Iphone 13 Pro Max Review: Performance
- A15 Bionic blows the door off of Android phones
- Sizable graphics improvement
Thanks to its new A15 Bionic chipset, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is ridiculously fast and grabs the title of worlds fastest phone. I got totally lost in the Warp Drive racing game, which delivers fast frame rates and silky smooth action even as you zoom around the track.
And I also got a kick out of Seek, which flexes the iPhone 13 Pro Maxs machine learning muscles by instantly identifying several plants around my abode, from coleus to new guinea impatiens.
In terms of benchmarks, the iPhone 13 Pro Max once again destroys the Android competition. In Geekbench 5, which measures overall performance, the iPhone 13 Pro Max notched a multi-core score of 4,549 and a single-core score of 1,720. The Galaxy S21 Ultra hit 3,440 and 1,123, respectively, while the iPhone 12 Pro Max reached 4,111 and 1,603.
Interestingly, the iPhone 13 scored a slightly lower 4,436/1,668, which we think could be due to the Pro Max having more RAM.
You should expect a graphics boost on the iPhone 13 Pro Max, as it vaulted ahead of the competition on the 3DMark Wild Life unlimited test. It registered a frame rate of 68.4 frames per second, compared to 54 fps for the iPhone 12 Pro Max and 34 fps for the Galaxy S21 Ultra.
Check out our iPhone 13 benchmarks page to see how the iPhone 13 Pro Max and all the new iPhones compare to each other and the Android phone competition.
Which Iphone 14 Models Will Get Battery Improvements
The frequent tipster VNchocoTaco just shared a screenshot of what appears to be a Baidu post detailing all battery sizes of Apples unannounced iPhone 2022 lineup. The post mentions the batteries of the entire series, including the new iPhone 14 Max model with a 4,325 mAh capacity. That is about as much as the battery of the iPhone 14 Pro Max that comes in at 4,323 mAhdown from 4,352 mAh in the current iPhone 13 Pro Max.
The surprise concerns the iPhone 14 Pro which could get a substantial change with a 3,200 mAh capacity, up from 3,095 mAh on the iPhone 13 Pro. This may not sound big on paperbut it could translate into a few extra hours of screen-on-time paired with a more energy-efficient chipset. Similarly, the iPhone 14 is said to feature 3,279 mAh compared to its predecessor with 3,227 mAh.
How To Replace Iphone Battery
If your iPhones lithium-ion battery dies, you can get it replaced. Apple recommends that you do it officially, via its battery replacement scheme.
If your iPhone is in warranty, there is no charge to replace the battery.
However, given the lifespan of lithium-ion batteries, this isnt likely to be the case. Out of warranty, an iPhone battery replacement costs $69.
And to get it done, all you have to do is either visit an Apple Store or apply for it online.
What about third-party companies? You can use these to replace your iPhones battery life , but Apple DOES NOT recommend this.
Why? If something goes wrong your phone will be dead and nothing will bring it back.
For this reason, its probably worth taking the $69 hit and getting it done officially by Apple.
A third-party battery refit wont be much cheaper anyway.
If youre in a position where your iPhone has become unusable because of its battery life, and you dont want to pay full price for a new iPhone, perhaps its time you considered looking at buying a
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Pixel 7 Pro Vs Iphone 14 Pro: Competing For The Camera Crown
Apple has historically had the superior camera experience with iPhones, but the Pixel lineup has been gradually improving on that front year after year. With the Pixel 7 Pro, the setup is remaining similar to the 6 Pro, but Google’s image processing is expected to offer better performance. On the other hand, the iPhone 14 Pro is upgrading the camera hardware for the first time in a while, and that is backed by more software prowess, so it is quite hard to beat.
With the Pixel 7 Pro, you get a 50MP primary camera, a 48MP telephoto camera, a 12MP ultrawide, and an 11.1MP front camera. On the other hand, the iPhone 14 Pro gets a 48MP main camera, a 12MP ultrawide, a 12MP telephoto, and a dual-lens 12MP camera in the front.
The telephoto experience on the Pixel 7 Pro is expected to be superior to the iPhone 14 Pro, thanks to the larger sensor and improved processing. On the video side of things, it seems that the two phones appear to be matched on paper. You get up to 4K 60fps video, 1080p 240fps video, and 10-bit HDR on both. The Pixel 7 Pro also gets a Cinematic Blur feature that competes with Apple’s Cinematic Mode.
iPhone 14 Pro and Pixel 7 Pro both have fantastic cameras, and you really can’t go wrong with either.
Do Larger Iphones Have Better Battery Life
When something gets bigger, it needs more energy this applies to car engines, human bodies, and iPhones.
The rise of phablet-sized iPhones, beginning with the iPhone 6 Plus, was the first instance where a larger-than-normal battery was used inside an iPhone. This trend has continued with Apples Pro and Pro Max models.
The iPhone 13 Pro Max features the largest battery ever fitted to an iPhone it uses a massive 4353mAh battery.
And the reason for this is simple: larger displays use more power, so you need a sizable battery to power them. Ditto 5G.
And back then, Apples large, flagship phones were using LCD displays.
LCD displays require that every pixel on the screen is powered , so when you increase the size of them by an inch, you have to increase the capacity of the battery too, or else youd have terrible battery life.
I remember when I first tested the iPhone 6 Plus it blew my mind! Id never used an iPhone before that I could use all day and not worry about its battery life.
Prior to the iPhone 6 Plus, Apples iPhones, while great, all required top-ups throughout the day on account of their small-sized batteries.
The iPhone 6 Plus used a properly massive battery and its effect was immediately palpable all-day usage without making much of a dent in the battery life.
From here, Apples gradually been making improvements to the iPhones battery life, adding in more performance and increased longevity.
Heres how long iPhone batteries can typically last.
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How Good Is The Iphone 13 Pro Maxs Battery Life
With a battery as large as the one Apples iPhone 13 Pro Max runs, youre looking at some of the best battery performance ever on iPhone. The iPhone 13 Pro Max will run with its screen on, constantly surfing the web over 5G for over 12 hours. The iPhone 12 for comparison could only manage 8 hours.
Similarly, the iPhone 13s battery performance is up massively too: it will do over 10 hours in the same test versus the iPhone 12s meager 8 hours. The OnePlus 9 Pro is still better, however, with impressive near-13 hours of battery life during our intensive battery test.
The iPhone 13 Pro fared slightly worse than the iPhone 13 Pro Max, it did just shy of 12 hours, but that is to be expected. It uses a smaller battery, after all. Still, that is a massive gain over the iPhone 12 Pro which only managed 10 hours in the same test.
iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max make up our most pro iPhone lineup ever with the biggest advancement for our camera system, the best battery life ever in an iPhone, and the fastest performance of any smartphone, setting a new standard for iPhone and enabling incredible experiences never before possible.
Apple Iphone 14 And Iphone 14 Plus: Display
The display is unchanged from the iPhone 13. Specifically, it has a 6.1-inch OLED display with a 60Hz refresh rate and 2,532 x 1,170 pixels, which equates to 460 pixels-per-inch.
On the iPhone 14 Plus, the 6.7-inch OLED display with 60Hz refresh rate has more pixels for the larger size, 2,778 x 1,284, with a fractionally smaller pixel density, 458 pixels-per-inch. The display on each appeared the same to me in use, producing bright images at a maximum 800 nits brightness . It has a ceramic shield at the front to protect the glass and the display and phone are water-resistant up to 50 meters.
The extra screen real estate on the iPhone 14 Plus looks great. You can choose whether it exactly mirrors the iPhone 14 with larger text, or you can take the font size down a notch and show more text at the same time. The software is smart enough to reformat the copy to make it look its best.
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Pixel 7 Pro Vs Iphone 14 Pro Design: Dynamic Island Vs The Visor
iPhone 14 Pro and Pixel 7 Pro are both good-looking phones. They have classier designs than their base model counterparts. The iPhone 14 Pro keeps the flattened design from the last generation but comes with a big change at the front. The notch is gone and in its place is a new pill-shaped cutout that Apple is calling Dynamic Island. Dynamic Island is also a new UI experience revolving around the cutout. On the other hand, the Pixel 7 Pro is keeping much of the same as the Pixel 6 Pro, with the camera visor looking slightly different now.
Both phones have solid build quality as well. They’re regular glass sandwiches, but the Pixel 7 Pro uses the visor to cut it into two pieces. On the other hand, the iPhone 14 Pro has a full glass back, with the camera lens area integrated into the glass. The iPhone 14 Pro uses Ceramic Shield glass, which is more shatterproof, but also more prone to scratches. On the other hand, the Pixel 7 Pro has Gorilla Glass Victus, which has great shatter proofing but not as good as the Ceramic Shield. Another key difference is that while the iPhone 14 Pro gets a stainless steel frame, the Pixel 7 Pro uses an aluminum frame. While both should hold up fine for daily use, the iPhone 14 Pro has this stronger build on paper here.
The Pixel 7 Pro is closer to the 14 Pro Max in size than it is to the 14 Pro, and has a higher pixel density, while the 14 Pro has a brighter screen.
Iphone 14 Pro Max: Battery
One of the reasons why you want a phone as big as the Pro Max is because it includes a big battery, the biggest of the iPhone lineup. The iPhone 14 Pro Max has a battery rated at 4323 milliamp hours , which is actually lower than the 4352 mAh of the iPhone 13 Pro Max.
But that difference between the newer and older Pro Max phones doesnt mean anything. The iPhone 14 Pro Maxs battery lasted 12 hours and 40 minutesabout an hour longer than the iPhone 13 Pro Maxwhen we ran the Geekbench 4 battery test. And the iPhone 14 Pro Max lasted 3 hours and 43 minutes longer than the iPhone 14 Prothats 30 percent more battery life from a battery that is 35 percent larger than the smaller iPhone 14 Pro.
The Geekbench 4 battery test is very strenuous, performing a combination of CPU- and GPU-intensive tasks, which is why our results dont match Apples ratings of 29 hours for on-board video playback, 25 hours of streaming video playback, and 95 hours of audio playback. We set the iPhone to 200 nits of brightness and turned off auto brightness and True Tone. This doesnt take into account the Always-On display, which only comes on when the screen dims. Add that into the equation and youre getting about the same battery life as the iPhone 13 Prowhich isnt a bad thing.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max replaces the notch with the Dynamic Island.
Foundry
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Iphone 13 Pro Max Review: Software
- Focus cuts down on distractions
iOS 15 isnt the leap iOS 14 was in terms of adding widgets, but it delivers some smart and fun upgrades. FaceTime gets some needed audio and video improvements and, as of iOS 15.1, you can use the new to listen to music or watch movies or TV shows with friends or family. And the Messages app has a new Shared with You section for easier access to shared photos, articles and more.
I especially like the new Focus feature in iOS 15, which lets you filter notifications based on what youre doing. Notifications are also more streamlined, thanks with a new summary view so you dont get overwhelmed.
Other iOS 15 goodies include a redesigned Safari , a more full-featured Weather app and an enhanced Maps app with more detail and better road views. Last but not least, Live Text gives you Google Lens-like powers by recognizing text in real time via the camera for looking up things.
Developers make great apps for Apple devices, and that hasn’t slowed down with iOS 15’s release. We’d suggest loading up on some of the best iPhone apps or, if you’re new to the platform, grabbing the best apps for a new iPhone.
And now that iOS 16 is official, we have a lot more to look forward to. Apple announced a bunch of changes to things like the lock screen and Messages. There is even an update to allow Face ID to unlock your iPhone 13 Pro Max in landscape mode.
Iphone 13 Pro Max Review: Verdict
The iPhone 13 Pro Max is that rare phone that gets a 5-star rating from us. You get superior cameras and video recording capabilities including the very compelling Cinematic mode and macro mode blistering performance and a very responsive 120Hz display. Plus, the battery life is even better this time around and among the best weve seen from a 5G flagship.
I also appreciate the slightly better 3x optical zoom and 15x digital zoom on the iPhone 13 Pro Max, the brighter screen and the slightly smaller notch. But I wish Apple could deliver faster charging, and Id like to see a sleeker design next time around with the iPhone 14 with less of a camera bump and perhaps full-screen look.
Some may simply prefer the iPhone 13 Pro because its smaller and lighter, as there are no other functional differences between the two handsets. But if you prefer a bigger screen, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is the closest thing to perfect you can get in a phone.
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Pixel 7 Pro Vs Iphone 14 Pro Performance: Veteran Apple Silicon Or Newbie Google Tensor
The iPhone’s strength has always been its performance, with the best-in-class processing thanks to the Apple Silicon chips. Google has entered the custom silicon game very recently, starting with the Pixel 6 series. The Apple iPhone 14 Pro has the A16 Bionic chip, while the Pixel 7 Pro has the Google Tensor G2. The A16 will win out in pretty much every benchmark you’ll throw at it, and many practical use cases as well. However, for day-to-day use, it’s unlikely that you will notice much of a difference unless you’re planning on regularly using your phone for some CPU-heavy tasks like video editing.
The iPhone 14 Pro wins out with the storage options as well. Apple offers it in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage capacities. The Pixel 7 Pro has similar variants, minus the 1TB version. The marketing for both the Pixel and the iPhone lays heavy emphasis on their respective camera performances. As such, the Pixel missing the 1TB storage option is a bit disappointing. Sure, you get a solid cloud experience with the Pixel 7 Pro, but the option to get 1TB of local storage would have been nice. So, if you want more local storage, the iPhone 14 Pro is the one to pick.
The A16 Bionic outperforms everything on the market right now, and it would be safe to assume it outperforms the Tensor G2 as well.
Iphone 14 Pro Max Vs Iphone 13 Pro Max Specs
| iPhone 14 Pro Max | iPhone 13 Pro Max |
If you balk at the thought of paying four figures for your new phone Apple’s also releasing the iPhone 14 Pro at $999, though after taxes and fees you’ll still pay over $1k. Check out our iPhone 14 vs. iPhone 14 Pro comparison to get a sense of what the price increase gets you over the base iPhone 14.
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Iphone 13 Design Favors Battery Life
Rumors that preceded the event said that the new iPhone 13 models will have the same height and width as their predecessors. But theyd all be about 0.2mm thicker than before. Apple can use that extra space to increase the battery life, we speculated at the time. Every bit of internal space can deliver additional precious battery capacity, and the iPhone 13 needs it.
Apple made it clear on stage that the new phones have brighter screens, a faster chip, and better 5G connectivity. They also pack better camera experiences. These are all energy-consuming features. The A15 Bionic might be more efficient than before, and Apple might be using additional tricks to improve battery life. The 120Hz ProMotion screens will adapt the refresh rate dynamically based on the content the user consumes. Also, the phone can toggle between 5G and 4G data to conserve battery life.
But Apple also needed bigger battery packs. The iPhone comparison pages confirm that all iPhone models are precisely 0.25 thicker than their predecessors. Each of them is slightly heavier as well. These are all indications that Apple increased the battery sizes.