iPhone 16 Pro Max Review: The Devil’s In The Details

Whether it’s the iPhone 16 Pro Max or any of its flagship competitors, smartphones across the board are facing the same dilemma.

Gone are the days of technological leaps and bounds between annual iterations. Having (mostly) conquered our modern lifestyle, any unclaimed ground for innovation is now quickly shrinking from under their feet; and the reference points of progression are becoming harder to discern.

RELATED: Apple’s Foldable iPhone Is Apparently In The Works

Thankfully, the boffins over in Cupertino have once again found enough wiggle room to justify the latest iPhone lineup’s price tag (particularly in the camera department); and notched another victory by refining what already exists until near-perfection. As you’ll soon discover in our iPhone 16 Pro Max review, we’re dealing with an intelligent evolution.

All-in-one studio. Powerful computing. Fashion statement. Let’s get into it.

The Topline Stuff

Design

We were fortunate enough to get our hands on the Desert Titanium. Incredibly sleek, incredibly sexy. Paired with the iPhone’s largest display (6.9 inches) and thinnest borders to date, there is absolutely nothing to complain about on the aesthetic front — and everything to love.

Nobody’s ever accused Apple of releasing ugly toys, and that streak continues in 2024.

Display

Onto the display itself, thanks to new technology that allows for display traces to be routed under active pixels, expect a silky smooth scroll with zero distortion on that Super Retina XDR OLED screen; more iPhone-bests include the up-to-120Hz adaptive refresh rates, Always-On functionality, as well as an almost-blinding brightness.

This also happens to be the toughest iPhone screen yet.

Performance

Under the hood, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is faster, snappier, and generally more efficient thanks to its A18 Pro chip system.

Not dramatically different from the A17 Pro, sure, but noticeable for power users (e.g. hardcore mobile gamers); as it will be for the rest of us once the full suite of those Apple Intelligence upgrades arrive. The A18 Pro’s six-core CPU is the fastest ever committed to a smartphone.

The beefier battery and advanced power management/efficiency backed by the A18 are also welcome improvements.

Camera

The iPhone 16 Pro Max’s camera has furthered Apple’s mission to democratise professional-grade creativity. This is, after all, the main reason you fork out for an iPhone.

The headliner here is the brand-new 48MP Ultra Wide lens with a quad-pixel sensor for detail and autofocus like never before at 0.5x framing; paired with the 48MP Fusion lens and 12MP 5x Telephoto lens. Good for the ambitious shots, the macro shots…and everything else, really.

It’s everything you’ve come to expect from both the iPhone and Apple’s reputation.

What deserves its praises to be sung particularly loudly is the revamped Photographic Styles, which let the everyday punter achieve professional results with basically no friction. As long as you can slide a finger on the screen and have a vague idea of what you’re going for, you’re set.

The new 48MP Fusion camera (faster sensor and all) in tandem with the A18 Pro’s image signal processor also means a “huge leap forward” with 4K 120 FPS video capture in Dolby Vision. You’d be hard-pressed to find a higher-quality smartphone slo-mo.

On a related note, there are four studio-quality mics that not only lower the noise floor in quiet environments/maintain levels in louder environments for authentic recordings, but also enable Spatial Audio capture by default.

Small wonder why Danny Boyle opted to use an iPhone for the production of 28 Years Later.

Camera Control

A year after introducing the Action Button, Apple has now debuted Camera Control in the iPhone 16 series, located on the lower right-hand side of the device. 

Designed to enhance the camera experience with what’s effectively a shortcut for capturing photos; and allows you to adjust features (i.e. exposure, depth of field, zoom, etc.) by sliding your finger along it. Something possible thanks to a small multipixel capacitive sensor and signal processor beneath the sapphire crystal.

You can also customise the ‘button’ (which Apple insists is not a button) to whatever camera apps you may prefer, ranging from heavy-duty cinematographic tools to good ol’ Snapchat. Sidebar: we anticipate a bit of a teething period, with an uptick in pics accidentally sent to the wrong people as they get used to Camera Control (explicit or otherwise).

In theory, it’s a cracking idea. And we particularly enjoyed the analogue throwback of clicking away on a tactile switch/not-a-button. But as we alluded to in the paragraph above, it proved to be rather finicky in practice with the toggling, and even more difficult when your iPhone 16 is cased up.

Somebody who’s actually qualified can tell you whether this is a hardware or software fix (fingers crossed for the latter).

Apple Intelligence

I wish there was more to say about the hotly-anticipated Apple Intelligence at this stage, but as it stands, our interactions with it have been virtually non-existent (it’s still in beta preview). It’s almost not even worth a dedicated section in this iPhone 16 Pro Max review.

At a time when rivals like Samsung are already enthusiastically making headway with tangible (and useful) improvements like translating live calls and streamlining personal admin, making do with what’s essentially an incomplete product was rather disappointing.

Consequently, this is where the iPhone 16 Pro Max loses most of its points in our review.

We’ll reserve full judgement until the mainstream rollout.

The Verdict?

Despite the fact that every iPhone 16 model is $100 cheaper than their respective predecessors were at launch, the latest Pro Max is still on the pricier side of the spectrum. That being said: you’re definitely getting what you paid for. Especially if you value sleek design, an intuitive camera experience that delivers results in spades, and workhorse processing capabilities.

Not to buy into the marketing propaganda, but Apple isn’t just selling a device with the iPhone 16 Pro Max. It’s the entire ecosystem that seamlessly feeds your day-to-day. Let’s not pretend our silly little screens aren’t an extension of us… spend the same amount of time with anything else, and tell us otherwise.

It won’t fix your life, just make it easier. And really, that’s all any of us can ever hope for.

Apple iPhone 16 & iPhone 16 Pro Series Prices (Australia)