Two Weeks With the iPhone 16 Pro Max

Now that it’s been two weeks since the iPhone 16 models were released, we’ve been able to spend enough time with the new devices to share a more in-depth review on their performance, battery life, feature set, and more.

We’ve been testing the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max, but the gap between the Pro models and the standard ‌iPhone 16‌ models is narrower than usual this year. The Action button, Camera Control button, Dynamic Island, and upcoming Apple Intelligence features are available across the lineup, which leaves fewer features to set the two iPhone tiers apart and justify the cost of the Pro upgrade.

You do get the 120Hz ProMotion display, the 5x Telephoto lens, upgraded 48-megapixel Ultra Wide lens, and slightly bigger displays with the ‌iPhone 16 Pro‌ and Pro Max, but many people are going to be happy with the standard ‌iPhone 16‌ models.

Camera Control is kind of a love it or hate it feature that takes some time to get familiar with. It makes opening the camera and snapping a photo much quicker, but getting used to adjusting settings with the button rather than the display takes a good amount of time to get used to. On the bigger iPhones, it’s difficult to use the button one-handed, especially in portrait mode.

Macro mode images are better and Photographic Styles and the customization that comes with them are great, but there isn’t a lot of additional improvement to be seen with the cameras for photo taking. For videos, there’s a 4K 120fps mode that can be adjusted later, and a new Audio Mix feature for adjusting video sound.

The A18 Pro chip is fast, but so was the A17 Pro from last year, and you’re not going to notice a difference in performance if you’re coming from an ‌iPhone‌ released in the last couple of years. The benefit of the A18 Pro is support for both current and future Apple Intelligence features coming in the next few years. The first Apple Intelligence options will be released in October, and while those won’t necessarily stress the chip, future image generation capabilities could take advantage of the additional power you get with the A18 Pro.

Battery life has increased for all ‌iPhone 16‌ models, and there is a noticeable difference in battery life with the Pro Max that many users will notice day-to-day depending on workload compared to older iPhones.

If you got a new ‌iPhone 16‌, let us know what you think of it now that a couple of weeks have passed.