iPhone 16 Pro Max

I’ve read the spin and played around with the new iPhone 16 Pro Max for a couple of weeks now.

It’s always hard not to be impressed by a shiny new thing and this is no exception. But you might want to cool your heels before rushing out to buy one.

The bad news is that buyers will have to wait for software upgrades until later this year or even early next year before they can take full advantage of the iPhone 16 Pro’s many new features.

The good news is that, as we have come to expect from Apple, the design and build quality is impeccable — and I’m sure, once the tech heads iron out the last bugs in the new upcoming features, they will be amazing.

I love the elegant and durable micro-blasted titanium frame.

The phone has a beautiful 6.9 inch OLED display with crisp vibrant colours and deep blacks. It runs on iOS 18 and is powered by a new A18 Pro chip, which handles everything you ask of it with ease.

The cameras are as good at it gets in the smartphone world. It has a 48MP fusion camera, a 48MP ultra wide camera, and a 5x telephoto camera. The new 48MP fusion camera has a faster, more efficient quad-pixel sensor that can read data 2x faster, enabling zero shutter lag for 48MP ProRAW or HEIF photos and it has a 2x optical-quality telephoto option, so you can get closer to the subject.

The 48MP ultra wide camera also features a quad-pixel sensor with autofocus, and the 12MP 5x telephoto camera now comes on both iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max.

The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max can shoot 4K 120 fps video recording in Dolby Vision — the highest resolution and frame-rate combination ever available on iPhone, and a smartphone first. It also has a new feature in the camera app called Spatial which allows users to capture 3D video, audio and stills for an even more immersive viewing and listening experience. This is achieved by combining images captured by the two 48MP cameras but is best enjoyed with the new Apple Vision Pro goggles.

One of the much hyped features of the iPhone 16 Pro is the new Camera Control button which Apple touts as a clever new way to access the camera tools — and eventually a whole heap of other stuff.

A click of the button takes you straight from your locked screen and into the camera app. Another click will take a photo or start a video recording.

It’s fast and easy — but the best part of the new feature needs some further refinement in my opinion.

The idea is that, with a light press of the button, you can toggle between camera controls like exposure, aperture and zoom and adjust them by sliding your finger up and down on the button. It’s a nice plan but it takes me a while to get the feel for it — and even then, just when I think I have it sussed, it plays tricks on me again.

It just seems too fiddly, and I find myself going back to using the tried and tested on-screen controls and adjustments.

At the risk of sounding like a cynical old man — the button strikes me as a bit gimmicky and even unnecessary — something new for the sake of having something new.

We have always been able to get into the camera app by a swipe left on the screen or a touch of the camera icon at the bottom right of the screen — and we’ve always been able to use the volume up or down button to take a picture as well as the button on the screen. Is it really necessary to reinvent the wheel?

That said, I might end up eating humble pie because, later this year, the new Camera Control button will unlock new visual intelligence features to help users learn about objects and places faster than ever before.

Apple says users will be able to click and hold Camera Control button to pull up the hours or ratings for a restaurant they pass, add an event from a flyer to their calendar or identify a dog by breed. Camera Control will also serve as a gateway into third-party tools with specific domain expertise, like when users want to search Google to find where they can buy an item, or to benefit from ChatGPT’s problem-solving skills.

And — the integration of Apple Intelligence will allow Siri to draw on a user’s personal context to deliver intelligence that is tailored to them. It will also gain onscreen awareness to understand and take action with users’ content, as well as take hundreds of new actions in and across Apple and third-party apps.

Other new stuff

The latest-generation Photographic Styles allows users to express their creativity and customise their photos by locally adjusting colour, highlights and shadows in real time. The new styles have a deeper understanding of skin undertones, so users can personalise how they appear in photos. Unlike filters, which often use a one-size-fits-all approach by adding a colour to an entire scene, adjustments are applied to specific colours of a selected style.

Google and Samsung users have had a magic eraser on their phones for a while now and Apple have finally promised a new Clean Up tool that can identify and remove distracting objects in the background of a photo without altering the subject. However, like some of the other new features, it’s not there yet.

The verdict

Overall, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is a decent upgrade and I’m sure it will tempt many new and existing Apple users. It may not offer many real groundbreaking features compared with last year’s model, but it does offers better performance and some good camera enhancements, especially for those using older models like the iPhone 12 Pro.

I do think it’s a little rich to ask buyers of the new phone to wait for so many of the “new” features — so unless you’re busting for a new phone, I’d cool my heels a few months until they can deliver the full package.

iPhone 16 Pro Max is available in five colours: black, white, pink, teal and ultramarine and costs from $2149. For more information on it and the other iPhone 16 models, head to apple.com/au.

+ The iPhone 16 Pro Max was lent to Mogens Johansen by Apple. They have not seen or influenced this story prior to publication.