i Phone 13 Pro Max Review

are better than you think.

So, really, there's only three things about this phone

And one of them, you could argue,

maybe not that many people are actually gonna notice,

but the other two are pretty big jumps.

And so, this feels like a pretty big upgrade

disguised in the same design as last year.

it was earlier this week.

There, I go over Cinematic Mode and the new A15 Bionic,

and a smaller notch, et cetera.

This Pro phone has all of that.

But then on top of that,

the three major things that this phone

the battery, and the cameras.

Now, you might be thinking, "Wait, Marques,

that's the same list of three things

You'd be right,

but this takes a bigger leap in all those things.

So, to start with the screen,

again, same sizes and resolutions as last year,

but now, there is a smaller notch.

Neat.                                  

Okay, looks a little better on the bigger screen,

even though there is no more information

on that extra screen,

but then the display is actually noticeably brighter here,

and it's really good.

It's viewable everywhere, outdoors,

great responsive auto-brightness,

and it's still one of the most

color-accurate OLED panels out there.

But what we're really here for, finally,

is Apple's Pro phones now getting ProMotion,

meaning, an adaptive high refresh rate display.

- It's about damn time.

- Now, this has been really interesting to watch unfold

because it's not just a matter of

and then calling it a day,

there's a couple of different considerations, and nuances,

and things to be able to do to do it well,

and then there's whether or not people even notice.

That's two different things.

So, as a self-proclaimed pixel enthusiast,

as someone who's seen a lot of phones,

Apple has done this really well

and it's, of course, an OLED,

but it's also an LTPO display,

meaning it's an adaptive variable refresh rate

that it cycles between,

which is seven more than the iPad Pro.

So, this helps it respond

to exactly what's happening on the display.

but if you're scrolling through a website or social media,

it'll be nice and smooth.

but if you're just sitting on a home screen

or reading some text, like an email,

nothing's happening on the screen,

which can save battery.

So, this tech been around for years in other phones,

and it's great.

So, the interesting part is different phones ramp up

at different times,

and for different reasons, and different amounts.

So, an example is like,

no matter how high a refresh rate

of an Android phone I have,

Anytime I open Google Maps,

the whole rest of the phone:

Probably to save battery

'cause it's a GPS-heavy app,

but that's one thing it always does.

So, it turns out there have been a lot of places

where people have noticed the iPhone

In fact, a lot of places in third-party apps

Now, I've noticed,

just from using a whole ton of different apps,

I was actually pretty impressed by how many

And all of these apps, inside and out,

felt smoother and more responsive.

Also, all of iOS is smoother and more responsive.

But for those that don't,

Apple has put out detailed instructions

on how to make it easy for developers to update their apps

to fully support ProMotion,

exactly the way they want to.

So, when your favorite apps get updated,

hopefully the developers include it.

But all that being said,

will regular people

who get this phone even notice ProMotion?

And this is something I've thought a lot about,

especially since the announcement.

Of course, lots of other phones

have gotten high refresh rate in the past,

but because it's an iPhone,

this is for millions of people

this will be the first time they ever see

a high refresh rate screen on a phone.

And so, this is the thing I've been talking about

for so long.

So, when I actually first got this phone,

I've started handing it to people,

discretely, of course, but handing it to them like,

"Hey, do you notice anything different about this phone?

Like, swipe around,

maybe hold it next to your current phone.

Do you feel like it feels any different?"

And I'll be the first to admit,

not as many people immediately noticed it as I was hoping.

Different people had different things about it

that they noticed.

Like, there's a really good video by Joshua Chang,

where he did that same thing.

He handed the phone to a bunch of people

and they all had different ways

of explaining what they noticed.

So, some of them didn't notice,

but some of them notice things

like texts staying more crisp on the screen

while you're scrolling.

Some people just straight up notice

the better smoothness and touch responsiveness,

and called that out.

So, I'll put it this way.

Not everyone will notice ProMotion right away,

especially if they're not looking for it, but...

But, I don't have...

I'm not crazy.

It's not like I have special eyes or anything.

So, I guarantee you this,

or just high refresh rate in general

and they use this phone for a couple weeks,

couple months,

they will notice that difference

and they won't wanna switch back to it.

Basically, I think people who buy this Pro iPhone

and get used to ProMotion won't wanna switch back to

just like people who switched

to a high refresh rate Android phone

don't wanna switch back either.

But also, I'm kind of hoping Apple doesn't ship

They definitely could,

at least, something like that.

Either way, that's my stance on the high refresh rate,

the ProMotion, in the Pro iPhones.

Clearly, the implementation,

technically speaking, is pretty great.

It's super color-accurate,

it's very bright, it looks great, and it's very smooth.

So, despite the notch and some apps needing to be updated,

it's one of the best-looking screens on any phone right now

and, going with LTPO,

led these phones with their new high refresh rates,

also be battery champs.

So, this is the second big thing about these new phones,

which is, holy smokes, man!

The batteries got really good.

Now, there's a couple of different compounding factors

that all pile on top of each other to make this happen.

to save you battery when you don't need it is number one.

But number two, the A15 Bionic

is more efficient than last year.

And then the fact that these phones

are actually slightly thicker and heavier

to support an actually larger battery

is a really big number three.

That's not a small amount

and you can actually feel it in the weight.

and probably heavier

than the phone you're holding right now.

And the results have been dope.

and getting six, seven hours of screen on time.

No problem, never really killing the phone in a day,

I consider that an A.

and getting crazy endurance numbers!

He had a day with five hours of screen on time

right up at the top

alongside a bunch of other phones

with the supermassive batteries,

So, screens, check.

Batteries, check.

But once again, the biggest change with these new Pro phones

is the cameras, again.

So, first of all,

have the exact same set of cameras between them.

So, the phones are basically identical

except for screen size and battery size, so that's nice.

But yeah, once again,

big leap up with the Pro phones and their cameras,

and they've got the camera bump to go with it.

And it really is a massive,

like, three-layer camera bump with this phone.

If you don't have a case on the phone,

you'll immediately notice it sits up higher,

it rocks more from certain corners on a table,

and it just kind of looks at you funny.

Yeah, no. This is next level.

These are much larger sensors and cameras in here.

So, we've got triple cameras,

still got LiDAR, and a mic, and a flash,

and each of these cameras is better than last year

in its own way.

with that even larger sensor-shift stabilization

is excellent.

It's remarkably consistent through various lighting

in indoor and outdoor scenarios.

There's also, of course,

the photographic styles to choose from

that I talked about in the previous video,

I landed on a rich contrast as my favorite,

and honestly, I've just left it there for most of my photos.

Main thing you'll notice that makes it better

is the big sensor look

that we had only in the Pro Max last year.

So this natural Bokeh is so easy now

that you might find yourself having to tap to focus

just a little bit more,

just to make sure you're focused on the right thing.

And you'll find that you can get

that natural background blur much easier.

It's not always perfect,

it's still tiny smartphone optics,

but the natural blur

is better than fake Portrait Mode blur every time.

So, it does a great job not fringing, also,

like some other big smartphone sensors do.

The Telephoto is also better this year.

So it's, once again, a bigger sensor

and it looks almost as good as the main sensor.

So, you'd love to see that.

That consistency between different cameras

gives you the confidence

to be able to switch between cameras,

like it doesn't even matter which one you're using

and that's more true this year than ever before.

Now, it's no S21 Ultra.

You're not gonna do that

deep double-digit zooming very well.

Some of the best periscope zooms

and it looks like a watercolor painting there.

So, it's gonna be up to you to decide

if that's something you care about having

in your phone or not.

And then last but not least, the Ultra Wide.

Again, closing in on the corner to corner sharpness

of the main camera, it's not quite there,

but this is one area where I was

maybe hoping to see a higher resolution

because you're spreading this pixel count

over such a wide focal range,

would have been cool to see

just to get that true matching sharpness.

Nevertheless, the photos and videos

from the Ultra Wide are world-class,

literally tops among any Ultra Wides in any smartphone,

and it's now also capable of macro photography,

And honestly, it's pretty good.

So, you can get pretty close,

right up to about two centimeters minimum focus distance

and there's a pretty good amount of chromatic aberration

and fringing, and artifacting

around the outside of the frames.

But as long as you've tapped a focus,

you can get a pretty good close up right in the middle.

And it's way better

than any crappy two-megapixel macro camera

has ever dreamed of being.

Now, I mentioned during the Impressions video,

the Pro phones are doing this auto-switching,

where if something comes

it automatically switches to the Ultra Wide in macro mode.

Doesn't tell you, and doesn't let you manually switch back.

Honestly, it's the most annoying part

of using this camera to me.

I take plenty of close-ups of objects

because I have no friends, I guess.

And every time I switched to the Ultra Wide's macro,

it produces an objectively worse-looking photo.

So, Apple's reached out and they have said since

that they do plan on adding a toggle

to let you manual out of that Macro Mode.

I hope it gets added soon.

It should be a software update.

Can't wait for it because my photos are suffering.

You know, there's still no Astrophotography Mode

in the iPhone.

Even though in Night Mode,

you can sometimes see some stars

if you hold the phone still for long enough,

and there's no Pro Mode for manual control

over photos or for videos.

That's still gonna require a third-party app

to really dig into that stuff.

What they did add is Cinematic Video Mode,

HDR, video portrait mode.

And I really don't think it's the answer

when it comes to taking the reins

and making the best videos possible on your iPhone,

at least not yet.

I mean, if you wanna tailor a whole entire shoot

around focus racking,

then, yes, the iPhones will punch above their weight class.

But, I find myself using the Regular Video Mode

or even third-party apps

to get the best video out of the iPhone, still.

But you know what would actually help

to get better video out of the iPhone?

ProRes video.

Giant asterisk, that's not on the phones yet.

So the Pro iPhones should also,

ideally, in a software update, be getting ProRes video.

For those unfamiliar,

that's a high quality video codec

that's used all over the professional industry.

It's pretty sweet,

should be awesome to be able to shoot ProRes video

from your phone, mix it with other cameras,

bring it into your editor, and just start chopping that.

Couple other small asterisks, though.

except the 128-gig-based storage versions.

It's unclear if this is because

you just fill up the storage too fast

and they didn't wanna let you.

There could be some merit to that.

You could theoretically fill up the whole phone in two hours

if you just shot all day.

But also, it could be because the slower storage

that's typically used in lower-pricing,

lower-tiered models have less storage,

might not have supported it in the first place.

It's a high data rate.

One or the other, maybe both, I don't know.

But just know, as long as...

If you're planning on getting a Pro iPhone

and you can actually go all the way up

to one terabyte of total storage.

But the tough part about

full of huge ProRes files

is offloading that to your computer via lightning

at those awful speeds is going to take forever.

It's not exactly a Pro workflow.

It's so brutal that for all the big game,

Apple always talks about USB-C, and the iPad,

and every other thing they do,

and Thunderbolt,

it's just never made it to the iPhone.

Matter of fact, let me use this as a segue

for all the things that I wish

Number one, USB Type-C.

Probably never gonna happen, but I can still dream.

And then faster charging,

that the Pro Max can apparently support

from a higher-powered brick.

That's not included in the box.

65-watt, maybe even higher wattage charging someday.

That, again,

it's probably never gonna happen

and I've made a whole video

about why Apple hasn't done that

and some other things,

like high resolution cameras, et cetera.

I'll leave a link below the like button.

But, nevertheless, Pro Max's huge battery

still takes a very long time to charge.

And I wish there was an all-black option.

Eh, minor detail,

there's always a case or skin for that,

but there's a couple other minor things

that didn't quite fit into this full review.

So, you can turn down the refresh rate of the display

but it's not in the Display settings

like in every other phone,

it's in Accessibility settings under Motion,

and then Limit Frame Rate.

I haven't tested this for more than about a few minutes,

but I have a feeling it won't actually save

that much battery on this phone,

considering it's actively bringing you down

Then, if you're using a MagSafe Duo Charger,

which I actually do when I'm traveling,

that it actually gets pretty close

to the wireless charging coil

to the point where if you have a case on your phone,

it actually pops the phone up slightly off the charger.

Now, it still works, but I'd be careful what case you buy,

just in case you get one with a camera bump that's too big

and now, suddenly, it doesn't make contact

with the charger anymore.

And then the new Sierra Blue color,

just so you know,

is a little paler in person

than it looks in the press materials and on Apple site.

Just warning you.

You know, it's a slightly bluish silver,

not that that's a bad thing,

just a warning.

I'll try to show it as best I can

with all the footage from the shiny, new Raptor Camera.

So, the minor upgrade turns out to be

pretty solid after all.

Spoiler alert!

Every iPhone upgrade from here till the end of time

is it's gonna be a minor upgrade.

That's the way smartphones are.

But look, there's nothing wrong with a small upgrade.

In my opinion, that's how you eventually

get great at something

is by getting a little bit better every time you do it.

I would know, that's how I've gotten better

at making videos

and that's exactly why I went over in my Skillshare course.

So, Skillshare is an online learning community

for creatives,

where you can find thousands of classes

for creative and curious people on all kinds of topics,

illustration, photography,

and now, making MKBHD videos.

Like I said before,

I'm self-taught at pretty much everything we do here

and that's the number one comment I get

anytime we try something a little new or different,

like car videos or something,

there was always comments like,

"Oh, you're not good at that.

Just stick to regular tech videos."

But how do you think people

who are good at car videos started?

They had to get started somewhere

and just get a little bit better over time.

So, I've taken some Skillshare courses myself,

and there's even one on animating

for YouTube videos by Evan, from the PolyMatter channel

that I'm super into

and he also self-taught.

So, hey, if you start seeing slightly better animations

here and there on the channel,

maybe some of that is Michael who's, of course,

doing world-class animations here,

but maybe some of that is me chipping in,

which would be nice.

But, yeah, for my Skillshare class,

it's my fundamentals for how we put together

these MKBHD videos.

That's what it's all about.

So, Skillshare is also curated specifically for learning.

So, there's no ads,

for an annual membership.

So, here's the deal.

Skillshare was kind enough to sponsor this video

that click the link below in the description

a free trial to a premium membership,

and what can be better than that?

So, you can get started with your learning

and your creativity.

let me know what you think of this phone

in the comment section below.

We can talk about it.

Thanks for watching.

I'll catch you guys on the next one. Peace.

 

with 50% battery left, which is nuts.

and it's also now a 3x optical zoom

4K is big files, it's like six gigs per minute.

just to shoot 4K ProRes video,

instead of a 2x or 2.5x from last year,

like the ROG Phone 5 and the Moto G Power.

but also now down to as low as 10 Hertz.

it can go all the way down to 10 Hertz,

literally look crisp at 10x,

so you can stay focused and it's less than 10 bucks a month

It actually has 12 different refresh rates

than the 12 Pro Max.

Remember when we thought the iPhone 12 Pro had huge cameras?

So, the primary, 12 megapixel camera

is about 11% larger than the 12 Pro

that are genuinely better than the regular 13.

So, I've reviewed the iPhone 13 already,

does better than the regular 13 would be the screen,

and the 13 Pro Max is bigger,

even versus the 13,

So, the battery inside the 13 Pro

I've mostly been dallying the 13 Pro here

And David's been testing the 13 Pro Max here at the studio

So, I'm gonna go ahead and put the iPhone 13 Pro Max

which I talked about in the 13 review.

having a one terabyte iPhone 13 Pro

the new camera bump on the 13 Pro is so big

But that's pretty much it for the 13 Pro,

and the 13 Pro Max cell is about 18% larger

within about 14 centimeters of the camera,

while the iPhone is maxing out at 15

These new phones are about 20 grams heavier than last year

So, if you're watching a 24fps movie,

the display only needs to refresh 24 times per second,

you said was better about the 13 than the 12."

The iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max

the 13 Pro is the same size as the 13

I really like that the 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max

unlike the Ultra Wide in the 13 and 13 Mini.

and I don't mean the 27 watts

One, ProRes video would be 4K, 30 on every Pro iPhone

maybe 16, 24 megapixels even,

I mean, like, real 50,

it's always 60 Hertz for Google Maps.

notification panel, using the app, it's all 60 Hertz.

where it still stays at 60.

who have only ever seen a 60 Hertz phone their entire lives,

and then you hand them back a 60 Hertz phone,

a 60 Hertz iPhone,

another 60 Hertz iPhone next year.

The fact that the ProMotion dips below 60 Hertz

to 60 Hertz limited,

below 60 Hertz all the time, anyway.

but I'm hoping, 90 Hertz,

dropping 120 Hertz display into the phone

that can ramp up to 120 Hertz,

Maybe for gaming, it's pinned at 120 Hertz,

doesn't ramp all the way up to 120 Hertz.

are already using 120 Hertz animations.

if you get somebody used to 120 Hertz

you'll have to get at least a 256 gig version

versus the 800 on the 13,

it hits 1,000 nits max brightness

this iPhone Pro had for $1,000.

and give the first 1,000 of you

To summarize, it's a 1080p, 30fps,

Those will max out at 1080p, 30fps.

and even 1,200 nits peak with HDR,

of the battery champ 2021 power rankings right now,