The Future of Smartphone Technology: A Review of the iPhone Pro Max

Having six gigs of RAM is not a big deal right now, but it's going to become more significant in the future as apps and operating systems get more complicated. New capabilities and features will be added, and users won't feel like their phone is slowing down or bogging down. Six gigs of RAM may seem like legitimate overhead for the future, especially with phones having 5G antennas and potential future upgrades.

For those who plan to keep their phone for several years, the extra storage capacity will be appreciated. The pro models come with double the amount of base storage, which means users won't have to worry about running out of space as they add more apps, games, photos, videos shot in 4K and Dolby HDR. This extra storage headroom is a welcome feature, especially for those who plan to store more content.

However, some features may be considered overkill right now but could become essential in the future. The bigger screen on the iPhone Pro Max is one such example. While it's approaching tablet territory, users are still missing out on basic multitasking capabilities like split-screen apps. This is surprising, given the power and screen real estate of the phone.

The display on the iPhone Pro Max lacks 120Hz refresh rate, which may not be a concern for everyone but is considered a nice-to-have feature. It's been available on iPad Pros for some time now, making it a reasonable addition to this device as well. Another notable omission is the periscopic zoom, which could have been included with the extra space in the larger body. Instead, Apple prioritized battery life, which is a concrete benefit but may not be as exciting for users who are professionals in fields like photography and videography.

Other features that were expected to make an appearance on the iPhone Pro Max include support for Apple Pencil and USB-C. Unfortunately, neither of these was included, leaving users stuck with Lightning port. While some reviewers may focus solely on specs and details found online, this review aims to highlight the key distinguishing features and what matters most for this particular phone.

As with any new device, there are those who will find value in the iPhone Pro Max's increased size and capabilities. For professionals who require a high level of performance and specific features like periscopic zoom, this may be an essential upgrade. However, others may not notice (or care about) these differences, especially if they're already satisfied with their current phone.

The podcast can be accessed by clicking the link in the description. The reviewer will also be present on Instagram and Twitter, located at @dailytech. These channels offer additional content and discussion for fans of technology news and reviews.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey it's chris now obviously what sets the 12 pro max apart from other iphones is literally its size here it is next to a mini and a regular 12 just so you can visually compare all right but it doesn't just have a bigger screen it also has a bigger battery along with the physically bigger camera system so just practically speaking if you actually want to see things bigger on your screen or if you want your battery to actually last you longer or if you want to be able to technically take better photos and videos than the other iphones then it's a no-brainer to go with the pro max but there's more to it than that and i feel like this thing is a little bit misunderstood so in this video we're going to start by talking about this camera setup here and how it differs from the other iphone 12s and i'm going to actually point out where you're going to be able to see noticeable differences between different iphone models and the 12 pro max we're going to talk about some of the other size related differences but we're also going to talk about how the iphone 12 pro max is the most future proof iphone you can get and why that is and i'm also going to talk about some of this phone's biggest disappointments alright so first things first feast your eyes on these camera bumps one is physically bigger than the other that's because the pro max has a larger stabilized sensor with bigger pixels which means yeah it does take up more physical space than it does in other phones it also has a faster main wide-angle lens along with a higher iso and a new telephoto lens as well so the sensor is bigger but so are the lenses as well can you guys see that these lenses are smaller than the max's lenses and the max's lenses actually stick up extrude further from the iphone's body than on the other cameras yet a lot of reviewers out there including high profile people like mkbhd said that they couldn't really tell much of a difference with photos and videos so what gives well as nila patel over at the verge pointed out in great lighting conditions all of the iphones in this year's lineup basically end up producing photos that look pretty much the same but where you start to see a night and day difference is when day turns into night when there's not much light the cameras on the iphone 12 pro max outperform all other smartphones not just iphones so because of the larger sensor and because it's a stabilized sensor while the iphone 12 pro max doesn't have to kick into night mode as much as other iphones and when it does it doesn't have to stay on for as long so you could shave off some time from having to hold your phone still while taking a nighttime photo and i actually like it when it doesn't kick into night mode as much because you end up with a more natural less processed photo not only that's clearer with less noise but that also takes less time to take and not only that but since this is a pro iphone it also gained night sight on the ultra wide angle which is not something that you're gonna get if you go with the mini for instance so like jonathan morrison and patrick tommaso pointed out night mode on the ultra wide angle does make a big and noticeable difference so hopefully you're starting to see there are some real differences but you gotta know where to look now aside from lighting something else that's gonna matter if you're looking for differences between photos and videos shot on the max versus the other iphones is going to be motion we have a sensor that's stabilized so if your phone's not moving that's not going to kick in so if you're sitting here trying to take a picture of something that's stationary that's not moving then photos out of both of these cameras are going to end up looking very similar on the other hand if either you or your subject starts moving and all of a sudden the phone's moving too that's where you might see some differences so if you're trying to take a picture of a toddler that's moving around or you're trying to take a picture out of a moving car wherever there's motion introduced into your shots that's where you should start seeing some big differences also with any iphone there's a lot of computational photography happening where artificial intelligence is processing and editing your photos for you so if you want to more plainly see the difference between shooting on other iphones and the pro max one thing that you can do is shoot in raw on an app like halide where you don't get all this extra processing the image just is with the raw data you know kind of like a pro photographer would do iphone pro max so what happens when you're shooting in raw is the algorithms aren't doing any editing for you so as you take a look at this metadata from a raw photo you'll notice there aren't multiple images that are being merged and stacked together to create something surreal it's just as it was shot so if you really want to see the difference you want to put this camera system to the test you can try shooting in raw and then compare that with a computational photo that you just take with the regular photo app and under those circumstances it'll be a lot easier to tell what this upgraded camera stack is actually capable of doing and speaking of raw the latest ios update which just came out recently has the new apple pro raw update which gives us the best of both worlds computational and raw photography merged into one format so you can do whatever you want to with a photo what does that mean well people who really care about raw photos are gonna care about the pro max and this camera stack and people who don't really care about editing it raw probably aren't gonna need it also the new telephoto does let you get a little bit closer to your subjects yes all right because it's now got 12x instead of 10x zoom but what's really interesting about that is that the lens compression is maybe a little more flattering at a 65 millimeter equivalent for the focal distance versus 52 which is what you get with 10 times zoom so again for a more pro photographer who cares more about how portraits look and how the nose and the eyes and the ears and all the spacing lines up then that's something that's kind of cool now in my own personal use i've been able to use the pro for pro video here in the studio which has cinematic lighting and other cameras don't really handle that or perform so well under the same conditions i can now use the iphone 12 pro max with this bigger sensor and those bigger pixels to shoot noise free video under cinematic moodier darker lighting conditions which i could never do before with an iphone even shots at my old desk setup with a light you know a window right next to me those would have some grain and some noise and it drove me nuts but that's not a problem here anymore and i love that people love the a7s 3 because it's a low-light beast as well it has giant pixels and instead of going for higher resolution it went for better low-light capabilities very similar to what you get with the 12-pro max this thing is basically the a7s iii of smartphones think about that for a second actually for video people the iphone has become a must-have tool in the arsenal right it's not really replacing most people's full gear setup but it's becoming supplemental to the point where i find myself needing to have an iphone with me no matter what i'm doing because it's just perfect for certain shots it's the most convenient camera in certain situations so when it comes to the cameras here i mean there are real differences but i feel like most of it is progress that's been made in areas where most people probably won't notice number one it may not even care that much number two so i would say real differences but in the end maybe a little bit negligible even so i think the verge was right in pointing out that the 12 pro max is the best smartphone camera system that you can get and hopefully now you have a better understanding of where you can actually see the differences that this camera system makes versus just shooting on any of the other iphone 12s and also why most people aren't going to be able to spot or find the differences so what i would say is if you're not a pro photographer or videographer you really don't need to upgrade to the promax just for the camera system really it's not necessary seriously on the other hand if you just like having a bigger screen then you will enjoy this amazing screen the crazy thing is the pro max is almost so big that it's encroaching on tablet or ipad territory it's kind of like an ipad that you can stick in your pocket with one important exception no multitasking which is a major bummer which we're going to talk about in just a little bit but it is just a more immersive experience watching and viewing and experiencing content on a bigger screen versus a smaller screen think about it like tv sizes like a 47-inch tv is great you know but a 65-inch tv is greater it's bigger same content but just scaled up that's kind of what's happening here same content no matter what phone you view it on but scaled up so that means that youtube videos are gonna be more immersive obviously playing your favorite game that's also gonna be more immersive for sure scrolling through instagram is also gonna be more immersive of course now whether or not you want a smaller or larger phone is pretty much completely subjective but i will say i've been pretty surprised by how manageable and usable and enjoyable this enormous phone has been i haven't blinked twice about it maybe i thought that it was going to be so big that when i got it it was just like oh that's it i don't know some people are saying it's enormous it's unmanageable but it hasn't been unmanageable for me i haven't even thought about it it's just been nice now one super easy to understand concrete reason why someone might want to upgrade to the pro max is just the battery it's a much bigger battery it's a bigger phone bigger size more space to fit stuff inside they fit in a bigger battery and as you can see i've been doing a lot of web surfing and gaming and to be quite honest i've experienced zero battery anxiety you know like when it kicks into low power mode and you start wondering and we're gonna have to charge it and you're doing the battery math well if i do this or that no i don't have to worry about it and that's really nice so yeah if you really are wanting better battery life that's a good reason to upgrade as long as you don't end up minding this enormous size oh and wait i mean it is heavier than other iphones now one of the themes that's running through all the different iphone 12 pro max reviews is this theme of future proofing there are several features on this phone that will give you some overhead and you may not need that overhead now but it's going to be nice to have at some point in the future if you plan on holding on to your device for like two or three or four or five years or six or seven or eight no just however long 9 or 10 or 11 or 12. like for instance having six gigs of ram that's not a big deal right now maybe it's gonna mean that less of your apps get closed in the background as may have happened with four gigs but no one cares about that really but in the future as apps and maybe the operating system itself gets more complicated new things get added new capabilities come out you're not going to feel like your phone's slowing down or bogging down like you might otherwise with only four gigs so six gigs of ram that's legitimate overhead for the future these phones have 5g antennas here in america right now in late 2020 early 2021 it doesn't really matter but again if you're gonna keep this phone for several years in the future maybe that 5g is going to come in handy but it's just not a reason to upgrade something that's pretty cool though is that you get double the amount of base storage with these pro models here so over the years if you're going to be adding a lot of apps and games and photos and videos shot in 4k and dolby hdr and your space starts dwindling you'll have a more headroom with the storage just even with the base model so that is nice so kind of like engadget pointed out in their review a lot of the features for the pro max are overkill right now in 2020 but in the future you may come to appreciate that you got those overkill features so your future self could thank you your present self is going to be like all right so this is a big phone it does have some big improvements for some people in some circumstances but it also has some big disappointments to be honest i think the biggest one and the biggest miss opportunity here is just that the screen is bigger but you can't do more with that extra real estate even though it's approaching tablet territory you don't get any multitasking so no split screen apps that seems like a basic basic upgrade that makes sense because of the power that this thing has in the screen real estate that's just not there it's conspicuously absent why just with the bigger screen all you can really do is see things bigger whether it's the icons themselves or a video that you're watching or something but that's really underutilizing the screen real estate infamously at this point we don't have 120 hertz on the display here and apple made a bet that people were not gonna care apple was like hey people can get by with just 60 they don't need 120 this year and they were right people are gonna get by without it and it's not gonna be that big of a deal 120 hertz is not a must-have but it's a nice to have though that's for sure it's been on the ipad pro for a long time now it just seems like a no-brainer to add that here and say here's what's really different there's something else that's conspicuously missing from this amazing camera system and that is a periscopic zoom this is a bigger phone body there was more room and they could have put in a periscopic zoom with some of that extra space right but they put in extra battery life i do get that battery life's a concrete thing who's not gonna want more battery life that makes sense but at the same time this is the pro device for people who make stuff and if you're a photographer or a videographer then that periscopic optical zoom could be a really big deal you include a periscopic zoom and immediately everyone knows the difference between the pro max and the regular pro or the other iphones and there are some other things i mean there's no apple pencil support it'd be nice to come in with an apple pencil maybe be able to scribble some notes there's no usbc we're still stuck with lightning here i mean i'm not a phone engineer i don't know how it all works but there are places that as a consumer i could have said hey it would have been nice to have those and it's disappointing that some of these things didn't make it a lot of reviews just focus kind of on the specs and on the stuff you could just go read on the website so hopefully this was a little different in terms of what was covered trying to just hit the actual distinguishing features and what's like really important for this particular phone so anyways i'll catch up with you guys on instagram and twitter i'm at daily tech in both of those places but you gotta spell it right it's t-e-k-k also we have a podcast you can check the link in the description if you want to get connected there and i'll catch you guys in the next video laterhey it's chris now obviously what sets the 12 pro max apart from other iphones is literally its size here it is next to a mini and a regular 12 just so you can visually compare all right but it doesn't just have a bigger screen it also has a bigger battery along with the physically bigger camera system so just practically speaking if you actually want to see things bigger on your screen or if you want your battery to actually last you longer or if you want to be able to technically take better photos and videos than the other iphones then it's a no-brainer to go with the pro max but there's more to it than that and i feel like this thing is a little bit misunderstood so in this video we're going to start by talking about this camera setup here and how it differs from the other iphone 12s and i'm going to actually point out where you're going to be able to see noticeable differences between different iphone models and the 12 pro max we're going to talk about some of the other size related differences but we're also going to talk about how the iphone 12 pro max is the most future proof iphone you can get and why that is and i'm also going to talk about some of this phone's biggest disappointments alright so first things first feast your eyes on these camera bumps one is physically bigger than the other that's because the pro max has a larger stabilized sensor with bigger pixels which means yeah it does take up more physical space than it does in other phones it also has a faster main wide-angle lens along with a higher iso and a new telephoto lens as well so the sensor is bigger but so are the lenses as well can you guys see that these lenses are smaller than the max's lenses and the max's lenses actually stick up extrude further from the iphone's body than on the other cameras yet a lot of reviewers out there including high profile people like mkbhd said that they couldn't really tell much of a difference with photos and videos so what gives well as nila patel over at the verge pointed out in great lighting conditions all of the iphones in this year's lineup basically end up producing photos that look pretty much the same but where you start to see a night and day difference is when day turns into night when there's not much light the cameras on the iphone 12 pro max outperform all other smartphones not just iphones so because of the larger sensor and because it's a stabilized sensor while the iphone 12 pro max doesn't have to kick into night mode as much as other iphones and when it does it doesn't have to stay on for as long so you could shave off some time from having to hold your phone still while taking a nighttime photo and i actually like it when it doesn't kick into night mode as much because you end up with a more natural less processed photo not only that's clearer with less noise but that also takes less time to take and not only that but since this is a pro iphone it also gained night sight on the ultra wide angle which is not something that you're gonna get if you go with the mini for instance so like jonathan morrison and patrick tommaso pointed out night mode on the ultra wide angle does make a big and noticeable difference so hopefully you're starting to see there are some real differences but you gotta know where to look now aside from lighting something else that's gonna matter if you're looking for differences between photos and videos shot on the max versus the other iphones is going to be motion we have a sensor that's stabilized so if your phone's not moving that's not going to kick in so if you're sitting here trying to take a picture of something that's stationary that's not moving then photos out of both of these cameras are going to end up looking very similar on the other hand if either you or your subject starts moving and all of a sudden the phone's moving too that's where you might see some differences so if you're trying to take a picture of a toddler that's moving around or you're trying to take a picture out of a moving car wherever there's motion introduced into your shots that's where you should start seeing some big differences also with any iphone there's a lot of computational photography happening where artificial intelligence is processing and editing your photos for you so if you want to more plainly see the difference between shooting on other iphones and the pro max one thing that you can do is shoot in raw on an app like halide where you don't get all this extra processing the image just is with the raw data you know kind of like a pro photographer would do iphone pro max so what happens when you're shooting in raw is the algorithms aren't doing any editing for you so as you take a look at this metadata from a raw photo you'll notice there aren't multiple images that are being merged and stacked together to create something surreal it's just as it was shot so if you really want to see the difference you want to put this camera system to the test you can try shooting in raw and then compare that with a computational photo that you just take with the regular photo app and under those circumstances it'll be a lot easier to tell what this upgraded camera stack is actually capable of doing and speaking of raw the latest ios update which just came out recently has the new apple pro raw update which gives us the best of both worlds computational and raw photography merged into one format so you can do whatever you want to with a photo what does that mean well people who really care about raw photos are gonna care about the pro max and this camera stack and people who don't really care about editing it raw probably aren't gonna need it also the new telephoto does let you get a little bit closer to your subjects yes all right because it's now got 12x instead of 10x zoom but what's really interesting about that is that the lens compression is maybe a little more flattering at a 65 millimeter equivalent for the focal distance versus 52 which is what you get with 10 times zoom so again for a more pro photographer who cares more about how portraits look and how the nose and the eyes and the ears and all the spacing lines up then that's something that's kind of cool now in my own personal use i've been able to use the pro for pro video here in the studio which has cinematic lighting and other cameras don't really handle that or perform so well under the same conditions i can now use the iphone 12 pro max with this bigger sensor and those bigger pixels to shoot noise free video under cinematic moodier darker lighting conditions which i could never do before with an iphone even shots at my old desk setup with a light you know a window right next to me those would have some grain and some noise and it drove me nuts but that's not a problem here anymore and i love that people love the a7s 3 because it's a low-light beast as well it has giant pixels and instead of going for higher resolution it went for better low-light capabilities very similar to what you get with the 12-pro max this thing is basically the a7s iii of smartphones think about that for a second actually for video people the iphone has become a must-have tool in the arsenal right it's not really replacing most people's full gear setup but it's becoming supplemental to the point where i find myself needing to have an iphone with me no matter what i'm doing because it's just perfect for certain shots it's the most convenient camera in certain situations so when it comes to the cameras here i mean there are real differences but i feel like most of it is progress that's been made in areas where most people probably won't notice number one it may not even care that much number two so i would say real differences but in the end maybe a little bit negligible even so i think the verge was right in pointing out that the 12 pro max is the best smartphone camera system that you can get and hopefully now you have a better understanding of where you can actually see the differences that this camera system makes versus just shooting on any of the other iphone 12s and also why most people aren't going to be able to spot or find the differences so what i would say is if you're not a pro photographer or videographer you really don't need to upgrade to the promax just for the camera system really it's not necessary seriously on the other hand if you just like having a bigger screen then you will enjoy this amazing screen the crazy thing is the pro max is almost so big that it's encroaching on tablet or ipad territory it's kind of like an ipad that you can stick in your pocket with one important exception no multitasking which is a major bummer which we're going to talk about in just a little bit but it is just a more immersive experience watching and viewing and experiencing content on a bigger screen versus a smaller screen think about it like tv sizes like a 47-inch tv is great you know but a 65-inch tv is greater it's bigger same content but just scaled up that's kind of what's happening here same content no matter what phone you view it on but scaled up so that means that youtube videos are gonna be more immersive obviously playing your favorite game that's also gonna be more immersive for sure scrolling through instagram is also gonna be more immersive of course now whether or not you want a smaller or larger phone is pretty much completely subjective but i will say i've been pretty surprised by how manageable and usable and enjoyable this enormous phone has been i haven't blinked twice about it maybe i thought that it was going to be so big that when i got it it was just like oh that's it i don't know some people are saying it's enormous it's unmanageable but it hasn't been unmanageable for me i haven't even thought about it it's just been nice now one super easy to understand concrete reason why someone might want to upgrade to the pro max is just the battery it's a much bigger battery it's a bigger phone bigger size more space to fit stuff inside they fit in a bigger battery and as you can see i've been doing a lot of web surfing and gaming and to be quite honest i've experienced zero battery anxiety you know like when it kicks into low power mode and you start wondering and we're gonna have to charge it and you're doing the battery math well if i do this or that no i don't have to worry about it and that's really nice so yeah if you really are wanting better battery life that's a good reason to upgrade as long as you don't end up minding this enormous size oh and wait i mean it is heavier than other iphones now one of the themes that's running through all the different iphone 12 pro max reviews is this theme of future proofing there are several features on this phone that will give you some overhead and you may not need that overhead now but it's going to be nice to have at some point in the future if you plan on holding on to your device for like two or three or four or five years or six or seven or eight no just however long 9 or 10 or 11 or 12. like for instance having six gigs of ram that's not a big deal right now maybe it's gonna mean that less of your apps get closed in the background as may have happened with four gigs but no one cares about that really but in the future as apps and maybe the operating system itself gets more complicated new things get added new capabilities come out you're not going to feel like your phone's slowing down or bogging down like you might otherwise with only four gigs so six gigs of ram that's legitimate overhead for the future these phones have 5g antennas here in america right now in late 2020 early 2021 it doesn't really matter but again if you're gonna keep this phone for several years in the future maybe that 5g is going to come in handy but it's just not a reason to upgrade something that's pretty cool though is that you get double the amount of base storage with these pro models here so over the years if you're going to be adding a lot of apps and games and photos and videos shot in 4k and dolby hdr and your space starts dwindling you'll have a more headroom with the storage just even with the base model so that is nice so kind of like engadget pointed out in their review a lot of the features for the pro max are overkill right now in 2020 but in the future you may come to appreciate that you got those overkill features so your future self could thank you your present self is going to be like all right so this is a big phone it does have some big improvements for some people in some circumstances but it also has some big disappointments to be honest i think the biggest one and the biggest miss opportunity here is just that the screen is bigger but you can't do more with that extra real estate even though it's approaching tablet territory you don't get any multitasking so no split screen apps that seems like a basic basic upgrade that makes sense because of the power that this thing has in the screen real estate that's just not there it's conspicuously absent why just with the bigger screen all you can really do is see things bigger whether it's the icons themselves or a video that you're watching or something but that's really underutilizing the screen real estate infamously at this point we don't have 120 hertz on the display here and apple made a bet that people were not gonna care apple was like hey people can get by with just 60 they don't need 120 this year and they were right people are gonna get by without it and it's not gonna be that big of a deal 120 hertz is not a must-have but it's a nice to have though that's for sure it's been on the ipad pro for a long time now it just seems like a no-brainer to add that here and say here's what's really different there's something else that's conspicuously missing from this amazing camera system and that is a periscopic zoom this is a bigger phone body there was more room and they could have put in a periscopic zoom with some of that extra space right but they put in extra battery life i do get that battery life's a concrete thing who's not gonna want more battery life that makes sense but at the same time this is the pro device for people who make stuff and if you're a photographer or a videographer then that periscopic optical zoom could be a really big deal you include a periscopic zoom and immediately everyone knows the difference between the pro max and the regular pro or the other iphones and there are some other things i mean there's no apple pencil support it'd be nice to come in with an apple pencil maybe be able to scribble some notes there's no usbc we're still stuck with lightning here i mean i'm not a phone engineer i don't know how it all works but there are places that as a consumer i could have said hey it would have been nice to have those and it's disappointing that some of these things didn't make it a lot of reviews just focus kind of on the specs and on the stuff you could just go read on the website so hopefully this was a little different in terms of what was covered trying to just hit the actual distinguishing features and what's like really important for this particular phone so anyways i'll catch up with you guys on instagram and twitter i'm at daily tech in both of those places but you gotta spell it right it's t-e-k-k also we have a podcast you can check the link in the description if you want to get connected there and i'll catch you guys in the next video later\n"