Apple has been a leading smartphone manufacturer in the past decade. The tech giant emerged as a symbol of status and perfection. The built quality and performance is amazing as expected. The unboxing experience is top-notch and posh. When manufactured in house, both hardware and software are perfect, and integration is seamless. The business model of Apple is quite unique. Unlike Samsung and other brands, the variants launched by Apple each year are limited. Usually ranging from 3 to 4 models each year. Among those majority are flagship and one or two variants as a budget-friendly one.
Similarly, in October of 2020, Apple announced its much-anticipated flagship model, Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max, and the iPhone 12. The smartphone is built with excellent precision, performs with outstanding stats, and holds its performance over time. The design language of Apple devices keeps on rotating after a few years. From a curvy and round-cornered iPhone 3gs to the boxier design of iPhone 4 and 4s, then all the way to iPhone 5s then again the shift to a curvier design of iPhone 6 and 6s. We didn’t see a new design pattern since the launch of the iPhone X. it had a complete overhaul in the design language with new materials used and precisely built. Finally, here we are with the most precise built and a design that is more industrial and much ergonomically pleasant.
Unboxing Experience
Apple’s unboxing experience for its flagship smartphone is very minimalistic yet maintains the posh and upmarket feel. The overall height of the box is much reduced. Upon opening the package, we are greeted with the iPhone 12 pro max itself wrapped in matt film to protect it. Below it, we can find a neatly tucked lightening to Type-C cable and the warrant and user manual in a much-reduced size this year. That’s all for the unboxing. If our readers are curious, let us clarify that Apple has all together ditched the charging brick this year and has officially gone wireless. This could be a very early adaptation and we would have appreciated if a wall brick would have been included.
Product Description
Available to consumers for preorders from November 6, 2020, Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max is the latest and greatest addition to the tech giant’s ever-expanding smartphone lineup. With stainless steel rails that make up the sides, sandwiched between two glass panels, we have the new iPhone. Shifting from smooth and round sides to much boxier and flat sides, the overall feel is pretty identical to the iPhone 5 and 5s. though we must add here that the iPhone 12 pro max is even boxier than the iPhone 5 and 5s. they have gone all along and created it so that the razor-sharp edges add to an exact and accurately machined device. The overall grip of the device is much better and hence reducing the chance of accidental drops. Still, we recommend a thin case or a skin to protect your smartphone from slight drops or scratches.
Squeezing within almost no bezels, we have a 6.7 inches OLED panel. Apple’s designation for the display technology is very fancy. A super retina XDR OLED, as they call it, is a very outclass panel indeed. With a moderate 87.4% body to screen ratio, we have a 458 pixel per inch density, which is a very decent value. Still, if we compare it to some panels, especially the ones manufactured by Samsung, this number seems a bit average. Being an OLDED display panel, the color spectrum is wide and accurate. With inky deep blacks, the overall saturation of colors is very precise, sometimes the color representation seems a bit artificial, but it’s an excellent panel for consuming media content and gaming. It comes enabled with a true tone feature.
Many other added features are also on board. Scratch-resistant ceramic glass, oleophobic coating, and technical aspects such as the Dolby experience, a wide color gamut need to be mentioned as well. No, the rating of scratch resistance in specific is not given by Apple. Still, we found it very durable and can stand the harsh nature of everyday usage. In our vigorous testing, it stood well against daily enemies like keys. moreover, the addition of oleophobic coating makes it a bit less fingerprint magnet. The face ID has gotten much improved and is reaching perfection. It has some clear speed and accuracy gains over the previous generations of Face ID.
We would like to see the more angled detection and an update to sense the face covered by a mask and immediately shift to passcode. The option has been added in the latest software update, but it needs to get some improvement. Sides are neatly organized with the power/lock button on the right and volume rockers, and the silent toggle switch on the left. We have a lightning port at the bottom. It would be appreciated if Apple upgraded to a USB Type-C port and a speaker grill. The overall design language of Apple devices is very consistent. We the holes and cut-outs for each component are machined with extreme precision and zero tolerance. The speakers are decent, with an avid amount of low ends. However, they tend to struggle at higher volumes with ever so slight distortion, something like a razor phone has some really amazing speaker system onboard. The overall performance is up to mark.
The triple-lens camera setup on the rear carries forward apple’s design philosophy. The primary glass is a 12-megapixel shooter with a very wide f/1.6 aperture. It has optical stabilization, PDAF, and sensor-shift OIS based sensors for those buttery smooth shots. The second lens is a telephoto, which is also a 12-megapixel with f/2.2 aperture. Lastly, an ultra-wide lens having 12-megapixel is also onboard. This year the inclusion of a LIDAR is a very welcome addition. It will primarily help in improving the performance in the augmented reality usage. Moreover, we have the dual-tone flash for some natural light effect while using the flash. The overall performance of the camera on the iPhone 12 pro max is outstanding. It’s a spot on camera that can capture perfect images even with minimum photography skills. The front-facing camera is a 12-megapixel shooter, it shoots very decent selfies with portrait mode also available.
Some added features like Face detection, HDR, and panorama shots are standard across the lineup. The face detection is precise and very useful when using animoji exclusive to iPhone X and onwards. Some basic sensors such as accelerometer, proximity, gyro, compass, and barometer are also included. Apple iPhone 12 pro max is powered by the latest A14 Bionic chip, it’s a Hexa-core processor clocked at 1.8 GHz with 2 cores that can boost up to an amazing speed of 3.1 GHz assisted by an Apple 4 core Graphics processor. It’s the latest processor by Apple, and the benchmarks are amazing. It crushes the benchmark scores of both single and multi-core. It comes with a 6 GB of RAM across the entire line up and 128 GB of storage as a base variant. Which is a very decent amount. The performance is up to mark and very responsive. The lag was not noticed at any point. Even when running demanding applications, it showed no trouble at all. Multicore tasking is very impressive. The chip is efficient and fast.
On top, it runs iOS 14. The software is seamlessly integrated with the hardware. Application management is excellent. It uses every possible sector of hardware to utilize each bit efficiently. Here we would like to mention the battery capacity as well. A non-removable 3687 mAH powers the device. On papers that not up to standard with the 2020 lineup. In some cases, it’s slightly small for 2020 standards. However, testing it thoroughly, we were surprised that it lasted for a day with ease. The software excellently manages battery life. The efficiency of software in optimizing the battery life is appreciable. The background tasks are suppressed, and the once active are channeled through various algorithms to gain most of out the battery. Still, we would love to have seen at least a 4000 mAH battery pack, just to get over that battery anxiety.
Final verdict
Coming in about $1099, the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max is a true flagship that promises the ultimate performance with that luxury and posh feel. The hardware is a piece of art, and we must say it sculpted with great precision. The strategy of moving to a truly wireless smartphone is a bit of early adaption. The inclusion of a power brick would have been a welcome addition, and the consumers would have been shocked to see a mag safe charger within. For someone keen to buy a flagship and loves the Apple ecosystem, we can easily recommend the iPhone 12 Pro Max without any doubts.
Scores
- Built 9.0/10
- Unboxing experience 8.5/10
- Performance 9.0/10
- Battery life 8.5/10
- Stock Accessories 7.0/10
- Price justification 7.5/10
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