iPhone 15 Pro Max - 1 Month Later!
The iPhone 15 Pro Max has been my full-time device for a month, and it’s been pretty darn good, for work, photos, video, and everything else. Here’s how I feel about the battery, performance, design and more.
Price and storage
It starts a bit higher than last year, at $1,199 versus $1,099, but it comes with 256 GB standard, since Apple dropped the bottom tier. I find 256 GB perfect: apps, games, and on vacation, downloaded movies and TV with room for photos and video until they back up to iCloud. You can go to 512 GB or 1 TB.
Design
The Pro moves from stainless steel to titanium. I like the matte finish better than the glossy old finish, and it just feels better in the hand with rounded edges. It’s noticeably lighter.
But, honestly, I’ve determined I like using a case: it feels better and more secure than the slippery thin materials. I’ve realized that over the last couple of months, and I think I have to admit I’m a case person. When I take it out, I like the new colors. Natural and White Titanium have bands so similar they’re hard to tell apart, and both look nice and classy on the back for different reasons.
UGREEN sponsored this video, with its dual-arm aluminum phone stand and a Nexode RG 30 W charger. The stand folds nearly flat and adjusts to any angle, with soft padding. Pairing it with the UGREEN tablet stand and vertical laptop stand completes the set.
The Action button
When I first set it up, I chose the camera, then switched to the flashlight for a while. I’ve seen the videos with Shortcuts menus offering seven or ten options, but if I’m going through a menu, why put it on a button? Honestly, I don’t use it or even remember it’s there as much as I thought. It may just be muscle memory and take longer. For now it’s set to camera, and I’ll keep trying.
USB-C
The 15 Pro line has USB 3.2, up to 10 Gb/s, versus USB 2 speeds on the regular 15 and 15 Plus. I made a whole video on what you can do: microphones, cameras, gaming devices, video out, docks and hubs with SD card readers. You can hook it to a monitor or TV and make a game console of it. But it’s not Samsung DeX; you can connect things to get some things done in a pinch, but I don’t think the port is super useful right now. It will probably matter for future versions of iOS.
Display
Essentially the same as last year: 6.7 inches, 460 ppi (stupid sharp), a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 1,600 nits HDR peak (movies pop), up to 1,000 nits in regular use and 2,000 nits in direct sun, until the phone heats up and dims. It’s bright enough in any light I’ll be in.
It has 120 Hz ProMotion, and the internet is going nuts over ProMotion versus not on the new iPhones. Honestly, I don’t care if you don’t care. I like the fast refresh rate and smoother animations, and I definitely notice when I switch to a device without it. It doesn’t mean I can’t get used to one, but given the choice on a Pro, I prefer ProMotion.
The Dynamic Island is cute, and I’ve used it for flight tracking, ride sharing and Uber Eats. But I’d rather not have a notch or Island at all, with everything, even Face ID and a camera, hidden behind the display. We don’t have that yet. Oh well.
A wallpaper: the one I’m using is called Violet Sky, made by my 11-year-old daughter, an amazing artist who’s just getting into digital products. There’s a pack with an iPhone, iPad and desktop version.
Speakers
Really good: louder than the regular 15 Pro, and sounding very similar to the 14 Pro’s. I use them mostly for audiobooks, podcasts and live TV in the background, and not much for music, where I use headphones or AirPods. They’re clear, with good separation between lows and highs.
Cameras
- Ultra wide: 12 MP, f/2.2, fun for the super-wide perspective. It’s probably the lens I use least, except for macro: pulling a splinter out of my finger or getting close to something.
- Main: a 48 MP sensor at f/1.78 producing 24 MP images, a huge jump from the 12 MP we’ve had for years. They’re crisp, bright and detailed, and do a fantastic job for a regular person pulling their phone out of their pocket.
- 5× Tetraprism: the golden child, and only on the Pro Max. I was surprised how much I like the extra reach. It’s fun to step through ultra wide, 1×, cropping to 28 mm and 35 mm, then 5×. The best part for me this month has been good photos of my daughter at her volleyball games: a pretty decent difference from 3×, and now I get usable photos mid-game, serving or going up to hit. If there’s one thing I upgrade for every year, it’s the camera.
- ProRes Log: a very flat profile for grading in a video editor. I haven’t used it beyond testing, and I don’t think I will for these videos: the files are about 30 times larger than from my cameras, and I’d use it mostly for 60 fps B-roll, which means connecting a drive, when I could just grab a camera. I can see real professionals in the field using it in their workflows.
- Next-generation portrait mode automatically captures depth for people, dogs and cats, so you can change the focus point and aperture later. Awesome.
Performance
A non-issue: incredibly fast, like last year’s. Geekbench 6:
| 15 Pro Max | 14 Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Single-core | 2,938 | 2,518 |
| Multi-core | 7,261 | 6,325 |
| GPU | 27,429 | 22,482 |
That’s roughly 10–20% faster in benchmarks, but in everyday use (swiping, opening apps, browsing) there’s basically no difference. Call of Duty Mobile plays as well at the highest settings on an iPhone 12 Pro as on the 15 Pro Max. The A17 Pro has hardware ray tracing, so we’re awaiting AAA console games.
Wireless
5G speeds have been pretty good, though there are many variables; on my test I got about 13 Mb/s down, which is crappy, but downtown I’d get many hundreds of Mb/s. It has Wi-Fi 6E, probably faster than your router. On my 10 Gb network, I’ve seen everything from a couple hundred Mb/s to 800, and close to 1,000 on my MacBook Pro with 6E, but it varies a lot. The second-generation Ultra Wideband chip gives more range and accuracy, and you can track down other iPhone 15 devices.
Battery
Apple says up to 29 hours of video playback, like the 14 Pro, and I’ve had zero issues; it lasts all day. I had over eight hours of screen-on time one day, which is weird (Home Assistant took a bunch of time in the middle of the night while I was sleeping). Over 10 days my screen-on average is 5 hours 16 minutes, mostly Safari, Direct TV and YouTube, and I go to bed with 25–45% left every night. Battery health is 100%, and no, I won’t limit it to 80%.
I haven’t needed Crash Detection, SOS or roadside assistance by satellite, hopefully never.
Issues
- Heat: I never had heating issues. Apple released an update; maybe I escaped it because I didn’t install Instagram until after the patch.
- Durability: some worry you can break the back by pressing on it, but you’ll probably put it in a case, which adds rigidity. If not, be careful or get AppleCare.
- Freezing, which is a pretty big issue. Sometimes I pull it from my pocket, press the power button, and get a black screen that doesn’t react for 60–90 seconds. It’s also happened while I’m actively using it, swiping in an app or going home; it locks up for 60–90 seconds, then comes back like nothing happened. I’m not sure whether it’s this phone or iOS 17. I’ll switch to another iPhone soon and probably wipe this one to set it up fresh and see.
- A weird bug where the back button text in Settings turns white and is hard to see, until I force-quit the app.
- And the case thing: this iPhone feels way better in the hand than recent ones, but I still don’t feel comfortable without a case.
Verdict
Overall a pretty great iPhone, apart from the freezing, which I hope to get resolved. If you’re upgrading from a 14 Pro or 13 Pro, it probably won’t feel like a big upgrade. If you’re coming from a non-Pro or much older iPhone, like an XS, it’ll be massive.
Links
- Ugreen Phone Stand（20% OFF)
- Ugreen Vertical Laptop Stand（20% OFF)
- Ugreen Tablet Stand（10% OFF)
- Ugreen Nexode RG 65W Charger(20% OFF)
- Ugreen Nexode RG 30W Charger(20% OFF)
- Ugreen official Store（20% OFF)
- Buy the iPhone 15 Pro Max
- Get the Violet Sky wallpapers
- Matte Glass Screen Protector
- Phone 15 Pro vs iPhone 12 Pro
- My Charging Partner: Ugreen Amazon store
- My Case Partner: Pitaka
- https://www.threads.net/@jerryschulzeonyt
- My iPhone Art
- Grovemade Desk Mat and Knife (save 10% JERRY10)
- UNLIMITED Cloud Backup for your Mac with Backblaze
In this video
Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I may receive a small commission. See my ethics statement.
