TechPhonesiPhonesiPhone 14 Pro Max vs iPhone 13 Pro Max: Apple’s new flagship exploredThe iPhone 13 Pro Max was the ultimate iPhone. The iPhone 14 Pro Max is even betterWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
TechPhonesiPhonesiPhone 14 Pro Max vs iPhone 13 Pro Max: Apple’s new flagship exploredThe iPhone 13 Pro Max was the ultimate iPhone. The iPhone 14 Pro Max is even betterWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
The iPhone 13 Pro Max was the ultimate iPhone. The iPhone 14 Pro Max is even better
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Apple)
(Image credit: Apple)
When it launched last year theiPhone13 Pro Max was the ultimate iPhone, with a price to match. As we said in ouriPhone 13 Pro Max review, it was the “verybest iPhoneavailable” – and this year it’s been improved even further with the arrival of the iPhone 14 Pro Max, the best iPhone that Apple has ever made.
Many owners of the iPhone 13 Pro Max will therefore be wondering if they should upgrade to iPhone 14 Pro Max. That’s what this feature is designed to help them with, exploring everything that is new onApple’s 2022 flagship.
Here’s what you need to know.
iPhone 14 Pro Max vs iPhone 13 Pro Max: price and release date
The iPhone 13 Pro Max launched in September 2021 with a starting price of £1,049/$1,099/AU$1,849 for the 128GB model, rising to £1,549/$1,599/AU$2,719 for the 1TB model.
As with the rest of the iPhone 14 range, prices have increased in the UK. The 128GB model is now £1,199, rising to £1,749 for the 1TB model. US customers will pay $1,099 for 128TB, rising to $1,599 for the maxed-out 1TB model.
Pre-orders for the new iPhone begin on 9 September with availability from 16 September.
iPhone 14 Pro Max vs iPhone 13 Pro Max: design
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The other dramatic difference is that in the iPhone 14 Pro Max, the display is always on. It dims without losing skin tones if you’ve used photos of people as your wallpaper, and it enables you to see your Lock Screen widgets as well as any active alerts for travel, sports scores and so on.
Colour options here are fairly sober: Space Black, Silver, Gold and our current favourite, Deep Purple.
iPhone 14 Pro Max vs iPhone 13 Pro Max: cameras
The iPhone 14 Pro Max cameras are a significant upgrade. The main camera now has a 48MP quad-pixel sensor that uses pixel binning to create “superpixels”, clusters of pixels that act as one to capture more light. This feature is adaptive so in bright light you’ll get the full benefit of that 48MP resolution but in very low light you’ll get 12MP - albeit 12MP that’s much, much clearer than any previous iPhone. That 48MP is now available for ProRAW shooting too, and its higher resolution means you’ll be able to reframe images post-shooting without a significant loss in image quality. There’s also a redesigned LED flash that’s up to two times brighter and that adjusts itself according to the camera’s focal length.
Apertures for the iPhone 14 Pro Max are f/1.78 on the main camera, f/2.2 on the ultrawide and f/1.78 and f/2.8 on the 12MP 2x and 3x telephoto respectively.
For video there’s an improved Cinematic Mode that enables you to use 4K at 30fps, and there’s also 24fps to match moviemaking standards. And the new Action Mode promises gimbal-style tracking of action shots without an actual gimbal; if it’s as good as it looks in the demo it could be quite something – although surprisingly it’s not exclusive to the Pro and the Pro Max but available across the iPhone 14 range.
iPhone 14 Pro Max vs iPhone 13 Pro Max: performance and battery
The processor in the iPhone 13 Pro Max is Apple’s A15 Bionic, a 6‑core CPU with 2 performance and 4 efficiency cores, 5 GPU cores and a 16-core Neural Engine. The iPhone 14 Pro Max gets the A16 Bionic, which once again is 6-core but Apple says is 40% faster than the closest competition. The 5 GPU cores have 50% more memory bandwidth than before, and the high performance cores use 20% less power than in the A15.
iPhone 14 Pro Max vs iPhone 13 Pro Max: display
iPhone 14 Pro Max vs iPhone 13 Pro Max: early verdict
We don’t normally recommend annual upgrades because the differences year on year aren’t usually very dramatic. But this time out they really are. The iPhone 13 Pro Max is a superb and still class-leading smartphone, but the always-on display, improved notifications and vastly improved camera system mean that the iPhone 14 Pro Max is a very different beast to its predecessor. If you’re not going to be shooting lots of photos or video then the reasons to upgrade are largely cosmetic – as nice as the always-on Lock Screen is, it’s hardly essential, and iPhone Pro Max models were already more than fast enough for everyday operation – but if you want the ultimate iPhone for creative pros then the iPhone 14 Pro Max is a fantastic creative tool.
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