In recent times, if you wanted a no-holds-barred, top-tier experience iPhone with the absolute best of what Apple had for consumers in that particular year — the best cameras, the best displays, and the best performance — you’d pick up the Pro or Pro Max iPhone. That holds true this year as well, with several welcome upgrades that only serve to reinforce the “best iPhone money can buy” recommendation that accompanies the Pro Max. And one upgrade I didn’t know I needed but have grown to love.
Unsurprisingly, the iPhone 14 Pro Max comes at a cost – a starting price of Rs. 1,39,900 no less for the base 128GB variant in space black, silver, gold and the marquee deep purple color. The iPhone 14 Pro maintains feature parity with the bigger model and differs only in terms of a smaller 6.1-inch display, a smaller battery, and a more compact form factor. So, everything I say about the Pro Max applies equally to the iPhone 14 Pro. Whichever model you use, if you can stomach the high price and the heft associated with every Pro max, this year’s models go the distance, even as they remain overkill for most folks who’d be better served with the regular iPhone 14 lineup.
It seems to be the story of the year, be it Samsung’s foldables or the new iPhone 14 Pros, one of refinement and somewhat of a lack of adventure when it comes to making bold design choices. The iPhone 14 Pro Max follows the same tried-and-tested design language as the 13 Pro Max and the 12 Pro Max that preceded it. That said, the feel in the hand is luxurious, everything screams high quality, and the button response and haptic feedback are second to none. It’s still wallet stretching, both in terms of dimensions. While affordability is relative, there’s no getting around the fact that this is a massive, heavy phone.
If you simply want a big-screen iPhone, Apple has the iPhone 14 Plus on offer this year. Howver,there are a couple of big benefits of going Pro (Max). The Pro Max clearly has the more expansive 6.7-inch 2796x1290 OLED display, and like the Pro, the display is top-of-the-shelf, only this time the screen can amp up to 2000 nits of peak outdoor brightness which translates to excellent outdoor visibility. As with the 13 Pros, you get the smoother 120Hz ProMotion refresh rate for those buttery smooth animations across the interface.
What’s new this year is the inclusion of the always-on display feature. Take any Android – the always-on display typically darkens the screen and uses icons to indicate new notifications that deserve your attention. Apple’s gone and done it, albeit differently. Apple uses the new 1-Hz capable LTPO display to conserve battery and follows it up with by dimming the display ever so slightly so that your lockscreen wallpaper and widgets are still glanceable. I have to admit – Apple’s always-on display is the most visually pleasing always-on display I’ve seen. Very Apple – late to the game, but as slick as it gets.
Now, if you’re coming to the iPhone 14 Pros from a previous iPhone, seeing the screen lit up somewhat would have you believe there was a new notification…even if there wasn’t, and it’s a feeling you have to shake off over the first few weeks of using the device. Well, at least the always-on display turns off when you place the phone in a pocket, or when low power or Sleep mode is active or when you move away a certain distance with a connected Apple Watch. There is, unsurprisingly, an impact on battery life (depending on how much you pocket the phone, how much ambient light you have etc), and you’re going to have to weigh the tradeoffs particularly when you’re out and about.
Gone is the notch too, and not in the way many had hoped. In its place, you get the Dynamic Island, Apple’s interactive, pill-shaped replacement for the notch. Listening to music, or running a timer? Swipe up to go home, and your music/clock app floats into the Dynamic Island to show the album artwork (with a music waveform) or a separate blob showing the countdown timer. The ‘island’ expands to show you who’s calling, when your AirPods connect, Apple Maps directions, charging alerts, when your wireless hotspot is active. Tapping these icons opens the app, while long pressing opens a widget. In a sense, you’re using it like a persistent second display to multi-task between open apps, over and above iOS’s multi-tasking capabilities which haven’t seen a huge upgrade on iPhones in a while. Not to mention, it has an alive, playful characteristic about it that’s inviting to use and so...Apple. Kudos to Apple for making what is otherwise a boring camera cutout interact with software this fluidly. Little wonder there was a wave of me-too Android apps that came up shortly after the feature was shown off at launch, but few match the hardware + software magic that Apple pulls off.
If anything, one wishes the Dynamic Island had a lot more adoption from 3rd party apps, which is all set to change with the iOS 16.1 update which rolled out recently. iOS 16.1 brings in support for Live Activities, so that apps like Uber, ESPN or Swiggy could create their own unique use cases for this feature, such as how far away your meal delivery is. That’s when it will get really interesting, and I’m genuinely excited at the prospect.
Apple’s been on top of the video game for the past several years but it’s persisted with a finely tuned 12MP camera sensor since the era of the iPhone 6S. Time to shake things up, as the Pros this year get a brand new 48MP main camera sensor, which aside from the extra resolution, allows Apple to crop into the image optically to deliver a new 2x optical zoom. The bigger sensor allows Apple to do what most premium Androids do – use pixel-binning to cluster four pixels as one, allowing each set of four pixels to collect more light and improve image quality. Of course, pro users can also switch to the ProRAW mode to capture full 48-megapixel shots for fine-grained control in post processing, but at the cost of huge file sizes.
This lines up alongside the 12MP 3x zoom and a 12MP 120-degree ultrawide, and another first – a 12MP selfie shooter with autofocus – alongside Apple’s new Photonic Engine image pipeline, the latter using multiple captures with each image to improve overall textures, colors and detail levels, both in bright and dimly lit conditions. And the results speak for themselves – whether you’re shooting in good light or middling light, photos show a marked improvement in detail and handling exposure than even the excellent iPhone 13 Pro. Colors were true to life, capturing the scene – and more importantly, the mood of the scene – accurately. In low light, the camera impresses with its ability to show good colors without losing out on detail. The little loss of detail in extremely low light images are about par for the course for the best smartphone cameras out there, and the iPhone 14 Pro certainly belongs in that list.
And it’s not just the main sensor that’s impressive – even the ultrawide is sharper around the edges and distortion is kept to a minimum. Close in on a subject and the ultrawide switches to an excellent macro mode. The 3x telephoto improves on the previous generation, with images that showed less noise and more detail, but we still have some way to go before it matches up to the periscope zoom cameras of the competition. Videos are expectedly top notch, and the new action mode and upgrades to Cinematic mode give pros even more versatility when framing and shooting their shots.
Performance is rarely a point of discussion on the flagship iPhone, and the new A16 Bionic chip extends the power efficiency and performance gains over the A15 Bionic that powered last year’s iPhones. Games like COD: Mobile and Genshin Impact ran without a hitch, and the 6GB of memory kept things multitasking smoothly. You don’t end up thinking about performance quite as much on a Pro Max, simply because the phone is up and ready to deliver no matter the ask. Battery life, in my testing, is a shade less than the previous iPhone 13 Pro Max, but it still saw me till the end of my heavy workday with about 15-20% left in the tank. As much as I enjoyed the always-on display, the slight amount of battery anxiety it induced meant that I kept it off when I knew I’d be out and out on long days.
With the always on display, Dynamic Island, and considerable camera upgrades, there are a lot of improvements this year – although not enough in my opinion to compel an iPhone 13 Pro user to upgrade – and the clear line that divides Apple’s regular and Pro iPhone is deeper in the sand than ever. The Pros this year really do justify the pro moniker – while you or I will enjoy the improvements and the delightful touches around the Dynamic Island, it’s the creative pros who will really stand to benefit from the upgrade.
Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max
Pros: Premium design, gorgeous display, Dynamic Island is fun and full of potential, always-on display implementation is unique, best in class performance, improved cameras
Cons: Heavy, pricey, always-on display impacts battery life
Rating: 8/10
Price: Rs. 1,39,900 onwards