At a glance, the iPhone 16 Pro Max doesn’t look or feel much different from the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and perhaps that’s to be expected. The competitive game of smartphones is now one of incremental changes. The question is, can the small or even invisible changes add up to something big?
Based on my brief hands-on time with the iPhone 16 Pro Max, I’d say the answer is yes.
Design-wise, it looks like a doppelgänger for the iPhone 15 Pro Max at first glance – but it isn’t. As soon as I picked up the new Pro Max in the sleek Black Titanium finish I was struck by the screen; it’s still Super Retina XDR, but somehow, it feels much larger. It is indeed larger, if only a little – where the iPhone 15 Pro Max offered a 6.7-inch display, this one is 6.9 inches – but the difference is palpable. This is Apple’s largest iPhone display ever.
Thankfully, Apple did not achieve this by simply making the whole device larger (it is a bit larger, but the weight difference is negligible). The other trick Apple employed to get that extra screen real estate was shrinking the bezel surrounding the display; I suspect that someday the bezel will disappear altogether.
A bigger screen does make everything seem bigger, brighter, and better. But that’s not the only immediately noticeable physical difference between this year and last.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max, along with the three other iPhone 16 models, has a new Camera Control button. This button is a bigger deal than I imagined, and I’m almost embarrassed to say that I already like it quite a bit.
Covered in sapphire, the roughly half-inch long button sits on the phone’s left side, a couple of inches down from the power/sleep/Siri button. It’s recessed (which is important, I’ll explain why in a bit) and is both a physical button and a haptic one.
A hard press gives instant access to the iPhone 16 Pro Max camera. That’s a nice trick, although you could program the Action Button to do this too. However, when I pressed lightly on the button I felt a slight haptic vibration, and I could then swipe up and down on the button to quickly switch between the phone’s cameras. If I lightly pressed the button twice I gained access to deeper image controls.
These different ways of using the Camera Control button, however, were not immediately obvious. I was pressing too hard, and then not hard enough. It took me about 20 seconds to figure it out, which in fairness isn’t too steep of a learning curve.
My takeaway from all these new photo and video tools is that this may be the ultimate pro videographer phone option. Apple, by the way, shot its entire ‘Glowtime’ video presentation on an iPhone, and it’s no wonder. The iPhone 16 Pro Max is a powerful device with some serious skills.
Apple is promising better battery life on all the iPhone 16 models, but the gains may be especially good on the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Its much larger battery, coupled with the efficient A18 Pro and improved battery management, might add hours to the battery life, although I won’t know for sure until I test it.
Finally, there’s the look of this phone. As I mentioned above, I got to handle the Black Titanium model. It is a gorgeous device, and I really can’t understand why you would want any other color. But, if you’re so inclined, it’s also available in White Titanium, Natural Titanium, and new Desert Titanium (think sand but shinier).
Is this the best iPhone Apple has ever made? Possibly. It’ll certainly claim a spot near the top of our best iPhone list, and maybe even our list of the best smartphones. I’ll offer my definitive take when I finish my full review.