iPhone 15 Pro Max – everything you need to know

1. Model comparison
2. Release date
3. Price
4. Colors
5. Cameras
6. Design
7. Screen size
8. Features and specs
9. USB-C
Apple has just take the cover off the iPhone 15 Pro Max, bringing in a suite of upgrades, including USB-C, an action button and a titanium design.
It’s already shaping up to being a very impressive phone and a contender for one of our best phones.
This news is developing, and we’ll be updating this hub as we learn more.
iPhone 15 Pro Max cheat sheet
- New titanium design that bonds with aluminum to provide a stronger, lighter iPhone that’s good at dissipating heat.
- New Action button with custom shortcuts
- Improved Dynamic Island capabilities
- Extreme Dynamic range on the ProMotion always-on display
- Better standby mode
- A17 Pro chip – 3-nanometer process, 19 billion transistors, 6 core CPU, 2x Neural Engine performance
- 20% faster GPU allows for ray tracing, and sustained performance for games
- USB-C connector with a new controller to enable USB 3 speeds at 10Gbps, 20x faster than USB 2 – ProRaw can be quickly transferred to Mac
- Improved Night Mode powered by the Photonic Engine and helped by LiDAR
- Telephoto camera uses a periscope design to offer 5x optical zoom at a 120mm focal length, great for close ups
- Ultrawide gets a better night mode, improved HDR and an anti-reflective coating
- Spatial video can be captured by using ultrawide and main cameras together, ready for Apple Vision Pro
- Starts at $1,199 with 256GB base storage
- Preorders go live September 15 and will ship on September 22
iPhone 15 Pro Max release date and price
- Preorders go live September 15
- iPhone 15 Pro Max begins shipping September 22
Revealed on September 12 at the Apple September event, the iPhone 15 Pro Max will be available to preorder on September 15. It will then be released on September 22.
Pricing starts at $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,199 for the base 256GB version, and tops out at $1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,899 for the 1TB model. As such the iPhone 15 Pro Max has got a base price hike in the US and Australia compared to the iPhone 14 Pro Max, which stared at $1,099 / £1,199 / AU$1,899 but also came with 128GB at its base level.
iPhone 15 Pro Max colors
Given the iPhone 15 Pro Max has a new titanium design, it’s got a new suite of colors to suit its new metallic chassis.
They are as follows:
- Natural Titanium
- Blue Titanium
- White Titanium
- Black Titanium
As such, the colour palette of the iPhone 15 Pro Max is somewhat muted, but we’d have to see them in the metal and glass before we cast any real judgment.
iPhone 15 Pro Max design and display
At first glance the iPhone 15 Pro Max looks a lot like its predecessor, particularly as rumors of new curved edges did not come to fruition.
Rather the iPhone 15 Pro Max retains its flat edges, but smooths the contours on them. However, the biggest change is the swapping of stainless steel for a titanium chassis that encases an aluminum substructure. This means the iPhone 15 Pro Max is both stronger and lighter than the iPhone 14 Pro Max, but still has strong thermal dissipation thanks to the use of aluminum.
Another major change is the swapping of the mute slider for an Action button. Only available on the new iPhone Pro models, this button cna activate various functions, such as quickly accessing the camera of flashlight, activating Voice Memo, triggering focus modes, and accessing the Shortcuts functions, all from a press-and-hold gesture.
The display remains largely the same with a 6.7-inch size and access to a 120Hz refresh rate ProMotion panel. But the bezels have been trimmed down a little and the Dynamic Island has been improved to show more contextual information.
The always-on display has been improved too, with more customizable widgets on offer.
iPhone 15 Pro Max cameras
- 48MP main camera defaults to 24MP photos
- Periscope telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom and a 120mm focal length
- Automatic portrait mode and improved low-light photography
While the iPhone 15 Pro Max stick to a tripo of rear cameras, these have been improved. The 48MP main camera now serves up 24-megapixel photos rather than 12MP shot by default, and improvements to the Photonic Engine mean better low-light photography for it and the ultrawide camera; the latter has also been given improved HDR performance and an anti-reflective coating.
But the biggest camera upgrade, and one that’s exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, comes in the form of the new 12MP telephoto camera that has a periscope lens arrangement to deliver a 5x optical zoom and a focal length of 120mm. Apple noted this camera should deliver better close ups and work well for capturing nature photography as well as photos at sporting events.
Improvement in Smart HDR processing promises more true-to-life skin tones and colors, while the LiDAR scanner in combination with the main and ultrawide cameras can capture ‘Spatial’ contonet for use with the Apple Vision Pro mixed reality headset.
On the video side, improvements have been made to low-light and fast movement capture, thanks to the new A17 Pro chip and its boosted neural processing.
iPhone 15 Pro Max USB-C
- USB-C should bring improved data transfer/charging speeds
The final iPhone 15 Pro Max design upgrade is expected to come in the form of a USB-C charging port. The EU has told Apple that it has to add USB-C charging ports to iPhones by 2024, but multiple leaks have suggested that Apple will be adopting the charging standard in 2023 with the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, this year.
It’s also worth reiterating here that the iPhone 15 Pro Max you probably won’t be able to use your older Apple Lightning cable to juice it up. This version of USB-C is rumored to support the USB 3.0 standard, too – whereas the iPhone 15 will reportedly stick with its predecessor’s USB 2.0 standard. So the iPhone 15 Pro Max could get faster file transfer speeds than its vanilla sibling (according to USBMakers, the former could offer 90% faster speeds).
The switch to USB-C could also bring faster charging speeds – for the Pro models, at least. Indeed, reports suggest that some of Apple’s upcoming iPhone 15 devices will support charging up to 35W. At present, the standard iPhone 14 is limited to 20W charging, while the iPhone 14 Pro Max is capped at 27W. The latter takes around two hours to recharge to full capacity, so we’ll gratefully accept any improvements on that figure for the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
We’ve heard that the iPhone 15 Pro’s Thunderbolt 3 version of USB-C will make the device compatible with 4K monitors, too, meaning you’ll also be able to display certain types of content on a separate screen – as you can with the best iPads – on the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
iPhone 15 Pro Max outlook
With a host of tipped upgrades, from a new design and titanium edges to a periscope telephotos camera with a 6x optical zoom, the iPhone 145 Pro Max is shaping up to be the next-generation iPhone that’ll grab the attention of Apple and Android fans alike.
An Action button, particularly with customizable functionality, could sweeten the package and make the iPhone 15 Pro Max a future contender for our best phones list.
More iPhone 15 stories
Hubs
- iPhone 15: everything we know
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- iPhone 15 Pro: everything we know so far
- iPhone 15 Ultra: everything we know so far
- iPhone 15 pre-orders: here’s what to expect
- iPhone 15 deals: here’s what to expect
FAQs
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- iPhone 15 Pro vs iPhone 15 Pro Max: the rumored key differences
- iPhone 15 Pro vs iPhone 14 Pro: the rumored key differences
- iPhone 15 vs iPhone 14: how will Apple’s next vanilla model stack up?
- iPhone 15 vs iPhone 15 Pro: the rumored key differences
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