Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max review: Upgraded experience

It’s that time of the year again. It’s September. And that means it is time for the new iPhones. This year the new iPhones are the iPhone 13 Pro, the iPhone 13 Pro Max, the iPhone 13, and — surprisingly, defying all odds — the iPhone 13 mini. In the coming days, you will see India Today Tech taking a look at the new iPhone 13 devices that are on sale in India. In this review, we start with the iPhone 13 Pro Max.

There is no beating around the bush. So, let’s address the elephant in the room. No, we are not talking of the iPhone 13 Max Pro, even if it is bigger and heavier than ever. We are talking about the design. The iPhone 13 Pro Max looks and feels the same as the iPhone 12 Pro Max. There are some changes, but these are subtle and barely noticeable at first glance. And in feature set too, it is more or less similar to the iPhone 12, though again, there are some changes.How much do these changes add up to? The answer depends on who is asking the question. If you already use the iPhone 12 Pro Max, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is not a phone for you. But for those who are on the older iPhones, the iPhone 13 Pro Max offers an experience that is upgraded in a true sense. The new display and camera hardware in the iPhone 13 Pro Max make a real difference!iPhone 13 Pro Max display and design Let’s start with the design. This is also one aspect of the iPhone 13 Pro Max that I don’t find too appealing. Aesthetically it is superb. But usability-wise could have been better. The iPhone 13 Pro Max looks exactly like the iPhone 12 Pro Max. But the weight is now around 10 grams more, which makes an already heavy phone a wee bit heavier. The battery size inside the phone has gone up, so probably that is one reason why the phone is slightly heavier. The other reason is likely the upgraded camera hardware. Whatever the reason for its size and weight, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is not for those who prefer their phones to not bulge out in their pockets or those who don’t fancy carrying 240 grams in their hands throughout the day. However, the flat edges do help with the handling of the phone.Also, the camera module is now slightly bigger. It protrudes — that camera bump — a bit more. This also creates a design that makes the phone top heavy and a little wobbly when it is kept on the table.There is one more major change, and that is the notch. It is smaller compared to the notch in the iPhone 12 Pro Max. You would assume that it doesn’t matter. But it does. The smaller notch is noticeable and appreciable, particularly when watching a video or image on the phone.As the design has remained the same, there are also upsides to it. The steel frame exudes quality and workmanship. It has a jewel-like finish. The frosted but smooth glass makes the phone look classy. The camera bump, while noticeable, doesn’t look out of place or cheap like the huge camera module in the Galaxy S21 Ultra does. In other words, despite its size, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is not a hideous phone like many large phones nowadays. And the iPhone remains the only phone, even years later, to have uniform bezels around its screen. There is no chin on the iPhone 13 Pro Max, like what I see on Android phones.The design is dust and waterproof, marked with IP68 certification. The headphone jack is truly gone forever. The charging port uses a Lightning connector — dear Apple, there is something called USB-C that you put on the iPad, so why this Kolaveri with the iPhone users — and the wireless charging is supported by MagSafe. Display in the iPhone 13 Pro Max gets a big upgrade. It now comes with ProMotion — a fancy name for displays with a higher-res refresh rate. The iPhone 13 Pro Max supports a 120Hz refresh rate on its 6.7-inch display, although like all good phones on this one, too the refresh rate is variable. This gives the users the best of both worlds: Great display and good battery life. In use, I didn’t find the faster refresh rate on display to be a big deal, all because, unlike Android phones, the top-end iPhones already have excellently smooth animations. The iPhone 12 Pro Max, despite having a 60Hz display, offers a superbly fluid experience because of great performance and polished software. However, the ProMotion experience is the kind of feature that you don’t need but will miss if you have used it for a while. So if you are coming from an old iPhone, your eyes will find the ProMotion appealing even if you may not find it a big deal.Compared to the display in the iPhone 12 Pro Max, I also find the iPhone 13 Pro Max display slightly brighter and punchier. Although, the difference is subtle. Even on the iPhone 12 Pro Max, keeping display brightness to around 40 per cent works more than fine. It’s only in extremely bright outdoors that I notice and appreciate this little bit of extra that the iPhone 13 Pro Max offers.iPhone 13 Pro Max performance, battery lifeAll the recent iPhones have been fast phones. This is due to the Apple A Bionic processors and the fact that Apple controls hardware as well as software in its phones, which helps the company offer a more seamless experience compared to the Android phones. In fact, so fast have been the A Bionic chips that now Apple is essentially competing with itself.The iPhone 13 Pro Max is an extremely fast phone. It runs fairly cool, even while gaming, and there are no jitters or lags. It is dependable. You can say that this is all because of the A15 Bionic processors inside the phone, and you won’t be wrong. But when I compare the performance of the iPhone 13 Pro Max with the performance of the iPhone 12 Pro Max, I don’t find any difference outside the benchmarks. In terms of using the iPhone 13 Pro Max, I do feel a few things could have been better. For example, I would have liked to see the USB-C port on it. Such a port would have simplified the life of iPhone users in an immeasurable way. I would have liked to see the Touch ID making a comeback to the iPhone through its power button if needed, like it did on the iPad Air last year. This is because using FaceID in a world where everyone has to wear masks almost all the time is a little frustrating if you do not have an Apple Watch on your wrist.But apart from these quirks, using the iPhone 13 Pro is a joy. The iOS15 is as homely to an iPhone user as any other version of the iOS. Android users may take a while to get used to it, but once they do, they will appreciate its polished design, its reliability, controls it offers on privacy and usage data (most of the time), and its coherence. As I noted just a paragraph earlier, irrespective of what you are doing, the iPhone 13 Pro Max sails smooth. Under the hood, there are times when it is doing billions of computing calculations every moment, but it never flinches, never slows down, even when you are applying a filter on an HDR video.The iPhone 13 Pro supports fast charging, speaking of which there is no charger in the box. Only a cable. But if you have the regular 20W iPhone charger, the phone can be charged from 0 to 100 per cent in around an hour. As far as the battery is concerned, I don’t find any significant difference between the battery performance of the iPhone 12 Pro Max and the iPhone 13 Pro Max. Both last around 14 to 16 hours of use, a little more if you aren’t opening the camera every 30 minutes. In other words, the iPhone 13 Pro Max battery easily lasts one full day of use and then a few hours more.The iPhone 13 Pro Max camera The cameras are a big deal with the iPhone 13 Pro Max. The phone gets new camera hardware, including a brand new and extra-large main image sensor. You can read about the iPhone 13 Pro Max camera hardware in detail in this piece. Here I am going to focus solely on what this camera can do.But before that, a quick look at the Cinematic Mode. In simple words, this is a new focus mode while video recording. It allows the phone to automatically focus on the person who is talking while recording a video, helping users record footage that is similar to what video professionals shoot using advanced camera gear, including through multiple-cam setups. In practice, the Cinematic mode works well but not so much in low light. To work best, it requires good daylight. Also, it is not that big a deal for most users, similar to ProRes or Dolby Vision, which the iPhone 13 Pro Max supports. In good hands, these are extremely useful features. But most consumers will find them of little value.However, what most users — pro or non-pro — will appreciate is the main rear camera in the iPhone 13 Pro Max. It is, with no ifs and buts, is the best camera ever in a smartphone. Let me explain with the help of the image samples (to see what I am highlighting in the following points, feel free to click on the image samples to see them in bigger size on a computer):— In good light, the iPhone 13 Pro Max clicks gorgeous photos. They have fantastic colour fidelity, excellent dynamic range and tons of details. Images of the India Today building, wet leaf, tall buildings, the marketplace are good examples.— The portrait mode is superb (man on the scooter), although the Portrait Mode for the Pet can be better (the edges around the dog are too blurry).— In low light, the iPhone 13 Pro Max rear camera is the best I have used. Example: Two photos of fruits. The photo of the smileys.— The iPhone 13 Pro Max has a new mode called Macro mode: it is not macro in the traditional sense — there is no magnification — but it lets you get close to the thing that you are clicking and can help you click some stunning photos. Example: the wet leaf and the yellow sunflower. So, no, the Macro mode in the iPhone 13 Pro Max will not help you click the eyes of a honeybee. But it will let you click some dazzling closeups.— The ultra-wide-angle camera now handles shadows better, captures more details and has better-behaved edge-sharpness. Example: the photos of the marketplace and that giant concrete rectangle.— In extremely low light, the iPhone 13 Pro Max captures ample details, but it also has some noise in shadows. Example: the bookcase. It is also an extremely difficult scene to click.Even in low light, the front camera is good at clicking details and getting colours right. Example: the masked selfie.— The zoom camera, which now offers 3X reach, I believe is the weakest of all three cameras in the iPhone 13 Pro. This is not to say it’s bad because it is not. It’s just not as good as the main camera in the iPhone 13 Pro. In good light, it performs well enough, but in low light, its performance could have been better. In low light, images clicked with the telephoto have flattened details, and shadows are plain ugly.— For video recording, the iPhone 13 Pro Max supports recording in 4K, in ProRes format (to be added later), In Dolby Vision, in slow motion (240FPS). The recording quality is the best a phone can manage. By far! And while shooting video, I love switching between the three lenses for some dramatic effect.Overall, I am extremely pleased with the iPhone 13 Pro Max camera. It does the basics perfectly and then offer something extra to those who can utilise the unique features. And it is it’s basic that I love the most about it. The main camera in the iPhone 13 Pro is near perfect. It gets the colours right, and it gets the details right, it gets the white balance right (barring sometimes in low-light conditions) and helps users click great photos almost every time it is used.iPhone 13 Pro Max: An upgrade worth getting Like I said at the beginning of this piece. The iPhone 13 Pro Max is an incremental update over the iPhone 12 Pro Max. The only exception is the main camera performance, where I find the iPhone 13 Pro Max making a bigger leap. But if you are out in the market for a new iPhone or are looking to upgrade your existing two or three years older iPhone, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is a very good choice.It is an expensive choice, though. The price of the phone starts at Rs 129,900 in India. But if you don’t mind spending this kind of money, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is also the best choice for you. It is definitely a better and more practical option than something like the Samsung Galaxy Fold 3. The only reason not to get it would be its weight and size, and if you are not sure of it, do check out the phone in an Apple store before you buy it. On every other count, it is the absolute best phone you can get in India.Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max review 8.5/10 ProsPerformanceDisplayRear Camera