At a Glance
Expert's Rating
Pros
- Great low-light photography performance
- Ultra-smooth 120Hz refresh rate
- Incredible battery life
- A15 Bionic is unbeaten
Cons
- Big and bulky
- Relatively slow charging
- Cinematic mode is capped at 1080p
- Expensive
Our Verdict
The iPhone 13 Pro Max offers the best battery of any iPhone to date, but the lack of differences between it and the more affordable iPhone 13 Pro – including ProMotion tech and enhanced cameras – make it hard to recommend to most.
The iPhone 13 Pro Max is the culmination of Apple’s work over the past few years, offering the biggest, fastest display and best battery life of any iPhone to date. However, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is also the most expensive iPhone currently available, and unlike last year, there aren’t upgrades unique to this year’s Pro Max variant.
With that in mind, is it worth paying the extra for the bigger display and longer battery life, or should you save yourself a bit of money and go for the equally-capable iPhone 13 Pro? Keep reading to find out.
Design and build
- Slightly thicker and heavier than its predecessor
- 20% smaller Face ID notch
- New colour finishes
The iPhone 13 Pro Max is the biggest in the iPhone 13 series, both in terms of display size and overall heft – even the move from an iPhone 12 Pro to the 13 Pro Max is noticeable. It’s something you adjust to fairly quickly, but I wasn’t expecting such a bulky experience when I first got my hands on the smartphone
That’s not to say it’s not a stunning piece of kit though; if you like the industrial look first introduced on the iPhone 12 range, you’ll love the iPhone 13 Pro Max because it’s essentially the same. The iPhone 13 Pro Max sports the same stainless steel bezels, frosted glass rear and edge-to-edge display as its predecessor. it’s also protected by the same IP68 dust- and water-resistance and ceramic shield tech on the front too.
It is slightly thicker and heavier at 7.7mm and 240g respectively, likely down to the increase in battery power – more on that later – and the camera bump protrudes further than ever too, but given most people will immediately put a case on the smartphone, it’s likely not something you’ll notice.
The big change compared to its predecessor is in the notch department; it’s still there, but it’s 20% smaller this time around. Hardcore Apple fans will appreciate the reduction in size – that doesn’t affect Face ID performance – but it’s likely that most people won’t notice unless they’re side-by-side.
It’s just a shame that Apple hasn’t done anything with the extra screen space on either side of the notch, with the same time, signal and notification icons as previous smartphones, just centralised.
And before you ask, no, Apple didn’t reintroduce Touch ID alongside Face ID as rumoured. That’s a bit of a shame given the tech has been built into the power button of the iPad Air and iPad mini, especially considering our reliance on facemasks and Face ID’s struggle to recognise faces – and the fact that it’s a feature of most of the Android competition too. C’mon Apple, let us have the choice!
There are also new colour options available with the iPhone 13 Pro Max that help separate it from its predecessor, available in the usual Silver and Graphite along with a refreshed Gold finish and the new Sierra Blue, which was supplied for review. A further addition came in March 2022 with the release of the Alpine Green colour finish.
The new blue finish is subtle compared to the more vivid shade of blue available on the standard iPhone 13 and lighter than the Pacific hue of the 12 Pro range, complemented by the matching blue stainless steel band that surrounds the edges of the smartphone and the cameras for a clean look.
Display
- Vibrant 6.7in Super Retina XDR OLED display
- 120Hz ProMotion is a big addition
- Improved refresh rate doesn’t affect battery life
For most Apple fans, the display will be a core reason to upgrade to this year’s iPhone. Why? Because it finally introduces one of the most heavily requested features: a high refresh rate.
While the entire iPhone 13 range sports Apple’s top-of-the-line Super Retina XDR OLED displays with phenomenal colour and detail, support for HDR and True Tone and more, the 6.7in iPhone 13 Pro Max (and the smaller 6.1in Pro) introduce Apple’s 120Hz ProMotion tech.
