iPhone 15 Pro Max (left), iPhone 14 Pro Max (right ) )
2 Facebook Twitter Reddit
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is Apple's premium smartphone, with titanium and an all-new camera as major improvements over the iPhone 14 Pro Max. That's all the differences.
Apple's iPhone lineup refresh in 2023 In a bit of a departure from the norm, Apple has included a feature in the iPhone 15 Pro Max that others don't have: advanced zoom capabilities that will make the model even more attractive to photographers and videographers.
Although Apple typically makes changes to its Pro line every year , this change is more significant than usual, especially considering that this is only for this model.
Here's how it compares to the 2022 version, the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 14 Pro Max — Specifications
| Technical specifications | iPhone 14 Pro Max | iPhone 15 Pro Max |
|---|---|---|
| Price (starting) | USD 1,099 Check prices |
USD 1,199 |
| Dimensions (inches) | 6.33 x 3.05 x 0.31 | 6.29 x 3.02 x 0.32 |
| Weight (ounces) | 8.47 | 7.81 |
| Processor | A16 Bionic | A17 Pro |
| Memory | 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB | 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB |
| Display type | 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR, ProMotion Always-On Display |
6.7″ Super Retina XDR ProMotion Always-On Display |
| Resolution | 2796 x 1290 at 460 ppi | 2796 x 1290 at 460 ppi |
| True Tone | Yes | Yes |
| Biometrics | Face ID | Face ID |
| Connect | ||
| Biometrics | Face ID | Face ID |
| Connectivity | 5G (Sub-6 GHz and mmWave) Gigabit-class LTE Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.3 Ultra-wideband Emergency SOS via satellite Lightning | 5G (sub-6 GHz and mmWave) Gigabit-class LTE Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.3 Ultra Wideband Satellite Emergency Call Satellite Roadside Assistance USB-C |
| Rear cameras | 48 MP Wide-angle camera 12 MP Ultra-wide camera 12 MP Telephoto with 3x optical zoom |
48 MP Wide-angle 12 MP Ultra Wide Angle Lens 12 MP Telephoto Lens with 5x Optical Zoom |
| Video | 4K 60 fps, 4K 60 fps HDR with Dolby Vision, 1080p 240 fps, slow motion ProRes 4K 30fps, Cinematic Mode, Action Mode |
4K 60fps, 4K 60fps HDR with Dolby Vision, 1080p , 240 fps, slow motion ProRes 4K, 60 fps with external recording, Cinematic mode, Action mode |
| Front camera | 12 MP TrueDepth with autofocus | 12 MP TrueDepth with autofocus |
| Battery size (video playback time) | Up to 29 hours | Up to 29 hours |
| Colors | Space Black, Gold, Silver, Dark purple |
Black titanium, White titanium, Blue titanium, Natural titanium |
iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 14 Pro Max – physical dimensions
The iPhone 14 Pro Max was the largest iPhone released by Apple in 2022, measuring 6.33 inches long and 3.05 inches wide, giving it a significant footprint. Despite this, it was still quite thin at 0.31 inches.
At 6.29 inches long and 3.02 inches wide, the iPhone 15 Pro is slightly shorter than its predecessor, but slightly thicker at 0.32 inches.
At 8.47 ounces, the iPhone 14 Pro Max tips the scales simply because of its size. The iPhone 15 Pro Max is much lighter at 7.81 ounces.
Like the iPhone 14 Pro, the Pro Max reuses Apple's standard iPhone aesthetic with flat edges and rounded corners. It continues the tradition of using a stainless steel body combined with a glass back panel and a glass front panel with a protective layer of Ceramic Shield.
iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 14 Pro Max — rear and side profiles
The 2023 edition is different because Apple is going the titanium route. Using Grade 5 titanium for a durable frame and striking appearance allowed Apple to save some weight and also reduce the size without sacrificing the screen, resulting in thinner bezels.
Apple has also made changes to the side switch, removing the Ring/Mute switch in favor of an Action button. This can be used to mute an iPhone's ringtone, but it can also be configured to do a variety of different things.
iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 14 Pro Max – displays
The iPhone 14 Pro Max features a 6.7-inch full-screen OLED display, namely Apple's Super Retina XDR display. The screen has a resolution of 2796 by 1290 pixels and a pixel density of 460 pixels per inch.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max's specs are virtually identical, with the same size and resolution as last year's model.
The OLED screen in both devices has a contrast ratio of 2 million to one, as well as brightness that has a typical maximum of 1,000 nits, 1,600 nits peak for HDR content, or up to 2,000 nits. nits of maximum brightness when you are outdoors.
Apple used Always-On Display for the iPhone 14 Pro Max, which displays a standby screen when the device is in sleep mode so users can see important information at a glance without waking it up completely. ProMotion support has also been included, offering an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz depending on the type of content being viewed on the screen.
It's all coming back to the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
At the top of the iPhone 14 Pro Max screen was a dynamic island, a replacement for the notch that added more interactive UI elements. A year later, it's back again and will benefit from iOS 17 tweaks.
Wide Color (P3), True Tone, HDR, and fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating are also included on the iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone 15 Pro Max displays.
iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 14 Pro Max – Cameras
The iPhone 14 Pro Max has three cameras on the back, including a 48-megapixel main camera with f/1.78 aperture. aperture, second-generation sensor-shift optical image stabilization and a seven-element lens. Next up is a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera with a six-element lens with an f/2.2 aperture and a 120-degree field of view.
The third of the trio is a 12-megapixel 3x telephoto lens with f/2.8 aperture, optical image stabilization and a six-element lens.
The high resolution of the iPhone 14 Pro Max's main camera allowed Apple to crop the image to create a virtual 12-megapixel 2x telephoto lens. Overall, the iPhone 14 Pro has 2x optical zoom and 3x optical zoom, while digital zoom reaches up to 9x.
Apple's updated camera system for the iPhone 15 Pro Max
The iPhone 15 Pro Max also uses three cameras: the main 48-megapixel camera is headed by the letter f. /1.78 aperture and second generation sensor shift. The main camera gets a new default image of 24MP and allows users to switch between effective focal lengths of 24mm, 28mm and 35mm.
Ultra Wide is a 12-megapixel version with an f/2.2 aperture and a 120-degree field of view.
The 12MP telephoto lens is an exception as it uses an all-new tetraprism design to deliver 5x optical zoom. The camera also has optical image stabilization with 3D sensor shift and autofocus, which also has an f/2.8 aperture.
The changes allow digital zoom to reach up to 25x, eclipsing not only the iPhone 14 Pro Max's 9x zoom, but also its non-pro counterpart's 15x zoom.
All cameras have 100% Focus Pixel coverage, which helps you focus on objects. The Pro line also benefits from the inclusion of a LiDAR sensor, which helps with focusing and can greatly improve images captured at night.
Apple Photonic Engine and Deep Fusion computational photography help improve images taken with the main camera. There's also support for Portrait mode with six portrait lighting effects, Night mode, Smart HDR 4 and 5 depending on the device model, and other regular features.
On the video side, iPhone 14 Pro Max supports 4K 60fps Dolby Vision HDR, 4K 30fps in Cinematic mode, and 2.8K 60fps in Action mode. ProRes video is also available at up to 4K, 30 fps, and 1080p slow motion, 240 fps.
Macro photography, cinematic video stabilization, audio zoom and stereo recording round out the video list.
The numbers don't change much for the iPhone 15 Pro Max, as it can also support Dolby Vision HDR 4K 60fps, 4K HDR Cinematic Mode at 60fps, and Action Mode 2.8K 60fps give me a sec. 1080P slow motion, 240 fps is the same.
This time Apple is paying more attention to videographers, offering ProRes video at up to 4K, 60 fps and support for external recording. This means connecting an external drive to the iPhone and recording video directly to it.
This was not possible on the iPhone 14 Pro Max because it used Lightning, which has a low data transfer speed of 480 Mbps. Thanks to the use of USB-C, the iPhone 15 Pro Max can transfer data over the cable 20 times faster, which is more than enough to be able to record to an external drive.
Even better for video production, Apple includes video recording in a journal, as well as support for the Academy color coding system.
The front TrueDepth camera of the iPhone 14 Pro Max is equipped with a 12-megapixel sensor with f/1.9 aperture, Focus Pixels function and a six-element lens. It has portrait mode and portrait lighting effects, 4K60fps video, 4K HDR cinematic mode at 30fps, Dolby Vision at 4K60fps, and Pro-Res up to 4K30fps.
There are no changes here for the iPhone 15 Pro Max, other than the inclusion of external 4K ProRes video recording at 60fps, video recording, and the Academy color encoding system.
The TrueDepth camera depth sensing system, which will be available until 2023, further helps with security by providing Face ID support and can be used for apps like Animoji and Memoji.
iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 14 Pro Max – Processing Performance
Every year, Apple upgrades the Pro models to the next chip in its A-series lineup. In 2023, this means moving to A17 Bionic for the iPhone 15 Pro Max instead of A16 Bionic for the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
The A16 Bionic features a six-core processor with two performance cores and four efficiency cores, along with a five-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine.
Apple initially touted the A16 as being “up to 40 percent faster than competitors,” the GPU has 50 percent more memory bandwidth, and the Neural Engine is capable of nearly 17 trillion operations per second.
iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 14 Pro Max: iPhone 15 Pro Max has a smaller frame
Apple is moving to A17 for the iPhone 15 Pro Max, except it's also moving one more element: the name. The chip is now known as A17 Pro rather than Bionic.
The A17 Pro is the first 3nm mobile chip to include the same six-core processor configuration as the A16. Except it's 10% faster thanks to microarchitecture and design improvements.
The 6-core GPU is also new, it's 20% faster than the A16 and even includes hardware-accelerated ray tracing. The built-in AV1 decoder will help improve video streaming for late-night Netflix sessions.
Apple also says that the Neural Engine is now twice as fast as before.
At the moment we can only talk about what Apple has announced about the new chip, so we can't compare performance through benchmarks yet, but that should change in the next few weeks.
iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 14 Pro Max – Connectivity
The iPhone 14 Pro Max, like the rest of the lineup, has 5G connectivity, supporting both sub-6GHz and millimeter wave bands. . In “black spots” without cellular coverage, a new feature at that time, “Emergency SOS via Satellite,” was introduced, which used satellites to send messages asking for help.
iPhone 14 Pro Max features Wi-Fi 6 for local networking, Bluetooth 5.3 for accessories, ultra-wideband, and NFC for services like Apple Pay.
iPhone 15 Pro Max features Wi-Fi 6E support, a second-generation ultra-wideband chip that brings more location features, and explicit support for Thread.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max's physical connection consists of a Lightning port at the base, which is used for both data transfer and charging. In 2023, as part of Apple's transition away from Lightning, it finally moved the iPhone 15 Pro Max to USB-C.
This change has a number of implications for charging, but more importantly it changes the speed of data transfer. Instead of 480Mbps transfer speeds, USB-C on Pro models runs at 10Gbps, allowing you to move files to and from your iPhone faster.
This is very useful for videographers who shoot on iPhone but need to capture large amounts of ProRes video from their devices in a timely manner. Apple says it's also possible to record video directly to an external drive using the connection, but how well this will work in practice remains to be seen.
iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 14 Pro Max – power and battery
According to Apple, the iPhone 14 Pro Max's battery life allows for up to 29 hours of video playback for locally stored content, or up to 25 hours. playing streaming video. On the audio side, you can get up to 95 hours of playback.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is said to last exactly the same amount of time. It is currently unclear whether the iPhone 15 Pro Max is drawing more power from the larger battery than the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
The lithium-ion battery in both devices can be charged using a physical cable or using wireless charging via Qi or MagSafe. Wireless charging is generally slower than wired charging, with Qi operating at up to 7.5W according to Apple's limits and MagSafe at up to 15W.
Fast charging is carried out via a wired connection. You can charge both the iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone 15 Pro Max to 50% using the Lightning port in about 35 minutes if you use a 20W or higher charging adapter.
iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 14 Pro Max – other features
The iPhone 14 Pro Max has an IP68 water and dust resistance rating, which the iPhone 14 Pro Max also matches. For water, this means that it can survive at a maximum depth of 6 meters (19.7 ft) for up to half an hour.
Apple introduced Crash Detection in the iPhone 14 Pro, which uses the iPhone's array of sensors to determine if there has been a major impact, such as a car accident. If an incident is detected, iPhone will automatically call emergency services for help unless the owner or passenger stops the countdown.
Now Apple has introduced Satellite Roadside Assistance, which is the same feature but aims to get help for your broken down car in a cellular dead zone. This feature is not limited to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, it will also be available on the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 14 Pro Max – capacity, color and price
At launch, the iPhone 14 Pro Max 128GB model cost $1,099 , the 256GB model cost $1,199, the 512GB capacity cost $1,399, and the 1TB capacity cost $1,599.
iPhone 14 Pro was sold in four colors: Space Black, Gold, Silver and Dark Purple.
iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 14 Pro Max: iPhone 15 Pro Max color scheme
The iPhone 15 Pro Max has the same price, except that it excludes the 128GB capacity, leaving 256GB, 512GB and 1TB options. It is available in four colors: black titanium, white titanium, blue titanium and natural titanium.
iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 14 Pro Max – What to Buy
The iPhone Pro line has always benefited from being at the forefront of Apple's technological advances. You'll pay more, but you'll know you're getting the best smartphone the company makes.
Now you not only need to buy the Pro model, but also the largest one if you want the best.
The major updates affecting all iPhone 15 Pro models are good in their own right, such as the move to USB-C from Lightning, as well as the performance and graphics improvements brought by the A17 Pro chip. Adding titanium to improve the durability of the device is also a great move on Apple's part.
When you add the camera swap to the extra optical zoom on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, this model is a videographer's dream smartphone. You've got wide zoom, log recording support and fast USB-C, with the latter addressing the problem of quickly getting footage from your iPhone and also enabling external recording.
iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 14 Pro Max: cameras are the main advantage, but USB-C is also good…
For the average iPhone 15 Pro Max user isn't a major upgrade worth considering if you already have an iPhone 14 Pro Max. Avid photographers, video producers, and creative types of all types will see the changes to the camera and USB-C, and suddenly the upgrade will become more viable.
Add that its cost per capacity is the same as the iPhone 14 Pro Max when it launched a year ago, and the upgrades seem like a bargain.
Owners of earlier iPhone models looking to make the big leap will be pleased with their purchase. Anyone into fine art will be delighted.
Where to buy an iPhone 15 Pro Max
Apple opens pre-orders for the iPhone 15 Pro Max on September 15, with shipments beginning on September 22.
