iPhone 14 Pro vs iPhone 14 Pro Max : Long Term Comparison

Vemuda Techno - In 2022 every iphone buyer faces a difficult question – which one to buy? 14 Pro or 14 Pro Max? This dilemma is exactly what we’re gonna cover in this post, because after using these two very similar phones, I can't believe how different the experiences are.

After countless hours of comparing these two phones I have figured out which one will be a wise purchase, and which one – a waste of money. So, read this post till the end to find out how to get the best phone for the buck.

Source: Phone Arena

Let’s change the strategy a bit – instead of comparing head-to-head, I will compare use cases and how each phone performs in them.

Starting with everyday use, pocketability, cases, comfort of holding and all that. 14 Pro easily takes a point here – it is much smaller with its 6.1 inch screen than pro max with 6.7 inch tablet-like display.

Both phones are built very similarly – same thickness, same stainless steel frame, glass front and back. But the weight is totally different, and believ me – your hands, and especially your pinkie, will feel every ounce.

14 Pro weighs only 7.27 ounces or 206 grams, and Pro Max sits at 8.47 ounces or 240 grams. You may say – not a big deal. But add a case to it, a magsafe wallet, a MagSafe battery pack, and you’ll get a pretty comfortable phone in one hand and a brick in the other.

14 Pro max is a beast, and its size just screams about that. I don’t know how we went from small 3.5 inch iPhones to 6.7 inch tablets. 14 Pro Max is so much larger than a regular 14 Pro.

14 Pro Max is a straight road towards getting swollen hands, and destroyed pockets… I'm exaggerating but still. It’s a two-hand phone at all times. 14 Pro, however, is very comfortable. It’s still bulky sometimes, but totall manageable. So yes, if you value comfort – 14 Pro is your man. 

Watching experience is crucial. Display size, brightness, resolution, etc. Both screens are incredibly bright and go up to 2000 nits outdoors, have P3 color, and support 120 Hertz.

Despite my love for the smaller iPhones, the size is everything. 14 Pro Max’s massive 6.7 inch screen is just better. It’s sheer size makes everything look better, more true-to-life.

Watching videos, movies, and simply browsing the web is much more convenient on 14 Pro Max. Once you taste it once, you can’t go back.

After I’ve spent some time with 14 Pro Max it took me a while to get used to a smaller screen of 14 Pro. No matter what other people say – size matters.

Don’t get me wrong – both displays are fantastic, but pro max just pulls it off slightly better. But surely, if you’re used to smaller screens, going straight for Pro Max might be a bit of a stretch for you.

You may think now that you SHOULD buy Pro Max just because of that screen, but I’m not done yet. That huge screen poses a real reachability issue while watching something.

Again, it’s a two-hand device, and watching everything with two hands makes the experience too similar to the one an iPad gives.

Playing games is another use case. I want to say that the gaming experience is identical, but it isn’t. Under the hood both phones pack the same 4 nanometer A16 chip with 6 gigs of ram. Performance-wise they’re identical, every synthetic test will confirm that.

But in games they perform differently. On one side 14 Pro is better for time-killers and one-handed games.

On the other hand, big games with lots of controls, like Genshin Impact or Call of Duty are much more enjoyable on the Pro Max. Bigger screens give more real estate for controls and just make everything bigger.

Call of Duty, as a very competitive online game, benefits the most from large screens – you see enemies clearer, and your fingers

obstruct less.

Plus, let’s not forget about throttling – Pro Max is physically bigger and has more space for heat dissipation. 14 Pro heats up really fast and dims the screen brightness almost straight away, but 14 Pro Max takes much longer to do that.

I have noticed that in some games 14 Pro Max doesn’t dim the screen at all, which is great news for all mobile gamers out there.

However, if you play games in bed, holding

your phone over your head, 14 Pro Max is much more likely to slip and leave a nasty mark.

How about going outdoors on a camping trip? I didn’t go myself, but managed to simulate the experience. What do we do on such trips? We shoot photos and videos, watch movies, and listen to music.

In other words – abuse the battery. Again, for the third time in a row 14 Pro Max gets a point. A regular 14 Pro has a 3200 mAh battery, and pro max has a 35 percent larger one – 4323 mAh.

As you may have guessed – a bigger battery

performs better. I don’t know what you have to do with your phone so the 14 pro max won’t last you a full day.

You’re watching videos for hours, playing games, shooting photos, and it just keeps going. 14 Pro turns off but pro max still has some juice left. Even with that always- on display.

Totally useless feature in my opinion, but it drains battery substantially. And even with always-on, the iPhone 14 Pro max wipes the floor with a regular 14 Pro.

This doesn’t mean 14 Pro has small battery

life, it outperforms many Android flagships with bigger batteries. It’s just not as good as you can get on 14 Pro Max. Great, but not as great. The battery on the 14 Pro Max is great, but you know what else is great? 

It may seem to you that 14 Pro Max is a no-brainer and 14 Pro must be ignored completely. But we haven’t talked about cameras and shooting videos.

No matter what you’re doing – a social media photography or pro-level mobile photography – both iPhones will perform absolutely identical. All camera modules are the same, algorithms are the same, so the results are the same.

You won’t get here the difference we had with 12 Pro Max and 12 Pro. On 14 Pro series iPhones Apple has updated the main sensor to 48 Mpix, and the quality of all images taken has improved dramatically. Especially if you’re shooting RAW.

That new 48 Mpix camera yields fantastic shots when shooting RAW – extremely detailed, perfectly colored, with amazing attention to textures, shadows, and amazing dynamic range.

I guess we all can appreciate how far the cameras have gone in the last couple of years. Even in 12 Mpix the shots look fantastic – the Photonic Engine knows how to process images for sure.

Low-light photography is particularly great – there’s much less noise than in last year’s iPhones, more details, better light source treatment. Plus, the results are consistent – you’re getting great shots at all times.

And the same goes to ultrawide and telephoto cameras. Updated ultrawide sensor and better processing on both do the trick.

All images produced are equally great. I can’t personally say that ultrawide is the pinnacle of technology, there is still room for improvement, but even what we have performs reliably great.

I just wish Apple had given a bigger, better sensor next year so the ultrawide would gather more light and more details. When it comes to video, both phones are identical again.

They both got upgraded 4K cinematic video and super smooth Action mode. Action mode performs identical and has one weakness – it’s not very detailed.

Cropped image and use of ultrawide by default doesn’t sound like good quality to me. And reality confirms that.

Oh, almost forgot – the selfie camera now has Autofocus and the images look even better. Phones still struggle sometimes with white balance and dynamic range, but at least all faces are in focus.

Summing up the cameras, both iPhones will never disappoint you. Everything you shoot will look amazing, trust me.

What about everyday use? Well, that’s something we all do, right? How’s the interface interaction and that Dynamic Island?

it’s hard to come up with unusual use cases, so this one will be very trivial and basic. And that’s where 14 Pro earns his points. Using it is much more comfortable, and all new features like Dynamic Island really spread their wings on smaller Pro iPhone.

The Dynamic Island is meant to be interacted with, and doing it on smaller 14 Pro is much easier. Reaching it doesn’t require using the reachability functions, and all interface elements are much more accessible.

Take anything – social media, browsing the web, or texting – 14 Pro is much more comfortable. 14 Pro Max gives bigger buttons and text, but nothing can beat the comfort of reaching everything with one hand.

When it comes to fluidity and interface performance – both iPhones are equally magnificent. 120 Hertz screens make every scroll a true pleasure, and a fast processor opens apps faster than you think.

But I will give a point to a regular 14 Pro simply because it’s much more comfortable in everyday use. So, is there anything else to discuss?

I guess it’s time for conclusions. If I was to choose between 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max I would take….14 Pro.

This small phone packs all the features as its big brother, but has no size-related disadvantages.

Yes, the battery is smaller, but you will rarely notice that simply because everyone puts their phone to charge overnight.

And the price – let’s not forget that 14 Pro costs 1 thousand dollars and 14 Pro max – 1100 dollars. 100 dollars does give you a much bigger phone with beefier battery and larger screen, but you lose comfort and usability. For a thousand dollars 14 Pro is a better deal in my opinion.

If you don’t agree with me, feel free to write your opinions in the comments below. Thank you for reading at Vemuda Techno, and see you in the next one!

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