The four latest iPhones on the block come in the form of the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max.

The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus share the same features, but they differ in their physical size and battery capacities, and the same applies to the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max.

With the Pro models offering a refreshed design and more powerful hardware than their standard siblings for this line up though, is the iPhone 14 Pro Max the biggest and best iPhone the company has ever made? Here is our review.

Refreshed design

• 160.7 x 77.6 x 7.85mm, 240g
• Four colours: Deep Purple, Space Back, Gold and Silver
• IP68
• Dynamic Island

The Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max features a surgical-grade stainless steel frame, glass rear and it delivers a solid and super-premium build quality. There’s also a refreshed design, just like its smaller sibling, the iPhone 14 Pro.

It’s a heavy device – heavier than the iPhone 14 Plus that opts for an aluminium frame and is therefore lighter – but the Max’s weight is something you get used to over time. We found the same with the iPhone 13 Pro Max, so while you might feel the heft when you first get it out of the box, it’s something that quickly becomes normal.

The flat edges – first reintroduced in the iPhone 12 – remain and while the glossy finish of the 14 Pro Max’s frame is a fingerprint fiend, it adds to the premium appeal of this device. The left edge houses the silence toggle and volume buttons, while the right edge has the power button. The SIM tray remains on the left for all models except those in the US, where a frosted section on the right edge highlights the switch to eSIM only.

On the bottom, you’ll find – perhaps disappointingly – the Lightning port and not a USB-C port, while speakers are positioned either side. There’s also a speaker at the top of the display but it’s not on top of the notch anymore. That’s because the iPhone 14 Pro Max has said bye bye to the trusty notch we’ve seen grace the front of Face ID iPhones since the iPhone X in 2017.

In place of it is a wide pill-shaped cutout for Face ID and the front camera, which Apple calls Dynamic Island. It pulls in information from certain apps, like the Apple Music app and Clock, making use of what would otherwise be redundant space.

The Dynamic Island adapts based on the app or notification being shown. For example, when using Apple Pay, the Dynamic Island turns into a square, while when you switch the silence toggle, it widens to acknowledge the change. It’s an excellent blend of hardware and software that makes subtle but useful differences to the way you use and interact with your phone.

You can tap on the Dynamic Island once to expand the information, and tap it again will open the app in its entirety. Dynamic Island also splits into two if you open two apps, like Apple Music and a timer for example.

It will also cleverly switch between apps and alerts, so if you’re on a phone call and running a navigation app, it will show the phone call in Dynamic Island when you have the navigation app open and vice versa. It’s very cool in action and makes multi-tasking on the iPhone an absolute dream.

While the front of the iPhone 14 Pro Max is clearly quite different from its predecessor thanks to Dynamic Island, the rear sticks to its roots. The frosted glass panel features a large and prominent camera housing in the top left corner, with three lenses and the LiDAR sensor. The edges of the housing blend into the rear too, making for a smooth and seamless transition.

There are four colour options available comprising Deep Purple (which is beautiful), Space Black (which is also lovely in the flesh), Silver and Gold.

Always-On Display

• 6.7-inch, OLED, 2796 x 1290 pixels, 460ppi
• 1Hz-120Hz ProMotion, Always-On Display
• 2000nits peak brightness

The Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max has a 6.7-inch OLED display on board and it’s stunning. The blacks are lovely and black, colours are rich, vibrant and punchy and there’s ample brightness.

There’s a peak brightness of 2000nits now, though the size and resolution – which is 2796 x 1290 pixels on the 14 Pro Max – pretty much matches that of the iPhone 13 Pro Max, and many of the same features are on board too, including True Tone, Haptic Touch and support for HDR.

There’s also ProMotion, but the iPhone 14 Pro Max has dropped the bottom refresh rate down to 1Hz compared to the iPhone 13 Pro’s 10Hz. Although you can’t control this yourself, ProMotion automatically adjusts your iPhone’s display to what you are doing, and in theory, helps get more out of the battery. Ultimately that means it uses the slower refresh rates when faster ones aren’t needed, saving those for things that do, like gaming.

More exciting however, is the fact that the iPhone 14 Pro Max offers Always-On Display technology, possible thanks to the drop in bottom refresh rate. This allows some information to remain on the display in a dimmed state even when the screen isn’t on, and it’s something that works seamlessly alongside the Lock Screen customisation options within iOS 16 – more on that in a minute.

Always-On Displays are nothing new in the wonderful world of phones – Android devices have offered them for years and not just on flagship models – but it is new for iPhone. Apple has offered an Always-On Display on its Apple Watch models since the Series 5, but the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max are the first phones from the company to offer the technology and it’s very well executed.

The Always-On Display will turn off when your iPhone is in Sleep Mode for example, or if you have placed it face down on the table. It will also turn off if you are wearing an Apple Watch and you walk away from your iPhone, so it’s smart rather than just being a battery thief. It’s also a coloured Always-On Display, which is a pleasing change from the monochrome display of others.

Hardware and specs

• A16 Bionic Chip, 16-core Neural Engine
• 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB storage options
• Up to 29 hours battery
• 5G connectivity, Emergency SOS via satellite

The Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max runs on the latest A16 Bionic chipset, which offers a performance increase compared to the A15 that the standard iPhone 14 Plus runs on. Everything is buttery smooth, with the iPhone 14 Pro Max coping well with multi-tasking, as well as more demanding features. We played a brief stint of Call of Duty Mobile on the iPhone 14 Max and it ran smoothly without any issues, and it didn’t heat up anywhere either.

The only place we did notice some lag was when shooting in ProRAW, but otherwise performance from this device was excellent.

As you would probably expect, the iPhone 14 Pro Max is 5G capable, as all iPhones have been since the iPhone 12 models. However, the iPhone 14 Pro Max offers something a little extra too. If you’re stuck up a mountain with no signal and you happen to be in North America, the iPhone 14 Pro Max will have your back, offering Emergency SOS via satellite connectivity. You can read more about that in our separate feature. There’s also a Car Crash Detection feature on board, which we have another feature on to get you up to speed.

In terms of storage, the iPhone 14 Pro Max starts at 128GB, with options for 256GB, 512GB and 1TB. As usual, there’s no microSD support for storage expansion so you’ll need to pick your storage wisely.

Along with the processor upgrade, the iPhone 14 Pro Max also gets a battery bump compared to its predecessor. Apple claims it will last up to 29 hours, which is one hour more than what the iPhone 13 Pro Max claimed to last.

In our experience, those claims are actually pretty accurate. We got through an entire day, night and through to midday the following day before we got battery anxiety and topped it up. It definitely exceeds the standard iPhone 14 Pro model and so far, the Always On Display doesn’t appear to make too much of a dent. We will continue to test this in the coming weeks and months and update our review with any changes.

Upgraded cameras

• 48MP main camera, f/1.78
• 12MP ultra wide, f/1.8
• 12MP telelphoto, f/2.8
• 12MP front camera, f/1.9, autofocus

The camera department has always been an area of focus for the iPhone Pro models, and this year is no different. While it’s no longer the only differentiating factor of the Pro models, there’s still plenty to talk about here, with the iPhone 14 Pro Max seeing an upgraded main camera sensor and upgraded ultra wide sensor.

Like the iPhone 13 Pro Max, the iPhone 14 Pro Max has a triple rear camera comprised of a main sensor, ultra wide-angle sensor and a telephoto sensor. The main lens is now a 48-megapixel f/1.78 sensor though, which uses pixel binning technology, whereby the sensors use the extra resolution to capture more detail before producing a 12-megapixel end image.

There’s also a Photonic Engine on board, which along with the larger sensor, is designed to improve low-light photography. Elsewhere, the 12-megapixel ultra-wide sensor has a wider aperture than previously too, at f/1.8 compared to f/2.2, and there’s a 12-megapixel telephoto sensor again too – though this remains the same as the iPhone 13 Pro Max.

Overall, what all these numbers and upgrades mean is the iPhone 14 Pro Max offers some great camera results. In good lighting, there’s plenty of detail and good colour accuracy, while low light shots are good too. We didn’t notice huge differences between the iPhone 13 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro Max in the overall results, but the iPhone 14 Pro was definitely faster when it came to processing low light shots.

The Google Pixel 6 Pro was better when it came to zoom quality, with the iPhone 14 Pro Max’s 15x digital zoom not quite as sharp as the Pixel 6 Pro, but if you’re looking for this kind of capability, you may want to consider the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra instead. The iPhone 14 Pro Max meanwhile, delivered lovely sharp results when inside – fractionally better than the Pixel 6 Pro here – and as we said, good lighting conditions offered lovely shots.

In terms of features, several move over from the iPhone 13 Pro, including Cinematic Mode and Photographic Styles, as well as more standard features like Night mode and Portrait mode with Depth Control. New features have been launched on the iPhone 14 Pro Max too, including an Action Mode for video, and Cinematic Mode in 4K up to 30fps. Action Mode is useful – it offers more stabilisation when you’re taking video of something moving while you are moving, though the iPhone 13 Pro was already pretty good at this so we didn’t experience huge differences here.

On the front, the iPhone 14 Pro Max has a 12-megapixel sensor like the iPhone 13 Pro Max, but there’s a wider aperture than previously at f/1.9, which allows for noticeably better low-light shots, and there’s autofocus on board this time too.

Software

• iOS 16

The Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max runs on the latest iOS 16 software. It’s not exclusive to the iPhone 14 models of course, with compatibility offered on all models from the iPhone 8 and newer.

That said, there are plenty of features to take advantage of, and the iPhone 14 Pro Max – and iPhone 14 Pro for that matter – both have hardware to enhance some of those features.

For example, the customisable lock screens allow you to see some detail on the Always-On Display of the Pro models, and this offers a dimension that you don’t get on the regular iPhone 14, or other compatible iPhones. There’s also the Car Crash Detection feature that we briefly mentioned, which hopefully you will never need.

There are a number of other features worth checking out too though, including in Messages, Mail and Photos. You can read our separate iOS 16 feature for all the features.

Verdict

The Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max is not just big in form, it’s big in character. There’s a refreshed design that’s really striking, especially in this larger format, coupled with performance enhancements, battery improvements, camera improvements, the Always-On Display and the Dynamic Island feature.

Sure, it’s pretty heavy, it’s very expensive, and it offers all the same features as its smaller sibling, but it’s a stunning device for those who want a larger screen or more battery life.

It will be too big for some, but if you’re looking for the best iPhone Apple has made to date in the biggest possible format, the iPhone 14 Pro Max is definitely the one – it is excellent.