It is the evolutionary, incremental nature of iPhone design that evokes a sense of familiarity the first time when you pick up a brand-new model. The iPhone 15 Pro Max is the first phone in a long time that made me go “wait a minute” the moment I picked it up. That reaction, a mixture of surprise and shock, is thanks to the switch from the stainless-steel frame to the significantly lighter and stronger titanium outer frame, a change that not only shaves off 19 grams but also thins out the frame to reduce the phone’s width in the hand. Coupled with the softer, subtle chamfered edge between the frame and the glass, the phone is much more comfortable in the hand than the sharp-edged Pro Max variants for the past three years. This is still a large 6.7-inch screen iPhone, but one that’s dramatically better to hold and use on a daily basis.
Yet, it’s the other external changes that are getting the bigger share of attention. The data/charging port is now USB-C, a change that finally sees the iPhones use the same cable as practically any modern gadget you’d have around. The Pro iPhones have the faster USB 3.2 Gen 2 port with data transfer rates up to 10 Gbps, which means you can connect an external hard drive or monitor, provided you supply a cable rated for the faster speeds (the bundled ones aren’t). The other big change is the new Action button, which replaces the iconic alert slider (silent/ring). With its customizable nature – you can set it to open the camera, turn on the flashlight, run a shortcut and of course, perform the mute function – it’s far more useful though I wish it were placed a little lower down for easy access.
Elsewhere, the 15 Pro Max retains the 2000 nits bright, 120 Hz screen with the Dynamic Island, so it’s under the hood where the big changes lie, in the form of the new A17 Pro chip. Built on the more efficient 3 nm process, the new chip brings M2-laptop-rivalling performance and a six-core graphics unit that can handle ray tracing for more photorealistic games. While the blockbuster AAA titles that were demoed at launch are not out yet, you get a preview of how much power this chip yields while batch editing photos or videos. The phone ran occasionally warm while charging or recording 4K video, but I’ve noticed it less so on the latest iOS 17.0.2 update. Battery life is along the same lines as before, pushing past the 6.5-hour screen time mark, but the charging speeds are still painfully slow for 2023, despite the move to USB-C.
Finally, the cameras – while the primary and ultrawide cameras appear unchanged, Apple now outputs 24 MP photos by default on the main 48 MP camera, with zero processing lag shot-to-shot. Colours and exposure are controlled better, and the instances of blown-out highlights are far fewer. With each shot of a human or animal face, depth information is automatically captured so you can change it into a portrait shot later, playing around with focus points and adding in that dreamy bokeh. The new 5X telephoto lens captures tack sharp 5X zoom photos, and photos remain usable even in the 10-20X range, even in low-light. Not class leading, but a huge jump up as iPhones go, and with color/exposure consistency across all lenses. What remains class-leading is video capture, where the 15 Pro Max handily continues to beat the competition by a country mile.
By addressing the zoom reach and the in-hand feel, the 15 Pro Max isn’t just the iterative upgrade it may appear to be at first, and creative professionals (or monied individuals) will certainly see value in the upgrade, even if that does come at a pretty penny.
Rating: 8/10
Price: INR 1,59,900 onwards