The iPhone 14 comes in four different flavors, but the most interesting ones are the Pro and Pro Max. Which should you buy and is bigger always better?
Wondering which iPhone to get? On paper, the Apple iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max are the top candidates, but which model should you splash for? They’ll both work with your AirPods and Macbook, in Apple’s lovely walled-gardens of many have become accustomed to.
We’re a few months into the lifespan of the iPhone 14 now, and the main thing that still seems to be the question is about the bigger phones. The iPhone 14 Plus and Pro Max are much larger devices than their smaller siblings, but do the benefits of size actually add anything to the experience?
We’ll only be talking about the Pro and Pro Max today, as they’re honestly the more interesting devices out of the four. Boasting an updated processor, cameras, and new features like the Dynamic Island, they seem like Apple has actually laid the groundwork for the iPhone 15 and onwards.
However, looking at them on paper is a much different story to everyday use. We’ve been using the iPhone 14 Pro since September and to be honest, there’s never been a point where we’ve missed the larger size.
Design
Roughly speaking, the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max largely share the same aesthetic design. You get swanky stainless steel rails along the side, with a matte finish on the back, along with a lovely Dynamic Island, which is only on the Pro models of this year’s iPhones, for now.
The iPhone 14 Pro has a 6.1-inch display, while the 14 Pro Max has a 6.7-inch screen. Both displays have Super Retina Pro XDR displays, to boot. But, there are also a couple of other nuances to the screens. The Pro Max can occasionally get brighter, but we hardly noticed the difference when using our bog-standard iPhone 14 Pro.
Both displays also feature the dynamic island, a context-aware cutout at the top of your screen that can show off notifications and other activities through dynamic scaling.
The 6.7-inch display of the iPhone 14 Pro Max might be a little too big for one-handed use, but the beautiful screen looks absolutely fantastic, especially with that ProMotion tech powering it. This makes it fantastic for those who want to indulge in Apple Arcade, or watch a lot of content on their phone.
While, the iPhone 14 Pro still has a respectable display, and will be much more usable with one hand than its bigger brother, while still retaining all of those key features. For us, the ease-of-use of the iPhone 14 Pro outweighs the benefits of size from the iPhone 14 Pro Max by quite a large margin.
Cameras
The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max are kitted out with the exact same camera systems. Around the back you get a huge 48MP sensor, which uses some under-the-hood trickery to deliver 12MP photos with stunning quality, and you can also take ProRAW images in the full-fat 48MP format, too.
You also get a 12MP ultrawide sensor, and a 3x optical zoom telephoto lens, which all take pretty stunning images, given the sizes of the sensor itself.
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There’s no difference between the back shooters, or the slightly upgraded selfie campera, which has autofocus and lets a little more light in for taking the perfect shots.
It’s really a question of display size and battery life.
Battery life
The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max both have exceptional battery life, however, the Pro Max utilizes its bigger internal real-estate to house a larger battery.
The standard iPhone 14 Pro has a 3200mAh battery, while the Pro Max boasts a whopping 4323mAh, resulting in a significantly longer screen-on time than its younger sibling.
This means that although you might be powering a larger screen, the battery size of the iPhone 14 Pro Max simply runs away with how great its battery life is. So, for power users who are tinkering around on their phones all day, you could get much more use out of your device if you are using the bigger model, versus the comparatively smaller iPhone 14 Pro.
Specifications
| Specs | iPhone 14 Pro | iPhone 14 Pro Max |
| Weight | 204g | 240g |
| Screen size | 6.1-inches | 6.7-inches |
| Processor | Apple A16 Bionic | Apple A16 Bionic |
| RAM | 6GB LPDDR5 | 6GB LPDDR5 |
| Battery | 3200mAh | 4323mAh |
| Price | Starting at $999 | Starting at $1099 |
The specifications of both models house the same powerful A16 Bionic chip, with the same RAM, so you can expect almost identical performance out of both phones.
The real differences are in the screen size, battery life and price. For just $100 more, the Pro Max is a great deal, but you will also have to contend with the device’s somewhat unwieldy dispositions, too.
Which one is better?
The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max are both incredibly good phones, but the real thing it comes down to is how much you are staring at your phone. If you are a power user who wants the most out of your device, then the iPhone 14 Pro Max is the one to go for. However, if you’re looking for a very good phone that you want to easily use with one hand while out and about, while still boasting a premium feature set, then the iPhone 14 Pro should be your first port of call.
It all ultimately depends on your use case, as we don’t think that the $100 excess for the Pro Max is too eye-watering, either.