Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max: A Review

There is a quote that is often attributed to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates that goes, "Most people overestimate what they can achieve in a year and underestimate what they can achieve in ten years." That is definitely true within the technology world. You might not think about it often, but the World Wide Web is now 30 years old. In the last 30 years of the World Wide Web, a tremendous change has occurred. We went from occasionally using a telephone line to connect to the internet to having mostly ubiquitous internet. Also during that time, the speeds have increased orders of magnitude.

If you were not around during that time, it might be hard to fathom how long it would take to download a 1 Megabyte file. If you were on a 14.4 modem, it would take 9 minutes and 56 seconds to download a 1 megabyte file, and that was with ideal speeds. Eventually, this would come down to 2 minutes and 21 seconds. Now, we have operating system updates that can easily be gigabytes in size, and these take mere minutes to download. At the fastest dialup speeds of 56.6 Kbps, it would take 39 hours, 15 minutes to download a single gigabyte, and you would never be able to finish the download.

One thing that is an absolute certainty about technology is that significant shifts do not happen all that often; instead, they tend to happen over time with incremental changes. Yet, when you look back, you can see that all of those little changes did end up becoming a larger and more significant change. One of those significant shifts happened in 2007 with the release of the original iPhone. The iPhone was not the first "smartphone", but it was definitely a game-changer. Some of the earliest smartphones, as we would classify them today, were the Ericsson R380, Kyocera 6035, Nokia 9210 Communicator, and the Handspring Treo 380. It is possible that you might not have heard of these devices, except for maybe the Treo, but you would know it under the Palm brand.

There are many different technologies that ultimately came together to make the iPhone even remotely possible. The technologies were reliable cellular connections, fast enough cellular data, and touch screen technology. These are actually the three primary things needed for the iPhone. Yes, this is an oversimplification, but the iPhone would not have been the iPhone if these did not exist.

I am fully aware that I am not like most people because I do upgrade my iPhone every year. If you compare the same model lines on a year-over-year basis, you might think something along the lines of "this is just an incremental update", and in some cases, this is true. However, the average length of time that people are keeping their cell phones is around 3 years, and a lot can change in just three years. Therefore, when most people upgrade, they are getting significant upgrades. As an example, let us say you are going from an iPhone 12 Pro Max to an iPhone 15 Pro Max, here is what you would get:

1. Titanium, meaning lighter phone
2. Dynamic Island
3. Action Button
4. ProMotion display
5. Always On display
6. Record Spatial Video
7. Photographic Styles
8. 48MP main camera, compared to 12MP Main camera
9. 5x optical zoom
10. Emergency SOS via Satellite
11. Crash Detection
12. Messages via Satellite
13. USB-C with USB 3 speeds
14. Higher peak brightness
15. 3 generation newer processor
16. Apple Intelligence

That is a tremendous list of new features and improvements that occurred in just three years. Of course, the latest Pro Max, the iPhone 16 Pro Max, has its own set of enhancements, which we will cover presently. But before we do that, let us look at some of the features that have come with the previous iPhones.

Previous iPhones

When the original iPhone was released in 2007, it had 2G internet, 4GB or 8GB of storage, and only had a 3.5-inch screen. There was a 2-Megapixel camera, without a flash; it even used a 30-pin Apple-proprietary connector called the Dock connector. When introduced, it was only available on a single carrier, Cingular/AT&T, and was only available in the United States. Things have definitely changed since then. Now, iPhones have 5G internet, up to 1TB of storage, from 4.7-inch screens up to 6.9-inch screens, 48-Megapixel cameras, with multiple flashes (rear flash and the true-tone flash), and use Lightning or USB-C; they come on almost any wireless carrier, and are available across the world.

Almost every release of the iPhone has brought something new to the iPhone. The big changes for each year are:

• 2007: Original iPhone
• 2008: iPhone 3G - 3G data, GPS
• 2009: iPhone 3GS - Significant speed update
• 2010: iPhone 4 - Retina display
• 2011: iPhone 4s - Full HD Video, Siri
• 2012: iPhone 5 - 4-inch screen, LTE, Lightning connector
• 2013: iPhone 5s - Touch ID
• 2014: iPhone 6 / 6 Plus - Two screen sizes, Landscape icons on 6 Plus
• 2015: iPhone 6s / 6s Plus - 3D Touch, improved camera
• 2016: iPhone 7 / 7 Plus - water/dust resistance, 2x Camera on 7 Plus
• 2017: iPhone 8 / 8 Plus/ X - iPhone X, Face ID, Qi charging
• 2018: iPhone Xs / Xs Max - Added Max size, dual sim support
• 2019: iPhone 11 / Pro / Max Triple camera on Pro / Max
• 2020: iPhone 12 - Two model lines just different sizes, 5G, MagSafe
• 2021: iPhone 13 - Pro - ProMotion
• 2022: iPhone 14 - Satellite/Crash Detection, Pro/Pro Max - Dynamic Island
• 2023: iPhone 15 - USB-C, Titanium on the Pro line.

Those are just some of the big features for each year. Before we dive into the latest iPhone, let us take a quick look at my own purchase history of iPhones.

My Cell Phone History

I had a realization not that long ago, and it really hit me. That realization is that it is getting closer to being a quarter of a century since I got my first cell phones. Back then I was not nearly as prolific in upgrading as I am now. Prior to purchasing the original iPhone, I only owned three other cell phones: a Nokia 3310, a Samsung T637, and the Razr V3. If you were around in the 2000s, you would easily recognize the first and last of these. The Nokia 3310 is a classic, so much so that a re-release of an updated model of the 3310 was released in 2017. It was a candy bar-style phone, replete with T9 dialing (kids, ask your parents, or maybe explore the changes in iOS 18, of which T9 dialing is one). The Samsung T637 was also a candybar style phone, but it had a color screen. The Razr V3 was a clamshell phone. I used the Nokia for about four years, the Samsung for approximately two years, and I bought the Razr V3 in 2006. Needless to say, the Razr V3 was the last non-Apple phone I ended up purchasing.

When the iPhone was released on June 29th, 2007, I did not buy one the first day, but I did buy one the next day, on June 30th, 2007. I actually went back and forth and could not decide if I should get one. I can still recall that Saturday morning when I drove to my local Apple Store, waited for about an hour, and ended up being the 4th person in line to buy an iPhone that day. Since then, I have upgraded to a new phone each year. The first few years, it was almost a no-brainer, for two reasons. The first is that it was only a couple hundred dollars. Yes, that is a lot of money, but much cheaper than buying a phone today. The second reason was that the improvements year over year were significant improvements. In 2011, AT&T decided to no longer provide full discounts for upgrades, but they did offer partial discounts. This meant that the price of the iPhone was more expensive. It was still several hundred dollars for each device, but I still upgraded because there was enough reason to do so.

Starting in 2014 I decided that if I was going to buy a new phone each year, that I would pay full price. The reason I opted for this is because I did not want to have to be tied to a particular carrier, if I did not want to be. Furthermore, I did not want to be tied to a contract, so buying a phone outright was the only solution. It has been a decade now that I have been buying a new phone, outright, and once again I have purchased a new iPhone. This time it is the 512GB Black Titanium iPhone 16 Pro Max. Now, let us dive into my pre-order experience.

Pre-Order

Pre-ordering any iPhone for release day delivery is a mad rush, but Apple has made improvements over the years. One of the biggest is that you can pre-select which model you want to purchase and save this for pre-order time. This year I opted to get the 512GB Black Titanium iPhone 16 Pro Max. I chose this model because I do not like the gold/bronze of the Desert Titanium. I am also not a fan of the white titanium. The natural titanium would have been okay as well, but ultimately I chose the Black Titanium.

For the last three years I have gotten a 512GB model of the iPhone. This was needed because my photo library is rather large and I like to keep the originals on my iPhone. This is not strictly necessary, because I do keep the originals on my Mac Studio, as well as on iCloud Photo Library. My MacBook Pro and iPad do not have the originals.

The past few years Apple has been having pre-orders open at 5 a.m. Pacific Time, and this is a more agreeable time for me. The days of having to wake up at 12 a.m. Pacific Time were not the most fun, but I did do it, to make sure I could get a phone on release day. The big unknown for the Apple Store is when it will actually open up. As with previous years, I had four devices up and running. These were my iPhone, my iPad, my MacBook Pro, and my Mac Studio. On the iPhone and iPad I used the Apple Store app, while I had the Apple Store website open on my Macs.

It usually takes a couple of minutes after the actual pre-order time before the store opens, but by 5:02 a.m. it had still not shown up on any of my devices. I switched my iPhone to cellular, and lo and behold, the store popped right up. I had my phone pre-ordered, and the confirmation email in my inbox, by 5:03. I decided to track when the other devices did show up. On my iPad, the Apple Store app came up around 5:10 a.m., and my Macs did not have the store open until about 5:20 a.m.

When I pre-order, I tend to pick it up at my local Apple Store. This is so I can get an early time slot. The reason that I opt for this is because it is unknown when my iPhone would actually get delivered. Sometimes it is early in the afternoon, other times it may not be until 7:00 p.m. The unpredictability means it is easier for me to go and pick my iPhone up.

I did have one hiccup while ordering. The time slot that I chose was filled between the time I selected the time and the time that I checked out, so I had to choose a slightly later time slot. Even with this, the time slot was still early enough in the day that it was not a big deal. A friend of mine experienced the same thing when they ordered their phone for pickup at the same store I go to. I do not think there were that many people ordering phones for pickup at my local Apple Store that all slots would be filled, but you never know.

Overall, the pre-order process was not too bad. It surely beats waiting in line for more than 12 hours to buy a couple of iPhones. I still distinctly remember that day. It was a long one. Part of the issue was that Apple's point of sale (POS) system was under a lot of strain, and transactions were taking a long time, hence the delays. But that all seems to be in the past now. After the pre-order and picking up the device, comes the actual setup. So let us get to that next.

Setup

Having gone through the process of upgrading my phone every year, I am well-versed in how to move from one phone to another. For many years, I did an encrypted backup to my Mac and restored the new phone from there. This process had a couple of advantages. The first was that I could still use my old iPhone while the iPhone was restored. The second is that it was often faster than doing a direct device-to-device transfer.

This year, I opted to do a different approach. I used the new direct USB-C to USB-C connection. I used a 1-meter Thunderbolt 4 cable that I use to perform wired backups of my iPhone to my Mac. I opted for Thunderbolt because this cable can do 40 Gigabits per second, well above the 10 gigabits per second that the iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 16 Pro Max are capable of performing. At least, that was the intention with using the cable.

When I unboxed the iPhone 16 Pro Max, it did the initial synchronization dance where you need to take your old phone and scan the glowing image that appears on your new phone. This is used to pair the two devices together. I performed this step, and then it went through the Appearance and Face ID options. Next came the eSIM transfer. For some reason, it could not activate the eSIM. I tried to initiate the transfer again, but it never showed the eSIM transfer screen. I did not want to erase the new phone and go through the entire setup again, so I just continued the setup.

The next step is to start the actual transfer, but this was not possible because another step was needed. I am a developer and I usually run iOS betas on my iPhone. Normally when the release candidate of the operating system is released, I install it and then disable any beta updates. Most years this is not a problem. But this year Apple did something different. Apple released the first beta of 18.1 in August. This included Apple Intelligence, so naturally, I installed the betas. Since I had the latest iOS 18.1 beta on my iPhone 15 Pro Max, the iPhone 16 Pro Max needed to be updated to the same release. The iOS update took about 15 minutes from start to finish.

After the iPhone 16 Pro Max rebooted, it reconnected to the transfer session. This step took a surprisingly long time, about 10 minutes to finish. Once the transfer started, I thought it would use the cable to perform the transfer. The transfer estimation screen indicated that it would take 2 hours to complete the transfer. At first, I thought that the cable was not being used, but it must have been used because the transfer did seem to go quite quickly. In fact, it took just about 70 minutes to complete.

Even though it took about an hour and 10 minutes, there were instances where it just sat at a certain amount of "remaining time" for quite a while. The transfer sat at "18 minutes" remaining for about 10 minutes. It then proceeded to go down to 5 minutes, then stopped at "2 minutes" remaining for another 15 minutes. It then crept up to 3 minutes for another few minutes. At this point, it finally did finish. Suffice it to say, progress bars and estimated times are not an easy thing to get to be 100% accurate. Ultimately though, it must have used the Thunderbolt cable, because there is no way that it would transfer more than 200GB in an hour if it was not using the cable. This was much faster than the last couple of years. In 2023, it took about 2 1/2 hours, the same for 2022.

Of course, after the data transfer is done, that is not the final step, far from it. After the transfer, the iPhone reboots and then you have to perform the following:

• Log in to your Apple Account
• Set up Apple Pay (can be done later)
• Wait for apps to download
• Wait for any songs to be re-downloaded

There were two things that I noticed during the transfer. The first is that the iPhone 16 Pro Max was being powered by the iPhone 15 Pro Max via the Thunderbolt cable that I was using, which is anticipated. However, it was not being powered before I updated to the iOS 18.1 beta. The second thing that I noticed is that both devices got extremely warm. Sadly, it is not uncommon for my iPhone 15 Pro Max to get a bit warm, but the iPhone 16 Pro Max also got warm. I ended up putting the iPhone 16 Pro Max on a little fan I have to help keep it cool.

After everything was finished, I did notice that there were a number of things that did not transfer properly. These included the aforementioned eSIM transfer, iMessage, and the Apple Watch.

eSIM Activation

As I mentioned, for some reason, the eSIM in my iPhone 16 Pro Max could not be transferred. I did not anticipate this being much of an issue because you can always use Settings to perform the transfer. This is what I ended up doing. This entire process of going through Settings to transfer the eSIM from my iPhone 15 Pro Max to my iPhone 16 Pro Max took about 5 minutes, but this seemed to have other ramifications.

iMessage

After the eSIM was transferred, I wanted to make sure that I could send messages. However, nothing was showing. So I went to Settings to verify that I was signed into iMessage, but it indicated I was not. I attempted to sign in, but I could not sign in. It just kept spinning and spinning. I decided to leave this until after all of my apps and songs finished re-downloading.

Home app

Another item which did not have anything was the Home app. Nothing was showing, and when I mean nothing, I mean absolutely nothing. There were none of my accessories, none of the controls, nothing was showing. Like iMessage, I left this until later.

Apple Watch

One thing that did not show at all during the transfer was my Apple Watch. Typically, this does transfer without any issue. Much like the eSIM transfer, I needed to complete this step manually. When I opened up the Apple Watch app, I saw this screen:

I attempted to finish the pairing. The first time it just sat there and did nothing. I then forced the Apple Watch app to quit and attempted to finish the pairing again. This time it was just spinning and spinning, much like when I tried to sign into iMessage. I am not sure what it was doing. I initially thought it might have been performing a backup before pairing the watch, but it just sat there, much longer than it should have taken.

Ultimately, I could have just skipped this entirely because I also purchased a new Apple Watch Series 10. It probably would have been more prudent to just set up that instead. But, I preferred to have everything else working before setting up the new Apple Watch, just in case there was an issue and I needed to erase and set up the new iPhone again.

The Fix

Knowing the first rule of any troubleshooting, I decided to reboot my iPhone 16 Pro Max. After it finished rebooting, guess what? iMessage showed all of my addresses, my Home accessories were showing again, and I was able to finish pairing my Series 9 Apple Watch. Thinking about this now, I am guessing there was actually an issue with my Apple Account not fully signing in. It signed in enough to redownload my apps and all of my songs, but obviously not enough to synchronize the remaining iCloud items. Regardless, I finished doing the setup of everything. Now that we have covered the setup, let us look at the actual device now, starting with the color.

Color

Apple's "Pro" and "Pro Max" line of phones generally only have a limited number of colors. In fact, this is only the second year for titanium; Apple has had three standard titanium colors: natural, white, and black. There is a fourth option: last year it was Blue Titanium, and this year it is Desert Titanium.

While I was waiting in line to pick up my iPhone, I had a conversation with the person behind me who was also buying a new iPhone. I had mentioned that the Desert was a bit too "gold" for me, and he agreed. He opted for the Natural because it was better than the White Titanium, and he wanted something different than the Black. I opted for the Black. I am not a fan of anything gold; I cannot articulate the exact reason, but it is just not for me. I thought about getting the Natural Titanium, but ended up getting Black Titanium.

Apple's "Space Gray", "Black," and "Jet Black" are all various shades of gray, with some obviously being darker than others. The Black Titanium iPhone 16 Pro Max is a dark color, much darker than the Blue Titanium on my iPhone 15 Pro Max. It is, of course, not the darkest iPhone color that Apple has had, not by a long shot. The phone that has the honor of being the darkest iPhone still belongs to the Jet Black iPhone 7. Which was a glossy black.

Next, let us look at two other changes, the Screen Size and Dimensions.

Screen Size and Dimensions

Since the introduction of the original iPhone, the size of the screen has steadily gotten larger. The first increase was in 2012, five years after the initial introduction, with the iPhone 5. The screen went from a 3.5-inch screen to a 4-inch screen. The next change was just two years later in 2014 when two new models were released, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. These had screen sizes of 4.7 and 5.5 inches, respectively. In 2017, when the iPhone X was released, it had a 5.85-inch screen. 2018 brought three new models; the iPhone XS with a 5.85-inch screen, the XS Max which had a 6.46-inch screen, and the iPhone XR with a 6.1-inch screen.

In 2020, the iPhone 12 line introduced 4 models. The 12 mini had a 5.4-inch screen, the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro both had a 6.1-inch screen, and the iPhone 12 Pro Max had a 6.7-inch screen. The iPhone 14 line in 2022 replaced the 5.4-inch mini with the 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Plus. So, from 2007 to 2023, there were a total of 9 different screen sizes:

1. 3.5-inch
2. 4-inch
3. 4.7-inch
4. 5.4-inch
5. 5.5-inch
6. 5.85-inch
7. 6.1-inch
8. 6.46-inch
9. 6.7-inch

Now, with the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max, we can add two more sizes, the 6.3-inch iPhone 16 Pro and the 6.9-inch iPhone 16 Pro Max. This means that the screen size has increased by 3.3% and 3% respectively. At the same time that the screen has increased, the dimensions of the iPhone 16 Pro Max have increased, but ever so slightly.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max was 159.9mm tall, 76.7mm wide, and had a depth of 8.25mm. Comparatively, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is 163.0mm tall, 77.6mm wide, and has a depth of 8.25mm. This means that the overall difference is 1.9% taller and 1.2% wider. This is so very minuscule, but then how does Apple get a 3% bigger screen, with such a small change in physical size? That is simple: the bezels around the screen are even smaller than on the previous iPhone 15 Pro Max. Smaller bezels mean that you will see even more screen, without needing to necessarily increase the physical size.

Even though the screen size has changed, the technology powering it is the same. The 16 Pro Max has a "Super Retina XDR Display" with a 120Hz ProMotion display and an Always-On Display. The iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone 15 Pro Max also had this same display.

The screen itself is not much different, at least not at first glance. It still has the 120Hz ProMotion display, which many users might not even really notice a difference between the 60Hz and 120Hz displays.

When you first look at the iPhone 16 Pro Max, the 6.9-inch screen is not a significant difference from the 6.7-inch screen on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. However, I actually ended up using the iPhone 15 Pro Max for a bit after I had gotten accustomed to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and I did notice that the physical size difference is actually noticeable. When I used the iPhone 15 Pro Max again, it did seem a bit smaller in my hands. It was nothing like going from the 4-inch iPhone 5s to the iPhone 6 Plus, but it was still noticeable.

There is one significant change that might be quite useful in low-light situations, and that change is the fact that the minimum brightness for the screen has gone down to 1 nit. This means that you will be able to have less light coming out of your phone's screen, which can not only save battery power but also makes it less likely that you will hurt your eyes if you wake the screen in a dark room. Now that we have seen the changes with the screen, let us move onto another slight difference: the battery and weight.

Battery and Weight

The fact that the size of the device increased, albeit marginally, means that there is more room for a battery. In fact, according to Apple, the battery life in the 16 Pro Max has increased over the 15 Pro Max. The iPhone 15 Pro Max had 29 hours of video playback, 25 hours of video playback when streamed, and 95 hours of audio playback. The iPhone 16 Pro Max increases the numbers by 13%, 16%, and 10% respectively. This results in 35 hours of video playback, 29 hours of streamed video playback, and 105 hours of audio playback.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max had a battery size of 4,422 milli-Amp hours, or mAh. The extra space within the iPhone 16 Pro Max is filled with a battery, which can help lead to longer battery life. According to Tom's Guide, the iPhone 16 Pro Max has a 4,685 milli-Amp hour battery. This is a modest increase of 5.95%. Even though this is not a huge increase, it is still an increase and any improvement in the battery is a welcome change.

The weight of the iPhone 16 Pro Max has actually increased a bit. Last year with the iPhone 15 Pro Max, the weight went down due to the titanium frame. But due to the larger screen and increased dimensions and battery, the overall weight has increased.

• 11 Pro Max: 7.97 ounces (226 grams) - Stainless Steel
• 12 Pro Max: 8.03 ounces (228 grams) - Stainless Steel
• 13 Pro Max: 8.46 ounces (240 grams) - Stainless Steel
• 14 Pro Max: 8.46 ounces (240 grams) - Stainless Steel
• 15 Pro Max: 7.81 ounces (221 grams) - Titanium
• 16 Pro Max: 7.99 ounces (227 grams) - Titanium

This is a good representation of how the different metals make a true difference. Even with an increase of 0.2 inches in the screen, the overall weight is only up 6 grams, or 2.7%. The difference is not really noticeable in day-to-day usage, but if you are explicitly trying to notice the difference, you might be able to.

It is unlikely that you will ever actually experience the optimal battery numbers provided above, but they are still a good comparison so you can expect improved battery life. Some of this battery life is due to the actual battery, but some of it must be attributed to the processor. Let us cover that next.

A18 Pro

Once there were at least two sizes of iPhones available for purchase, one might suspect that there would be some bifurcation between the models, in terms of what is actually powering the device. However, this did not happen, at least not until 2022. When the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro lines were released, only the iPhone 14 Pro/Pro Max got a new processor, the A16 Bionic. The regular iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus received the A15 Bionic, the same chip as the year before. With the iPhone 15 and 15 Pro, this happened again. The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus received the A16 Bionic that was previously in the 14 Pro/Pro Max. In the case of the 15 Pro and Pro Max, they received an entirely new chip, the A17 Pro. It should not be a surprise that Apple would not have the A17 in both the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro lines. The reason for this is that Apple sells nearly 100 million of the latest iPhone models every year, and manufacturing that many A17 Pros was just not possible.

The A17 Pro was a one-off System on a Chip, or SOC. The A17 Pro was the first 3-nanometer chip in an iPhone; however, it was using a process that TSMC called "N3". This process proved to be more expensive and had worse overall viable products (yields) using that process. Apple would not abandon using a 3nm chip; instead, the A18 Pro uses the second-generation 3nm process called N3E.

The N3E process has better yields, and from a technical perspective, is a better process. According to Apple, the Neural Engine of the A18 Pro is capable of 35 trillion operations per second (TOPS). This is the same as the A17 Pro, but the A18 Pro is faster due to increased memory bandwidth. Specifically, there is 17% more memory bandwidth, bringing the iPhone 15 Pro Max to around 479.2 gigabits per second, or 59.90 gigabytes per second. The reason that memory bandwidth is important is because each of the processors within the A18 Pro, the CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine, all have direct access to the memory, and when one of the processors performs the actions necessary, the next processor can perform its actions. The more memory bandwidth, the faster the process can complete.

Just like the A17 Pro compared to the A16 Bionic, the A18 Pro has some features that are not present in the A18. Most notably, there continues to be USB 3 speeds, of up to 10 gigabits per second, which was really useful when transferring data from my iPhone 15 Pro Max to my iPhone 16 Pro Max.

One of the areas where the improved memory bandwidth might be useful is when you are using the Camera, so let us look at that now.

Camera

I will be the first to admit that I am not a professional photographer, but I still enjoy taking photos. If anybody was to inquire as to why I buy a new iPhone every year, I would say that "I am not buying a new phone, I am buying a new camera and it just happens to have a phone". On the one hand, I am being a bit facetious, because I do use the iPhone for the apps more than the camera. At the same time, though, it is actually true. I do prefer to have the best camera I can get. It is Apple's intent to have the Pro and Pro Max be the same, except for the screen size. Whenever this is technologically feasible, they do this. But when it is not possible, the better camera features end up in the highest-end phone.

In 2014, with the iPhone 6, the best camera possible was on the iPhone 6 Plus. The iPhone 6 Plus had optical image stabilization within the camera. Similarly, in 2016 on the iPhone 7 Plus, you got a second camera, as compared to the single camera on the iPhone 7. With the iPhone 12 Pro Max, you got 2.5x optical zoom, as opposed to 2x on the 12 Pro. Lastly, the 15 Pro Max has a 5x optical zoom, while the 15 Pro only has a 3x optical zoom. This year, the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are back to parity in terms of the camera.

One of the new features, which is present on all of the iPhone 16 devices, is the Camera Control button.

Camera Control

It is not often that Apple adds additional physical buttons to the iPhone. Last year with the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, Apple replaced the ringer/silent switch for the Action Button. The Action Button is a customizable button that allows you to assign a variety of actions to perform when the button is pressed. These actions could be to toggle ringer/silent, flashlight, opening the camera, toggling an accessibility option, or even running a shortcut, amongst other options.

The Camera Control is the first all-new control on the iPhone that did not replace an existing one. Looking back at the original iPhone, all of the same buttons were present. An on/off button, volume up, volume down, and ringer/silent switch. As mentioned, the ringer/silent button was replaced by the Action button. The Camera Control is a dedicated button, and as the name suggests, specifically designed for the camera.

The Camera Control is a dual-action button. It is both a capacitive button as well as a pressure-sensitive one. The pressure sensitivity means that you can press lightly or heavily, and have different actions occur. The capacitive portion means that you swipe and move between controls.

Selecting a Camera app

Apple's own Camera app is quite capable and is the most used Camera app on the iPhone. However, there are a variety of other camera applications available on iOS. The Camera Control allows you to select which camera app you would prefer to be used when using the button. This can be done by going to Settings -> Camera -> Camera Control.

Once you open the settings page, you can choose which camera app you want to use from the provided list. This list is provided from the apps you already have installed. Some examples might include Camera, Halide, Instagram, Magnifier, and Code Scanner, just to name a few. You can also choose whether to open the camera app using a single click (the default), or a double-click.

Next, let us cover how to use Camera Control.

Using Camera Control

Camera Control provides you with an easy way of being able to open your selected camera app and then control various aspects of the camera's functions. As mentioned above, Camera Control is a dual-featured button. The pressure-sensitive button that allows you to click and the capacitive button allows you to drag your finger along to adjust the current value. The default app for use is Apple's Camera app.

To open the Camera app, simply press the Camera Control button once, or double-click if you modified the setting. The default control to adjust is the zoom. If you swipe your finger across the Camera Control, the current value will be changed. If you swipe left, it will zoom out, and swiping right will zoom in. This is very much like zooming in on the Camera app itself.

You can lightly double-click on the Camera Control button, and you will be able to select the feature to switch to. For Apple's Camera app, you can use from the following:

• Exposure
• Depth
• Zoom
• Cameras
• Photographic Styles
• Tone

To select an item, swipe to your preferred item, and then lightly click once and your selection will be confirmed. You can then use the camera. There is one thing to note. If you press firmly on the Camera Control button, it will become a shutter and it will take a photo with your given parameters. If you continue to press, a video capture session will start.

As I was using the Camera Control button, I was attempting to figure out why Apple would include a dedicated button specifically for the Camera. I think there are a couple of reasons for this decision. The first is that the Camera is one of the most used features of the iPhone, so having a dedicated button makes sense. If Apple only wanted to provide quick access to open the camera app, this is already covered by the Lock Screen control as well as the Action Button, so I think there is more.

The second reason, and the more likely reason, is that the Camera app can be a bit complicated for some users. All of the features of the Camera app are hidden behind buttons, and having all of the standard options available from a single location may allow users to take even better photos with all of the tools at their fingertips.

The last reason, as I can surmise, is that having the Camera Control button does make the iPhone 16 Pro Max feel a bit more like a standard digital camera. This is enhanced by the fact that the Camera Control button is placed approximately in the same place that someone would place their index finger when using a digital camera. Furthermore, having all of the controls at your fingertips does make it easier to adjust the settings if needed, without needing to look at the full screen.

Being able to change settings for the camera without needing to move your finger can be quite useful when you are framing your photo, and having to change something could be distracting. Now, you can change settings without needing to move your eyes too far.

It should be noted that not every single feature is available within the Camera Control button. For instance, you cannot change the current function. What this means is that if you want to switch from a Photo to a Video, or even a panoramic photo, you will still need to swipe along the screen as you would do previously.

Apple does have a support guide that will show you how to Use the Camera Control on all of the iPhone 16 models. Let us now look at another improvement, which is camera-related, and that is the Ultra Wide Camera.

Ultra Wide Camera

Going all the way back to the original iPhone, each iPhone has had at least one camera. Particularly in the early days, the camera was not of the best quality, but it was there. In fact, from 2007 to 2015, there was only a single rear camera available on all iPhones. The iPhone 7 Plus, introduced in 2016, changed this. The iPhone 7 Plus was the first device to have a dual camera system, while the iPhone 7 kept the single "Main" camera.

At the time, Apple identified the two cameras as the "Main" camera and the "Telephoto" camera. The dual camera system on the iPhone 7 Plus introduced a feature common today: an easy way to switch between multiple lenses just by tapping on a button.

The next big change was in 2019, with the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max. These two devices were the first to introduce the Triple Camera system that has since become common on the Pro and Pro Max phones. The three rear cameras were all 12-megapixel lenses, with various aperture sizes. Apple labeled these as the "Main", "Telephoto", and "Ultra Wide" camera.

The 11, 12, and 13 Pro and Pro Max devices all had the triple camera system. Each of the cameras was 12 megapixels. Over these three devices, the aperture size went from ƒ/2.4 on the iPhone 11 Pro Max, the 12 Pro Max had the same aperture, and the 13 Pro Max improved to an aperture size of ƒ/1.8. As a note, the larger the aperture, the more light that can be let in.

Apple's camera system is a combination of both hardware and software. The triple camera system on the Pro and Pro Max has remained unchanged from the iPhone 14 Pro Max to the iPhone 15 Pro Max. THe iPhone 16 Pro Max largely follows this, except for one aspect but more on that presently. The "Main" camera is a 48 megapixel ƒ/1.78 aperture, while the Telephoto is a 12 megapixel ƒ/2.8 aperture lens. The Ultra Wide camera has an aperture of ƒ/2.8.

Starting with the iPhone 14 Pro Max, the main camera became a 48-megapixel camera. This is 4x the number of pixels previously. The 15 Pro Max kept the same configuration as the 14 Pro Max. Comparatively, the ultra-wide cameras have all been 12 megapixels. The iPhone 16 Pro Max has an improved ultra-wide camera; it is now a 48-megapixel sensor.

The 48-megapixel sensor is an improvement in a couple of different ways. The first is that the images are larger; specifically, they have a resolution of 8064 x 6048 pixels. This means that you can get more pixels, which means more information, which means better quality. Therefore, should you compress an image, like creating a JPG, more information will be retained, which should create an overall better image.

The larger ultra-wide does have some additional improvements, specifically with macro photography. This is because the ultra-wide lens is used when taking macro photos, specifically you can have up to 48 megapixel macro photos, which improves the overall quality.

Dolby Vision

There is always something that separates the "Pro" line of phones from the standard line of devices. Some of these include a 120Hz ProMotion display, the Always-On display, Night Mode Portraits, the 5x optical camera lens, LiDAR scanner, and this year, Dolby Vision 4K video at 120 frames per second.

For over a decade, video recording has been a primary feature of the iPhone. In 2015, with the release of the iPhone 6s/6s Plus, Apple added 4K video recording at 25 fps or 30 fps. The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus added two more options, 24 fps and 60 fps.

You might initially think "it can't be that much better", but actually, it is. Similar to the ultra-wide camera improvements, having video record at 120 frames per second is a significant improvement. Doubling the number of frames results in smoother video. As you can see from the two items below:

You are able to record at 120 frames per second in a standard video, but you can also do the same in a Slo motion video, which is a nice improvement in quality for those types of videos as well.

As you might suspect, taking video at twice the number of frames per second can increase the size of the video. As an example, the original size of the windmill videos above are substantially different. The iPhone 15 Pro Max 60 fps video is 204.7 MB and the iPhone 16 Pro Max 120 fps is 383.2 MB. Below are two more videos; this one is of a train that was going by. The file size comparison is 209.9MB as compared to 391.3MB. So, they use quite a bit more space.

There is one last camera-related item to cover, and that is Photographic Styles.

Photographic Styles

Photos can be an intensely personal thing. What makes it personal could be the subject of the photo, the location, or even just the feeling that a particular photo evokes. Some photographers prefer full-color photos, while others prefer black and white, and yet some prefer sepia-toned photos. Some may prefer a light bokeh effect, while others prefer more of a bokeh effect. Once you gather all of someone's preferences together, it could be considered someone's own personal style.

Alongside the introduction of iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, a new feature was introduced called Photographic Styles. Photographic Styles are a way of being able to automatically apply a standard look to all of your photos, specifically one that you like.

With the iPhone 15 Pro Max, you had five different styles: Standard, Rich Contrast, Vibrant, Warm, and Cool. Each of these had its own setting for Tone and Warmth. You could adjust the value if you so chose, between -100 and 100 for either tone or warmth.

Once you selected a Photographic Style, it would be applied automatically to all of your photos; however, you could choose a different photographic style on a photo-by-photo basis. Yet, there was one thing that was absolutely true. Regardless of whichever style, once you have taken a photo with a photographic style applied, you could not change it. If you wanted to change the photographic style, you would need to retake the photo.

The iPhone 16 line of phones takes Photographic Styles to a whole new level. There are a number of enhancements, the first being a whole new range of styles. The new list of Photographic Styles includes:

1. Standard
2. Cool Rose
3. Neutral
4. Rose Gold
5. Gold
6. Amber
7. Vibrant
8. Natural
9. Luminous
10. Dramatic
11. Quiet
12. Cozy
13. Ethereal
14. Muted B&W
15. Stark B&W

Each of these individual photographic styles has its own values for Tone and Color, again it ranges from -100 to 100 for each.

The second enhancement is that under iOS 18 with the iPhone 16 line of phones, Photographic Styles are now modifiable after you take a photo. This means that you do not need to worry if a photo does not look like you wanted, you can adjust it after the fact. It should be noted that only photos that were taken with the iPhone 16 line of phones can be adjusted. Photos not taken on an iPhone 16 device will use the older Photographic Styles.

What this new approach means is that if you took a photo with a Cool Rose style, but now you want to make it a Muted B&W style, you can do so. You can change the Photographic Style by using the following steps:

1. Open Photos.
2. Locate the photo which you want to adjust the Photographic Style on.
3. Open the photo.
4. Click, or tap, on the Edit button.
5. Click, or tap, the "Styles" button.
6. Select the new style that you wish to apply.

There are a couple of things to mention, and keep in mind is that these newer photographic styles are only available on iPhone 16 devices. Any other devices will use the older photographic styles and cannot be adjusted after the fact. The second thing to keep in mind is that this is completely non-destructive, meaning you can easily change your mind at any point and adjust the photo as necessary.

These new photographic styles are a great improvement over the previous photographic styles. The improved selection means that you can more easily find the right photographic style for any of the photos taken with an iPhone 16 Pro Max. Now, there is one last item to discuss. Let us talk about power, specifically MagSafe charging.

MagSafe Charging

As has been the case since the iPhone 12, all new iPhones support MagSafe charging. MagSafe is Apple's take on the Qi charging standard. MagSafe expands upon the standard by including magnets to ensure the iPhone is properly aligned. The iPhone 16 Pro Max supports MagSafe charging and Qi charging. The iPhone 16 Pro Max also supports faster charging via the updated MagSafe charging puck, provided you have a 30-watt or higher power brick connected. The faster charging allows you to charge up to 50% within 30 minutes. This is a 33% improvement in speed over the previous charging puck, which would charge to 50% in 45 minutes.

I bought one of the new MagSafe pucks, and it has a couple of changes. The first is that the cable is braided, which has become the standard for all of Apple's new cables. This does improve the feel should you need to plug or unplug the MagSafe puck. The other change is a very subtle one: the size. The actual size of the charging puck has gotten smaller, not by a lot, but it is absolutely smaller. The reason that I know this is that I have a Twelve South Forte stand that I purchased when Apple announced StandBy mode in June of 2023. The Forte stand is designed to put the MagSafe puck into a specially designed receptacle, which you can then connect your iPhone to the MagSafe puck. The issue comes with the fit. The new MagSafe charging puck more easily falls out of the stand when you attempt to take the iPhone off the puck.

What I have determined is that if you lift up the iPhone and lean it towards the top of the stand, it does not fall out. However, if you try to pull your phone down, it will pull the MagSafe puck out of the receptacle. I hope Twelve South creates an insert that will work for the newer MagSafe puck, and if they do, I will have no problem paying for the new insert. I am not sure if they are going to put forth the effort to do create one or not.

Ultimately, this is not a problem in most situations because it is not likely that you will be using that specific stand, but it is an issue for me. Therefore, it is something to be cognizant about if you plan on purchasing one of the new MagSafe charging pucks.

Obligatory Benchmarks

I have been doing reviews on my website for quite a while now, and when it comes to devices like the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, I always end up putting in some benchmarks. These are designed to provide a comparison to comparable devices. The devices that I compare within these reviews are ones that I have on hand at the time of the review. This review is no exception. These benchmarks have been done using the Geekbench 6 on each of the platforms below.

When looking at all of these benchmarks, they all make sense. The M4 is the device that has the highest results, and it is the most powerful device. Next is the iPhone 16 Pro Max. The remainder are all in order according to when they were released.

One of the latest benchmarking utilities is a tool called Geekbench AI, formerly Geekbench ML. According to Geekbench AI developer Primate Labs, Inc.:

Geekbench AI is a cross-platform AI benchmark that uses real-world machine learning tasks to evaluate AI workload performance. Geekbench AI measures your CPU, GPU, and NPU to determine whether your device is ready for today's and tomorrow's cutting-edge machine learning applications.

So, here are those benchmarks. I did not do the CPU calculations on these devices because while AI can run on the CPU, quite often it is handled by the GPU or Neural Engine.

As is the case with the CPU and GPU benchmarks, the Geekbench AI benchmarks follow the same order, with the M4 iPad having the highest results. When you compare the iPhone 16 Pro Max to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, there is a substantial improvement. The Neural Engine's single-precision result is 17% better, while the half and quantized are around 37% each. Similarly, the GPU results are 18%, 21%, and 19% respectively. This is a decent year-over-year improvement.

A good comparison is actually to compare the original M1 with the A18 Pro. When you compare these, the improvements made in just four years are not too bad either. For the GPU, single precision is 40.93%, half precision is 17.1%, and quantized is a 41.2% improvement. Now, the biggest gains are with the Neural Engine. The Neural Engine's single-precision result has improved 40.2% over the M1, which is a good change. The half and quantized are an even larger improvement. These are 236.2% and 322.2%. These two are incredible improvements, and just in four years.

Closing Thoughts

The iPhone 16 Pro Max may initially seem like an incremental update over the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and in some aspects, it is. However, there are a number of improvements. Some of these are hardware, and some are software. In terms of hardware, the iPhone 16 Pro Max now sports a 6.9-inch screen. This is a 0.2-inch increase, but the physical size of the device has also had a modest increase to accommodate the new screen size. The device could have been bigger, but Apple reduced the bezels even further to help minimize the size change. The battery life of the iPhone 16 Pro Max has increased to 33 hours for video, 29 hours for streamed video, and up to 105 hours for audio playback. Part of the battery life increase is due to the nearly 6% larger battery, but that is not the only reason.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max is powered by the A18 Pro. This brings the iPhone 16 line back into having the same general line of processors. The A18 Pro has 17% more memory bandwidth than the A17 Pro. While this increased bandwidth may require incrementally more battery, the increased bandwidth means that tasks can be accomplished even faster, which ultimately reduces battery usage. Beyond this, the A18 Pro uses the new "N3E" manufacturing process, which is TSMC's latest 3-nanometer process. This process results in 32% less power for the same speeds.

The A18 Pro has enabled a whole new camera system, the Fusion Camera system. This system allows you to take a variety of photos, and the best camera will be used. There are a bunch of camera-related changes with the iPhone 16 Pro Max. The first is the new Camera Control. This new button is more than just a shutter button, although it can be used as such, the Camera Control is used to select various features of the camera. This includes the specific camera to use, the zoom, exposure, depth, Photographic Style, or tone. The Camera Control is not just a standard button; it is also capacitive, meaning you can slide your finger to adjust values. Camera Control is not limited to Apple's camera app, you can use any supported third-party app as your default.

When you do use it on the iPhone 16 Pro Max, you will likely see some significant enhancements, particularly with the Ultra-Wide camera. The iPhone 16 Pro Max has a 48 Megapixel sensor, this is 4x the previous 12 Megapixel camera on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. This will improve not only our RAW photos but also all photos that you take with the Ultra-Wide camera. In particular, macro photos are improved because they can now be 48 Megapixels because taking a macro photo will use the Ultra-Wide camera.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max is capable of using the Photographic Styles. For photos taken with the iPhone 16 Pro Max, you can take a photo with a Photographic Style already applied, or you can apply one, or even choose a different one, after the fact. This can be done on both iOS 18, iPadOS 18, as well as on macOS Sequoia. Only the photos taken with an iPhone 16 Pro Max, or any other iPhone 16 device, can use these Photographic Styles, but being able to change them after the fact is a great upgrade.

Beyond the new Ultra-Wide camera, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is capable of recording in 4K Dolby Vision at 120 frames per second. This is double the previous frame rate of 60 frames per second. Additionally, slow-motion videos can also be recorded at 120 frames per second.

There are a few smaller changes to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, including Wi-Fi 7, the first Apple device to support the latest Wi-Fi standard. The second is that you can record in SpatialAudio due to the new microphone array, which has wind noise reductions applied. You can also take Spatial Photos.

If you have an iPhone 13 or older, you cannot go wrong with any of the iPhone 16 line of devices. The iPhone 16 Pro Max continues to have the largest screen, and supports the best camera system that Apple has offered to date. The iPhone 16 Pro Max will support Apple Intelligence, which has not yet been released, but will be over the course of the year. While the iPhone 16 Pro Max may be a less substantial update, as compared to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, it is a fantastic update for anybody using an older iPhone.