colours, the iPhone 16 Professional Max carries ahead the Black Titanium, White Titanium, and Pure Titanium choices from the iPhone 15 Professional Max, however swaps final 12 months’s Blue Titanium colorway for the brand new bronze-like Desert Titanium choice.
iPhone 16 Professional Max vs iPhone 15 Professional Max: cameras
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The iPhone 16 Professional Max will get a couple of digital camera upgrades over the iPhone 15 Professional Max, which collectively comprise its most tangible {hardware} upgrades.
Each telephones come outfitted with three cameras in Apple’s now-iconic triangular orientation. Each have the principle digital camera and ultra-wide digital camera oriented vertically, which permits for spatial video recording. The iPhone 16 Professional Max may also seize spatial pictures.
The telephones each have a 48MP f/1.8 most important digital camera – so far as we will inform, this is similar digital camera, regardless of Apple’s new Fusion Digital camera branding for the iPhone 16 lineup. Each include the identical 12MP f/2.8 telephoto digital camera with 5x optical zoom and 25x digital zoom.
Nevertheless, the iPhone 16 Professional Max’s 48MP f/2.2 ultra-wide digital camera is a substantial enchancment on the 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide discovered on the iPhone 15 Professional Max, and permits for high-resolution macro images.
Most strikingly, the iPhone 16 Professional Max will get the brand new Digital camera Management capacitive button. This recessed piece of haptic-enabled touch-sensitive glass can act as a shutter and settle for contact gestures for zoom, focus, and different capabilities.
Our evaluation discovered that Digital camera Management could make the iPhone 16 Professional Max “really feel like an actual digital camera”, but in addition notes that the two-step focus and shutter operate acquainted to point-and-shoot or DSLR customers is, bizarrely, lacking at launch.
The Digital camera Management can even tie into Apple Intelligence, whereby it is going to activate the Visible Intelligence environmental evaluation function, which is pretty related in operation to Google Lens.
iPhone 16 Professional Max vs iPhone 15 Professional Max: efficiency
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Apple is asking the iPhone 16 household the “first iPhones designed from the bottom up for Apple Intelligence”, and a part of that design lies under-the-hood.
The iPhone 16 Professional Max, together with its (comparatively) little sibling the iPhone 16 Professional, will get the A18 Professional chipset. Apple says the A18 Professional presents 15% higher processing efficiency and 20% higher graphics efficiency than the A17 Professional chipset discovered within the iPhone 15 Professional Max.
On paper, each chipsets have the same composition: each the A18 Professional and A17 Professional have a 6-core CPU with 2 efficiency cores and 4 effectivity cores, a 6-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine for machine studying processing.
The A18 Professional has 17% extra reminiscence bandwidth in comparison with the A17 Professional, which means it will possibly course of extra information in the identical period of time.
Each telephones include 8GB of RAM, with storage choices together with 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB.
We anticipate a really related person expertise software-wise, as each the iPhone 16 Professional Max and iPhone 15 Professional Max run iOS 18, and each will be capable of run the complete suite of Apple Intelligence options after they launch with iOS 18.1.
Because of the staggered launch of Apple Intelligence, we do not but know the way Apple’s AI suite will carry out on both cellphone. The elevated reminiscence bandwidth of the A18 Professional chip could afford the iPhone 16 Professional Max some further AI efficiency, however each telephones have the identical 16-core Neural Engine on the heart of machine studying duties, so the distinction isn’t more likely to be that putting.
iPhone 16 Professional Max vs iPhone 15 Professional Max: battery
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Apple is infamously cagey in regards to the battery capability of its merchandise and by no means shares the precise capability in milliamp hours (mAh), as a substitute preferring to cite hours of battery life for various utilization eventualities – although we do now have some unofficial confirmation of the iPhone 16 series’ battery capacities.
Apple claims the iPhone 16 Professional Max lasts for 33 hours of video playback, a rise of 4 hours in comparison with the iPhone 15 Professional Max’s quoted 29 hours of video playback.
In our iPhone 15 Pro Max review, we discovered that the iPhone 15 Professional Max lasted for 28 hours of various utilization, which bodes effectively for the quoted battery lifetime of its successor, although we will’t say for positive till we take a look at it for ourselves.
Rumors counsel that the iPhone 16 lineup might be the first Apple smartphone lineup to have gotten 45W fast charging, however Apple hasn’t confirmed this but, as a substitute saying the iPhone 16 Professional Max prices to 50% in half-hour utilizing a 20W or greater wired charger, or 30W or greater MagSafe charger. The corporate issued this similar declare with the iPhone 15 Professional Max.
Each telephones assist the Qi wi-fi charging commonplace, and as talked about each assist MagSafe charging.
iPhone 16 Professional Max vs iPhone 15 Professional Max: verdict
As our evaluation declares, the iPhone 16 Professional Max is a wonderful and beastly cellphone that is prepared for something you may think about throwing at it – on the time of writing, it is the best iPhone cash should purchase.
If you’d like Apple’s biggest-ever smartphone, then the iPhone 16 Professional Max is your go-to, and it helps that the larger body holds a bigger battery, too.
The inner specs are all top-class, however the iPhone 16 Professional has the identical internals for $200 much less, and the iPhone 15 Professional Max isn’t too far off in both efficiency or value. The Digital camera Management button revolutionizes how you employ the digital camera app, however if you happen to simply need that specific function, you will get it for much less on one of many commonplace iPhone 16 fashions.
If you happen to’ve been ready a couple of years to improve, the iPhone 16 Professional Max is the apparent alternative, however upgrading from the iPhone 15 Professional Max is a more durable promote. If you happen to’re all about AI, it may be price holding fireplace till Apple Intelligence is out, as we at the moment don’t know about how the steady launch of Apple’s AI bundle will run on both handset.
Inside updates to Apple’s top-of-the-line iPhones have gotten extra incremental year-on-year, and with Apple Intelligence coming to each telephones – and never prepared at launch for the iPhone 16 Professional Max anyway – it’s at the moment laborious to say whether or not the software program expertise will differ a lot between the 2 fashions.
Nonetheless, we expect it’s impossible that you just’ll be disenchanted with the iPhone 16 Professional Max. The Digital camera Management button is more likely to make upgrading worthwhile for photographers, whereas the bigger display measurement means movies and video games are positive to look phenomenal.
