iPhone 16 Pro Max Review: 3 Months Later

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80%

80%

The Good

1. Unbeatable video and audio recording features
2. Performance levels that you'll never max out
3. Apple's best display yet

The Not So Good

1. Apple Intelligence is sub-par
2. Not much difference from the iPhone 15 Pro Max
3. A bit too expensive

• User Ratings (227 Votes)
  4.2

Need-to-knows

• Exceptional video and audio recording quality
• Buttery-smooth performance levels along with that dependable Apple user experience
• Disappointing battery life compared to Android competitors
• Not many reasons to buy this instead of the entry-level iPhone 16

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Apple is getting a fair bit of stick at the moment about the iPhone 16.

There’s the usual stuff – no innovation, overly expensive, brutally reliant on the Apple ecosystem for differentiation, etcetera.

This time, however, there are some grumbles which are far more troubling, and I’ve encountered them myself during my first two weeks with the iPhone 16 Pro Max. To be more specific, there are two problems I cannot wrap my head around, and which I think are tough to justify from Apple’s perspective.

Despite this, I’ve also loved coming back to the iPhone after several months of Android secondment.

It’s a puzzling time, but I’m going to keep this two-week review of Apple’s latest flagship smartphone as simple and as relatable as possible. Here’s what I like about it, what I don’t like about it, and why I think, for most people, it’s the wrong phone.

iPhone 16 Pro Max – 3 months later

Ok, ok – let me give you a few quick thoughts on what the iPhone 16 Pro Max is like to live with after three months of it following me everywhere.

It’s still the most dependable smartphone I’ve ever used. As I’ve said previously, the iPhone feels like an old, warm, comfortable pair of socks which I can slip into immediately after spending time in Android Land. I’m an iSheeplez, Apple Fanboi, whatever – I don’t care.

The Camera Control is only useful for getting into the camera app. As recommended by literally everyone, I’ve changed it to only do anything when I double-press it, and once double-pressed, I end up where I want to be – in a place where I can take photos. I just have zero desire to take photos via the Camera Control, because it’s in such a stupid location for taking photos.

Apple Intelligence, at the time of writing, still isn’t available in the King’s English. So, I’ve not tried it yet. However, from what I hear, the current feature set is vastly underwhelming.

The design, display, and performance are what you’d expect – brilliant. But this is fast becoming an irrelevant talking point in smartphone reviews because it’s impossible to buy a phone these days that doesn’t hit these basic expectations. I’m even considering removing those elements from my future reviews.

A bit like the conclusion I drew recently about the Apple Watch Series 10, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is just an iPhone and it just works. And that’s fine. What more were you expecting?

What I like about the iPhone 16 Pro Max

This isn’t a long list, I’m afraid, and it starts with something for which I’ll immediately be called out as a ‘fanboi’.

As noted, I’ve spent most of this year using non-iPhone devices. It started with the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and culminated with the Z Fold6. I’ve also reviewed a boatload of Android alternatives, most of which have demonstrated what you can get for a lot less money if you’re willing to step outside of Apple’s walled garden.

However, returning to the iPhone felt like finally going out for that beer with your old mate. You know – the one you fell out of touch with; there’s been an ever-present, awkward silence, ever since.

As it turns out, bar that equally awkward first handshake and a few minutes of shuffling around nervously trying to work out how to start a conversation, you end up getting on like a house on fire. Again.

The problem is that the iPhone 16 Pro Max isn’t very different to the one I abandoned (see for yourself in my iPhone 15 Pro Max review). At all. The hardware is still superb – the best out there, by a gnat’s ear. The camera is great after you tweak it to match your desired style of photo. The video performance still beats anything else I’ve tried. The new Audio Mix feature is utterly astounding.

But it’s still the ecosystem that differentiates the iPhone for me. The way you can seamlessly move stuff between your phone and your laptop; the way you can turn your iPhone into a TV remote control; the fact the iPhone and the Apple Watch remain the best pairing of its kind.

Then, we have iPhone Mirroring, which is new to iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia this year. If you weren’t aware, this enables you to bring up your iPhone on your Mac and use it as though it were in your hand. It’s not perfect, and it certainly isn’t unique, but the basics are there and it is easily Apple’s best release of the year.

What does that say about the iPhone, though?

Problem number 1: Camera Control

This year, we have the Camera Control. Apple doesn’t refer to this as a button for some reason, but it resolutely is. Unfortunately, it’s not a very good button. In fact, it’s really bad.

There are multiple problems with the Camera Control. The first is the most fundamental: we don’t need it. Most of us have at least a decade of experience under our belts of interacting with smartphone camera controls on the display. It comes as naturally as multitouch. No one, to my knowledge, asked for the Camera Control because it never felt like it was missing.

It’s also fiddly. So fiddly, in fact, that you’re always in danger of missing the moment simply because you’re trying to figure out how to switch back to the zoom option (or how to instead switch between optical focal lengths to avoid the perils of digital zoom). Before you know it, all of that Tom Faffery results in the moment having exited stage left.

It’s feature-deficient, too. At the time of writing, we’re still waiting for the focus-locking ability of the Camera Control. Although, that’s something else we don’t need; if there’s one thing the iPhone has always been brilliant at, it’s locking focus automatically.

The biggest problem with the Camera Control, however, is that it’s in totally the wrong place. ‘

My finger naturally falls to the right-hand side of where it is. To use Camera Control, I have to angle my right-hand grip of the phone into a position where it obscures part of the frame and feels immediately uncomfortable. To exacerbate the issue, when I click the shutter button to take a photo, it invariably introduces camera shake or skews the framing because of the unnatural grip I’ve had to adopt.

It’s a disaster, I’m afraid, and I’m already avoiding using it.

Problem number 2: Apple Intelligence

Apple Intelligence isn’t coming to the UK until December, and even then, it’ll be in beta. At the time of writing, there are suggestions that we won’t get the new Siri (along with a bunch of other Apple Intelligence features) until March next year, which means we’ll have some kind of weird amalgamation of Apple Intelligence and the awful current Siri until then. Nice.

Despite this, if you buy an iPhone 16 from Apple today, you’ll spot ‘Apple Intelligence’ plastered throughout the shopping process. I did, and when I received my iPhone 16 Pro Max, Apple Intelligence was nowhere to be seen.

This is like buying a car on the promise of a fancy new satellite navigation system, only to be told that you’ll have to wait three months to use it – and even then, only half of it will work.

This is dreadful. I’m sorry. I’m not a regular person, either – I’m a tech guy. What about regular people who don’t know the ins and outs of this situation? How do I explain to my mum why Apple Intelligence isn’t on the iPhone 16 she’s just bought?

The most frustrating thing from my perspective, however, is the fact that I can’t fully review the iPhone 16 Pro Max yet, because its feature set is incomplete.

iPhone 16 vs iPhone 16 Pro Max

For most people, the regular iPhone 16 (not the Plus – that’s too big) is the sweet spot. You get the Action Button, the Camera Control, and even features like Audio Mix – and it’ll be compatible with Apple Intelligence. Eventually.

Sure, you won’t have a ProMotion display or 5x optical zoom, but as my iPhone 16 review showed, that isn’t a big deal at all, and the extra money required to step up to the Pro or Pro Max is understandably hard to justify.

If you want the best of the best, or if you use your iPhone for serious production work, get the Pro or Pro Max.

At least that part of the buying process makes sense.

Conclusion

My conclusion about the iPhone 16 Pro Max and the future of the iPhone is really simple: Apple doesn’t need to do anything drastic.

The iPhone is as dependable and impressive as it has ever been. Those who have always bought iPhones will continue to do so. It’s just an iPhone. It just works. And that’s fine.

If Apple wants to faff about with the positioning of the camera module on the rear of the device – fine. We’ll get used to it. I’d rather they stopped adding silly buttons like the Camera Control, and Siri needs to get infinitely better with the continued development of Apple Intelligence.

But everything else is good. Not exciting – just good.

That’s it. Thank you for visiting my TED Talk.

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