iPhone 12 Pro Max Review

Apple’s newest biggest and potentially best iPhone has arrived. Gareth has been using the phone for a little over a week now and here is his TechRadar iPhone 12 Pro Max review…

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The iPhone 12 Pro Max is the biggest iPhone Apple has ever made, and it's also the best – although you’re only likely to agree if you don't mind spending $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,849 for the privilege of owning it, and don't mind keeping a huge phone about your person day to day.

The design of the 12 Pro Max mirrors that of the other handsets in 2020's iPhone 12: there’s a new flat-sided frame, which looks more industrial, and is a little less comfortable to hold than last year's model. It's decked out in premium-looking, more muted colors though, and we're fans of the shiny metal rim around the edge (despite the fact that it's a real fingerprint magnet).

While the iPhone 12 Pro Max is actually only a very small amount bigger than last year's 11 Pro Max, the bezels around the OLED display have been shrunk to allow Apple to increase the screen size to 6.7 inches – and it's a compelling reason to pick up the new larger iPhone.

Images are clearer and more visible on the larger display, you can see more of a web page or image in daily use – and as a movie-watching machine it's the best iPhone ever. It's one of the best displays on the market, able to render both colorful scenes and more subtle tones with ease.

The headline feature on the new iPhone 12 Pro Max is the camera array: there are three cameras, all upgraded with a better image processor. While the camera block protrudes from the rear of the phone more than on recent iPhones, the main 12MP sensor has been upgraded to capture a lot more light, and enhancements have been made to the image processing too – some of the photos we took were really impressive.

However, the 12 Pro Max wasn't that far ahead of the iPhone 12 Pro's camera performance in our tests, which was surprising – images were, on the whole, clearer and brighter from the 12 Pro Max, but not by a huge amount.

If you're a budding movie-maker, we'd say it's definitely worth looking at the 12 Pro Max – it's packing Dolby Vision recording at 4K and 60 frames per second, so if you’re a content creator looking for a phone that can record high-quality footage, the 12 Pro Max can definitely do that.

HDR will also make your movies look better, with improved brightness and color; however, it can look a little artificial, and clips will take up more storage space on your phone. It's not a feature that most should look to upgrade for.

The 12 Pro Max starts at 128GB of storage, which is the bare minimum we’d expect, as the cameras will fill it up quickly – and with 5G on board you'll be able to download content faster, making it easier to fill up your phone with movies and music too.

5G is the future of mobile connectivity, but it's not in itself a reason to buy the iPhone 12 Pro Max... yet. Many parts of the world still don't have 5G coverage, so many users will find this feature redundant for now. In the next few years connectivity will become much more widespread though, so buying a 5G iPhone is more about future-proofing than enjoying next-gen speeds right now, unless you live in the heart of a major city.

And 5G mostly just brings faster speeds (though it’s faster than even Wi-Fi for most), so you might not feel like that's something that’s missing from your life right now.

Apple has also added the innovative MagSafe tech to the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which enables you to magnetically clip chargers, cases and accessories to your new iPhone. We like this addition, and more accessories are appearing all the time right now; MagSafe will only get better as time goes on, and getting the iPhone 12 Pro Max will future-proof you as more accessories appear on the market.

Along with the larger display, one of the big reasons to go for the iPhone 12 Pro Max is the battery life – it has the biggest battery of all the new iPhone 12 range thanks to having the largest chassis. We easily crested a day of use in our testing, and even on days when we really pushed the battery hard we got to 7:30pm before we needed the charger - if you've read our iPhone 12 Pro review, and have concerns about whether it'll last long enough, we advise moving up to the Max.

Read the full #Apple #iPhone12ProMax review - techradar.com/uk/reviews/iphone-12-pro-max

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