Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max is the best smartphone in the world right now, or so yo have been told. It is superior not only in terms of technical specifications, but also in the countless reviews that traditionally sing the praises of the Holy Apple every year.
Will the switch to USB-C restore universal peace on Earth? Will the 5x telephoto zoom cure all of mankind’s ills? Will the titanium design that shaves 19 grams off its weight finally eradicate tendonitis forever from the world? I will answer all your questions, and more, in this iPhone 15 Pro Max hands-on.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max in a nutshell
The iPhone 15 Pro Max has been available in the US since September 22, 2023. The smallest configuration stands at 256 GB instead of 128 GB, and is priced at $1,199 a pop. This is similarly priced for the equivalent memory capacity as last year’s iPhone 14 Pro Max (review).
The iPhone 15 Pro Max introduces four main new features. The triple camera module features a new 12 MP periscopic telephoto lens that is capable of 5x optical zoom. The Lightning port is replaced by a USB-C port with the USB 3.2 standard.
The action button on the left side replaces the mute button and offers several system shortcuts. Last but not least, Apple’s new A17 Pro chip will eventually enable you to play console games on your iPhone locally, among other things
Design
Titanium, titanium, it is so cool! The iPhone 15 Pro Max has very similar visual cues to its previous generation. However, this year sees a new material used that is exclusive to the Pro range—titanium, and this has totally rocked the techosphere.
Pros:
- Sumptuous titanium blue color.
- IP68 certified.
- Almost flawless finish.
Cons:
- Still massive despite shedding 19g of weight.
- Doubts about the durability of the titanium frame paintwork.
Yes, the titanium used for its frame (instead of steel) makes the iPhone 15 Pro Max lighter than the iPhone 14 Pro Max. The weight loss is staggering, mind you: we are looking at 19 grams of weight.
This sounds insignificant by all means, but it was enough to send tech journalists into a frenzy. I saw some of them enamored by the perfect blend of lightness and “component inertia”. It’s true that Apple is the only manufacturer in the world to attach components to the inside of its smartphones.
I was so fed up with such hysteria that I decided to check it out for myself. I asked my colleague Ezequiel, an absolute pro-Apple fanboy, to place the iPhone 14 Pro Max and the iPhone 15 Pro Max in each of my hands while I closed my eyes.
And I did indeed correctly “guess” the phone that felt lightest to me, which was the iPhone 15 Pro Max. It was a true “Apple moment”, an epiphany of sorts. Anyway, I’ll stop trolling. Still, the iPhone 15 Pro Max weighs in at a hefty 221 grams, and its dimensions aren’t exactly compact at 159.9 x 76.7 x 8.3 mm.
However, there’s no denying that the iPhone 15 Pro Max has an almost flawless finish. The industrial, almost minimalist design gives the impression that the phone is carved from a single piece of titanium. The titanium blue color I was treated to is truly sumptuous to look at. The grip is not unpleasant, despite its rather massive form factor. Without Android’s backspace gesture, I found one-handed navigation in the interface to be a bit boring.
As for the rest, the camera module looks exactly the same. The glass back looks exactly the same as before, as are the straight edges with rounded corners. As for the flat-edged 6.7″ OLED screen with Dynamic Island, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference from its predecessor. The smartphone is also still IP68 certified, which is a good thing.
I just hoped that the titanium frame coating would stand up well enough in the long term.
Screen
The iPhone 15 Pro Max features a 6.7-inch OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, 2796 x 1290 pixel resolution, and a maximum brightness of 2,000 nits. The Dynamic Island is always present at the top of the screen.
Pros:
- Natural colorimetry.
- 120 Hz refresh rate.
- Dynamic Island is still relevant.
- Adequate brightness level.
- No curved edges.
Cons:
- Cannot manually the adjust refresh rate.
Colorimetry is always top-notch for Apple’s devices. After spending a short time with it, I cannot fault the display quality.
Colors are natural, and the 120 Hz variable refresh rate is fluid, even if I’d have liked to be able to customize it. The maximum brightness of 2,000 nits is only achieved in HBM (high brightness mode). Normally, it would hover at around 1,000 nits.
I had no trouble with legibility even in the heat of the day when I was busy shooting photos outdoors yesterday. I remain seduced by the concept of the Dynamic Island, an interactive pill that replaced the notch at the top of the screen. The Always On display is also still with us.
I’ll tell you more about the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s screen quality in my full review next week.
Interface/OS
The iPhone 15 Pro Max runs on iOS 17, and we’ve listed all its
new features, the eligible iPhones that will receive the update, and how to install it in this
ultimate iOS 17 guide.
Pros:
- Wait for the full review.
Cons:
- Wait for the full review.
I’m not going to dwell on Apple’s interface in this hands-on as I’ll do so in my full review. Nevertheless, the iPhones remain exemplary in terms of software longevity.
I really like the way the new action button works, where it is positioned at the top of the left-hand edge of the smartphone. It replaces the mute button found on previous models.
It’s a multi-function button to which you can assign several actions and/or shortcuts: turn on the flashlight, switch to silent mode, focus mode, launch the camera, and the list goes on. It also serves as a shutter release for the camera, where a single press will capture photos while a long press will shoot video.
I’d also like to devote an entire article to the (admittedly, this is relative) feeling of control that iOS provides. It’s totally counter-intuitive when you know that Apple hates giving its users too much freedom.
However, I felt more in control of my smartphone thanks to the various data protection features. The ability to restrict access to the photos of my choice and not my entire gallery when sharing them via an app, a tracking blocker for apps when installing them, and so on. The choices are more precise and the access blocks are more restrictive than on Android.
I’m just a dumb journalist, not a cybersecurity expert. I don’t know how much more secure iOS is in practical terms than Android. In any case, I had the sensation of being better protected. It’s stupid, but it worked as a strategy.
A final word about the switch to USB-C. As is often the case with Apple, every advance is accompanied by a little asterisk. Here, it refers to the 10 GB/s transfer speeds enabled by the USB 3.2 standard. That’s great, except that you need a compatible cable to take advantage of it. Unsurprisingly, the USB 2.0 cable included in the iPhone 15 Pro Max box is not compatible.
There’s also a whole section you can explore concerning iOS accessibility and health features. My colleague Camila produced a superb dossier on the topic of menstrual cycle tracking and compared the Apple and Samsung ecosystems,, coming to the conclusion that Apple’s solution is better implemented.
Performance & SoC
The iPhone 15 Pro Max features the new A17 Pro SoC which is a 3nm chip. Roughly speaking, it’s a miniaturized version of the A16 Bionic that was found in last year’s iPhone 14 Pro and Max, with which the iPhone 15 and Plus are also powered this year. The space gained has been allocated to the GPU, which is capable of ray-tracing and the Neural Engine (NPU), among other things.
Pros:
- Wait for the full review.
Cons:
- Wait for the full review.
The configuration of Apple’s SoC is rather unusual, with a “big-little” layout: the CPU has two performance cores and four efficiency cores, while the GPU is a 6-core unit with Ray Tracing.
| iPhone 14 Pro Max | iPhone 15 Pro Max | Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3D Mark Wild Life | Too powerful | Too powerful | 8,611 |
| 3D Mark Wild Life Extreme | 2,291 | 3,998 | 3,840 |
| 3D Mark Wild Life Stress Test | Best loop: 9,599 Worst loop: 8,121 | Best loop: 9,991 Worst loop: 8,709 | Best loop: 10,332 Worst loop: 5,606 |
| Geekbench 5/6 | Geekbench 5: Single: 1,885 Multi: 5,406 | Geekbench 6: Single: 2,936 Multi: 7,453 | Geekbench 5: Single: 1,332 Multi: 3947 |
Unfortunately, all the AAA games like Resident Evil, Death Stranding, or Assassin’s Creed won’t arrive until the end of the year or early 2024. It’s a shame Apple isn’t offering at least one major title at launch.
Mobile games obviously run without a hitch, but I’ll have more to say about the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s performance in my full review. In any case, the Apple Arcade catalog looks like a disappointment so far for those who were hoping to exploit the full power of the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Photo & video quality
The iPhone 15 Pro Max features a triple camera module on the rear. It includes a 48 MP main lens (f/1.78, 24 mm equivalent), a 12 MP ultra-wide-angle lens (f/2.2, 13 mm equivalent), and a 12 MP periscopic telephoto lens (f/2.8, 120 mm equivalent). The latter is capable of 5x optical zoom, compared with just 3x in previous models. The selfie camera offers 12 MP resolution (f/1.9, 23 mm equivalent).
Pros:
- Wait for the full review.
Cons:
- Wait for the full review.
This 5x periscope telephoto lens is exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Other models, even on the iPhone 15 Pro, is limited to a 3x optical zoom (12 MP 77 mm equivalent).
My colleague Stefan, a shutterbug through and through, has drawn up a camera comparison between the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. This allows me to keep this review concise and reserve my more detailed opinion for my full review, especially after I’ve carried out my photo tests this weekend.
I simply found the zoom to be very effective and, on the small sample of photos I’ve taken so far, I didn’t notice any significant loss of detail even when I go all the way up to 10x magnification.
The portrait mode, which can be easily applied or removed in post-processing, is as amazing as ever. Clipping is so clean. I did have a few flare issues on some night shots with strong light sources, where light reflection artifacts would sometimes burn out parts of the image.
Truth be told, that’s probably my fault. I’m not an Apple fan, I must have made a mistake or held the iPhone 15 Pro Max wrong with my filthy pro-Android hands (sponsored in turn by Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, OnePlus, and Asus according to some readers, but never Sony. Oh no, NEVER!!!!!).
The fact that you can shoot in 4K at 60 FPS with ALL lenses, both front and rear, is also a big plus. As for professional photographers, the physical shutter button is a huge plus. I’ll ask my colleague Ben to share his impressions on ProRes and all that stuff that’s totally beyond me as a layman.
Battery life & recharging
The iPhone 15 Pro Max’s battery continues to remain an unknown quantity, as usual. Apple does not communicate the capacity of its batteries with the world. Wired charging still happens at 20 watts, and there’s also wireless charging at 15 watts via MagSafe and 7.5 watts via Qi. Just in case you were wondering, reverse wireless charging is also supported. It is no surprise now that there is no charger included in the box.
Pros:
- Wait for the full review.
Cons:
- Wait for the full review.
Come on, let’s skip this section. Nothing has changed since last year. The battery life announced by Apple is the same as the iPhone 14 Pro Max’s.
29 hours of video playback, 25 hours of video streaming, and 95 hours of audio playback. Yes, that doesn’t mean a thing. Charging technologies also remain unchanged.
Well, ciao for now! We will see you next week for more concrete information in my full review.
Technical data
| iPhone 15 Pro Max technical specifications | |
|---|---|
| Device | Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max |
| Price | from $1,199 |
| Image |  |
| Colors | Black Titanium, White Titanium, Blue Titanium, Nature Titanium |
| Screen | Super Retina XDR screen 6.7″ all-screen OLED display 2796 x 1290 pixels at 460 dpi 120 Hz refresh rate Dynamic Island |
| SoC | Apple A17 Pro (3 nm) |
| Memory | 256 GB, 512 GB and 1 TB |
| microSD | ❌ |
| Main camera | 48 MP | Quad-pixel sensor | Pixels 2.44 µm | Aperture f1.78 | Focal length 24 mm | OIS |
| Ultra-wide angle | 12 MP | f/2.2 diaphragm | 1.4µm | 13 mm focal length | Macro |
| Telephoto lens | 12 MP | f/2.8 | 120 mm focal length | 5x optical zoom | OIS sensor shift |
| Selfie | 12 MP | f/1.9 aperture | autofocus |
| Audio | Stereo |
| Battery life | Video playback: 29 hours Video (streaming): 25 hours Audio playback: 95 hours |
| Charging | 20 W (cable) 15 W (MagSafe) 7.5 W (Qi) |
| Ruggedness | IP68 Ceramic Shield, titanium frame |
| Connectivity | eSIM, 5G, Wi-Fi 6E, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3, UWB, satellite |
| Dimensions and weight | 159.9 x 76.7 x 8.25 mm | 221 g |
Conclusion
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is a revised copy of the iPhone 14 Pro Max. Except that Apple isn’t me, who used to smear my A4 sheets with Tipp-Ex and cross-outs.
No, Apple made several adjustments with the utmost care. Eight years on, and spurred on by a legislative kick in the butt, the USB-C standard has finally been adopted. The 5x optical zoom finally enables the iPhone to make up for one of its few weak points in photography when compared to its Android rivals.
Some points remain problematic in my opinion. Offering USB 3.2 connectivity without providing a compatible cable is certainly petty. Battery life will not be the best, either. I am also worried about the effectiveness of its temperature control with this titanium frame, which may dissipate less heat than before.
The fact remains that the iPhone 15 Pro Max left me with the impression of a clear, upmarket move. I cannot wait to verify these preconceptions in my full review, not to mention I can’t wait to play Assassin’s Creed Mirage on the handset!
What do you think of Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max after this hands-on? Do you think it offers enough new features? What would you like me to review on this smartphone in particular?
To find out more, check out our comparison of the best Apple iPhones in 2023, as well as our comparison between the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max
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