THE iPHONE 14 PRO MAX IS THE BEST OF EVERYTHING in the current iPhone world. It’s got the best design, the biggest screen, the best cameras and the smartest display. A display that now can reach a sun-beating 2,000-nit brilliance, while also delivering new low-power 1Hz Always-On display functionality that’s just there for a quick glance. Read our Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max Review.
Key features SuperRetina XDR display • Always-On • Dynamic Island • A16 Bionic chip
Learn more apple.com/iphone-14-pro/
Available from apple.com
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Then there’s Apple’s unusual solution for the notch – the new Dynamic Island, which consists of an ‘island’ of flexible display floating just a few millimetres from the top edge of the screen. This island still contains the front camera (upgraded with autofocus) and sensors for 3D measurement as part of Face ID, but some technology, like the proximity sensor, is now hidden behind the display. What’s left is actually a pair of cutouts – one pill-shaped, and one circular – but with a small area of active screen between them.
Altogether, it looks like a smaller cylinder and can appear all-black when it isn’t active with some animation or notification. However, it has the remarkable ability to transform based on screen activity and gestures. There is some reasonable concern about what so much swiping across the front-facing camera might mean for selfies, but at least there’s an oleophobic coating to reduce smudges on the lens.
“It’s nice to be able to see the time, date and widgets on your iPhone screen without having to touch and unlock it”
An Always-On display that can refresh at just 1Hz to save battery has been a long time coming. It’s nice to be able to see the time, date, and information-filled widgets on your iPhone’s screen without having to touch and unlock it.
The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max models feature a polished stainless steel frame, with frosted glass on the front and back
“The benchmarks and the real-world performance appear to bear out the strength of Apple’s new silicon”
Pro photography
The upgraded camera array finally brings pixel binning to the iPhone – a favourite feature on numerous Android devices, which combines brightness and colour data from four (or more) pixels on the sensor for improved low-light performance and colour accuracy.
For the main camera, Apple has gone with a 48MP sensor. While this obviously falls significantly short of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra’s 108MP sensor, this one is paired with an excellent lens. You can also shoot in 48MP ProRAW mode, which is great for pro-shooters.
The 12MP ultrawide camera still offers a field of view of 120 degrees, which is ‘wide enough’ in our books, and the quality is enhanced with a much larger sensor and more focus pixels. This is reflected in brighter and more vibrant wide-angle photos and much-improved macro photography, which also uses the new ultrawide lens.
Since the entire surface of the Dynamic Island is touch sensitive, you can use gestures on it
The camera array lets you shoot in 48MP ProRAW, although you will need to turn this on in Settings
Powering the show is the A16 Bionic chip, with 16 billion transistors and a smaller, more efficient four-nanometer process. The benchmarks, and the real-world performance, appear to bear out the strength of this new Apple silicon, which reaches into almost every corner of iPhone 14 Pro Max performance.
