iPhone 16 Professional Max vs. iPhone 15 Professional Max

Whoever comes within the Apple ecosystem, stays within the Apple ecosystem, proper? If that’s the case, you’re perhaps trying to improve your older iPhone however seeing these profitable iPhone 15 Professional Max worth tags makes you wonder if the additional few hundred bucks for the newer iPhone 16 Professional Max are justifiable.

Desk of Contents:

For starters, you may evaluate the entire specs sheets or straight proceed with our editor’s evaluation within the following textual content.

Though Apple has formally discontinued the iPhone 15 Professional Max, you may nonetheless discover some models mendacity round for about €/$400-450 much less. And let’s be sincere, iPhone upgrades have gotten fairly stale currently. Let’s discover out if Apple was in a position to spice issues up this yr.

Dimension comparability

Design-wise, there’s little to no change within the iPhone 16 Professional Max, in comparison with the 15 Professional Max. Nonetheless, the newer Max grew in measurement and added a little bit little bit of weight. The load half is not as noticeable, however because the 16 Professional Max is now constructed round an enormous 6.9-inch show, albeit with thinner bezels, it is noticeably taller and a tad wider too.

There is not any significant distinction within the “constructing blocks” both. Certain, the 16 Professional Max makes use of newer technology Ceramic Defend glass for its back and front, however we doubt this is able to tip the dimensions for anybody. Each handsets are exceptionally constructed and boast IP68 ingress safety.

The iPhone 16 Professional Max this yr comes with a barely bigger display diagonal and even slimmer bezels. The decision can also be greater to take care of the identical pixel density.

Apart from that, the 15 Professional Max has the identical high quality display. They each help the identical HDR requirements (as much as Dolby Imaginative and prescient). They each peak at round 1,700-1,800 nits of max brightness, based on our assessments, they usually can each go as much as 120Hz.

Battery life

The already glorious iPhone 15 Professional Max battery life is topped by the 16 Professional Max battery endurance rating. The distinction within the general rating is slightly minimal, however as we glance carefully on the outcomes, we see that the newer Professional Max beneficial properties some additional runtime on the 4G name and internet looking assessments.

Admittedly, the distinction is not enormous, but when battery life is utmost significance to you, then the 16 Professional Max is the best alternative.

Charging pace

Sadly, there is no improve within the charging division for one more yr. The iPhone 16 Professional Max prices for roughly the identical time as its predecessor, based on our assessments. Apple would not promote the rated max charging energy however our assessments clearly present about the identical charging charge within the first 15 to half-hour after which slows down considerably.

The older 15 Professional Max prices from 0 to 100% in 109 minutes, whereas the 16 Professional Max does that 8 minutes slower. The marginally longer charging time in all probability because of the bigger capability.

Speaker check

The newest 16 Professional Max comes with improved loudspeaker high quality with out being quieter. They provide the identical stage of loudness however at greater high quality.

Music tracks sound extra pure, hotter and with extra depth to them because of the extra pronounced bass. Apparently sufficient, that does not appear to have an effect on vocals in a nasty method. The vocals and highs are simply as clear as on the 15 Professional Max, perhaps even cleaner.

Efficiency

As with each new iPhone, the 16 Professional Max affords newer, quicker and extra environment friendly chipset. It has the Apple A18 Professional on board with a hexa-core CPU and it is based mostly on the 3nm manufacturing course of. The Apple A17 Professional powering up the 15 Professional Max has comparable specs – hexa-core CPU with hexa-core GPU.

The brand new A18 Professional chipset additionally has significantly higher AI capabilities because of its 16-core NPU.

Reminiscence configurations stay unchanged with each gadgets beginning at 8GB/256GB and going all the way in which as much as 8GB/1TB.

Benchmark efficiency

Though the adjustments could sound delicate, the 16 Professional Max affords nearly 26% higher CPU efficiency as per Geekbench 6, about 27% greater mixed efficiency based on AnTuTu 10 and outpaces the 15 Professional Max in GPU-heavy workloads by 27%.

Moreover, the 16 Professional Max fares higher in our CPU and GPU throttle assessments, exhibiting higher sustained efficiency.

Total, the efficiency leap is way from trivial however will doubtless stay underutilized if you’re not into cellular gaming that a lot.

Digital camera comparability

The iPhone 16 Professional Max brings a notable improve to its digital camera system with the addition of a brand new HDR adjustment setting and a Digital camera Management button characteristic, although the latter stays incomplete at launch and with slightly questionable utility.

The largest shift comes with the ultrawide digital camera, the place the earlier 12MP sensor has been changed by a 48MP (1/2.55″, 0.7µm) Quad Bayer-type sensor. Regardless of this improve in decision, the bodily measurement of the ultrawide sensor stays about the identical as earlier than, indicating a 1/2.55″ sensor measurement like its predecessor. Whereas these upgrades push the ultrawide to new heights, the selfie digital camera, that includes a 12MP sensor with PDAF and a 23mm f/1.9 lens, carries over from the earlier technology with none main adjustments. Video recording capabilities throughout the system embody as much as 4K at 120fps for the principle digital camera and as much as 4K at 60fps for the ultrawide, telephoto, and entrance cameras.

Picture high quality

Because the minor {hardware} adjustments entail, there’s little to no distinction of how the 2 iPhones shoot their stills and movies. We battle to search out any notable distinction within the pictures and movies in terms of high quality, processing, and so on.

iPhone 16 Professional Max: 0.6 • 1x • 2x • 5x

Cellphone 15 Professional Max: 0.6 • 1x • 2x • 5x

Selfie samples: iPhone 16 Professional Max • iPhone 15 Professional Max

After some pixel-peeping, although, we did discover a barely noticeable distinction between the ultrawide cameras, which is predicted on condition that the one {hardware} change is on this division. The newer iPhone appears to provide barely hotter stills and with brighter highlights, however as soon as once more, we doubt that most individuals would discover. It is a trivial change.

iPhone 16 Professional Max: 0.6 • 1x • 2x • 5x

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

Video high quality

The identical goes for the video recording. We see no obvious distinction in how these two telephones report movies apart from the ultrawide the place the 16 Professional Max produces clips with barely hotter shade temperature.

iPhone 16 Professional Max daylight video samples: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 5x

iPhone 15 Professional Max daylight video samples: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 5x

iPhone 16 Professional Max low-light video samples: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 5x

iPhone 15 Professional Max low-light video samples: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 5x

Verdict

So is the iPhone 16 Professional Max higher than its predecessor? Most definitely, sure. Objectively talking, the 16 Professional Max has barely higher battery life, significantly greater efficiency, nicer audio system and since it is a newer cellphone, count on one additional yr of software program help. The 16 Professional Max additionally has a Digital camera Management button, which left us with blended emotions however some customers prefer it.

However is it round €500 higher than the iPhone 15 Professional Max? In all probability not. If you could find a 15 Professional Max on the shop cabinets, you’ll get roughly the identical consumer expertise for lots much less. We discover it arduous to justify the large worth hole with the slightly modest {hardware} upgrades, particularly since there are not any beneficial properties within the digital camera division.