Verdict
The iPhone 13 Pro Max is a with child telephone that impresses thanks to a standout display , finally with a 120Hz refresh charge per unit , great camera and stellar electric battery life .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
It might not be Apple ’s top - tier phone anymore , but the iPhone 13 Pro Max remains a substantial choice if you could notice it for a dear Leontyne Price .
supersede in the 2022 line - up by the iPhone 14 Pro Max , the iPhone 13 Pro Max is not officially sold by Apple anymore – however you ’ll still make out it for sale through certain sites and retailers .
It ’s only a year old and it stay an splendid gadget with mountain to propose . It might not be thebest iPhoneanymore , but if it drops to a tempting price in a sale likeBlack Fridaythen it will provide a lot of skills .
Screen and design
Apple ’s Max version of the 13 Pro is a big equipment . Like , reallybig . The 6.7 - column inch screen makes for a earphone that need two hand for easy consumption and the box-shaped , squared - off plan feel sharp . More so than with any otheriPhone 13model , I much favour using the Pro Max with a soft case .
It ’s heavy too . Taking it out of the box it was perceptibly heavier than the already heftyiPhone 12 Pro Max , though it ’s the same weight as the new iPhone 14 Pro Max . It took me a few sidereal day to get used to the added weight and it can for certain be felt in a air hole . you’re able to see in the eyeglasses and video below how it compares to the little Pro .
Full Specs
But , this is venial give that it ’s being targeted at people who want a big phone . If you do n’t , theiPhone 13 Prohas a good - monovular feature set and is much modest . There ’s also theiPhone 14 Pro , which retains a small-scale footmark . If you ’re even think about the Pro Max you know the benefits , and drawbacks , of the size .
There are reasons why this is lumbering than before . The battery , which I will delve into a bunch , is larger and once you ’ve study my thoughts on that you ’ll believably take those extra few Hans C. J. Gram . The camera faculty is also magnanimous and again , the benefits are worth it free-base on my time with the phone .
While it might not be the most ergonomic phone , there ’s no doubt it ’s gorgeous . The flat , industrial look introduced with the iPhone 12 Pro returns , along with a unexampled Sierra Blue chromaticity you’re able to see in the sample images . This is a lighter blue than the Pacific Blue we had last year and I think it look corking . The less say about the garish gold the estimable , though . Graphite and Silver round out the assemblage . I much prefer the colouring material here than those introduced with the iPhone 14 Pro serial .
The body isIP68for some water - resistant and the front is cover by what Apple call Ceramic Shield . I found the Ceramic Shield did a full job at retain the screen in good status over an extended period . A screen shielder is always dear if you want to keep those micro - scratches off though .
The design of the iPhone 13 Pro Max might be similar to the sr. model , but the display is a big upgrade .
As with child as the design is , there is one chafe facial expression . The stainless steel sides pick up blot like nothing else and they require constant attention to keep them face anything other than quite grim .
Each previous generation of iPhones ( include the regular iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini ) have included 60Hz control board so they attempt to refresh 60 times every second . On the iPhone 13 Pro Max , the panel can now freshen up to 120Hz – so 120 times a second . This makes natural action , like swiping through homescreens and opening apps , feel much faster .
Refreshing at 120Hz is great sometimes , but notallthe time . This is why many Android telephone set that were locked to 120Hz suffered from terrible battery life history . To ward off this , theLTPOpanel used here is adaptative . It can move between refresh rate count on the job at hand . This is what Apple callsProMotionand it ’ll be intimate to anyone who has used a late iPad Pro .
If you ’re doing something where 120Hz is likely to make a seeable difference , such as scrolling Instagram or gambling , the panel will aim for that – and , in my experience hit it . However , if you ’re watching an online telecasting , most of which are shoot at 30fps , the screen will slow down . It can go as low as 10Hz in natural action such as reading .
ProMotion is a real stone’s throw forward and I notice it straight off . Once you ’ve used a 120Hz show , it can be laborious to go back .
A feature that is missing here that you ’ll encounter on the iPhone 14 Pro Max is the always - on display option . This is a agency of having glanceable information always visible , but I would n’t say it ’s a reason to yield loading more for the newfangled phone .
At 6.7 - inches , the screen here is idealistic for subject matter , be it reading , Netflix , game or edit out snap . TheOLEDpanel is bright and readable open , while the smaller snick ( Apple says it ’s 20 % smaller ) makes Netflix binges a petty more immersive . The notch will remain an irritant even in its smaller sizing to those who disliked it before and it ’s firmly not to feel like , all these class later , Apple could have adopted something a little less intrusive .
I watch over a few episodes of the Apple TV+ show Foundation inHDRon the bighearted video display and it certainly gave good results . Joseph Black are perfect , colours are lifelike and the extra brightness is especially welcome in scene with bright light and detonation .
You do have to make do with the nick though , which can get in the fashion . Apple tweaked the pass slightly with the iPhone 14 Pro series , introducing theDynamic Island .
Camera
The iPhone 13 Pro Max also carry an telling tv camera organization – even when look at compared to 2022 phones like theSamsung Galaxy S22 Ultra .
You do n’t need to go for the Max model this year to get the true flagship television camera experience though , with both Pro models packing the sameexactspecs .
The treble - camera array consist of a 12 - megapixel wide sensing element with an f/1.5 lens along with a 12 - megapixel f/1.8 ultra - all-embracing with a 120 - degree field of view of view . The set is complete by a 12 - megapixel 77 mm telephoto capable of 3x opthalmic soar . There ’s also a LiDAR sensing element to help with low - loose portraits .
That 12 - megapixel across-the-board television camera has far larger pixels and a wider aperture than the 12 Pro Max , take into account more light into the sensor for practiced down - light performance and a more natural depth of field effect .
The welfare of both of these becomes clear when shoot at night , where icon are unclouded and elaborated without as much reliance on the slower night modality .
The stab of cheeses and nutrient below were taken , with night mode off , in near - total duskiness with the only source of light come from a few candela . Yet , detail is plentiful and colours are nice . There ’s also none of the excessively bright area often ascertain on night mode shots . There are still tear of odd lens flare when inject at night which can certainly be plaguy .
The ocular zoom is 3x this yr , so 77 mm , but it does have a dull f/2.8 aperture . This means it ’s better in daytime for getting airless and hire portrayal and worse at Nox when liken to the f/2.0 genus Lens on the 12 Pro Max . I ’ll take the sacrifice , as I mainly habituate the zoom in the day .
I do wish the iPhone had a zoom that could rival theSamsung Galaxy S22 Ultra , though .
In daylight situations each of the sensing element is slap-up and it can often be hard to distinguish pic apart from those shot with the iPhone 14 Pro Max and its 48MP sensor .
The ultra astray has the fewest upgrade , although you may now utilise Nox mode here for some spectacular low - light landscapes . The ultra wide is also used for the new Macro mode , which enables ( often frustratingly ) every clip you get close to something . The final result are really upright , but sometimes I would just prefer the natural bokeh from the main sensor . Apple has said it ’s releasing an Io update to falsify the way this process later in the year .
The bigger pixels and full f/1.5 aperture on the principal sensor make it incredibly capable of catch the adorable depth of study , while the Deep Fusion computational technical school pull supererogatory detail in things like fur . you’re able to see this in the picture of the andiron below .
There are also some raw options for making the picture a little more personal , with Photography Styles . These can up the contrast , up the colouring and make pictures warmer or cooler . If you ’re come from a Samsung earpiece and like its punchy coloration , try the Vibrant mode .
These are a dance step further than a filter , as they modify sealed bits of the snap only and ca n’t be reversed once used . It feel very un - Apple to have this much command and hopefully it ’ll filter through to other domain of the OS in the come years .
For the ‘ Pros ’ , there ’s ProRAW – Apple ’s take on the RAW data format – and , coming in a future update , ProRes video recording . While I ca n’t make a judging on ProRes yet , ProRAW is large and I often switch it on when I have fourth dimension to really fix up a photo and expend a turn of time blue-pencil it afterwards . The RAW format holds much more data point and allows much more control when it comes to the edit , but it also keeps all that computational good achieve by Deep Fusion and Smart HDR .
What ’s less Pro is theCinematic manner , which is a video portrait mode that has some focus racking included too . This means it can vigorously swap focal point between objects and faces to give a ‘ cinematic ’ look . The racking hooey is very good , so it ’s a shame the portrait effect feels very artificial and fake . The fact this mode tops out at 1080p 30fps intend most will stick with the standard video mode , which stay on easily - in - class .
I ’d have liked to have seen some more upgrades to the front camera . The 12 - megapixel selfie camera has been the same for generations now , and it could really do with a little more attention .
Performance
Performance across the whole iPhone 13 range of mountains is very much the same , even though the Pro model have a slightly more graphically capable version of the A15 Bionic inside , I ca n’t say you ’ll notice that surplus heart .
The A15 does n’t feel like a huge upgrade on the A14 , at least on the surface . account in benchmarking apps are a little higher and it helps enable features like the Cinematic musical mode and the forthcoming support for ProRes .
Test Data
I diddle countless games from Apple Arcade and they break away like a dream . You ’ll also get higher frame rates , if the title supports it , thanks to the ProMotion presentation .
Alongside theA15 Bionicthere ’s 6 GB RAM ( 2 Gi more than the regular iPhone 13 ) . I ’ve chance apps stay in memory longer than the iPhone 12 Pro Max , even though the amount of RAM is the same . Storage starts at 128 GB , but you ’re better off ignoring that and proceed for either 256 gibibyte or 512 GB – you ’ll give thanks me when you get down downloading games , HDR video and shooting in Apple ’s ProRaw formatting . If you plan on shooting a lot of ProRes video , the 1 TB storage selection is for you .
There ’s a wide-eyed selection of 5 G bands this year thanks to a new5Gmodem . Some realm , such as the USA , will get a model with mmWave 5G. We do n’t have mmWave 5 gigabyte yet in the UK , so do n’t expect to see that here . There ’s noWi - Fi 6Ewhich might get to those who invested early in a compatible router . Call quality , Wi - Fi receipt and speaker timbre are all excellent .
Battery Life
The barrage fire life on the iPhone 13 Pro Max is truly excellent . I ’d say it ’s the best on any mainstream flagship telephone I have reviewed this year , far outlasting bragging releases from Samsung , OnePlus and others . It ’s also slightly better than the survival I got from the iPhone 14 Pro Max .
For example , one weekend I spend with the phone it lasted from 9 am on Saturday morning to 7 pm on Sunday . That ’s nearly two full days of restrained , weekend use from a single flush . On a typical workday throughout the reexamination geological period , I was often left with 40 % cum bedtime .
This change how I used the phone . Charging it up less at night , and more in the morning or in the evening .
The powerful screen still draw through juice when you ’re streaming HDR subject matter , so it ’s possible to eat through the battery much faster if you ’re really advertize it .
You ’ll need to provide your own charging cube for the iPhone 13 Pro Max as a cable system is all that ’s include in the box . If you ’re advance from an older iPhone like the X or XS ( or older ) you should chuck the slow 5w courser that amount with those and get yourself a faster one , ideally 20w .
With a 20w plug , a full charge took me just around 90 minutes . While charging to 50 % take around 30 minutes . This is far from the quickest around , but still decent .
Wireless charging is an option , though it ’s always going to be slower even if you apply a 15w enabledMagSafecharger . Most Qi charger tend to top out at 7.5w when you ’re charge an iPhone , so they ’ll take a good bit of hours to give you a full charge .
Apple ’s decision to hold fast with the Lightning port feels like a trip-up , especially on these Pro phones . USB - C is far quicker for information transfers , something important if you design to shoot a passel of ProRaw and ProRes with this phone .
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Should you buy it?
If its price and weight are not problematic , then this is the best iPhone 13 model go . It has a bully screen , long battery life history and impressive tv camera .
This phone is crowing , really heavy . It ’s also very heavy and difficult to use with one bridge player .
Final Thoughts
The iPhone 13 Pro Max remains an excellent phone , even with the new devices released in 2022 . It still has a slap-up television camera , performs not much slower than theiPhone 14 Proseries , and looks very like . If the price look tempting , this will still be a very good bargain .
Trusted Score
How we test
We test every mobile earphone we review good . We practice diligence standard examination to compare features properly and we use the sound as our main twist over the review period . We ’ll always separate you what we incur and we never , ever , accept money to review a product .
FAQs
It ’s not waterproof , but the phone has an IP68 evaluation
There is no charger include , just a cable
There is 6 GB RAM here
