iPhone 13 Pro Max Review

Highlights

We are not going to beat around the bush, and we are going to fully talk about the most outstanding points of this iPhone, those that make it shine and stand out above the rest. Now, to give you some perspective, the first thing we want to do is offer you a table of specifications for this device, where you can find all the technical data about it. Thus, when we talk to you about the experience with him, you will be able to better understand the reason for it.

Continuity design

We begin by talking about the design of this iPhone, which if you are a regular in following the teams of the Cupertino company, you will have already verified that it is a design completely inherited from the change that the previous generation already meant, in this case, the iPhone 12 ProMax. What is most striking, in addition to the size that we will talk about later, are the completely square sides that it presents, giving it a completely sophisticated and premium look.

However, there are subtle changes that, perhaps at first glance, are practically imperceptible. The first of them has to do with the front part, and it is that the notch has been reduced compared to previous models. Just the opposite has happened with the triple camera module that this device has, since it is now even larger than that of the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Now, the reduction of the notch does not have any impact at the functional level, while the fact that the triple camera module is larger does cause that the performance at the photography and video level has been improved.

When talking about the design, we must also pay special attention to the materials in which this device is made , mainly on the back, since we will talk about the screen a few lines below. It is a textured matte glass and stainless steel structure, which surprisingly is quite resistant to those scratches that the equipment could suffer as a result of the daily user when carrying it without a cover. Now, it is still just as delicate if the iPhone suffers a fall or receives a blow. Finally, we must mention the different finishes in which it is available. They are the following.

• alpine blue
• Graphite.
• Prayed.
• Silver.
• Alpine green.

size and screen

Whenever a user opts for the Max model, they know that size is a completely differential element and that, of course, it does not go unnoticed. The 6.7-inch screen of this iPhone makes the device quite large . Also, while with the iPhone 11 Pro Max that had rounded edges it seemed a little “smaller”, with the 12 Pro Max and 13 Pro Max the device seems even bigger. However, the downside is just that, and it doesn’t have to be for all users.

Now we are going with the positive part, or at least one of them, since with the passage of this analysis you will be able to check, as in this case, the size does matter. The 6.7-inch screen makes the iPhone 13 Pro Max a really ideal device to perform many actions, such as consuming multimedia content , working by sending emails or creating content for social networks, and so on endless actions that , the fact of having a large screen, make them much more comfortable to perform.

However, the size is not the only thing to highlight about the panel of this equipment, and it is that it is a Super Retina XDR screen , which means that the colors that you are going to visualize on it are perfectly balanced, helping to many photography or video professionals , to be able to use this equipment for editing. But there is still more, since one of the great novelties that both the iPhone 13 Pro and the iPhone 13 Pro Max have brought is that their screens have ProMotion technology, which means that they have a 120 Hz refresh rate. adaptive .

This adaptive refresh rate makes the fluidity when navigating the entire system really incredible, making the user experience considerably better. It’s something that you don’t know you need until you try it and watch out, after this it’s very difficult to enjoy the same again using an iPhone with a lower refresh rate on its screen. In addition, the fact that it is adaptive means that the consumption of autonomy is completely optimized , since the system will make that at any time and depending on both the app and the action that you carry out, that refresh rate will vary, thus consuming the energy you only need.

Cameras, its strong point

The time has come to talk about the surely star point of this device, which are its cameras. Apple always puts a lot of emphasis on its devices being able to be used to the best of their abilities, offering really incredible performance in different areas. In some cases, its potential is somewhat more questionable, but this is just the example that the iPhone can be used to create high-quality audiovisual content.

On the front, it has a 12 Mpx camera and f/2.2 aperture with Intelligent HDR4, which, to tell the truth, fulfills its function, but it will surely be an aspect to improve in future versions. Moving now to the rear, and more specifically to the triple camera module , this iPhone 13 Pro Max features a telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom, a wide-angle f/1.5 lens, and an ultra-wide-angle f lens. /1.8, all of them 12 Mpx .

These are all technical data, but the reality is that they are reflected in the fantastic results that you can obtain both in terms of photography and video. Although, it is true that the weakest point is the telephoto lens, which with the opening it has, the results in non-ideal light conditions can be quite weak. On the contrary, both the ultra wide angle lens, and above all, the wide angle lens, capture color, light and all the details in an excellent way.

Let’s go with the different shooting modes that you have available on this device, and obviously we must highlight the presence of the night mode in all its lenses, a fundamental point for all users who want to use their iPhone as the main photo camera. You also have portrait mode with advanced bokeh effect and Depth Control , dual optical image stabilization and sensor shift on the wide-angle lens. HDR4 is one of the main reasons why the results are so good, just as we have to talk about photographic styles , which allow you to be able to apply a previous edition to all the photos you take, being able to switch between them whenever you want. Lastly, you also have to know that the iPhone has the possibility of taking photos in Apple ProRAW format, a type of image that in editing, gives you a lot more information and, therefore, allows you to have more possibilities of several different parameters. A novelty that Apple has introduced with this generation of iPhone 13 is macro photography , which in this case is carried out by the ultra wide-angle lens. The results are truly amazing, reaching incredible levels of detail, both in good and bad light conditions.

We move on to video , and everything this device allows you to do. Its great novelty in this sense is the cinema mode , which we can define as the portrait mode applied to video. Keep in mind that this is the first version of this recording mode, but even so the results are completely usable in many cases, without leaving aside that in others where the light is not very controlled, it is weak. It also gives the possibility of recording video in HDR with Dolby Vision up to 4K at 60f/s , as well as ProRes video recording up to 4K at 30f/s , but beware that the files will take on a huge size. Of course, you also have macro video , slow-motion or time-lapse recording available. Finally, two fundamental points must be highlighted when recording video, which are the stabilization that the iPhone has and the good sound that it is capable of capturing in all these recordings, making it an ideal equipment to be able to record videos, for example, for YouTube with great quality.

battery is the best

If before we spoke that at the level of cameras the iPhone 13 Pro Max is among the best smartphones, in terms of battery we can surely consider it the best , and it is incredible that we can say this about an iPhone when, if we look back several years, this was the great problem that Apple had with its devices.

Obviously, the fact that this team has such bulky dimensions means that within it, there is a much larger battery than its little brothers. However, it should also be noted that the A15 Bionic chip is to blame for this, since it makes the system much more efficient. The result of all this is that the iPhone 13 Pro Max has, surely, the best autonomy in the entire market, allowing users who use the iPhone the most intensely, to get to the end of the day without any problem, and doing, that those who use the device more calmly and not so demanding, can go even two days without having to go through the charger.

Other relevant aspects

We have already talked about the four most outstanding points of this equipment, such as the design, the size, the cameras and the battery. However, there are other points that also significantly affect the experience that users have with this equipment, and that is exactly what we want to talk about next.

Power

iPhones have never had problems carrying out any of the tasks that users have tried to do with them, so power is also not a point that you have to worry about in this iPhone 13 Pro Max. As we told you before, it has the A15 Bionic chip , which until now is the last of its generation, which ensures power in abundance.

With it you can do everything from the simplest actions, such as calling by phone or writing a message through any social network, to editing videos or photos with apps like Lightroom or Inshot, all with enviable fluidity and incredible capacity. But beware, the chip not only affects the power, but also the performance and optimization of the system.

Lightning and MagSafe

Surely this is the point where the iPhone has to improve the most, its connections. There are many years in which Apple is in the spotlight given the connector it uses for its mobile phones. In a world where the standard is already USB-C, having a Lightning port makes it difficult in some situations to really get the most out of this device.

In terms of battery , if it is true that it is perhaps not so inconvenient, since you can use MagSafe technology, which was incorporated into iPhones from the iPhone 12 generation, and also the Lightning cable , although taking into account that many other Apple devices charge via USB-C , when traveling it would be ideal to be able to charge everything with the same cable.

However, the real problem and inconvenience comes when users use the iPhone to take a large number of high-quality photos or videos, since when they want to transfer them to the Mac, for example, the transfer methods it has such as the Lightning or AirDrop port, they do not provide the desired speed to transfer such large amounts of data, something that could be solved with the presence of USB-C.

What is missing?

Obviously, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is not the perfect device, since it has certain points that could be improved to offer users who purchase it and enjoy it on a daily basis, a much more complete experience than the current one. For this reason, below we want to expose what are, from our point of view, the aspects that Apple could have improved in this device.

• The Touch ID on the screen or on a side button would make it much easier for all users to unlock the device in those situations and occasions in which the use of Face ID is complicated, which eye, we must recognize that it works perfectly.
• The cinema mode , as we said, is in its first version and one of the weak points is that it does not allow recording at least at 60 fps, which does not allow any type of slow motion to be applied in post-production, something that many video professionals used in their audiovisual productions.
• If there is a weak point in the iPhone camera, it is the telephoto lens , both because of its maximum focal length and because of the aperture of the lens itself.
• And finally, we continue talking about cameras. Since most iPad models feature an ultra-wide-angle lens on the front for centered framing, Apple could have done the same for this device.

Our assessment

The time has come to make our assessment of this device, and it is obviously very positive since its benefits are so. It stands out mainly in three fundamental sections in a smartphone, which are the battery, the camera and the screen. It is difficult to find a team that surpasses the iPhone 13 Pro Max in any of these factors.

Therefore, if you are reading this post thinking about whether to make the decision to acquire this device or not, our recommendation is yes, unless you have the iPhone 12 Pro Max, since in that case the differences you will notice will not be very great. . For the rest of the users, the purchase of this equipment is a real success since the experience it provides is outstanding.