Apple's top-shelf smartphone stays ahead of the pack
I’m PCMag’s managing editor for consumer electronics content, overseeing an experienced team of reviewers and product testers. I’ve been covering tech for more than 20 years. Prior to PCMag, I worked at outlets such as Android Authority, Fortune, InformationWeek, and Phonescoop.
The Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max is the best iPhone overall, with excellent performance, stellar battery life, sharp cameras, and a number of useful features you don't get with the standard models.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max (starting at $1,099) is Apple's largest, most tricked-out handset, and the top pick in the iPhone family for anyone who wants a do-it-all smartphone. The smaller iPhone 14 Pro is $100 less, but we think the larger screen and longer-lasting battery you get with the Max are worth the extra cash. Moreover, the Pro Max outshines the standard iPhone 14 thanks to its more capable processor, always-on display, and Dynamic Island. With an upgraded main camera powered by a new Photonic Engine, and safety features such as Crash Detection and Emergency SOS via satellite, Apple has delivered as fine a device as any on the market, earning the iPhone 14 Pro Max our Editors' Choice award.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max shares its basic appearance with the iPhone 13 Pro Max and the iPhone 12 Pro Max. In other words, you've seen it before. Very little differentiates the new device from its predecessors other than color selection (including Gold, Graphite, Silver, and, new this year, Deep Purple), the Dynamic Island at the top of the display, and the size of the rear camera module.
The phone measures 6.33 by 3.05 by 0.31 inches (HWD) and weighs 8.47 ounces—dimensions that are within fractions of a millimeter and just 0.01 ounces changed from last year's model. That makes it a large and heavy device, but Pro Max buyers should be well used to these dimensions and weight by now. It's about on par with the Google Pixel 6 Pro (6.45 by 2.99 by 0.35 inches) and Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (6.43 by 3.07 by 0.35 inches) in terms of size. If the Pro Max is too much phone for you, there's the slightly smaller iPhone 14 Pro to consider (5.81 by 2.81 by 0.31 inches).
While the design isn't particularly exciting, Apple continues to lead the market with materials and build quality. The iPhone 14 Pro Max features a stainless steel frame (as opposed to the standard iPhone 14's aluminum) and is protected with the company's own Ceramic Shield. Apple says its Shield is stronger than competing glass, but that's not something we can test in a practical manner. Phones from Google and Samsung ship with Gorilla Glass Victus or Victus+, which is the top-of-the-line material from Corning. The iPhone 14 Pro Max has the same IP68 rating that most flagship phones carry, which means it's protected from dust and submersion in shallow water for up to 30 minutes. This is table stakes for a modern high-end device, but still welcome to see.
The phone has the same flat side edges as the last two Pro Max models, with controls scattered around the frame. Flat-edged phones are less comfortable to hold than those with rounded frames, and that is certainly true of the iPhone 14 Pro Max—but dang that stainless steel feels good. The left side houses the ringer switch and separate volume toggles, while a combined power/screen lock button graces the right edge. The switch and buttons have superb travel and feedback.
Apple's decade-old Lightning port is centered on the bottom edge of the phone. It's long past time Apple switched to the industry standard USB-C port for connecting cables and charging. The company relies on USB-C for its iPad Pro, iPad Air, and some Mac models. Perhaps Apple will make the move in 2023, ahead of the EU's looming 2024 USB-C mandate.
Another glaring omission from the hardware on US models? A physical SIM tray. The iPhone 14 family relies on eSIM, which means there is no SIM card tray on US versions of the iPhone 14. International models do, however, include a SIM tray.
Because the rear-mounted camera module is larger than that of the iPhone 13 Pro Max, and because the phone's dimensions are ever-so-slightly changed, your old case won't fit the new phone. As tough as Apple says the iPhone 14 Pro Max is, it's still made of glass. There are plenty of cases from Apple and third parties available.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max carries over many of the basic metrics of the iPhone 13 Pro Max's display, but there are a few notable upgrades. To start, you may notice trimmer bezels around the outer edge of the screen. It measures the same 6.7 inches across the diagonal and features the same Haptic Touch, True Tone color, and HDR. Apple increased the resolution a smidge from 2,778 by 1,284 pixels in the iPhone 12/13 Pro Max to 2,796 by 1,290 pixels here, making for a pixel density of 460ppi. That's not enough for your eyes to tell the difference, but it's mighty sharp just the same.
Contrast remains two million to one, while the typical max brightness reaches 1,000 nits. Peak brightness of the iPhone 14 Pro Max, however, improves over its predecessors by 400 nits for a total of 1,600 nits, and a new outdoor peak brightness measures 2,000 nits when the phone is hit by direct sunlight. Does this make the phone's screen more readable outdoors? When held side by side, the 14 Pro Max display does in fact look a little bit punchier than the 13 Pro Max.
Like many of today's flagships, the iPhone 14 Pro Max includes a high-speed 120Hz screen. This means the display refreshes at a rate of 120 times per second, rather than the standard 60 times per second. Now in its second generation on the iPhone family, the ProMotion technology makes for a smoother experience in a number of apps such as Safari, Twitter, YouTube, and others that feature scrolling or sliding user experiences.
Oh, and yes, the awful notch is gone. Apple ditches the notch—which has appeared on most iPhones since the 2017-era iPhone X, including the non-Pro iPhone 14 models—in favor of a new display design element called the Dynamic Island. Where Android phones have moved beyond notches and mostly use hole punch cutouts for the front camera, Apple's combined Face ID and front camera module still requires some room. That means the Dynamic Island is a long oval rather than a small cutout. It's somewhat less intrusive than the notch, though it practically screams "Here I am!" when you watch full-screen video.
The Dynamic Island serves as a place for alerts, live activities, and other interactive happenings. The idea is to minimize certain types of notifications while calling attention to other things that might otherwise be lost as background activities, such as timers or music controls.
A number of Apple-developed and third-party apps support the Dynamic Island at launch, which means you don't have to wait for developers to take advantage of it. You see system alerts when charging or during NFC interactions, as well as when accessories connect, or see live activities when navigating via Apple Maps or using the personal hotspot. It's a useful tool, but I had to go looking for it most of the time and the tapping gestures to interact with the content aren't 100% intuitive. Still, I look forward to seeing how Apple and developers make use of it over time.
It's also worth noting that Apple is finally offering an Always-On display feature (AOD) for the iPhone 14 Pro lineup, something Android devices have offered for the better part of a decade. Rather than go completely dark, an AOD keeps a portion of the screen activated to show basic details including the time, date, weather, and data from several other lock screen widgets. On most Android phones, the majority of the screen is black with just the time illuminated. With the iPhone 14 Pro Max, Apple has decided to keep the entire screen lit, albeit at a much lower brightness. Paired with the new 1Hz refresh rate made possible by the Display Engine, the AOD on the Pro Max should sip power rather than guzzle it.
As it does on Android devices, the iPhone 14 Pro Max's AOD lets you glance at the screen to glean simple details that you'd otherwise have to unlock the phone to read. It makes it far faster and easier to check the time, see notifications, or gauge the weather. It's customizable to a small degree and works as advertised.
Last year's iPhone 13 Pro Max wowed us with its battery life, with a 4,352mAh cell pushing it longer than ever before. Somewhat surprisingly, the iPhone 14 Pro Max has a slightly smaller 4,323mAh battery. The efficiency gains in the new A16 Bionic processor, however, more than make up the difference.
In our streaming video test, the iPhone 14 Pro Max lasted a hearty 19 hours, marking a 1-hour improvement year over year. Our test involves setting the display brightness to maximum and then streaming a YouTube video over Wi-Fi for as long as the phone lasts. For the sake of comparison, the iPhone 13 Pro Max ran for 18 hours, while the Pixel 6 Pro ran for 22 hours and the Galaxy S22 Ultra lasted 12 hours in the same test.
Apple has yet to adopt rapid charging for its iPhone family. Like its predecessors, the 14 Pro Max can charge at a maximum wired rate of 20W when used with a compatible charger, which Apple doesn't ship with the phone, so yoou have to pay extra for the charging brick. In our tests, the 14 Pro Max battery reached a 50% charge from 0% in 37 minutes, which is a bit longer than the 35 minutes claimed by Apple. A full charge took close to 90 minutes. Samsung's Galaxy S22 family can charge as rapidly as 75 minutes when paired with Samsung's high-speed 45W charger, and OnePlus' 10 Pro 5G can fully recharge the battery in 35 minutes using its proprietary 65W SuperVOOC charging tech.
Wireless charging is capped at 15W, but only when you use a MagSafe-compatible wireless charger. When used with a regular Qi-based charger, the iPhone 14 Pro Max is limited to a lowly rate of 7.5W.
Along with its family of iPhone 14s, Apple is introducing the new A16 Bionic processor. This system-on-a-chip isn't a huge leap compared with last year's A15 Bionic, and in fact, Apple sticks with the old A15 in the standard iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus models.
The big change is the move from a 5nm process to a 4nm process, which allows Apple to cram an additional 1 billion transistors onto the chip, making for a total of 16 billion. The A16 is still arranged in a six-core configuration, with two performance cores and four efficiency cores. These are joined by a five-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine that's 7% faster. Critically, Apple boosts the memory bandwidth of the GPU by 50%, which will be most noticeable in graphics-heavy games. And while Apple carries over the same basic 6GB of RAM from last year's model, it updates the type of RAM from LPDDR4 to LPDDR5 for the Pro models. The A16 Bionic packs a new ISP, which powers the camera's Photonic Engine, and has a new Display Engine to manage the always-on display feature.
On the storage front, Apple has never allowed for expandable storage via microSD card, but the 14 Pro family is available in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB variants—more than enough for your cat videos and selfies.
In testing, the A16 showed marked improvement in benchmark scores compared with the A15 and other competitors. For example, its single-core Geekbench 5 score jumped from 1,721 to 1,874 and the multi-core score improved from 4,629 to 5,445 over the A15-powered 13 Pro Max. The Google Pixel 6 Pro and its custom Tensor processor didn't fare as well on Geekbench 5, with scores of 1,021 and 2,813 for the single- and multi-core tests. Samsung's Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered Galaxy S22 Ultra beat the Pixel, but fell behind the iPhone 14 Pro Max with Geekbench 5 scores of 1,232 and 3,433. Other A16 results include a score of 1,045 on the Geekbench ML test, 54.48fps on the GFXBench Aztec Ruins test, and 3,377 on the 3DMark Wildlife Extreme test. The phone wouldn't run AnTuTu all the way through. In fact, the Pro Max heated up considerably and shut the test down repeatedly before it could finish.
It's important to point out here that last year's iPhone 13 models were (and still are) faster than many flagships with the premiere Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 inside. The improved A16 Bionic in the iPhone 14 Pro only sets Apple's top phones that much farther ahead of the pack. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which will power 2023's flagship Android phones, won't even be announced until November or December.
In practical terms, the 14 Pro Max runs flawlessly. Apple's latest operating system, iOS 16, performs beautifully on the phone. Moreover, gaming is an absolute joy on the device. We tested both the simple Alto's Adventure and the more demanding Genshin Impact. These games ran easily on the iPhone 14 Pro Max with nary a stutter, hiccup, nor frame drop.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max is the most connected Apple product ever. It marks a solid wireless upgrade from last year's iPhone thanks to some new specs and capabilities.
To start, the iPhone 14 Pro Max jumps from the older Qualcomm X60 modem to the fresh X65. This modem boosts the (theoretical) maximum 5G download speed from 7.5Gbps to 10Gbps. It also tweaks MIMO performance, power efficiency, and remains upgradeable via software. It will be up to wireless network operators to harness these newfound powers.
In our signal tests (taken in Northern New Jersey), the iPhone 14 Pro Max performed well on both AT&T's and Verizon's 5G networks, with 5G availability and speeds varying in line with competing devices. For example, the 14 Pro Max showed a max download speed of 86Mbps on Verizon 5G where a Pixel 6 Pro rated 96Mbps at the same spot. Uploads on the 14 Pro Max were faster at 8.28Mbps versus the Pixel's 4.52Mbps. The AT&T model, comparatively, scored 80Mbps on downloads and 18.6Mbps for uploads. These speeds are nowhere near the numbers PCMag recorded for either network in our Best Mobile Networks evaluation, but that's a different story—peak and average speeds on AT&T and Verizon should be much faster, but we were limited in our testing locations.
Apple keeps the Wi-Fi radio at version 6 and not 6E. The latter would have helped future-proof the phone to a greater degree. Even so, Wi-Fi performance was excellent in testing. Sitting right next to a Verizon Fios router with 940Mbps service, the iPhone 14 Pro Max reached max download speeds of 435Mbps while the Pixel hit 475Mbps. Out in my backyard, at the absolute edge of Wi-Fi coverage, both phones did poorly at 3.47Mbps and 3.62Mbps, respectively, though they maintained the connection and were still able to perform tasks such as downloading apps.
The iPhone 14's Bluetooth radio makes a big jump from version 5.0 to 5.3. This means the phone can transmit at lower power levels and should be better at maintaining continuous connections with Bluetooth accessories. Codec support is decent with AAC, Apple Lossless, FLAC, and Spatial Audio. In our tests, music streamed to a pair of true wireless earbuds with FLAC support was outstanding and the connection remained strong even at the maximum distance of 10 meters.
Speaking of audio, the iPhone 14 Pro Max is a solid multimedia machine. It includes built-in stereo speakers with one in the earpiece and a second downward-firing driver from the bottom edge. With the phone set to normal volume (about 50%), music and video content sound great on the speakers, with mostly balanced highs and lows. Our bass test track, The Knife's "Silent Shout," has a clean, present soundstage and its beats float by pleasingly. Cranking things up all the way, however, showcases the limitations of the iPhone's speakers. We noticed plenty of distortion at both the low and high ends of the spectrum, causing a loss of definition. You'll be better served by a good Bluetooth speaker, but that's no surprise.
Last, but not least, voice calls. I was able to complete a number of HD voice calls over Verizon's network while testing the iPhone 14 Pro Max and the conversations I had were crystal clear. I didn't experience any drops, noises, or other interruptions, and the earpiece generates more than enough oomph to hear calls in busy places such as city streets and shopping malls.
The US models of the Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max ditch the physical SIM in favor of eSIM. That means no more easy swapping of SIM cards when you want to change carriers, whether at home or abroad. eSIMs are activated directly on the phone via software. The iPhone 14 family can hold as many as eight eSIM profiles, with up to two active at any one time. While this might sound complicated, setting it up isn't all that scary.
First, many US carriers already support eSIM including AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. If you buy an iPhone 14 from a carrier, the eSIM will be assigned to the phone ahead of time by the carrier. The iPhone walks you through the eSIM carrier activation process automatically upon first boot. Apple lent us an unlocked iPhone 14 Pro Max along with an AT&T eSIM activation card. I scanned the QR code on the AT&T card and that kicked off the activation process, which was over before I could hunker down and wait.
You can also use Quick Transfer, which is what you do when you're moving your phone service from a physical SIM card in one phone to the eSIM in the iPhone 14. To do this, you need to be able to log into your carrier account online (or call a carrier rep on the phone, or take everything to a store) and let the carrier know what you're doing. It involves a few more steps than the previous two methods, but still doesn't take more than a couple of minutes. Once activation is complete using Quick Transfer, the physical SIM card in the old phone is deactivated.
According to all three of the big US carriers, there is no charge for people to activate an eSIM on an existing line of service (i.e., transferring your number from one phone to another). Moreover, the carriers won't charge you if you wish to move your service from one eSIM-enabled device to another at a later time. You will, however, get stuck with an activation fee (typically $35 to $45) if you activate an eSIM on a new line of service.
This is a bold move for Apple, though it feels like it was perhaps taken at the behest of US carriers. International iPhone 14s will still rely on physical SIM cards. Whether or not this is the action that kicks off more widespread eSIM adoption, it's too early to say.
Apple has your safety well in mind. Two of the iPhone 14 Pro's new features are meant to help you if you're in a car accident or lost in the wilderness.
Crash Detection is fairly straight forward. The iPhone 14 family (all of them) have new onboard sensors and algorithms that are able to merge the data collected during a crash and assess that an accident occurred. A dual-core accelerometer together with a high-dynamic-range gyroscope can detect the high G-forces that happen in crashes, measuring up to 256Gs as much as four times faster than before. Paired with GPS info and sound input, such as breaking glass and screeching tires, and then trained with over one million hours of real-world crash data, the phone can detect crashes in passenger vehicles such as cars, pickups, and SUVs. If you're unconscious or unable to make a call yourself, the iPhone will call emergency services and your emergency contacts and provide them with location details.
The Emergency SOS via satellite tool is for those who are well and truly beyond the usual means of assistance. We're talking about people who explore the real backcountry way, way off the grid. This service can put you in contact with emergency services via satellite when no cellular and no Wi-Fi is available (and only in those circumstances).
According to Apple, the iPhone 14 Pro uses special antennas to connect directly to certain satellites (Globalstar) and provide rudimentary communications. The app helps you aim the iPhone in the proper direction for the best possible connection to the satellite, which has to be in line-of-sight. We're not talking about real sat-phone service for get-to-know-you conversations here. This is for true emergencies only.
This service won't launch until some point in November.
Apple clearly invested a lot in improving the iPhone's cameras this year, with new sensors, new lenses, and fresh algorithms.
The 48MP main camera is the star of the show. This sensor is 65% bigger than that of the iPhone 13 Pro and uses redesigned sensor-shift optical image stabilization to help capture sharp photos. Though there are 48 megapixels to work with, the camera bins down by a factor of four to produce 12MP final images. (You can shoot with all 48 million pixels in ProRaw mode if you wish.) This binned approach allows the sensor to capture more light, which helps with shots taken at night. The ultrawide and telephoto cameras carry over their 12MP resolutions from last year, but get faster lenses. Combined with the 2x zoom available from the main camera, the iPhone 14 Pro Max offers 0.5x, 1x, 2x, and 3x optical zoom (the equivalents of 13mm, 24mm, 48mm, and 77mm). You can pinch to zoom farther, of course, but the results won't be as sharp.
The Photonic Engine, Apple's marketing speak for image signal processing, performs Deep Fusion calculations earlier in the computational photography pipeline, which Apple says analyzes images on a pixel-for-pixel basis to select the best one from multiple exposures to create a final result. What should iPhone 14 Pro Max users expect from this mathematical brouhaha? More and brighter colors with better dynamic range.
The casual daylight photos I shot with the phone look great, with sharp focus, plenty of contrast, and rich detail. Apple cooled off its white balance some, which is a blessing as photos from older iPhones skewed too warm. You will see lots (and I mean lots) of sharpening, which may detract from some photos. Overall, however, the 14 Pro Max produces killer results across its three cameras.
Nighttime photos are also quite good. I took the iPhone to a concert recently (an admittedly difficult environment for any camera) and produced some of the best live shots I've ever taken short of using professional gear.
The selfie camera, which Apple overhauled for the 14 Pro Max, is another winner. This 12MP TrueDepth shooter has an aperture of f/1.9, which lets in 38% more light than the selfie cam of the 13 Pro Max. It now uses the IR dots from the Face ID camera to assist with autofocus, which leads to much cleaner selfies. The samples here are among the sharpest I've seen from a user-facing camera.
Apple didn't forget to upgrade the video experience on the iPhone 14 Pro Max. For instance, Cinematic mode (video with sharp focus on the subject and blurred backgrounds) supports 4K24 and 4K30 capture now for cleaner results. You can even change the focal point after the fact if you wish.
The real new trick, however, is Action mode, which crops down the video from 4K to 2.8K in order to smooth out action shots that might otherwise be jittery or bouncy. The effect is real. Despite the lower resolution, video footage shot in Action mode looks as though it were recorded on a steadying gimbal rather than handheld. This may be a big help to some video-first creators.
All this is to say the Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max is among the very best camera phones when it comes to photos and videos. While the Google Pixel 6 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra may be slightly better at still photos (depending on your preferences), the iPhone wins hands down when it comes to video.
Phones are expensive. The Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max starts at $1,099 and ramps up to a tear-inducing $1,599 if you go for the 1TB option. You might prefer the slightly smaller iPhone 14 Pro for $999, which has most of the same features minus the large screen and killer battery life.
This year, the Pro models really stand out from the standard iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus (starting at $799), which have fewer cameras, less display innovations, and older processors. Despite a big footprint and a high price, the iPhone 14 Pro Max is the best of the bunch, conquering basic and advanced features alike, earning the phone our Editors' Choice award.
Outside of the iPhone lineup, the best and most obvious flagship competitors are the Pixel 6 Pro, which costs less at $899, and the Galaxy S22 Ultra at $1,199. Get the Pixel if you want the absolute best camera and the cleanest Android software experience, or go for the S22 Ultra if you want superior 10x optical zoom and an S Pen stylus. Keep in mind, however, that the Pixel 7 family is mere weeks from release and will replace the Pixel 6.
The good news here is that Apple and its carrier partners are offering aggressive trade-in valuations and other deals that lower the effective price of the iPhone 14 Pro Max. It's highly possible to score one for well under the base $1,099 price if you have something to trade or make a jump between carriers. So while the price of the iPhone 14 Pro Max is definitely a reach, it's one we recommend making if you have the means.
The Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max is the best iPhone overall, with excellent performance, stellar battery life, sharp cameras, and a number of useful features you don't get with the standard models.
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I’m PCMag’s managing editor for consumer electronics content, overseeing an experienced team of reviewers and product testers. I’ve been covering tech for more than 20 years. Prior to PCMag, I worked at outlets such as Android Authority, Fortune, InformationWeek, and Phonescoop.
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