5 iPhone 16 Pro Max Features I Love

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I’m feeling charitable today. It’s time to give the iPhone 16 Pro Max some love.

I’ve already created a lot of content about Apple’s latest flagship smartphone, and, on balance, it hasn’t been particularly glowing.

My gripes aren’t unique, either – the narrative surrounding the new iPhone is pretty consistent, wherever you look. Launching without a key feature that is plastered throughout the sales process (Apple Intelligence), and gaining a new button (Camera Control) which is poorly implemented and attempting to fix a problem that never existed; those two elements alone have dealt the iPhone 16 lineup a troubled birth.

However, and please do hold onto those trousers, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is still a great device. The iPhone still means a lot to yours truly. I still enjoy using it. It rarely lets me down. 

Everything is, actually, ok.

So, to keep things fair, here are five things I love about the iPhone 16 Pro Max. I’ve set myself a challenge not to mention Apple Intelligence, Camera Control, or the Apple ecosystem.

This should be fun.

1. It’s still exciting to unbox

I know the Anti-Apple Brigade will immediately poke fun at this, but it’s true: the iPhone is still exciting to unbox.

I don’t know why this is the case, but it’s the same deal with pretty much everything Apple sells. I believe they have entire departments dedicated to the design and function of the unboxing process (or, at least, the packaging which affords it), and I’m glad they do; it’s important when you’re spending this much money on a portable telephone.

When I unearthed my shiny new iPhone 16 Pro Max 2024 in white titanium, I’d spent several months beforehand primarily using Android devices. The gap between Android and iOS regarding hardware quality has been vastly reduced over the years, but it’s still there, and my reintroduction to the iPhone confirmed that.

It’s a lovely piece of kit.

2. It feels like home

We all have our favourite devices and platforms. The brand in question is irrelevant, and I’ll never understand anyone who thinks it is. They all make weird decisions, have questionable practices, and launch products that simply aren’t for everyone.

Pick what you like, and stick with it until you get bored. Then, try something else.

That’s what I’ve been consistently doing since I started this reviews business, although this year has seen me do so more comprehensively than ever before. I switched to Samsung for over six months and left my iPhone in a drawer for pretty much the entire period (bar a brief couple of unearthings for comparison purposes).

That may not seem like a long time, but when you’ve been wedded to one device for so long, it really is. I didn’t miss the iPhone anywhere near as much as I thought I would, but since returning to Apple’s flagship device, I’ve realised how comfortable I am with it.

But at the end of the day- iOS is my natural home. Android might be yours. And all of this is absolutely fine.

3. It has the best looking Lock Screen

This is as aesthetic and surface-level as fanboyism comes, but it deserves special mention.

Since returning to the iPhone, I’ve been reminded of how easy it is to make the lock screen look bloody lovely.

iOS does a brilliant job with that automatic masking thing where it intelligently hides part of the time display behind subjects in certain photos. Mountain ranges, group photos, and anything where something is poking skywards (stop laughing at the back) immediately look amazing on an iPhone lock screen.

It doesn’t need widgets, either. Just pick that image (or let iOS do it for you), reduce the weight of the time font to its thinnest and marvel every time you look at your locked iPhone.

4. I can rely on the camera system

Just as iOS itself feels like home to me, so does the iPhone’s camera system. Photos are always sharp, regardless of the subject, and there’s enough tweakability to ensure the resulting images are to your liking. On that note, it’s worth playing around with the new photographic styles feature (if you’re interested, I’ve settled on Amber, with a bit of a push towards the upper-right quadrant on the slider).

The iPhone 16 Pro Max also still produces the best-looking video footage of any smartphone I’ve tested. There’s none of that weird jerkiness that seems to be present on most Android devices, and if you want to use Apple’s phone as a serious camera, you can, thanks to ProRes support and the ability to record directly to an external SSD.

Having read many comments from my YouTube viewers about smartphones over the last four and a half years, I can confirm that the camera system lies only second to battery life when it comes to what most people care about. We rely so heavily on the camera attached to the back of our portable telephone, therefore any device which gets that one job right is an immediate winner, in my book.

5. People love talking about it

This is a selfish reason, but it’s one I cannot ignore and it’s one I’m reminded about every time I publish a video about the iPhone on YouTube.

It’s a view and engagement magnet – particularly the latter. YouTube likes it when lots of people discuss a video in the comments section, and the iPhone never fails to light a fire in that regard.

The commentary is, on the whole, pretty balanced. Some people love the iPhone, and some people hate it, and both sides are never backwards in coming forward with their opinions. I think this speaks highly of the device itself; the iPhone is good enough in some people’s eyes to be their one-and-only smartphone, and influential enough to tempt those who don’t like it to speak their minds.

The iPhone is never the first with anything, but it does create the biggest impact, like it or lump it, and it’s one of the many reasons I got into this game in the first place.

Final thought

I think I did it! There doesn’t appear to be any reference or nod towards Apple Intelligence, Camera Control, or the Apple ecosystem above. Check me out.

On that note – and with regards to the former in particular – there’s a lot more to come from the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Stay tuned for my updated thoughts on Apple’s flagship as and when they arrive.

Before you go