The iPhone 15 Pro Max is finally here! Is it time for iPhone 12 Pro Max owners to bite the bullet and upgrade? Or can we breathe a sigh of relief for yet another year?
The iPhone 12 Pro Max is still an excellent phone and, thanks to the fact that Apple rarely switches designs around, it still looks „modern“. However, it’s also having its 3rd anniversary now and is missing some of the upgrades we’ve seen over the past 3 years — the 120 Hz ProMotion screen, the new camera sensors, more optical zoom, and the inevitable performance improvements.Now that the iPhone 15 series is out, you may be itching to upgrade. And you know what? It is a pretty solid device and let’s be fair — it’s time to get a fresh new handset, right? Well, that’s surface-level. Let’s really get into it — with everything we know so far — should you be frothing at the mouth for an upgrade? With everything revealed by Apple at the event, here’s what we know about the iPhone 15 Pro Max in regards of comparing it to the :
Thinner bezels, so slightly smaller in size
120 Hz screen vs 60 Hz screen
Much higher peak brightness on iPhone 15 Pro Max
Dynamic Island vs Notch
Titanium frame on the 15 makes it slightly lighter
Mute switch is upgraded to Action Button
A17 Pro is a big upgrade over A14 Bionic
128 GB base storage tier is gone, now starts at 256 GB
Upgraded 48 MP main camera
New 5x zoom lens
Overall improved low light performance of cameras
USB Type C instead of Lightning, with much faster transfer speeds
Notable upgrade in battery life
The iPhone 12 series set this new trend of the iPhones being a bit more stark, rectangular, with flat sides and right angles. Apple rarely does design overhauls, but adds minor tidbits and changes year over year.So, we have the base look, with the camera module in the top-left back corner, the MagSafe array under the back, and the end-to-end screen up front.But the inherits the Dynamic Island (instead of a notch) on top of the screen, as we first saw on the iPhone 14 Pro. It’s kind of a permanent taskbar thing, which masks the selfie camera cutouts by putting bubbles and widgets of your background apps around it.But OK, that’s not so important. We get a larger screen-to-body ratio up front, so slimmer bezels. The new build material also gives us a new finish — all models have a matte brushed titanium frame, which should be less of a fingerprint magnet than the shiny stainless steel. Also, for the first time since the design, the corners of the new iPhones are slightly beveled, making them much softer on the hand.
The signature mute switch that has been on every iPhone also sees a change with the 15 Pro series. Apple has now added an Action Button, which we first saw on the Apple Watch Ultra. It still works as a mute toggle by default, but you can now program it to launch apps, flashlight, Focus Mode, camera, works as a shutter button, and activates Siri Shortcuts.Unfortunately, you can only have one function tied to the Action Button, which is a huge waste — instead of having it doing different things when tapping or holding it, it can only do the one thing you pick for it. So, is it an upgrade, really? Kind of, sort of, but not fully fleshed out.Display Differences The Pro Max size is what it is and will stay the same — even if the has slightly slimmer bezels, the screen size didn’t budge. So, that would mean 6.7-inch OLED panels with 1290 x 2796 pixels on both the and . Of course, the has a ProMotion screen with high 120 Hz refresh rate, while the 12 Pro Max is stuck with 60 Hz. Also, the 12 Pro Max has the notch cutout on top, while the newest flagship has the Dynamic Island — whether that’s a pro or a con is up to you.Also, Apple has been playing with maximum brightness a lot lately, ensuring that their screens can display HDR content even in bright conditions, and the 15 Pro Max hits 2,000 nits of peak brightness, which is pretty bright — more than you would typically need. It is almost double the 1,200 nit peak brightness of the .
The color calibration on these screens is excellent, however Apple does have this problem with its OLED screens where the whites are a bit green-ish / yellow-ish. It’s slightly better on the for what its worth. But if you use True Tone and Night Shift, it will rarely be a distracting issue in the first place. The Pro Max’s A17 Pro chip is the first smartphone SoC built on a 3 nm process, manufactured by TSMC — and it is said that Apple basically booked the full production line, so no one else is butting in for a while.
