3 weeks after using the iPhone 13 Pro Max, the time has come to pass the phone to my better half for her to use the phone now (happy wife, happy life guys... no two ways about it!)
My thoughts of the 13 Pro Max, both good and bad: -
Good- First up, the battery life. Damn, the phone just won't die on you in a day. I've done everything from using Waze, to streaming music and movies on 4G LTE, web-browsing, online shopping, etc. Have gone 7-8 hours screen time with over 30% battery life remaining at the end of the day, which is insane. On balanced usage (4-5 hours screen time a day and no navigation), the phone easily takes you into the second day. There's enough juice in the phone to please even heavy users with no need for power banks anymore - and that's a good thing coz the phone does weigh like one (but more on that later).
- The cameras are still the best, no-fuss, point and shoot cameras on a phone for me. Now with the photographic styles, Apple has given us the options to choose the more saturated colours of a Samsung/Huawei if we want, or stick to the natural iPhone ones. In terms of the camera performance over iPhone 12 Pro Max, there's really not much in it to be honest. The good lighting, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between the 13 Pro Max and 12 Pro Max.. in poor lighting, the 13 Pro Max probably has slightly better photos with the ultra wide but for most folks, the 12 Pro Max cameras will do adequately. The macro mode is super useful and really cool - beats all the 2-Megapixel macro cams in all those Android mid-rangers. The annoying part about the macro camera has been fixed too - Apple has allowed users to disable the auto-switching in iOS 15.1, so that's good. I don't capture lots of videos so I can't appreciate cinematic mode or the Pro Res format.
- The speakers on the 13 Pro Max are the best I've heard from a phone, period. Granted, the last Samsung flagship I tried was the Note 10 Plus so I can't compare it to the S20, Note 20 or S21 series so there's a bit of a disclaimer there. But the output from the speakers of the iPhone 13 Pro Max can easily retire a few bluetooth speakers I know off. The bass is good, the mids are balanced and the vocals are clear and crisp. Oh, and it can get really, really loud!
- Having used iPhones since iPhone 4, I've not really had an issue with the 60hz refresh rate displays on iPhones as most of the time, everything is pretty smooth. But I do appreciate the 120hz refresh rate on the 13 Pro Max - it takes the smoothness of scrolling to another level. Damn you Apple - you should have given us this Pro Motion display on the iPhone when you implemented it on the iPad Pro! Apple's display remains very colour-accurate and I do like True Tone though I get why some people don't and disable it.
Bad- The ergonomics are not great. The phone is slightly thicker and heavier than the 12 Pro Max, which already wasn't that ergonomically friendly already. I get that the stainless steel frame makes the phone standout and feel so much more premium than other flagships out there using aluminium but really, it's time for the folks at Cupertino to rethink this as the stainless steel does add to the overall weight of the phone. I do welcome the bigger battery hence I'll let the battery's contribution to the weight and thickness slide for now.
- That lightning USB 2.0 port is kinda unforgivable in 2021.
- A notch is a notch, even if it's 20% smaller. The worst part is the smaller notch doesn't add anything to the status bar, say for example the battery percentage. I get that you can have widgets for that now, but still, it's just plain lazy. And speaking of the notch and Face ID, I'm one of those who don't mind the notch as a trade of for the security of Face ID but really, if you could put Touch ID into the power buttons of the iPad Air and Mini and I don't see us "unmasking" anytime soon, it would make some sense to give everyone the option of Touch ID (I do have an Apple Watch and it is useful for unlocking when wearing a mask, but it's still a hit and miss sometimes).
- The same limitations of iOS remains - whether you are using iPhone 12 Pro Max or iPhone 13 Pro Max. So yeah, that doesn't change.
- Oh, and have I mentioned that the phone is heavy AF?
All in all, I would say the 13 Pro Max is what the 12 Pro Max should have been. The improvements are subtle but it does make the phone slightly better than the last one although I'm not really sure if the improvements in the camera system is enough to justify switching from the 12 Pro Max, unless you take and edit lots of videos. It's still a great phone overall, but it's definitely not for everyone.
the stainless steel plate add to the structural intergrity of the phone. they learn it from bendgate i believe lol. tat massive size, aluminum frame more prone to bending. if wan use aluminium mean more materials needed.
Oct 19 2021, 09:50 AM
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so i can save for reference
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