Everyone who enters the Apple ecosystem, stays in the Apple ecosystem, right? If so, maybe you’re looking to upgrade your old iPhone, but looking at the eye-watering price tag of the iPhone 15 Pro Max makes you wonder if the extra few hundred dollars for a new iPhone 16 Pro Max is justified.

Summary:

To get started, you can compare the full datasheets or proceed directly to our editor’s rankings in the following text.

Even though Apple has officially discontinued the iPhone 15 Pro Max, you can still find some units for around €/$400-$450 cheaper. And to be honest, iPhone updates have gotten pretty stale lately. Let’s find out if Apple managed to spice it up this year.

Size comparison

In terms of design, there is not the slightest change in the iPhone 16 Pro Max compared to the 15 Pro Max. However, the new Max has grown in size and added weight. The weight aspect isn’t particularly noticeable, but since the 16 Pro Max now comes with a large 6.9-inch display, albeit with thinner bezels, it also feels taller and slightly wider.

There is no significant difference in “building blocks” either. Of course, the 16 Pro Max uses next-gen Ceramic Shield glass on the front and back, but we doubt this will have much of an impact on anyone. Both phones are superbly built and have IP68 intrusion protection.

This year’s iPhone 16 Pro Max comes with a slightly larger screen diagonal and thinner bezels. The resolution is also higher to maintain the same pixel density.

Apart from that, the 15 Pro Max has the same screen quality. Both support the same HDR standards (up to Dolby Vision). Both peak at maximum brightness of around 1,700-1,800 nits, according to our tests, and can reach 120 Hz.

Battery life

The already excellent battery life of the iPhone 15 Pro Max is surpassed by the battery life score of the 16 Pro Max. The difference in overall scores is rather minimal, but taking a closer look at the results, we see that the new Pro Max gained a bit of ‘extra battery life’ in the 4G calling and web browsing tests.

Of course, the difference isn’t that big, but if battery life is most important to you, then the 16 Pro Max is a great choice.

Charging speed

Unfortunately, there are no updates in the charging department for another year. According to our tests, the iPhone 16 Pro Max charges in almost the same time as its predecessor. Apple doesn’t advertise maximum charging power values, but our tests clearly showed charging speeds were the same in the first 15 to 30 minutes and then slowed down significantly.

The older 15 Pro Max charges from 0 to 100% in 109 minutes, while the 16 Pro Max charges 8 minutes slower. The slightly longer charging time may be due to the larger capacity.

Test the speakers

The newer 16 Pro Max delivers improved speaker quality without being quieter. They offer the same volume levels but with higher quality.

Music tracks sound more natural, warmer and deeper thanks to more pronounced bass. Interestingly, this doesn’t seem to have a negative impact on the sound. Vocals and treble are just as clean as the 15 Pro Max, maybe even cleaner.

Show

Like every new iPhone, the 16 Pro Max offers a newer, faster and more efficient chipset. It has an Apple A18 Pro with a hexa-core CPU and is based on a 3nm manufacturing process. The Apple A17 Pro that powers the 15 Pro Max has similar specifications: hexa-core CPU with hexa-core GPU.

The new A18 Pro chipset also has much better AI capabilities thanks to its 16-core NPU.

Memory configurations remain unchanged with both devices ranging from 8 GB/256 GB to 8 GB/1 TB.

Reference performance

While the changes may seem subtle, the 16 Pro Max offers nearly 26 percent better CPU performance according to Geekbench 6, about 27 percent better combined performance according to AnTuTu 10, and outperforms the 15 Pro Max by 27 percent in GPU-heavy workloads.

Additionally, the 16 Pro Max performed better in our CPU and GPU acceleration tests, showing better, longer-lasting performance.

Overall, the performance increase is not trivial, but it will likely remain underutilized if you’re not into mobile gaming.

Camera comparison

The iPhone 16 Pro Max brings important updates to its camera system with the addition of new HDR adjustment settings and a camera control button feature, although the camera control button feature was still incomplete at launch and of somewhat questionable usability.

The biggest change comes to the ultrawide camera, where the previous 12 MP sensor has been replaced by a 48 MP Quad Bayer type sensor (1/2.55″, 0.7 µm). Despite the increase in resolution, the physical size of the ultrawide sensor remains the same as before, showing a 1/2.55″ sensor size like its predecessor. While this update pushes the ultrawide to new heights, the selfie camera, featuring a 12MP sensor with PDAF and a 23mm f/1.9 lens, carries over from the previous generation without major changes. Video recording capabilities in the system include up to 4K at 120 fps for the main camera and up to 4K at 60 fps for the ultrawide, telephoto, and front cameras.

Image quality

Considering the minor hardware changes, there is little to no difference in how the two iPhones take photos and videos. We had a hard time finding any notable differences in photos and videos in terms of quality, processing, etc.

iPhone 16 Pro Max: 0.6 • 1x • 2x • 5x

Phone 15 Pro Max: 0.6 • 1x • 2x • 5x

Selfie examples: iPhone 16 Pro Max • iPhone 15 Pro Max

However, after a bit of pixel analysis, we found barely noticeable differences between the ultrawide cameras, and this is natural considering the only hardware changes are in this department. The new iPhone seems to produce slightly warmer stills and has brighter highlights, but again we doubt most people will notice. This is a trivial change.

iPhone 16 Pro Max: 0.6 • 1x • 2x • 5x

iPhone 15 Pro Max: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 5x

Video quality

The same applies to video recording. We didn’t notice any real differences in how the two phones shot video, except at ultrawide where the 16 Pro Max produced clips with a slightly warmer color temperature.

iPhone 16 Pro Max daytime video examples: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 5x

Sample daytime video on iPhone 15 Pro Max: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 5x

iPhone 16 Pro Max low light video example: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 5x

iPhone 15 Pro Max low light video example: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 5x

Indictment

So is the iPhone 16 Pro Max better than its predecessor? Absolutely yes. Objectively, the 16 Pro Max has slightly better battery life, much higher performance, better speakers, and since it’s a newer phone, expect a year of additional software support. The 16 Pro Max also has a camera control button, which we have mixed feelings about, but some users like it.

But is it around €500 better than the iPhone 15 Pro Max? Probably not. If you can find the 15 Pro Max on store shelves, you’ll get the same user experience for a much cheaper price. We find it hard to justify such a large price gap with such a rather modest hardware upgrade, especially as there’s no advantage in the camera department.