iPhone 12 Pro Max Review (vs 12 Pro) - Is the Camera Actually Better? By InsideTech

So far on the channel we've compared the iPhone 12 against the 12 pro reviewed, the 12 mini, and now it's time to see what the pro max has to offer. Most of the new features you'll also find in other iPhone 12s, and if you want to see an in-depth look at everything the new phones can do and how they compare to. Last year's phones then I'll. Leave that video linked in the description down below on the surface. It seems like the 12 pro and 12 pro max are simply two of the same phone, but in different sizes, but just as we saw in the 12 and 12 mini comparison, there are actually a lot more differences here than it first appears and in this video I'll be explaining all of them. I've been using the pro max as my main device for the past couple of weeks, testing out the new cameras, the battery life and what it's like to use apple's biggest ever iPhone in this video, we'll be finding out how the pro max compares to the rest of the iPhone lineup discussing its pros and cons and seeing whether its superior cameras can justify its higher price tag.

Let's take a look, we'll start things off with what I think is the single most important difference between the 12 pro and pro max, and that's the design in terms of appearance you're, getting the same color options, including this gorgeous pacific blue, with the same frosted back glass and the shiny stainless steel frame you're. Also getting the new tougher ceramic shield display alongside the industry-leading water resistance. So the 12 pro max is one of the most durable flagship phones available, but it's the ergonomics how it feels to use these phones, that's very different, and if you see my mini versus 12 video, then you'll find that the design comparison here is essentially the opposite. The pros of the compact 12 mini, become the cons of the huge 12 pro max, and vice versa. The pro max is the biggest iPhone apple has ever made, and also the joint heaviest, and you'll really notice this using the phone every day.

It feels heavy in the hand you can almost feel it wanting to tip towards the ground as you hold it, whereas the pro has a much more reasonable weight. I think the regular pro strikes a nice balance between being fairly light, but also having enough weight that it still feels like a premium device compared to say the iPhone 12. , but the pro max for me is just a bit too heavy and comfort becomes a pretty important factor when these are devices you'll hold in your hands every day its size makes it difficult to reach across the phone, and especially up to the top corners. So one-handed use is basically out of the question. The regular 12 pro, though fairly big itself is just much easier to handle it's more comfortable to hold and fits into your pockets much more easily.

The pro max's, bigger size does come in handy for things like typing, though, and with the larger keys that have more space between them. This is the easiest typing experience on an iPhone so far having more space makes it easier to interact with the screen, whether this be with making fine adjustments, editing a spreadsheet or a photo or perhaps having more comfortable controls for mobile gaming. Personally, I find the regular 12 pro large enough that it's smaller size and lighter body makes it more comfortable to use for the majority of situations, but in terms of viewing your content, the pro max easily wins. I think what the pro max loses in ergonomics. It makes up for in aesthetics, because the huge 6.7-inch screen is the best looking display on an iPhone spec wise. The two phones are identical.

They offer the same contrast wide color and 1200 nits of maximum brightness, but the difference that 0.6 of an inch makes is pretty substantial, even simply watching YouTube. Videos are better on the pro max, but movies especially, are much more enjoyable on the bigger screen. The notch is the same size on both phones, but obviously this takes up less of the screen on the pro max relative to its size. So it's actually less distracting here when you have a display, this large in your pocket, there's less of a reason to go reaching for your iPad or computer to catch up on your favorite TV show, and the pro max is the ultimate iPhone for consuming your media with gaming. There's really an argument for both phones as to which is more comfortable.

The pro max gives you more space for the controls, but also comes in a larger and heavier body, but clearly the pro max offers the more visually appealing and immersive experience than the regular 12 pro speaking, of which the pro max has the biggest speakers of the four new iPhones, which again adds to that level of immersion. Though there's perhaps only a subtle difference from the pro performance boost, opening, apps and scrolling is noticeably superfast and snappy. But, to be honest, I didn't notice a drastic difference compared to the series 5, and I think a lot of the speed boost is actually due to optimizations in watchOS 7, which of course, is also available on older devices like the series 5. What was more interesting to me is that the new watches- it's not just with media, that the bigger screen comes in handy you'll, often see more on the screen at one time for different apps and menus or otherwise, you'll see a bigger easier to read version of the same content, but as good as your content looks on this display. I just wish apple.

Would let us do more with it. Io's 14 does finally bring picture in picture to iPhone, but that's it for multitasking. You can't split this screen to run two full-sized apps, for example, like you can on most android phones. It just seems like a waste when you've got such a big screen like this to not take advantage of it. The pro max doesn't even have more rows of apps than the pro you've just got: bigger icons and widgets, with more space between them.

Io's 14 is the same on the 12 mini as it is on this 12 pro max, which ultimately is a shame, and I wish apple would let us exploit that larger screen size to its full potential. Moving on now to the cameras, this is one of the most interesting differences between these phones, because, unlike in previous years, the pro max actually has different main and telephoto lenses to the pro. Its new main lens has a 47, larger sensor and larger pixels than the pro offering better low light performance. It also comes with a new is system that stabilizes the sensor as opposed to the lens similar to what you get in a DSLR. Its telephoto lens has a new 65 millimeter focal length offering a 2.5 x optical zoom versus the familiar 2x zoom on the regular pro, but the ultra-wide lenses are exactly the same, and in fact this is the only camera lens. That's the same on all four new iPhones.

The pro max gets all the same benefits that are new with this year's phones, including smart hdr3 and deep fusion on all lenses and in most situations the cameras will be essentially indistinguishable, with identical ultra-wide lenses. There's no difference here at all, but even on the main lens for good lighting conditions. You'll struggle to notice any difference at all. The same is true for the selfie cameras, they're exactly the same on the pro and pro max, and it's only compared to last year's phones that you'll see the improvements made this year, which I've covered in full in a previous video. The telephoto lenses, however, are quite different.

First, you'll notice the difference in focal length, and if you want to punch in closer on your subject, the pro max lets you do this. I was also surprised with the quality of the pro max's tell lens. It just seemed to be sharper than on the regular pro and, despite the smaller aperture, it often produced brighter and warmer images in good lighting conditions. So for portraits, I actually think the pro max offers higher quality and takes some of the nicest looking portraits from any smartphone. The regular pro may give you a slight advantage in low light conditions because of its wider aperture and in these photos here it is a little brighter and less noisy than the pro-max, but I feel like low-light portraits, aren't something most people will use and when you turn night mode on the difference between the phones becomes negligible.

Another difference in the telephoto lenses is the zoom range, the pro max defaults to 2.5 x, whilst the pro is the usual 2x and having a slightly better zoom range, means that, as you move into the higher levels of zoom, the pro max retains image quality more than the pro cam. So by 5 and 10x zoom. The pro max images are a little sharper than on the pro, and it also maxes out a 12x rather than 10, but that's only a minor difference. So the step up to 2.5 times optical in the pro max is a small improvement, but there's really no significant difference from the regular pro. So it's not a strong reason to buy the pro max instead.

To be honest, I not only think that the pro should have the same telephoto lens as the max, but also that apple should have taken the phone zoom capability much further in terms of range. This is only a slight improvement from the 2x zoom we've had since the very first dual lens iPhone and when you compare this to android phones, like the Galaxy Note, 20 ultra, which have far superior zoom ranges. The incremental improvement made to the pro max just doesn't seem enough. So there's only a minor difference with the telephoto lenses, but it's the main camera's low light performance that I was most interested in, especially after hearing apple's, bold claims of 87, better low-light photos, but having tested the cameras out extensively, I rarely saw a difference in performance at all. The pro almost always captured an image just as bright and clean as the pro max in dark conditions.

So the low light performance was actually pretty much the same across all four new phones. Since the larger sensor captures more light, the pro max would sometimes be able to take a regular photo where the pro would need to switch to night mode and that's the main difference. I noticed between them. The pro photo was therefore sometimes brighter, but the pro max image was cleaner and captured the true darkness of the scene, since it didn't need to artificially raise the exposure in the shadows, which creates noise. It was also faster, since you didn't need to wait to take a long exposure which can lead to motion blur, so the pro max images sometimes come out sharper.

The other major change to the main sensor is the pro max's new sensor shift stabilization. Now this was done primarily to account for the new, larger sensor and larger pixels and having tested the stabilization extensively. I think this is precisely how you should view it. Yes, the stabilization is fantastic, especially when you're quickly panning the phone around and chasing your subject, but I just didn't really see any difference from the regular 12 pro or at least you'd have to look so closely to spot any difference that there's no noticeable improvement from the pro standard is, and I found a similar result with taking photos too, for example, with keeping my hands steady to avoid motion blur. I purposely recorded these videos, at sunrise on a cloudy winter's morning, to really challenge the cameras in relatively poor light, but the only significant difference I noticed is that the pro actually had a sharper and cleaner image than the pro max.

You can see this pretty clearly in the grass, for example, with all the fancy marketing behind the pro max's new camera. I just didn't see the substantial low light or stabilization advantage that I expected and, interestingly, the pro even performed better in some scenarios. The final point I want to address about the camera differences is that the pro max isn't able to focus as closely on a subject, as the pro is again because of the larger sensor. These photos are taken at the minimum focus distance for each camera, and the difference is pretty clear, so, although the main cameras normally perform very similarly, you may find the pro the more useful phone for close-up photography. The issue extends to close-up video too, and the pro max isn't able to focus as close, nor as quickly on close-up subjects.

As the pro the problem reminded me of the issues we had with the 108 megapixel sensors on some of the android phones we've tested this year and though the problems are nowhere near as bad here, it is the same kind of issue, so the pro max's larger sensor isn't always a benefit. I think my overall take on the cameras is that, yes, the pro max camera is ever so slightly better. Overall, the telephoto lens is a bit more capable and the main lens usually performs better in low light, but because the situations in which it pulls ahead are so specific and because of those few limitations we've just covered. I personally struggle to justify the extra hundred dollars purely based on the camera, and I think even those who simply wants the very best iPhone camera may actually prefer the 12 pro to the max, depending on how you want to use the phone one of the features I'm most looking forward to is apple pro raw, which will finally bring raw photography to the iPhone and give us the full information of the photo and, as an editor, I'm pretty excited to see what this will bring. I think this will not only unlock the full potential of these phones, but perhaps highlights the benefits of the pro max's larger main sensor.

It's likely that this feature will be delivered alongside the next major iOS update coming very soon. So let me know in the comments if you'd want to see a follow-up, video on apple pro raw once it becomes available. So the final thing to compare with these phones is the performance, and I'm not talking so much about speed here. In fact, one of the things I like about these new iPhones is that, if you want to pick based on the size or the price of the phone, you don't have to worry about any compromises with performance. All four phones come with the u1 chip 5g and have the exact same processor inside the fastest processor, in a smartphone at that.

But the pro models do have a higher 6 gigs of ram and a larger base. Storage of 128 gigabytes, but in terms of a difference between the pro and pro max, there's really nothing in it in terms of performance they're, equally, as capable at running high performance games or editing, Dolby Vision, HDR footage, the one important difference is how long the phones will. Let you do this for, because battery life is significantly better on the pro max. I was comfortably getting above 10 hours of screen on time with the pro max, and you can actually see that throughout the week I kept trying to increase my usage to test the battery limits on some days reaching 15 hours from a single charge under normal use. The pro max gives you a day and a half of total battery life, or perhaps two days with conservative use, whereas the pro is more likely to give you just the one day, which will of course be plenty for most people.

But if you plan to use your phone heavily throughout the day, the pro max may be the better choice. The only consequence of that bigger battery is the longer charging time and after testing the fast charging and the new MagSafe charging. This is how the two phones compare. You may feel that the faster charging times on the regular pro make up for its shorter battery life compared to the max. So that's something to consider too it's easy just to look at the specs on paper and assume the pro max will give you a better experience.

It has a higher spec camera, a bigger screen and a longer battery life, but I can't stress enough the importance of ergonomics how the size of these phones will affect you every day. I've summarized here the differences between the pro max and the pro in. What I feel is the order of importance. For me, the phones are similar enough that the most important factor is how it feels to use them their weight typing reachability. All of these simple things that will affect you every single day, whereas the pro max's camera didn't offer the benefits.

I was expecting and will only be important to certain people and for specific use cases. Plus there are some drawbacks with the main sensor, too. I've also put the size factor above battery life, because I think that even if the two phones were the same price, I'd still personally go for the regular pro simply because I find it more comfortable to use, but every person will have their own use case and therefore a phone that suits their needs best. So hopefully, this video has explained the differences between the pro max and the pro, especially with the cameras which I know, a lot of people were curious about, but leave any questions you may have down below, and I'll do my best to help you. So what do you think is the best of this year's four new iPhones, and why is it the 12 mini? Let me know if you'll be upgrading to a new iPhone and which phone you'll be switching from for now, though, thank you very much for watching, and I'll see you all in the next one.

Source : InsideTech