Iphone 14 Pro Max

It’s got the best design, the biggest screen, the best cameras, and the smartest display. You’ll pay for all of that but, if you’re determined to get an iPhone and want the absolute apex device, this is clearly the handset for you. If you can live with a slightly smaller display, and want less weight in your pocket, we might recommend the more compact 6.1-inch iPhone 14 Pro, instead.

Pros

• +Great design and build

• +Incredible camera quality

• +Dynamic Island is clever and innovative

Cons

• -3x zoom leaves you wanting more

• -Still waiting for ultra-fast charging

• -Battery life is weaker than last year

The iPhone 14 Pro Max was the clear favorite... and by a wide margin. It’s not just the bigger 6.7-inch display or the potential for more battery life, it seems current iPhone buyers want all the features that come with Apple’s premium handset.

And good news: this is the ultimate iPhone.

It’s no more powerful than the identical-but-smaller 6.1-inch Iphone 14 pro, but noticeably more so than the new iPhone 14 and its big brother, the 6.7-inch iPhone 14 plus.

For the first time in a while, Apple chose to put its best, fastest, and possibly most efficient silicon in just half of its new phones. The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus get the A15 Bionic chip found in the Iphone 13 pro and 13 Pro Max (it has one more GPU core than the A15 Bionic in the standard Iphone 13), while the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max get the all-new 4-nanometer process A16 Bionic.

$899 / £949 / AU$1,579 for a 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Plus might sound good on paper, but consumers will, apparently, gladly pay $1,099 / £1,199 / AU$1,899 for the full-featured iPhone 14 Pro Max – what they consider the best Iphone, even in these cash-strapped times.

There are even $1,000 trade-in deals in the US, though Apple and the carriers have to verify the trade-in value – and don’t expect to get that kind of cash for an iPhone 6 or even an iPhone 8.

If we’re talking about value, though, the iPhone 14 Pro Max earns its keep with snappy performance, a truly radiant screen that now can reach a sun-beating 2,000-nit brilliance, while also delivering new low-power 1Hz always-on display functionality that’s just there for a quick glance.

The thing people will be talking about is the new Dynamic Island. Count us among those who were completely surprised by Apple’s unusual solution for the notch, an ‘island’ of flexible display floating just a few millimeters from the top edge of the screen.

This island still contains the front camera (upgraded with autofocus) and sensors for 3D measurement as part of Face ID, but some technology, like the proximity sensor, is now hidden behind the display. What’s left is actually a pair of cutouts – one pill shaped, and one a circle – but with a small area of active screen between them.

Altogether, it looks like a smaller cylinder and can appear all-black when it isn’t active with some animation or notification. However, it has the remarkable ability to transform based on screen activity and gestures.