Today we will compare the new iPhone 15 Pro Max with the previous model: the iPhone 14 Pro Max. The new iPhone will be remembered for the switch to a USB-C port and its new periscope camera, but if you don’t care about those things, the 14 Pro Max seems like a great device though.
Apple may not sell you the one-year-old iPhone 14 Pro Max directly, but it’s still available at various retailers, so you might be wondering if you can save a little money and buy this one instead. If so, you’re in the right place! Let’s find out!
Let’s start by comparing the full spec sheets here.
Size comparison
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is slightly shorter and narrower than the 14 Pro Max due to thinner screen bezels. But the biggest difference is that it is almost 20g lighter thanks to the new construction. The titanium frame is lighter than the stainless steel used on the 14 Pro Max. The edges of the frame are also more rounded and thanks to these changes the new 15 Pro Max feels much lighter and less bulky than the previous model.
Other than that, the two iPhones have identical designs. Both offer flat bezels and flat glass sides with a particularly huge camera housing. The titanium models have less attractive (monochrome-like) paints, while the 14 Pro Max can be purchased in purple, silver, gold, or black.
iPhones are marketed for their ceramic glass screen above the display, co-developed with Corning. Both devices have this along with identical Gorilla Glass panels on the back.
Both phones have an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance and are designed to withstand a depth of 6 meters.
The latest tests show that the 14 Pro Max and 15 Pro Max have equally strong glass panels, refuting claims that the 15 Pro Max has a weaker structure. Of course, it is always a matter of pure chance that one falls, well, rather, to the ground.
Aesthetically, both flagships are incredibly beautiful, although the lighter body is a welcome improvement.
View the comparison
Both iPhones appear to have identical OLEDs and are certainly among the best on the market right now.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max has the brighter display, but slightly beats the 14 Pro Max – 1787 nits vs 1760 nits in auto mode and 846nits versus 828nits with manual control.
Both screens offer incredibly accurate color calibration.
Both iPhones offer seemingly impressive adaptive refresh rates, but since Apple isn’t transparent in its implementation, we can only rely on the advertised numbers.
Finally, iPhones support both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision streaming.
Battery life
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is powered by a 4,441 mAh battery, while the iPhone 14 Pro Max has a slightly smaller 4,323 mAh cell.
As expected, both iPhones offer identical battery life scores. iPhone 15 Pro Max achieved a total endurance score of 118 hours, while 14 Pro Max – 121 hours.
Web browsing and video playback are identical, but the 14 Pro Max offers slightly better talk time.
Charging speed
The iPhone 15 Pro Max and 14 Pro Max are officially rated for 20W wired fast charging, although in some cases they are reported to max out at 27W. Wireless charging goes up to 15W via MagSafe charger.
Having similar batteries and charging capabilities means almost identical charging performance, which is disappointing but will presumably help extend battery life.
Reverse wireless charging is not available on both models.
Test the speakers
The iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 14 Pro Max both come with hybrid stereo speaker setups with a dedicated bottom-firing speaker for one channel and an amplified earpiece for the other. Channels are switched on the fly to match the phone’s orientation, while the headset gets the left channel in portrait orientation.
Both phones offer the same speaker volume – they scored very good in our test. And both offer extraordinarily rich and deep audio quality.
Performance
The Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max has the best chip Apple has made so far: the Apple A17 Pro, while the iPhone 14 Pro Max has the company’s second-best chip: the Apple A16 Bionic. Both feature custom 6-core processors and custom Apple GPUs, with the A17 Pro having 6 cores, while the one inside the A16 has 5 cores.
Apple says the CPU’s high-speed cores are 10 percent faster than those in the A16 Bionic. The new GPU is also expected to be 20% faster than its predecessor in terms of maximum performance. The GPU also enables hardware-accelerated Ray Tracing, which is supposedly 4x faster than the A16 Bionic’s software-based Ray Tracing.
iPhones come with top-notch hardware and can run just about anything you find on the App Store without any problems. The CPU and GPU performance improvements are indeed what Apple promised, although we doubt users will notice the difference in years to come.
So, as far as raw performance goes, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is a little faster, but in real-life scenarios, the 14 Pro Max will remain just as fast in most cases.
Camera comparison
Both the iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 14 Pro Max have four cameras each: three on the back and a selfie camera. Each of these setups is further assisted by a LiDAR system (rear) and a 3D ToF camera (front).
The main cameras are 48 MP, while the remaining – ultrawide, telephoto, selfie – 12 MP. The iPhone 15 Pro Max offers a longer zoom range with its 5x telephoto lens, while the 14 Pro Max maxes out at 3x magnification.
The main camera of the iPhone 15 Pro Max is better as it can shoot at 24 MP and because of this offers more details, less sharpness and, overall, less processing and a more natural look. When set to 12MP, however, the photos are completely identical on both iPhones.
The 2x zoom and ultrawide photos are of similar quality on both iPhones.
Of course, the 14 Pro Max does better at 3x zoom because it has a dedicated 3x telephoto lens. Surprisingly, it does a good job even at 5x digital zoom, and the image lacks just a little detail compared to the 15 Pro Max’s 5x and its true 5x camera.
iPhone 15 Pro Max: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x • 5x • 1x in 12MP
iPhone 14 Pro Max: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x • 5x
The same can be said for low-light photos: the 24MP output of the 15 Pro Max’s main camera is more detailed, 2x and ultrawide photos are identical, and 3x are better on the iPhone 14 Pro Max, while the 5x are much better on the 15 Pro Max.
iPhone 15 Pro Max: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x • 5x
iPhone 14 Pro Max: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x • 5x
Video recording
Finally, we can draw similar conclusions for video recording. 4K video from all cameras except telephoto cameras is on par. 3x zooms are the real deal when shooting on the 14 Pro Max, while 5x on the 15 Pro Max.
4K screenshot of iPhone 15 Pro Max: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x • 5x
4K screenshot of iPhone 15 Pro Max: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x • 5x
Overall, both iPhones are great cameraphones. They are quite similar when it comes to main, ultrawide and even selfie cameras. The iPhone 15 Pro Max shoots with a 5x zoom, while the 14 Pro Max – with a 3x zoom. And this is all.
Verdict
There’s a $150-$250 price difference between the 256GB iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone 15 Pro Max models, and about $350 between the base 256GB iPhone 15 Pro Max and the iPhone 14 Pro Max 128GB base.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max outperforms the 14 Pro Max with a lighter body and a longer 5x camera zoom. There’s also a much more universal USB-C port.
On the other hand, the previous 14 Pro Max model is not only cheaper, but its stainless steel arguably looks better and its shorter 3x zoom isn’t overlooked when it comes to taking 5x photos either. And if you don’t need to capture ProRes video to external storage and everyone around you has an iPhone, you won’t worry about getting stuck on the now-retired Lightning port.
Long story short: If you can find a good deal on the 14 Pro Max and you don’t care about the USB-C port and you don’t mind the weight of the stainless steel chassis, then you should save some money and buy this one. If you already own one and are happy with it, there’s no real reason to upgrade.
Photographers on the move will find the iPhone 15 Pro Max to be the best companion for its high-resolution photos, 5x optical zoom with an innovative lens and the ability to capture ProRes video directly to external memory. Plus, USB 3.2 transfer speeds will be very welcome for larger files. So choose wisely.
- Better hand feel thanks to the lighter body and rounded corners.
- The best 24MP photos and the best photos and videos with 5x zoom.
- Faster A17 Pro chipset.
- The universal USB-C port with USB 3.2 transfer speeds and advanced connectivity options.
Get the iPhone 15 Pro Max for:
- Probably the most luxurious look.
- Its excellent photo and video quality with 3x zoom and reasonable quality with 5x.
- The price much cheaper.
- The Lighting port for the convenience of sharing chargers and accessories with older iPhone users.
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