After checking out the small, medium, and large options, we’ve now reached the XL section of the rack. Cheesy comparisons with a clothes rack aside, we’ve been playing with Apple‘s new iPhone 12 lineup post its launch in India recently and the last in line is the biggest one – the iPhone 12 Pro Max. While largely similar to its other siblings in terms of specs and features, the 12 Pro Max is a different beast, and I’ll be briefly touching upon the highlights here. So let’s dive in straight away.
The slim box feels a bit more familiar now, and as expected, misses out on a wall charger and EarPods. So all you’ll get, besides the phone, is the Type-C to Lightning cable and little else.
Right at the outset, the Max looks and feels massive. Sticking to the same flat, boxy design language as its siblings, this one totes a 6.7-inch display that should offer an immersive experience not just for gaming and entertainment, but for anyone looking to use the phone for productivity-based tasks and coveting a bigger view without having to scroll too much. Essentially the Max displays a whole lot more in one screen as compared to the rest of its siblings. The screen is a beauty… it’s a Super Retina XDR OLED display with 2,778 x 1,284 pixel resolution, HDR support and True Tone. The screen is covered with Ceramic Shield, which is supposed to be extremely tough and offer four times better ‘drop performance’.
The only aberration visible up front is the wide notch that hides the front camera and the Face ID hardware. The surgical-grade stainless steel frame on the side adds to the premium feel, and the port placement is standard… matching that on the rest of the iPhone 12 lineup. Do feel free to jump to our iPhone 12 first impressions and detailed review for more, since the Max isn’t much different except for its larger size.
One of the main highlights of the iPhone 12 Pro Max is its camera system. While it seems the same at that on the iPhone 12 Pro (offering three 12MP sensors and a LiDAR scanner on the back and a 12MP TrueDepth selfie snapper at front), it does have a unique feature. That comes in the form of sensor-shift optical image stabilisation, which promises even better results and sharper images as compared to the rest of the lineup that uses lens-based OIS. The device also offers 5x optical zoom range and a digital zoom of up to 12x, in comparison to the iPhone 12 Pro that offers 4x optical zoom range and 10x digital zoom. Add to this the bigger 1.7 micron pixel size and larger sensor, and the iPhone 12 Pro Max easily appears as the most powerful among the new iPhone lineup in terms of pure camera capabilities. The LiDAR scanner measures how long it takes light to reflect back from objects, and creates a depth map of your surroundings. This aids AR apps, and enhances camera output as well, enabling features like Night Mode Portrait, for instance.
Of course, you can expect all the usual Apple goodies like Deep Fusion, Smart HDR, Night mode, portrait mode with lighting effects, 4K video recording at 60 fps, slow mo, hyperlapse and more. There’s support for HDR Dolby Vision recording as well… which is a new capability boasted by the iPhone 12 range. While it’s not available immediately, you can also expect Apple ProRAW support soon, which would enable you to shoot RAW still for post edits.
The powerful A14 Bionic chip sits under the hood, promising butter smooth performance plus tons of capabilities related to AI / AR and computational photography. Combined with the powerful camera specs, this 5nm chip promises to take low-light photography to the next level. And yes, there’s 5G support as well, which might not seem too exciting at the moment, but makes the device future proof. Not to mention the fact that 5G support should also come in handy for globe trotters, as and when they seriously start globe trotting again.
Quickly summarising some of the other features of the Pro Max, which it shares with its 12-series brothers and sisters, there’s the IP68 rating, MagSafe, Qi wireless charging, fast charge support up to 50 percent levels in 30 minutes, single nano SIM plus eSIM, iOS 14, etc.
With its large size, powerful cameras and extensive feature set, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is quite obviously, the most loaded iPhone money can buy. I’ll be spending every waking moment with it over the coming days to see how it fares… watch this space.
