iPhone 14 Pro Max Review - 8 Months Later

Things Wicked Sharp Wicked Shot Oh The Boston Came Out I've Been Trying To Get Out Of Him For Weeks Not Only Are Things Wicked Sharp But There's Plenty of Latitude to Rain and Exposure This Came In Clutch On My Winter Trip To Japan Where I Was Able To Get Amazing Shots Venturing Well Outside Tokyo With Some Friends

But What I've Been Getting The Most Mileage Out Of Is The New 2x Zoom Which Is Actually A Crop Of The 1X Frame Normally I'd Roll My Eyes At The Thought of Digital Zoom However With That Beefier Sensor The 2x Crop Is Presented At A Full 12 Megapixel Resolution

Actually It's A Great Option To Have Especially Considering That The Minimum Focusing Distance On The Main Lens Is A Tad Bit Far From My Liking Especially If You're For Example Taking Photos Of Food That Are Not Quite Macro Close Can't Do That I Know You Can't You're A Watch Idiot Idiot

I Do Think There's More Work That Apple Can Put Into Making The Other Cameras In The Array More Meaningful The Ultra Wide Saw A Modest Improvement With An Upgraded Sensor And Improved Clarity However The 3x Telephoto Is Kind Of In A Tricky Spot

Don't Get Me Wrong The Extra Focal Length Is Nice In A Pinch But Compared To That 2x Off The Main Camera The 3x Looks A Bit Soft And Falls Apart In Tricky Lighting Conditions As It Stands Right Now There's A Negligible Difference In Focal Length To Justify Using It Over The 2x At Least

Faking Pictures Of The Moon Now I Might Be Preaching To The Choir However My Biggest Pain Point With The iPhone 14 Pro Max Especially For Content Creation Is The Lightning Port It's A Shame Because I Truly Believe That iPhones Offer The Most Balanced Video Experience On Mobile Great Image Quality Paired With The Speed And Reliability Of The Native App On iOS Make It Especially Useful For Run And Gun Situations

We've Relyed On It A Ton Here At Overclock Media Especially On The Austin Evans Channel To Capture Random Moments For Videos And It Almost Never Misses Except When It Comes To Pulling Clips Off Your Phone And Onto The Computer To Edit USB 2.0 Over Lightning Takes Forever To Transfer An AirDrop Certainly Exists

However For Files Reaching Into The Gigabytes The Connection Can Get Unhappy A Few Minutes In This Is Especially A Bummer If You Start Dabbling With The 14 Pros Big Boy Progress Which Writes 10-Bit 4K Files That Takes Up Gigs Of Space By The Minute We Actually Hung Out At Marquez's Studio Not Too Long Ago

While He Was Working On An Episode Of Autofocus To See This Dude Shoot 30 Minutes Of Prores On His Phone Start The Import In Final Cut For Him To Edit Give Us A Full Ass Tour Of His New Space And Come Back To Find The Progress Bar Only At 75 Percent Made Me Never Want To Touch Prores Ever Again On This Phone At Least

The Standard H.265 Recordings Look Plenty Good Out Of The Box For Most Of Us But High-Speed USBC On The iPhone Can't Come Any Sooner Thanks International Bros I've Been Fortunate Enough To Try A Wide Variety Of Flagship Phones On This Channel Between The Z-Fold 4 Zenfone 9 And The Pixel 7

I've Never Been More Tempted To Hop Ship From My iPhone As My Primary Device In Fact I Have A Secondary SIM Card For This Very Reason So That I Can Freely Hop Between My 14 Pro Max And Specifically My Z-Fold 4 Which I Use As My Fun Phone When I'm Hanging Out At Home Or Outside Of Work

Android Hits Different On Features Customization And Sheer Product Variety Which Is Exciting To Say The Least However Specifically For Me Leaving The Apple Ecosystem Is Easier Said Than Done But Honestly I'm At Peace With This

Other Than The Fact That I Review An iPhone Every Year I Probably Wouldn't Need To Get A New One Otherwise But It's Good To Know That The Upgrades Are A Seamless Transition Which Is Why People Probably Do It If Not For Just Wanting To Show Off Their Shiny New Toy To Their Friends Because They Have Friends

My Daily Driver Is An Appliance That Needs To Be Dependable And Reliable And With Apple Whether You Like It Or Hate It At Least You Know What You're Getting Which Is Certainly A Win In My Book

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI've been using the iPhone 14 pro Max as my daily driver for about eight months now and today I'm going to share with you my impressions of long-term ownership let's talk about it if you're looking for a bone stock iPhone review I've already covered this phone back when it came out in September however for this video I want to focus on what stood out to me having used the 14 pro for the better part of a year when it comes to utility and work especially as a content creator there's no mincing words the iPhone is simple straightforward and to some very plain I'm not afraid to say it's the appliance I use the most but more than anything else the consistency is why I've been an Apple user for the past couple of years boring isn't the insult people make it out to be fact that's kind of what I want out of my smartphone that I use every single day for my livelihood as much as that might sound like an excuse a lot of this reliability on the 14 pro is a result of the strong hardware and software pairing built in Apple's insanely quick a16 bionic along with the six gigs of RAM and tight optimization in iOS the this phone rarely chugs despite all the intricate photo editing and multitasking I do throughout the day and on top of that it's noticeably efficient as well wear my old 13 Pro would get bogged down after a few minutes of heavy use leading to a drop in performance and the screen dimming heavily to prevent overheating the 14 pro holds up way longer in fact my experience with the 14 pro Max generally speaking improved quite a bit since launch for example my battery life took a serious hit compared to what I was used to with my 13 Pro Max but now after a few months of updates it stabilized to a point where I'm happy with it that's a full workday of use with plenty more on top to get me through the evening Plus without even babying the phone and how I charge it my battery health is still at 100 percent the battery is like insane on this I don't know what they did land obsolescence Apple planned obsolescence Incorporated for context I've been all in on magsafe and have that optimized battery charging mode on which supposedly helps manage the final 20 of charging for a lot of the strain on your battery can happen 200 charge cycles in it must be working because this is by far the slowest battery degradation I've seen on an iPhone you want to say degradation decoration battery degradation irrigation on migration in the long term my Impressions on the 14 pro Max's screen haven't changed since the day I got it it's still a joy to use with its color accuracy that 120 hertz refresh rate and it's easy to see when I'm outside in the sun thanks to that 2000 nit Peak brightness but something that's worth a bit of discussion is the dynamic Island specifically how I feel about it after more than half a year discourse on notches and hole punches aren't going away anytime soon but personally I've gotten used to them the same goes for the dynamic Island at launch I thought it was a neat idea partly a game changer or the revolution that Apple tried to sell us on but as a way to utilize space already taken up by the cameras to display useful information it's cool my only complaint would be that I'd like to see more apps take advantage of it though it's not like I haven't seen my fair share of ones that do the best implementation I've seen has been with the flighty app which is a flight tracker aimed at frequent Travelers on the day that I fly it pins my gate and departure time right at the top so I don't have to juggle through apps as I navigate through the airport yeah flight is easily one of the best apps I've ever paid for also as someone that uses my iPhone as a remote for the Apple TV Dynamic Island provides easy access to playback controls for whatever watching in the living room it's a simple feature but is easier than the old way of diving into the control center on iOS and pulling up the remote that way let's talk about the cameras Apple introduced a new 48 megapixel main sensor to the 14 Pros camera array a big long-awaited update from the 12 megapixel ones used in previous iPhones eight months of ownership in especially for Stills photography I can say that it's been wonderful to use with a few asterisks attached first let's get the obvious out of the way with that extra resolution at its disposal photos come out sharper than previous iPhones I see the benefits mainly in everyday shooting with the 14 pro taking its raw 48 megapixel 1X photos and binning them down to a 12 megapixel file that's easier to share and store on the cloud there might be more processing happening under the hood to make this possible compared to iPhones of the past but rest assured it doesn't come at the cost of speed or reliability taking photos and videos feel as instantaneous and consistent as always then for more demanding photography which might require a lot more detail being able to take photos with that 48 megapixel resolution in 12-bit Pro raw has been awesome not only are things Wicked sharp Wicked shot oh the Boston came out I've been trying to get out of him for weeks not only are things Wicked sharp but there's plenty of latitude to rain and exposure this came in clutch on my winter trip to Japan where I was able to get amazing shots venturing well outside Tokyo with some friends but what I've been getting the most mileage out of is the new 2x Zoom which is actually a crop of the 1X frame normally I'd roll my eyes at the thought of digital Zoom however with that beefier sensor the 2x crop is presented at a full 12 megapixel resolution actually it's a great option to have especially considering that the minimum focusing distance on the main lens is a tad bit far from my liking especially if you're for example taking photos of food that are not quite macro close can't do that I know you can't you're a watch idiot idiot I do think there's more work that Apple can put in to make the other cameras in the array more meaningful the ultra wide saw a modest improvement with an upgraded sensor and improved Clarity however the 3x telephoto is kind of in a tricky spot don't get me wrong the extra focal length is nice in a pinch but compared to that 2x off the main camera the 3x looks a bit soft and falls apart in tricky lighting conditions as it stands right now there's a negligible difference in focal length to justify me using it over the 2x at least faking pictures of the moon now I might be preaching to the choir however my biggest pain point with the iPhone 14 pro Max especially for Content creation is the lightning Port it's a shame because I truly believe that iPhones offer the most balanced video experience on mobile great image quality paired with the speed and reliability of the Native app on iOS make it especially useful for run and Gun situations we've relied on it a ton here at overclock media especially on the Austin Evans channel to capture random moments for videos and it almost never misses except when it comes to pulling Clips off your phone and onto the computer to edit USB 2.0 over lightning takes forever to transfer an airdrop certainly exists however for files reaching into the gigabytes the connection can get unhappy a few minutes in this is especially a bummer if you start dabbling with the 14 Pros Big Boy progress that's a thick ass mod which writes 10-bit 4K files that takes up gigs of space by the minute we actually hung out at marquez's Studio not too long ago while he was working on an episode of autofocus to see this dude shoot 30 minutes of prores on his phone start the import in Final Cut for him to edit give us a full ass tour of his new space and come back to find the progress bar only at 75 percent made me never want to touch prores ever again on this phone at least the standard h.265 recordings look plenty good out of the box for most of us but high-speed USBC on the iPhone can't come any sooner thanks International Bros I've been fortunate enough to try a wide variety of Flagship phones on this channel between the z-fold 4 Zenfone 9 and the pixel 7. I've never been more tempted to hop ship from my iPhone as my primary device in fact I have a secondary SIM card for this very reason so that I can freely hop between my 14 pro Max and specifically my z-fold 4 which I use as my fun phone when I'm hanging out at home or outside of work Android hits different on features customization and sheer product variety which is exciting to say the least however specifically for me leaving the Apple ecosystem is easier said than done but honestly I'm at peace with this other than the fact that I review an iPhone every year I probably wouldn't need to get a new one otherwise but it's good to know that the upgrades are a seamless transition which is why people probably do it if not for just wanting to show off their shiny new toy to their friends because they have friends my daily driver is an appliance that needs to be dependable and rely viable and with apple whether you like it or hate it at least you know what you're getting which is certainly a win in my bookI've been using the iPhone 14 pro Max as my daily driver for about eight months now and today I'm going to share with you my impressions of long-term ownership let's talk about it if you're looking for a bone stock iPhone review I've already covered this phone back when it came out in September however for this video I want to focus on what stood out to me having used the 14 pro for the better part of a year when it comes to utility and work especially as a content creator there's no mincing words the iPhone is simple straightforward and to some very plain I'm not afraid to say it's the appliance I use the most but more than anything else the consistency is why I've been an Apple user for the past couple of years boring isn't the insult people make it out to be fact that's kind of what I want out of my smartphone that I use every single day for my livelihood as much as that might sound like an excuse a lot of this reliability on the 14 pro is a result of the strong hardware and software pairing built in Apple's insanely quick a16 bionic along with the six gigs of RAM and tight optimization in iOS the this phone rarely chugs despite all the intricate photo editing and multitasking I do throughout the day and on top of that it's noticeably efficient as well wear my old 13 Pro would get bogged down after a few minutes of heavy use leading to a drop in performance and the screen dimming heavily to prevent overheating the 14 pro holds up way longer in fact my experience with the 14 pro Max generally speaking improved quite a bit since launch for example my battery life took a serious hit compared to what I was used to with my 13 Pro Max but now after a few months of updates it stabilized to a point where I'm happy with it that's a full workday of use with plenty more on top to get me through the evening Plus without even babying the phone and how I charge it my battery health is still at 100 percent the battery is like insane on this I don't know what they did land obsolescence Apple planned obsolescence Incorporated for context I've been all in on magsafe and have that optimized battery charging mode on which supposedly helps manage the final 20 of charging for a lot of the strain on your battery can happen 200 charge cycles in it must be working because this is by far the slowest battery degradation I've seen on an iPhone you want to say degradation decoration battery degradation irrigation on migration in the long term my Impressions on the 14 pro Max's screen haven't changed since the day I got it it's still a joy to use with its color accuracy that 120 hertz refresh rate and it's easy to see when I'm outside in the sun thanks to that 2000 nit Peak brightness but something that's worth a bit of discussion is the dynamic Island specifically how I feel about it after more than half a year discourse on notches and hole punches aren't going away anytime soon but personally I've gotten used to them the same goes for the dynamic Island at launch I thought it was a neat idea partly a game changer or the revolution that Apple tried to sell us on but as a way to utilize space already taken up by the cameras to display useful information it's cool my only complaint would be that I'd like to see more apps take advantage of it though it's not like I haven't seen my fair share of ones that do the best implementation I've seen has been with the flighty app which is a flight tracker aimed at frequent Travelers on the day that I fly it pins my gate and departure time right at the top so I don't have to juggle through apps as I navigate through the airport yeah flight is easily one of the best apps I've ever paid for also as someone that uses my iPhone as a remote for the Apple TV Dynamic Island provides easy access to playback controls for whatever watching in the living room it's a simple feature but is easier than the old way of diving into the control center on iOS and pulling up the remote that way let's talk about the cameras Apple introduced a new 48 megapixel main sensor to the 14 Pros camera array a big long-awaited update from the 12 megapixel ones used in previous iPhones eight months of ownership in especially for Stills photography I can say that it's been wonderful to use with a few asterisks attached first let's get the obvious out of the way with that extra resolution at its disposal photos come out sharper than previous iPhones I see the benefits mainly in everyday shooting with the 14 pro taking its raw 48 megapixel 1X photos and binning them down to a 12 megapixel file that's easier to share and store on the cloud there might be more processing happening under the hood to make this possible compared to iPhones of the past but rest assured it doesn't come at the cost of speed or reliability taking photos and videos feel as instantaneous and consistent as always then for more demanding photography which might require a lot more detail being able to take photos with that 48 megapixel resolution in 12-bit Pro raw has been awesome not only are things Wicked sharp Wicked shot oh the Boston came out I've been trying to get out of him for weeks not only are things Wicked sharp but there's plenty of latitude to rain and exposure this came in clutch on my winter trip to Japan where I was able to get amazing shots venturing well outside Tokyo with some friends but what I've been getting the most mileage out of is the new 2x Zoom which is actually a crop of the 1X frame normally I'd roll my eyes at the thought of digital Zoom however with that beefier sensor the 2x crop is presented at a full 12 megapixel resolution actually it's a great option to have especially considering that the minimum focusing distance on the main lens is a tad bit far from my liking especially if you're for example taking photos of food that are not quite macro close can't do that I know you can't you're a watch idiot idiot I do think there's more work that Apple can put in to make the other cameras in the array more meaningful the ultra wide saw a modest improvement with an upgraded sensor and improved Clarity however the 3x telephoto is kind of in a tricky spot don't get me wrong the extra focal length is nice in a pinch but compared to that 2x off the main camera the 3x looks a bit soft and falls apart in tricky lighting conditions as it stands right now there's a negligible difference in focal length to justify me using it over the 2x at least faking pictures of the moon now I might be preaching to the choir however my biggest pain point with the iPhone 14 pro Max especially for Content creation is the lightning Port it's a shame because I truly believe that iPhones offer the most balanced video experience on mobile great image quality paired with the speed and reliability of the Native app on iOS make it especially useful for run and Gun situations we've relied on it a ton here at overclock media especially on the Austin Evans channel to capture random moments for videos and it almost never misses except when it comes to pulling Clips off your phone and onto the computer to edit USB 2.0 over lightning takes forever to transfer an airdrop certainly exists however for files reaching into the gigabytes the connection can get unhappy a few minutes in this is especially a bummer if you start dabbling with the 14 Pros Big Boy progress that's a thick ass mod which writes 10-bit 4K files that takes up gigs of space by the minute we actually hung out at marquez's Studio not too long ago while he was working on an episode of autofocus to see this dude shoot 30 minutes of prores on his phone start the import in Final Cut for him to edit give us a full ass tour of his new space and come back to find the progress bar only at 75 percent made me never want to touch prores ever again on this phone at least the standard h.265 recordings look plenty good out of the box for most of us but high-speed USBC on the iPhone can't come any sooner thanks International Bros I've been fortunate enough to try a wide variety of Flagship phones on this channel between the z-fold 4 Zenfone 9 and the pixel 7. I've never been more tempted to hop ship from my iPhone as my primary device in fact I have a secondary SIM card for this very reason so that I can freely hop between my 14 pro Max and specifically my z-fold 4 which I use as my fun phone when I'm hanging out at home or outside of work Android hits different on features customization and sheer product variety which is exciting to say the least however specifically for me leaving the Apple ecosystem is easier said than done but honestly I'm at peace with this other than the fact that I review an iPhone every year I probably wouldn't need to get a new one otherwise but it's good to know that the upgrades are a seamless transition which is why people probably do it if not for just wanting to show off their shiny new toy to their friends because they have friends my daily driver is an appliance that needs to be dependable and rely viable and with apple whether you like it or hate it at least you know what you're getting which is certainly a win in my book