Every year there’s a new iPhone, and while the iPhone Duo is a huge departure from what Apple has done in the past, the iPhone 18 Pro Max is nearly identical to last year’s model. Apple didn’t do much to drastically change the Pro Max, but instead tweaked some things under the phone to make it a bit more useful.
The most obvious improvement is the A20 Pro, which is significantly stronger than the A19 Pro in last year’s phone. But the most useful improvement has been to Siri. The improvements Apple has made to its ‘Apple Intelligence’ has made Siri more useful than it has been since the company first tried revamping the assistant with AI back in 2024.
So, if you’ve already upgraded to the iPhone 17 Pro last year, there isn’t much reason to upgrade again. But if you’ve been on the fence and need an upgrade, you could really do a lot worse than the iPhone 18 Pro Max.
When I say that the iPhone 18 Pro Max looks just like the iPhone 17 Pro Max, I mean it. Even if I put the two phones on a table next to each other, you’d be hard-pressed to figure out which is which. They both measure 0.34 inches thick, even though the 18 Pro Max is a bit heavier, at 8.78 ounces, compared to the 17's 8.22 ounces. The only way I can tell my iPhone 17 Pro Max from the iPhone 18 Pro Max is that the Pro Max Apple sent me for review has the new Black colorway.
But while the phone’s chassis being unchanged might sound like a bad thing, it really is a case of not fixing something that’s not broken. The best part of the iPhone 17 Pro Max was its camera shelf, which virtually eliminates the phone wobbling when it’s put down on a table. For some reason, other phone manufacturers really haven’t adopted this design language yet, but I’ll just say every time I use an Android device lately, I miss the camera shelf, however absurd that may sound.
The rest of the iPhone 18 Pro Max’s layout is also unchanged. On the right side of the phone, you still get the power/lock button, along with the capacitive Camera Control Button. And just like on the 17 Pro Max, the camera button is extremely easy to hit on accident, so be mindful of it.
Over on the left side is the volume rocker and the Action Button, which I have set to enable or disable Do Not Disturb mode. You can go into the settings and swap it to one of 12 different actions, or just disable it entirely. But I like to keep it on DnD, so that I can make my phone stop blowing up when I’m overwhelmed.
The iPhone 18 Pro Max’s display is also unchanged, at 2868 x 1320, and with a gorgeous OLED panel. Everything I watch or play on the phone looks incredible, with absolutely vibrant colors. It’s also rated for up to 3,000 nits of brightness, which means it gets bright enough to use outside comfortably. The only other phone I’ve used that comes close is the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, but that shouldn’t be too surprising, given that Samsung manufactures a lot of Apple’s displays.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.ign.com/articles/iphone-18-pro-max-review
