iPhone 18 Pro Max Review: Bigger battery, real camera controls, and one heavyweight phone
I'm a fan of how Apple has managed to color-match the rear glass panel to the rest of the phone.
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iPhone 18 Pro Max looking fresh in Glacier color | Image by PhoneArena
Should you buy the iPhone 18 Pro Max?
The two Pro iPhones are nearly identical, with the big feature upgrades being the same on both, including:
- The new A20 Pro 2nm chip
- The physical variable aperture of the main camera
- Longer battery life
- Pro controls in the stock camera app
This is one big, expensive phone, but this is the AI tax that we all pay right now. It applies to almost all brands and all products out there, so I don't think Apple can be blamed for needlessly raising prices.
Of course, as usual, what sets the iPhone 18 Pro Max apart from its smaller variant are the much bigger display and battery. It’s basically the iPhone 18 Pro, but maxed out! This is one incredibly powerful iPhone, and I really think Apple has done wonders with battery life here. Not only do we get a new 2nm chipset, which is more energy efficient, but also a substantially larger battery, to the tune of almost 10%. These major improvements have resulted in a record-breaking battery life for the iPhone series.
However, the other thing I'm noticing here with the iPhone 18 Pro Max is just how heavy it's gotten. This is one big, heavy phone, but if you can live with that, if portability and weight are not a primary concern to you, and the price doesn’t look scary (perhaps you have an old iPhone to trade in?) – in that case, it means that the 18 Pro Max is simply the best iPhone there is.
Sure, the upcoming iPhone Duo will offer a bigger, flexible display, but I'm confident that the 18 Pro Max has a superior camera system, longer battery life, and even higher performance compared to the Duo. Plus, there are benefits to the standard candybar form-factor. So, if you’re looking for reliability in a larger-than-life iPhone form, and you don’t feel like experimenting with new form-factors right now, then the 18 Pro Max is absolutely the one to get.
iPhone 18 Pro Max Specs
Let's start with an overview of the iPhone 18 Pro Max specs:
|
|
| Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max | Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max |
| Dimensions | |
|---|---|
| 163.4 x 78.0 x 8.75 mm (~13.49 mm with camera bump) | 163.4 x 78.0 x 8.75 mm (~13.13 mm with camera bump) |
| Weight | |
| 249.0 g | 233.0 g |
| Size | |
|---|---|
| 6.9-inch | 6.9-inch |
| Type | |
| OLED, Variable 1-120Hz | OLED, Variable 1-120Hz |
| System chip | |
|---|---|
| Apple A20 Pro (2 nm) | Apple A19 Pro (3 nm) |
| Memory | |
| 12GB (LPDDR5X)/256GB 12GB/512GB 12GB/1TB 12GB/2TB | 12GB/256GB 12GB/512GB 12GB/1TB 12GB/2TB |
| Type | |
|---|---|
| 5567 mAh | 5088 mAh |
| Charge speed | |
| Wired: 60.0W Wireless: 25.0W | Wired: 40.0W Wireless: 25.0W |
| Main camera | |
|---|---|
| 48 MP (PDAF, ToF 3D depth sensing, Sensor-shift OIS) Sensor name: Sony IMX905 Aperture size: F1.5/F4.0 Focal length: 24 mm Sensor size: 1/1.28" Pixel size: 1.22 μm | 48 MP (Sensor-shift OIS, PDAF) Sensor name: Sony IMX903 Aperture size: F1.8 Focal length: 24 mm Sensor size: 1/1.28" Pixel size: 1.22 μm |
| Second camera | |
| 48 MP (Ultra-wide, Sensor-shift OIS) Sensor name: Sony IMX972 Aperture size: F2.2 Focal Length: 13 mm Sensor size: 1/2.55" Pixel size: 0.7 μm | 48 MP (Ultra-wide, Sensor-shift OIS) Sensor name: Sony IMX972 Aperture size: F2.2 Focal Length: 13 mm Sensor size: 1/2.55" Pixel size: 0.7 μm |
| Third camera | |
| 48 MP (Telephoto, Periscope, OIS, PDAF) Sensor name: Sony IMX973 Optical zoom: 4.0x Aperture size: F2.8 Focal Length: 100 mm Sensor size: 1/2.55" Pixel size: 0.7 μm | 48 MP (Telephoto, Periscope, OIS, PDAF) Sensor name: Sony IMX973 Optical zoom: 4.0x Aperture size: F2.8 Focal Length: 100 mm Sensor size: 1/2.55" Pixel size: 0.7 μm |
| Front | |
| 18 MP (Time-of-Flight (ToF), Autofocus, HDR) | 18 MP (Time-of-Flight (ToF), Autofocus, HDR) |
See the full
Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max vs Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max specs comparison
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Design
If you've seen and held last year's iPhone 17 Pro Max, the 18 Pro Max will look and feel very familiar. Apple has kept the look largely unchanged, which is not a bad thing, because this is one beautiful design.
The external differences this year include a smaller dynamic island, a rear glass panel that is better color-matched to the rest of the phone, and brand-new signature colors: Burgundy (dark red) and Glacier (light blue). Burgundy has a strict, almost luxurious vibe, while Glacier is cool, calm, and fresh.
I very much like the design of the iPhone 18 Pro Max, but I must tell you, at 249 g, this phone is very, very heavy. This is despite being made from aluminum, and this is without having a case and a screen protector on it. With these accessories on top, it can easily reach 300 g, which is the weight of Huawei’s tri-fold phone, the Mate XT.
If I had to guess, the heavier weight compared to last year's 233 g of the 17 Pro Max is probably due to the larger battery that's found inside. Now, we all love battery life, and we can never get enough of it, but I'm just saying that, to me, Apple should be prioritizing a weight loss program for next year's Pro Max.
Display
Display Measurements:
The huge display is one of the main reasons for picking the iPhone 18 Pro Max instead of a smaller iPhone. To be honest, there are no surprises here. This is a beautiful 6.9-inch AMOLED screen. It may not be the brightest one we've seen, but it's plenty bright, and it can get extremely dim, too, which is very useful for reading in the dark.
Apple's software features and implementations are what make this a magical display in any environment. True Tone continues to work like magic and make your iPhone's display appear natural, regardless of lighting conditions. This is something many Android manufacturers have copied, but I find that none works as accurately and as reliably.
Of course, a screen is only as good as the content that it displays. In this respect, I think iOS 27 is simply beautiful and takes full advantage of the 6.9-inch canvas of the iPhone 18 Pro Max.
This is also a 120 Hz ProMotion display, which is great. I love that. However, my experience with recent ProMotion iPhones running recent iOS software is that the system doesn't seem to be using the full 120 Hz at all times.
But I just tend to come across UI screens and menus and apps that seem to be moving at something less than 120 Hz, even when there's motion involved. The easiest example here is the Settings app, which seems to scroll at something closer to 75 Hz. I haven’t measured it, but subjectively, this is what it looks like to me.
Camera
Image by PhoneArena
There are several big stories related to the camera on the iPhone 18 Pro Max this year, and as I said in my hands-on article, to me, probably the biggest has to do with the new Pro Controls, or pro camera mode, as we typically call it.
This can be extremely useful for people who wish to use these cameras for professional purposes.
The new camera app and features. | Images by PhoneArena
This could be achieved before, but it required the use of third-party applications. Now, Apple has added all of these settings right into the stock camera app, and done so in the traditional, highly polished Apple way.
The other major camera story that people would be curious about is the new variable aperture. This is not the first time we've seen this feature, but it's the first time we've seen it in an iPhone.
The first to do it was Samsung with the Galaxy S9, which had a two-step variable aperture. More recently, I saw it on the Huawei Pura 90s Pro Max, which has a ten-step variable aperture.
Apple's version features a four-step variable aperture, and yes, you can really see those blades open and close as you tweak the settings. Thankfully, you don't need to be a master photographer to benefit from the variable aperture. The iPhone 18 Pro Max will adjust it automatically based on the scene that you're trying to capture.
Keep in mind, this feature applies only to the new 48 MP main camera and not the telephoto or ultra-wide cameras.
Most people really don't need to bother too much, but in essence, a wider aperture allows more light to enter the camera sensor, creates more background blur (or bokeh) and makes for slightly softer images.
Images by PhoneArena
On the other hand, a narrower aperture tends to make photos sharper but limits the amount of light that can reach the sensor. This is why, traditionally, phone manufacturers would strive to have wider apertures in their phone cameras. However, there are situations where you don't need that wide an aperture, like when taking photos on a bright, sunny day, for example. In that case, the iPhone 18 Pro Max would be able to close down the aperture if needed in order to produce a sharper image.
The other big improvement regarding the camera experience on the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max is the new Photographic Styles 3.0, which now features texture and grain controls. This gives you further control to achieve exactly the vibe you’re going for. Again, this is done tastefully, so these new additions are very useful – they are not like some specialty filters that you’d never reach for.
Battery: It keeps going and going
The larger battery is the other main reason customers would go for the iPhone 18 Pro Max. This year, Apple has substantially increased the battery capacity to 5,391 mAh on models that have a physical SIM slot, and even better, 5,567 mAh on eSIM-only models. This is a substantial jump from the 5,088 mAh on the iPhone 17 Pro Max's eSIM model.
These new massive batteries have allowed Apple to considerably surpass other behemoths like the s26-ultra-release-date-price-features-news">Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, which comes with a 5,000 mAh battery.
If you look at our PhoneArena Benchmark scores, you’ll see the difference. Thanks to its superior software optimizations, the iPhone 18 Pro Max can even deliver battery life comparable to, or even better than, that of phones equipped with much bigger, modern silicon-carbon batteries (like the Red Magic 11S Pro, for example, which comes with a 7,500 mAh cell).
In my testing, I've indeed found the battery life of the Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max to be very impressive. There have been days when I have used it quite heavily, with long GPS navigation sessions and high display brightness running for hours, and by midnight, it would still be above 20%, which is excellent.
The best thing about this major battery life upgrade is that it means you have one less reason to be anxious throughout your day, because you know that your phone has more than enough juice in the tank to keep going and going. This is liberating.
Performance: The first 2nm chipset is crazy powerful and efficient
Image by PhoneArena
The iPhone 18 Pro Max introduces the new 2nm A20 Pro chipset, which is promised to deliver a major performance leap. Apple specifically claims a roughly 40% jump in GPU performance, which is massive for an annual upgrade.
According to the benchmarks that I ran, this does seem to be the case: the iPhone 18 Pro Max tends to be about 40% more powerful, while CPU tests show a performance increase of roughly 25% to 35%.
Software: iOS 27 brings refinement and further optimization
Aside from the new slider that lets you tweak precisely how translucent you want your interface elements to be, perhaps the other major new thing here is the much-improved Siri AI, and that includes the new Siri application.
Siri mode in the camera app - visual intelligence. | Images by PhoneArena
It took a while, but Apple rebuilt its assistant from the ground up. Now, Siri can use personal context to find information across your messages, emails, and photos. It understands what's on your screen and supports more actions across applications. You can quickly get to it from Spotlight search, or via voice control, or by launching the new Siri app, which has a familiar AI chatbot interface like ChatGPT.
The new full-page widgets look dope. | Images by PhoneArena
Audio quality and haptics
Image by PhoneArena
I'm basically in love with the quality of the iPhone 18 Pro Max's speakers. I'm not sure if they've gotten any better than those in previous generations, but they are simply amazing. For something this small, it's really impressive how much depth and punch come out of them.
Apple has put other top-shelf components as well here, like the microphone, which sounds ridiculously good. With all of these capabilities on board, you can see how the iPhone 18 Pro Max is an incredible machine for content creation, not to mention quality consumption.
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