There’s a lot of debate over whether Apple smartphones take good photos. They’re sharp, free from noise, and contain lots of detail.
However, some people want their phones to act more like real cameras. For example, they would like their shadows to be darker and their skies brighter. Those people can use a new setting called Tonee to make their iPhones look more realistic.
Camera
The iPhone 16 Pro Max has a 48MP f/1.6 primary camera, a 12MP 2x telephoto camera, and a 12MP wide camera. Apple refers to it as the Fusion Camera system, which provides enhanced low-light performance and versatile shooting options, thanks to sensor-shift optical image stabilization (OIS) and computational photography techniques. The cameras also offer a wider color gamut.
The phone features a high-resolution 4K video recording mode, delivering superb image quality and a wide dynamic range. It’s fast 60fps frame rate helps reduce unwanted artifacts, including judder and ghosting. The phone offers various pro-friendly features that will appeal to video professionals, including the ability to record in ProRes or HDR mode, as well as a slow-motion mode at 120 frames per second (fps).
For selfies and group photos, the phone’s Portrait mode is a real standout. It does a great job of blurring out background details and delivering a natural-looking, realistically detailed bokeh effect.
In our tests, the phone’s autofocus performed very well in a variety of conditions. It performed very well in challenging situations, such as low-light conditions or moving subjects, and delivered precise, sharp results without any noticeable distortion. The smartphone also offers a very effective default noise-isolation feature for videos. It’s an excellent feature that makes the iPhone 16 Pro a more appealing choice for casual photographers who prioritize ease of use and joy of shooting over ultimate image quality.
Battery
The Pro Max features a massive 4,685mAh battery, 240mAh larger than the iPhone 15 Pro Max. That gives it excellent Active Use Time and even beats the Pixel 9 Pro XL on our rundown test. On our standard web browsing over 5G at 150 nits of brightness, the Pro Max lasted 17 hours and 38 minutes. That’s four hours better than last year’s model and an hour ahead of the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
The new phone’s performance is superb, thanks to its second-generation 3-nanometer A18 Pro chip and 8GB of RAM. It outperforms its Android competition in CPU and graphics tests, as well as other aspects. The Pro Max utilizes a significant amount of recycled materials, including aluminum, copper, cobalt, gold, plastic, steel, and tungsten. It features the most advanced cameras of any smartphone, including a dual 12MP camera with 5x optical zoom and an additional 48MP ultrawide sensor.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max is a giant, beautiful beast with fantastic multiday battery life and excellent cameras. If you can handle its size and eye-watering price, it’s the best smartphone you can buy. And it comes with a hero feature you won’t find on any other smartphones, the Camera Control button. The recessed capacitive button on the right side of the phone utilizes haptics to provide feedback and allows you to launch a quick, easy-to-access camera shortcut.
Display
The iPhone 16 Pro Max is the largest phone Apple has ever made, with a 6.9-inch LTPO Super Retina XDR OLED display. It supports HDR10 and Dolby Vision standards, as well as a 120Hz refresh rate and True Tone adjustment.
The display is incredibly bright and colorful, and it looks beautiful in nearly any setting. However, in our tests, it fell short of reaching peak brightness levels that we’ve seen on other phones, especially in sunlight. This may be a result of the display utilizing a tone mapping algorithm, which Apple calls Smart HDR, intended to improve contrast and color balance by adjusting the dynamic range as needed.
While this is an excellent feature, we found that the effect can be a little bit too strong, resulting in overly saturated colors. We’ve also noticed that the iPhone 16 Pro Max tends to warm up or cool down colors in different parts of the image, which can be distracting.
The new iPhone 16 Pro Max is also the first device to include 8GB of RAM, which should make it an excellent choice for users who want to keep multiple apps open simultaneously or use resource-intensive applications, such as graphics design programs. This is a welcome change from previous years when the iPhone 16 Pro and non-Pro models only included 6GB of RAM.
Software
Apple’s big phone might have a vast and glorious screen, multiday battery life, and excellent cameras, including a 5x optical zoom, but it’s also expensive and complicated to hold. If you can cope with the size and price, the iPhone is a one-stop shop for content creation.
It has the best display and camera performance of any iPhone, and it’s a joy to use thanks to its lightning-quick software and speedy connectivity. The A18 Bionic chip is powerful and efficient, making it an excellent choice for anyone who uses their phone for work or play.
This year, the iPhone 16 Pro and other Pro models feature a new Camera Control button that allows you to adjust a range of settings by sliding or pressing on it. There’s also a new Photographic Styles feature that makes it easier to change the tones and colours of photos, both when you shoot them and after the fact.
Unfortunately, some of Apple’s most exciting AI features aren’t yet available on the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Notification summaries, Writing Tools that can help refine the tone of emails, visual intelligence, and Chat GPT are all still on the way.