Intro
Well, pre-orders will begin on the 13th, and the new iPhones will ship on the 20th. But, according to what we know thus far, here are the differences between the iPhone 16 Pro Max and iPhone 16 Pro!
iPhone 16 Pro Max vs iPhone 16 Pro differences explained:
| iPhone 16 Pro Max | iPhone 16 Pro |
|---|---|
| Bigger and heavier: 163 x 77.6 x 8.25 mm 227 g |
More compact, with a 6.3-inch screen 149.6 x 71.5 x 8.25 mm 199 g |
| Bigger 6.9-inch screen with slimmer borders | Bigger 6.3-inch screen with slimmer borders |
| Apple A18 Pro | Apple A18 Pro |
| 120 Hz ProMotion display | 120 Hz ProMotion display |
| Starts from 256 GB for $1,199 | Starts from 128 GB for $999 |
| New Camera Control Button and Action Button | New Camera Control Button and Action Button |
| ~4,700 mAh battery | ~3,600 mAh battery |
| Triple camera with 5x tetraprism lens | Triple camera with 5x tetraprism lens |
| New 48 MP ultra-wide camera | New 48 MP ultra-wide camera |
Table of Contents:
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Design and Display Quality
Little brother, big brother
The bezels around the screens have also shrunk furhter, making them the thinnest borders around iPhone displays yet. Uniform across the entire display, of course. This will allow the screens to grow a bit, with the bodies of the phones staying the same-ish size. The iPhone 16 Pro Max now has a 6.9-inch display, the iPhone 16 Pro — 6.3 inches.
There’s a new Camera Control button, which will be able to invoke the camera app whenever you want. Different from the Action Button from last year, this one has a capacitive pad on top and it can register half-pressure as well as full press (upon which, it clicks in). You can slide across the button to control various camera settings on the fly — exposure, focus, bokeh, or scroll through Photographic Styles (the new age version of filters). One press takes a picture, press and hold to record video.
The difference in screen size between the Pro Max and the Pro
The titanium finish now comes in four colors — Titanium Black, Titanium White, Natural Titanium, and the brand-new Desert Titanium.
Performance and Software
Pocket power
Apple also took a little bit to talk about improved cooling and sustained performance, which would be a nice upgrade, as last year’s models suffered some throttling issues. We’ll see what we get when we run them through the benchmarks!
But all the staples are here — hardware accelerated ray tracing, energy efficiency, power, and NPU cores for the AI tasks. Plus 8 GB RAM on all iPhones to ensure the Apple Intelligence runs smoothly.
And yes, Siri is getting smarter — much, much smarter, with the power of AI. It also has a direct line to ChatGPT — if your query requires some of the 4o power, you will be asked if you want the prompt to be relayed. If you have a premium ChatGPT account, you can link it to your iCloud to keep using all your benefits.
Camera
Ultra-wide upgrade possible
In the past, when a Pro Max phone had something unique on its camera, the next year’s Pro would also receive it. History repeats itself, as the iPhone 16 Pro gets the 5x tetraprism lens that was exclusive to the 15 Pro Max. So, we are back to having identical camera modules.
A new upgrade here is the brand-new 48 MP sensor under the ultra-wide lenses. Same resolution as on the main camera, so you will be able to take some extra-sharp landscape and macro shots with this one. It will bin pixels and take 12 MP snaps by default, but you do have access to the full-res mode, just like with the main camera.
There’s also the new Camera Contorl Button, that we should talk about. It is present on all new iPhone 16 models, not just the Pro flavors. It can be pressed down, but also registers half-presses to change settings, and swipes to adjust the chosen setting.
There’s a new pro Audio Editing mode, which allows you to change captured audio post-recording. Employing AI and the iPhone 16 Pro‘s excellent microphones — you’d be able to isolate voices or change the way audio is mastered at a tap. We will experiment with this further as it sounds very interesting and almost impossible.
The bottom line is, the camera experience on both the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max is the same.
Battery Life and Charging
Biggest battery in an iPhone yet…
iPhones typically don’t have the massive batteries you can find in Android flagships. But iOS is quite efficient at preserving battery life — apps get frozen in the background, when you are in standby mode, you barely lose percentages. The iPhone 15 Pro Max is often touted to last two days with casual use.
For the 16 Pro series, Apple did touch upon their upgraded capacities and great battery life, but Cupertino doesn’t share geeky specs like actual numbers for its iPhones. We’ll have to wait for actual teardowns. As far as we know, thanks to leaks, the iPhone 16 Pro Max has about 4,700 mAh in its trunk — the biggest battery on an iPhone thus far. The smaller iPhone 16 Pro is said to have around 3,600 mAh — still bigger than last year’s iPhone 15 Pro, if not an impressive number.
The rumors about fast charging weren’t exactly true. Wired charging via the USB Type-C ports will still be capped at 20 W. It’s MagSafe pucks that can now provide up to 25 W wireless charging, as opposed to 15 W before.
Specs Comparison
| Specs | iPhone 16 Pro Max | iPhone 16 Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Dimensions | 6.42 x 3.06 x 0.32 in (163 x 77.6 x 8.25 mm) |
5.89 x 2.81 x 0.32 in (149.6 x 71.5 x 8.25 mm) |
| Screen | 6.9-inch ProMotion OLED 120 Hz |
6.3-inch ProMotion OLED 120 Hz |
| Processor | Apple A18 Pro | Apple A18 Pro |
| RAM, Storage and Price | 8 GB / 256 GB / $1,199 | 8 GB / 128 GB / $999 |
| Cameras | 48 MP main 48 MP ultra-wide 12 MP 5x telephoto 12 MP front |
48 MP main 48 MP ultra-wide 12 MP 5x telephoto 12 MP front |
| Battery Size | ~4,700 mAh | ~3,600 mAh |
| Charging Speeds | 20 W wired 25 W wireless MagSafe |
20 W wired 25 W wireless MagSafe |
Which one should you buy?
So, our expectations were justified — 2020 is “catch up year” for the iPhone 16 Pro. What we mean is — these are essentially the same phone, in two different sizes. You won’t be making compromises if you get the smaller one, you won’t gain much by getting the big one. Yes, the base storage tiers differ — 128 GB and 256 GB — but make no mistake, you are paying for that difference with the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
Reasons to get each model? The iPhone 16 Pro is more compact — easier to handle with one hand, which is weird to say about a 6.3-inch phone, but it’s true considering the alternatives. It’s also “cheaper”, starting at $999 for the 128 GB model. Though, anyone looking to record 4K clips with the new cameras will probably not be looking for a 128 GB model.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max will be better for media binging or gaming — obviously, with the bigger 6.9-inch screen. But it will also have a longer-lasting battery, since it’s a bigger cell.
Yup, that’s what it boils down to. So, which one is for you?