iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 16 Pro Max – Key Differences

Even though the new iPhone 16 Pro Max is definitely one of the best smartphones for shooters, it's safe to say that it's not a big improvement over the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

If you already have an iPhone 15 Pro Max, you might not need to rush to get the newest model. If you're coming from an even older model, you might be able to save money by getting the 15 Pro Max instead of the 16 Pro Max. This is especially true if you can find something used.

This article will compare the iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 16 Pro Max to its predecessor, with a focus on the camera and shooting features. The camera specs on the iPhone 16 Pro Max are the same as those on the smaller iPhone 16 Pro, so you can also use that model as a reference.

iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 16 Pro Max Specs:

The camera specs for both types are, for the most part, very identical. The only places where the two are different are marked, and they're not very many.

Both the main camera and the zoom camera look like they were on the phone last year. The selfie camera is also the same. The ultrawide now has a better resolution, but that's all there is to it. For the iPhone 16 Pro Max, the screen is now bigger, but you might think it's gone too far and is now too big (that's how I felt). If you do, you can get the iPhone 16 Pro instead, which has a 6.3-inch screen and the same 3 cameras.

Because the screen is bigger, the body is bigger and heavier, but the battery lasts a little longer than before.

Aside from that, the slightly better processor makes a difference, which could be important for people who shoot high-quality video.

As of this writing, Apple Intelligence has not been fully rolled out, but it was announced along with the iPhone 16 Pro Max. You can try it out in Beta form. But the iPhone 15 Pro line will also get this, so it's not really a change.

A lot of the default camera apps haven't changed between the two devices. The latest generation of Photographic Styles, on the other hand, lets you change the way your photos look and makes it easier to make your own styles. Even though this is a software update, Apple has not yet made it available on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. This may change in the future, though.

Adding the new "Camera Control" button is another difference that needs to be brought up at this point. In my separate reviews of the iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 16 Pro Max, I wrote more about this. In essence, this is a new button that lets you quickly reach the camera and a different way to open the lens. Some people might really like it, but I'm not so sure, and I don't think it's worth getting a new phone for. 

The iPhone 16 Pro Max seems like a more gradual improvement over the iPhone 15 Pro Max, at least when it comes to specs. But will there be any big changes when we compare the same scenes shot on both phones?

iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 16 Pro Max Design and Display:

The iPhone 16 Pro Max looks a lot like the iPhone 15 Pro Max; it's just a bit bigger.

There is a bigger screen on the iPhone 16 Pro Max than on any other iPhone. The new 6.9-inch screen was very sharp and engaging in our study, in part because the bezels are now thinner. The iPhone 15 Pro Max, on the other hand, has the same 6.7-inch screen size as the three versions before it.

With this bigger screen, the iPhone 16 Pro Max has a slightly better quality than the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which is 2796 x 1290. In other words, both phones have the same 460ppi screen density.

The only real change between the two pieces is their size. Both screens are OLED and have an adjustable 1-120Hz refresh rate, which Apple calls "ProMotion." They can both reach a maximum brightness of 2,000 nits outside and 1,600 nits inside for HDR content, and they both have the Dynamic Island and an Always-On display that can be turned on or off. 

Still, the two phones have slightly different sizes because of the different screen sizes. The smaller borders on the iPhone 16 Pro Max help to lessen this effect. The iPhone 16 Pro Max is 163 mm long, 77.6 mm wide, and 8.25 mm thick. The iPhone 15 Pro Max is 159.9 mm long, 76.7 mm wide, and 8.25 mm thick.

There is also a brand-new Camera Control sensitive button on the bottom right of the iPhone 16 Pro Max. This button is perfectly set for taking pictures in landscape mode (more on that later).

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The two phones are mostly made of the same titanium and have a slightly rounded frame, a USB 3.0 port, power, volume, and Action buttons, down-firing speakers, and a thin speaker grille for stereo music and phone calls. Both are marked IP68 for dust and water resistance, which means they can handle any size of dust and can last for up to 30 minutes submerged in 1 meter of water.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max comes in the same colors as the iPhone 15 Pro Max: Black Titanium, White Titanium, and Natural Titanium. However, the Blue Titanium color from last year has been replaced with a new bronze-colored choice called Desert Titanium.

iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 16 Pro Max Image Quality:

The pictures I took with both the iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 16 Pro Max in a range of settings so that I could see how well they worked.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max is always on the left and the iPhone 16 Pro Max is always on the right.

Since the cameras on both types are pretty much the same, I thought that the picture quality would be about the same in most situations. Both works really well and take great pictures in a range of situations. There are some small changes between the old model and the new one, but it's not a big improvement by any means.

The only camera with a triple lens setup that has a different set of specs is the ultrawide. You might think there would be more clarity if it had 48MP instead of 12. In most situations, it's hard to tell if there is extra information or not. However, when there is less light, there is some extra noise, which is a shame.

The results are pretty much the same with the 1x camera. Both photos were taken on the normal color setting, but the colors look just a little different.

We can see that the 5x zoom lens seems to be working about the same way across the board.

How about macro? There might be a difference between these two since they both use the ultrawide lens to get close to the target. The effects are a little cleaner on the newer iPhone 16 Pro Max, but you have to zoom in pretty far on a big screen to really see that. Most people won't notice a big change between the two pictures when they look at them on their phone.

Both look great when there isn't much light. The dynamic range on the newer iPhone 16 Pro Max is a little better, which could mean that it's being handled a little better or in a more pleasing way. Strangely, though, the opposite is true when we compare the ultrawide lenses when there isn't much light. The effectiveness of the 5x lens is about the same, and the same is true for digital zooms. In low light, I probably wouldn't use any digital zooms at all.

Both phones work the same way in Portrait mode. It lets you choose between 1x, 2x, and 5x zoom. Both did a good job, but their performances were very identical. With the older iPhone 15 Pro Max, there seems to be a little more difference. This might be done so that you have more freedom to make changes to the files yourself using the new Photographic Styles or any other post-processing tools you choose.

The selfie camera is the same way—they're both very, very similar, but the iPhone 15 Pro Max might have a little more color on the screen.

iPhone 16 Pro Max vs iPhone 15 Pro Max Performance:

The iPhone 16 family is what Apple calls the "first iPhones designed from the ground up for Apple Intelligence." The intelligence is built into some of the phones' features.

The A18 Pro chipset is in both the iPhone 16 Pro Max and its "little" brother or sister, the iPhone 16 Pro. Apple says that the A18 Pro chipset is 15% faster at processing and 20% faster at graphics than the A17 Pro chipset that is in the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

When you look at it on paper, the A18 Pro and A17 Pro both have a 6-core CPU with 2 speed cores and 4 efficiency cores, a 6-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine for handling machine learning.

The A18 Pro can handle 17% more memory speed than the A17 Pro, which means it can handle more info in the same amount of time.

There are 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage choices for both phones, which each have 8GB of RAM. 

The software experience should be very similar between the iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 16 Pro Max. This is because both run iOS 18, and when they start with iOS 18.1, they will both be able to run all of Apple Intelligence's features.

We don't yet know how well Apple's AI suite will work on either phone because it came out at different times. The iPhone 16 Pro Max might have better AI performance because the A18 Pro chip has more memory speed. However, both phones use the same 16-core Neural Engine for machine learning jobs, so the difference probably isn't that noticeable.

iPhone 16 Pro Max vs iPhone 15 Pro Max Battery:

Apple is notoriously secretive about its products' battery capacities. The company never says the exact capacity in milliamp hours (mAh), instead quoting hours of battery life for different use cases. However, we now have some unofficial confirmation of the iPhone 16 series' battery capacities.

Apple says that the iPhone 16 Pro Max can play videos for 33 hours, which is 4 hours longer than the iPhone 15 Pro Max's claimed 29-hour playing time.

In our study of the iPhone 15 Pro Max, we found that it could handle a variety of tasks for 28 hours. This suggests that the battery life of its replacement will likely be just as good, though we won't know for sure until we test it.

The iPhone 16 series may be the first Apple smartphones to have 45W fast charging, but Apple hasn't confirmed this yet. Instead, the company says the iPhone 16 Pro Max can charge to 50% in 30 minutes using a 20W or higher wired charger or a 30W or higher MagSafe charger. This is the same claim that the company made about the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

As was already said, both phones can be charged wirelessly with Qi, and they can also be charged with MagSafe.

iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 16 Pro Max Price:

For the last few generations, Apple hasn't changed the price of the iPhone Pro models.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max costs more than the iPhone 16 Pro. Since all of the shots above could have been made with the iPhone 16 Pro, you might want to look into that if you want to save some money.

However, Apple has already stopped making the iPhone 15 Pro Max. In the US and UK, it was sold for the same price as the iPhone 16 Pro Max. It costs AU$50 more to get any of the older phone's storage choices in Australia.

Since the iPhone 16 came out, third-party sellers are currently selling the iPhone 15 Pro Max at a slightly lower price. Prices will likely drop even more as the year goes on.

But the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max may still be more popular and cost more than other Pro iPhones that have been retired because they will both support Apple Intelligence, Apple's set of AI tools and features.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max costs $1199/£1199 for 256GB, $1399/£1399 for 512GB, and $1599/£1599 for 1TB. The iPhone 16 Pro costs $999/£999 for 128GB, $1099/£1099 for 256GB, $1299/£1299 for 512GB, and $1499/£1499 for 1TB.

The iPhone 15 Pro series was no longer sold by Apple after the iPhone 16 Pro series was revealed. Of course, you can still get it from other stores and through contracts with different network companies. You can find it here sometimes for less than the iPhone 16 Pro/Max.

But it doesn't have a lot of features, so if you're upgrading from an older model and want a brand-new phone, you might as well get the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

The second-hand market is where you can save the most money. You can get a 256GB iPhone 15 Pro Max for about £750–£800, which makes it a much more appealing option. It's something to think about.

Of course, if you already have an iPhone 15 Pro Max, it makes sense to keep it. It will save you even more money.

Final Verdict:

So, what do we think now...

I'm not too surprised by this because Apple has been making iPhones that are just a little bit better than the last generation for a few generations now. There isn't a big change between the two types, though, making this one of the smoothest updates I've seen in a while.

If you already have an iPhone 15 Pro or Max, I think you should keep it. To be honest, I might want to keep your iPhone 14 Pro/Max too if you have one. If you're coming from an iPhone 13 Pro, you'll probably notice a bigger change. On the other hand, you could save a lot of money by buying a used iPhone 15 Pro Max and keeping it for a few generations.

Is the iPhone 16 Pro Max better than the iPhone 15 Pro Max? Yes, that's the short answer. The more complex answer, though, is yes, but not by a huge amount.

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