Pictures don’t quite prepare you for the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Apple’s newest flagship sits at the top of a four phone family for 2020, and you could be forgiven
Pictures don’t quite prepare you for the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Apple’s newest flagship sits at the top of a four phone family for 2020, and you could be forgiven for assuming that distinguishing between them would be tricky. The truth, though, is that the biggest of the iPhone 12 series – and indeed the biggest iPhone ever – stands out clearly, though in the process it forces you to decide just what your priorities are. If, like me, you’re coming from an iPhone 11 Pro Max, the way the iPhone 12 Pro Max feels might surprise you. It’s slightly longer and very slightly narrower than its predecessor, a tiny bit heavier at 228 grams, but on paper the biggest difference is the thickness.2020’s largest iPhone is 7.4 mm thick, down from 8.1 mm. The thing is, it doesn’t feel that way in your hand, and the squared-off sides are to blame. Whereas the curved edges of the iPhone 11 Pro Max help disguise its thickness, the iPhone 12 Pro Max wears its girth brazenly. I’m mixed in how I feel about that. Like with the smaller iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, it leaves this new iPhone 12 Pro Max feeling crisp and machined, as much a tactile object as a functional device. Gold might not have been my first choice, but the shiny metal band and the glint of Apple’s specially-colorized stainless steel at the bezels help elevate it to something beautiful I actively want to pick up. Depending on how big your hand is, though, that could be where the issues start. The not-inconsiderable weight, combined with those sharp edges, can leave the iPhone 12 Pro Max digging into your fingers or your palm. Gripping it tightly to avoid dropping it on my face as I used it to read Kindle ebooks, the shape and size became even more of a consideration. It’s not enough to nudge me back down to the iPhone 12 Pro, but I suspect there’ll be some surprise among preorder shoppers who have only seen their new phone in photos rather than in the metal. One of the reasons I find it so hard to give up is the display. Apple’s Super Retina XDR panel is 6.7-inches of delectable OLED, running at a crispy 2778 x 1284 resolution (for 458 ppi) with 800 nits of typical brightness,1,200 nits of maximum brightness in HDR mode, and True Tone and P3 wide color support. It’s one of the best screens I’ve used on a smartphone, as much at home for working my way through masses of text as it is at videos. I know I’m supposed to be angry that it’s not 120Hz or even 90Hz, and I do think Apple dropped the ball not bringing ProMotion to its flagship this year, but it still looks great. Also unchanged is the processor, with Apple’s A14 Bionic delivering the same performance as in the iPhone 12 Pro. No lag and no stuttering, not to mention the confidence that the iPhone 12 Pro Max will keep humming along nicely even with a few years of iOS updates under its belt. That’s what you should probably expect from a phone that starts at $1,099. As iPhone displays get bigger, though, there’s part of me that wonders whether iOS is doing all it could to maximize their usefulness.
