As smartphone makers like Samsung and Google are building new product lines with foldable smartphones, Apple is continuing to innovate in the tried-and-tested form factor. The Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max is the company’s most advanced smartphone yet, and it is primed for the most-awaited Apple Intelligence.

While Apple showcased some of its on-device Gen AI features during the WWDC 2024 and at the September launch event, some of those features will be available to users only in public beta version in this latest iPhone.

But, the phone is clearly beefed up with solid hardware to handle AI workloads, with a top-of-the-line chipset. Plus, a new, dedicated camera button does more than just click pictures and shoot videos.

More on this feature later in the review.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max is the biggest iPhone yet with a 6.9-inch display screen | Photo Credit: John Xavier

Design and display

First things first. How does this phone look? Honestly, if you’ve been using an iPhone 15 Pro Max, it will be a bit difficult to notice the difference between the two iPhones. But, with a closer, second look, you will notice thinner bezels, a bigger screen, smaller margins, and a new camera button.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max comes with an aerospace grade 5 titanium body - - one of the highest strength-to-weight ratios of any metal. That makes it durable and scratch-resistant. It is also designed with a new machined chassis and additional graphite-clad aluminium substructure to ensure the on-device AI features (when they arrive) won’t heat up the device.

Plus, the latest-generation Ceramic Shield (the Gorilla Glass alternative, made by the same manufacturer, Corning, for Android smartphones) gets tougher, so accidental bumps on the screen are taken care of. Just like its predecessor, this device too is both dust and water resistant for up to six metres for 30 minutes, and it handles accidental spills quite well.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max comes with a Super Retina XDR display and all-screen OLED; the smartphone also features thinner margins | Photo Credit: The Hindu

The iPhone 16 Pro Max is the biggest iPhone yet with a 6.9-inch display screen -- slightly bigger than the Google Pixel 9 XL, which gets a 6.8-inch screen. It weighs 227 grams, about 6 grams heavier than the Pixel 9 XL.

If this phone is placed next to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, the two may not look very different. But when you pick the two up, you will notice the difference in weight. And if you are someone who is currently using an iPhone 15 Pro Max, you may find it a bit difficult to extend your thumb to touch the corners of the screen. Still, this device is relatively easier to carry around, compared to its predecessor. Also, if you are used to reading books on Apple’s Books app on your mobile, you will find the iPhone 16 Pro Max to be a handy reading device.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max, like its predecessor, comes with a Super Retina XDR display and all-screen OLED. It has a resolution of 2868 x 1320 pixels with 460 ppi. Because of ProMotion technology, this device gets an adaptive refresh rate ranging from 1 Hz to 120 Hz. The phone has a typical brightness of 1,000 nits and an HDR brightness of 1,600 nits. It has a peak brightness of 2,000 nits, and a minimum brightness of 1 nit.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max weighs 227 grams, about 6 grams heavier than the Pixel 9 XL | Photo Credit: The Hindu

Performance and battery

The iPhone 16 Pro Max gets Apple’s most advanced silicon, the A18 Pro chip. The system-on-chip (SoC) is built using the second-generation 3nm technology, and it comes with a 16-core Neural Engine that is optimised for handling Gen AI language models. This chip is capable of running Gen AI models 15% faster than the A17 Pro chip - - the one that powers the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max.

The 6-core GPU offers top class graphics processing with Dynamic Caching, mesh shading, and faster ray tracing, making this phone a great device for triple-A games. The 6-core CPU, with two performance and four efficiency cores, is not just faster than its predecessor; it is also power efficient and handles most demanding apps and games quite well.

The camera button (Apple calls this Camera Control) doesn’t just bring the camera to life but does far more | Photo Credit: The Hindu

The A18 Pro chip offers a new image signal processor and video encoder that supports 4K at 120 fps in Dolby Vision. This is a step up from the iPhone 15 Pro’s A17 Pro chipset, which can support 4K at only up to 60 fps.

This year’s iPhone Pro models get more battery life. The increase could be attributed to either the advanced power management of the iOS 18 software or the larger batteries in these devices. The iPhone 16 Pro Max clearly gets longer battery life; during the review, I noticed the device would last on average (about ten days) around 12 hours.

I used the device for web browsing, video streaming, reading on the books app, and messaging on WhatsApp. I noticed that WhatsApp’s background activity seemed to be draining a lot of charge - - possibly because of the number of group notifications that kept hitting the screen. For charging, on average, it takes about 90 minutes to get the device to full charge from around 20%. Overall, I’m curious to see how these measures will play out once Apple Intelligence hits this phone, as most of Gen AI tasks will be performed on-device.

Camera and audio

When it comes to camera features, the Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro Max is as good as it can get. For starters, all the iPhone 16 models get a dedicated camera button. But the Pro Max variant gets more advanced hardware and software upgrades.

A sample of the night photography that the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max can deliver | Photo Credit: John Xavier

To begin with, the camera button (Apple calls this Camera Control) doesn’t just bring the camera to life; it also acts as the control centre to make changes while taking a snap. And that isn’t confined to just zooming in and zooming out. With a light double touch on the button, you can change the aperture setting, exposure level, camera mode and photographic style.

The button is pressure sensitive, so it does take some time to get used to. But once you get the hang of it, the camera control button offers the necessary tools to take a nice shot on the go.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max comes with a new 48 MP sensor for the ultra-wide camera. With the new quad-pixel sensor, the 48 MP ultra-wide camera offers powerful resolution capabilities, capturing more details in wide-angle snaps. It also delivers a high level of detail in macro photography, which works better when the camera settings are updated to ProRAW MAX or HEIF MAX as the default.

The new dedicated camera button does more than just click pictures and shoot videos | Photo Credit: John Xavier

While this device does come with a 5x telephoto lens, it was a bit of letdown when the shots finally came out, because the output wasn’t very clear. I found images taken from the Pixel 9 Pro X L to be better than the ones taken with the iPhone 16 Pro Max. But, the photographic styles pad makes Apple’s flagship phone a clear winner. The pad lets you apply filters by sliding through the grid before taking a shot, as the camera adjusts tone and colour.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max comes with a new 48 MP sensor for the ultra-wide camera | Photo Credit: John Xavier

On video recording too, the iPhone 16 Pro Max scores higher than the Pixel 9 XL with support for 4K at 120 fps. This mode can be used when recording in the Dolby Vision, ProRes, and LOG formats. And it doesn’t stop there; Apple’s new video recording feature lets you adjust the frame rate after recording the video.

Topping the video recording feature are Apple’s new, improved four microphones that offer “studio quality” recording. The new microphones allow you to create four different sound profiles for the video: Standard, In-Frame, Studio, and Cinematic. And the mics also help with noise reduction. But the feature works well only if it is a windy environment. If there are background voices, then it does not cut out those voices very clearly.

Verdict

Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro Max gets a class-leading A18 Pro silicon with an enhanced battery. The camera control puts a range of options at the tip of the user’s finger to take images on the go. And the video recording feature, with its post-production audio editing option, makes this phone a great device for anyone looking to upgrade to a state-of-the-art mobile device.

The only aspect of the device that needs further testing is how well it can handle Apple Intelligence, which as I said earlier, is only available in the public beta version. While some of those features work well in the current version, it will be good to test them once Apple fully rolls them out later this year or early next year.

Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro Max starts at $1,44,900, and is available in 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB storage sizes. And they come in four colour variants: Desert Titanium, Natural Titanium, White Titanium, and Black Titanium.