Frankly, Android and iOS are closer than ever — especially when comparing the iPhone toGoogle’s Pixel 8— and knowing what makes the competition so desirable to the average US consumer is crucial to understanding how Android OEMs can improve. And so, in the spirit of David Ruddock’s previous in-depth iPhone explorations, let’s look at what Apple got right on its top-tier iPhone this year — and what it got, let’s say, not so right.
iPhone 15 Pro Max
If you’re looking to jump ship, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is the most Android-like phone Apple’s ever released. With USB-C, a customizable button, and a new titanium build, it’s an impressive piece of hardware. But iOS remains a limited space that might feel a little too restrictive for most Android expats.
Availability and network
There’s an Apple Store near you
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is available, well, pretty much everywhere. It’s on virtually every carrier, major and minor, and it’s sold in any big box store that carries electronics. You can also buy the phone directly from Apple, online or through one of its many retail stores.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max starts at $1,200, which sounds like a price increase compared to its predecessor until you consider its 256GB entry-level model, up from 128GB in 2022. A 512GB model will run you $1,400, while the 1TB model is a whopping $1,600. It comes in Black, White, Blue, and Natural Titanium.
Design and display
Have you heard about titanium?
I’m of two minds on Apple’s latest design. On the one hand, this is likely the nicest iPhone hardware the company has put out in ages, bringing back memories of the iPhone 5S from a decade ago. Apple kept the square design of the last couple of generations, but with a softer, rounded edge along the back of the phone. Combined with the new matte finish for the frame, this is the most comfortable an iPhone has felt to hold caseless in ages.
On the other hand, in a year when we’ve seen some real innovation in Android hardware, it’s tough to be excited about Apple’s boring design philosophy anymore. TheMotorola Razr+andSamsung Galaxy Z Flip 5brought external displays to clamshells, marking an eye-catching, useful design change. TheOnePlus Openhas, against all odds, become one of my favorite smartphones of the year, thanks to its lack of compromises in big-screen foldables. Even standard slabs saw improvements; while Samsung and Google largely stuck to the status quo, I quite liked the looks of niche phones like the Asus Zenfone 10 or Moto Edge+.
Apple’s hardware still feels top-notch — really, only Samsung rivals the company for fit and finish — but this design language is feeling long in the tooth. I hate the glossy triad camera bump, which seems perfectly designed to trap dust from your pocket that no amount of microfiber cloths can ever remove. The notch — sorry, Dynamic Island — is a solid attempt at making display cutouts useful, though it suffers from underbaked software. Everything just feels so stale, even when compared to Android phones suffering the same affliction. It’s a safe, trusty design, but it feels so anonymous.
Titanium is what I’m supposed to be excited about this year — tune into any NFL game, and you’ll be inundated with ads from Apple and carriers alike, all making sure to mention the materials used in making this phone. And look, I’m not jaded enough not to admit it’s a nice addition. The iPhone 15 Pro Max is noticeably lighter than its predecessor; it remains a large phone, but far less unwieldy.
And yet, it’s easy to forget about Apple’s change in materials after a few days — or, if you’re like the vast majority of smartphone shoppers, once you slide it into a case. It also, depending on your color choice, makes the phone more vulnerable to damage. Within an hour of taking the iPhone 15 Pro Max out of its box, I had a nick in the PVD coating near the top of the phone. It’s never out of my eyesight, mocking me for choosing the Blue Titanium finish over Apple’s natural option.
Obviously, this is a design that the vast population of smartphone shoppers are drawn to, but I just don’t get it. No matter what it’s made of, it’s a slab, same as it ever was.
The display, however, remains one of the best you can buy on a smartphone today, if notthebest. It’s a 6.7-inch OLED panel with a 2796x1290 resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate, and 1,000 nits of brightness — 2,000 nits in high brightness mode. That’s impressive, going toe-to-toe with the displays found on Samsung and Google devices, and although those nit levels differ, I wouldn’t stress too much. Everything from photos to movies to games look great on this thing. And like last year’s devices, it also supports an always-on display.
If that sounds reductive, it’s because it’s difficult to complain about a screen of this quality. It’s not quite the brightest or sharpest on the market, but it’s as satisfying to look at as any other smartphone I’ve held this year.
Other hardware and what’s in the box
Lights, camera, Action button
Aside from titanium, the big addition to the iPhone 15 Pro Max this year — outside the camera, of course — is the Action button,something every Android phone should steal. Apple swapped the mute switch that has existed in some form since the first-gen iPhone in 2007 for a multi-purpose button instead. Out of the box, it still acts as a mute switch, but dive into settings, and you’ll find a surprisingly out-of-place visual experience capable of changing its functions to whatever you want.
As it stands, though, the Action button feels a little unfinished, even after two months on the market. All of the preset options work fine — flashlight, camera, voice memos, and so on — and the ability to assign a Siri Shortcut to this button opens up some powerful tricks if you’re willing to put in some work. But for all the ways you can trigger a button, Apple has frustratingly limited this to justonetool. Activating whatever you’ve assigned is done through a press and hold, despite the fact that double or triple taps would allow for additional commands.
What even is this UI, Apple?
I’d hoped Apple would add more options post-launch, similar to how it fixed some big complaints surrounding the always-on display first found on the iPhone 14 Pro Max last year. Alas, if some big changes are coming to the Action button, they aren’t here yet. And while I’m happy to have quick access to the camera without relying on the lock screen shortcut, I still miss the option to swap my ringer on while I’m driving, something I can’t do now that it’s hidden behind quick settings.
The Action button feels a little unfinished, even after two months on the market.
I’ve always been a fan of Apple’s buttons, and the ones used on the iPhone 15 Pro Max are no exception. No wobble, perfect clickiness. It’s a small touch that continues to set Apple apart from, say, the Pixel 8 Pro. Haptics are excellent as well, though I’ve found Google and Samsung have effectively caught up to the iPhone’s lead here. I don’t feel a noticeable difference between this device and top-tier Android flagships, which wasn’t true just five years ago.
A USB-C revolution
USB-C is here, complete with 3.2 Gen 2 speeds on the Pro models. As someone who usually has three phones on him at any given time, it’s a relief to finally ditch the handful of Lightning cables I kept in my office for a single device. I would’ve loved to see Thunderbolt speeds here, but I’d be lying if I said I’d use them more than once or twice a month. Really, I’m just happy to be one step closer to a one-cable lifestyle for the dozens of smartphones lining my desk.
This pill-shaped space remains incredibly distracting.
Although the Pixel 8 Pro’s face unlock feature supports Class 3 biometrics, Apple still has Google beat here. Face ID works with sunglasses, at night, and, with a little extra work, when wearing a mask — all situations in which the Pixel struggles. Even as Android devices continue to catch up with improved front-facing cameras, they still can’t compete with dedicated sensors.
That doesn’t stop me from mostly disliking the Dynamic Island. Yes, the software tricks Apple puts into play are useful — my fantasy football scores are constantly plastered along the top of the screen come Sunday afternoon, and it seems like the entire iPhone 15 lineup gaining this feature really put devs into overtime when it comes to adding support for this tool, too. But compared to camera cutouts on Android, this pill-shaped space remains incredibly distracting, specifically when watching video.
In the box, you’ll find a USB-C to USB-C charging cable, the iPhone itself, and the usual roundup of paperwork. And yes, that includes an Apple sticker.
Software and performance
iOS is better than ever — but is that enough?
How does one even go about reviewing iOS on an Android-centric site? I guess I’ll start by stating my previous opinions on the platform. Although I prefer Google’s vision for what makes a mobile operating system so good — whatever that is these days, considering the Pixel experience is completely different from “stock” Android — I’d be lying to you if I said I found iOS unusably bad. The truth is that Apple’s mobile operating system has alotmore in common with Android than you might think. In some ways, it actually improves.
Let me start there before I harp on Apple’s notification management. There are a lot of little things in iOS that I find handy, tools not available on every Android phone. Double-tap the power button to access Apple Pay. Although I wish it was customizable, I find it so much faster than any lock screen shortcuts — and the Action button makes it easy to map the camera elsewhere anyway. The App Store, in general, is much easier to navigate and find actual new releases or recommendations. Yes, it’s filled with plenty of garbage, just like the Play Store, but Google has a bad habit of surfacing that stuff to the front page. That’s not quite as true on the iPhone.
I like the iOS share sheet — I expect that to be controversial, but I occasionally find Google’s design a littletoooverwhelming with immediate prompts and suggestions. I like the design of Android Auto far more than CarPlay, but I also run into far fewer bugs with Apple’s auto-friendly UI, and when you’re talking about a way to safely use your phone on the road, that matters. And hey, why not shout out that little-known app called iMessage. I find some of its features pretty handy when messaging with other iPhone users, and I’m sure it’ll finally catch on whenApple enables RCS in 2024.
And as far as similarities go, 90 percent of what I currently use my daily driver for is here. My days of staying up until 4 AM in college to root a phone or install a new ROM are long gone. Now, my phone is either meant for organizing my to-do list for AP or listening to a podcast. Occasionally, it’s both at the same time.
Suffice to say, notifications are as bad as ever.
But okay, yes, iOS has some massive flaws — it almost feels silly to point them out, they’re so old hat. Home screen customization is atrocious. The inability to actually place icons where I’d like is stupid, and the way Apple introduced “icon customization” a couple of years ago would make me tear my hair out if I had any interest in trying it out. The App Library is a gigantic failure, an attempt to remix Android’s app drawer without just implementing what works on the rival platform.
Home screens and the AppDrawerLibrary
And yes, notifications. This is so well-known that even bringing up this topic feels like beating a dead horse. Suffice it to say, they’re as bad as ever. I frequently miss notifications on iOS because of its bad habit to hide older content in Notification Center, which requires multiple swipes to find. Groups are also awkward and hard to navigate, meaning everything always feels a little sloppy. Some notifications group together fine, while others split off into their own spaces. It makes very little sense to me, and I’d kill for Apple to just copy what Google built into Android.
I know this section is a little long in the tooth, but I just need to call out how terrible autocorrect is on iOS. One of the features Apple announced on stage in 2023 for iOS 17 was improved autocorrection. You do not need to look hard to find people online saying it’s worse than ever, and they’re right. Apple’s keyboard will change correct words that make sense in context into complete gibberish. It will change words seconds after you’ve typed them, giving you no chance even to notice something has changed. It will change the final word in a sentence as you hit send on a message.
Folks, stop making fun of your iPhone-owning friends and their typos. They can’t control it. It is completely out of their hands, short of, you know, moving to Android.
All of this, plus the closed-off nature of the OS that will undoubtedly frustrate people from the jump are reasons. Frankly, I do sideloading pretty infrequently these days, and it’s bound to arrive on iOS in the future (even if it’s limited to Europe). I already joked about it, but RCS is coming next year, presumably in iOS 18.
A game console in your pocket
Round these parts, I usually rely on games like Genshin Impact to get a feel for how a phone does under pressure. With the iPhone 15 Pro Max, I get to try out a port of Resident Evil Village. Even before we talk performance, that alone feels like a massive jump in expectations over the litany of free-to-play games you’ll find on Android. I have no idea if full-fledged console ports will catch on on iOS, but it shows an eagerness Apple is approaching games with that I don’t see from Google. I’d like that to change throughout 2024.
As for how Resident Evil Village plays here, I have no complaints. I’d recommendchecking out Digital Foundry’s videoon the subject if you want a deep technical dive into how it compares to other platforms. I’ll keep my analysis simple: this 2021 AAA video game runs on a handheld device that lacks a fan at framerates at or above 60FPS. It looks pretty good, especially on a screen this small where textures don’t need to be up to par with what you’d expect on a massive display.
Unsurprisingly, the phone gets pretty hot — especially when you’re pushing it at full resolution — and the on-screen controls are terrible, but something like the Backbone One fixes both of these issues in one fell swing. I played through the game’s opening without any major issues besides the expected battery drain. Although I still think Resident Evil Village is a game that works best on a big display, I’m excited about what this means for the future of console games on mobile.
Outside of gaming, I really have no complaints about the performance of the iPhone 15 Pro Max. I never found the UI stuttering or freezing up on me, which I’ve encountered on older iPhones. This is a flagship phone through and through, and Apple’s silicon is as revered as it is, with good reason.
As good as it is boring
The iPhone 15 Pro Max’s camera is a strange beast. It’s about as dependable as I find the Pixel’s camera at capturing solid shots of the world around me, without any kind of massive shutter lag. Daytime, low light — the scene really doesn’t matter. The iPhone, like the Pixel 8 Pro, can do it.
But most of the photos I capture are missing a certain spark, aje ne sais quoiaspect that keeps mobile photography interesting. Shooting with this iPhone feels, for lack of a better word, boring. Everything comes out a little drab, a little uninteresting. I’m actually disappointed in a handful of my sample shots, which came out looking oversharpened. But, at the same time, it’s produced a handful of my favorite photos of my catsever, so let’s call it even. Check out these samples.
I’m not much of an ultrawide person, and that continues here. I appreciate that, like on this year’s Pixel 8 Pro, using this mode makes a huge difference compared to what you’ll find on lesser devices, but I struggle to find a space in my daily life where I’m really looking to crop outward in images.
Ultrawide samples.
Zooming, however, is a different story. I appreciate how easy Apple makes it to crop in using its main sensor — now marked with 24mm, 28mm, and 35mm options by default. These shots and the 2x crop all look great; I struggle to see any missing detail. you may opt to set a default crop in settings as well, so if you prefer starting your images at 35mm (or 1.5x crop), you can.
The 5x telephoto lens, however, left me feeling a little less enthusiastic. It’s probably about as dependable as the periscope lens on the Pixel 8 Pro, but it struggled in low-light situations more often than Google'’s device. Digitally zooming in only gets you up to 25x — failing to match the Pixel’s 30x Super Res Zoom — and both quality and image stabilization miss out on beating the competition.
I’m glad Apple finally jumped to a more useful zoom lens, but I just feel like the quality isn’t quite there compared to Android OEMs, who have been using this sort of hardware for far longer.
More samples.
Video quality, however, is second to none. This is no secret; Apple has long been leading the charge for mobile videography, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. Even on basic out-of-the-box defaults, you’re getting great video, like this shot I captured in Maui earlier this year. It even pulls double-duty as the perfect example of how well OIS works when recording since XDA’s Rich Woods and I were riding on the back of a golf cart together. Whether in direct sunlight or in the shadows, everything looks clean.
Aside from video, though, I find getting excited about most of these shots difficult. In a world filled with relatively boring camera systems, Apple’s might just take the cake.
Battery life
A multi-day battery champ… for now
Would it surprise you to learn the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s battery life is pretty great? With a couple of exceptions, Apple has proven itself a battery champ in the smartphone world, usually reaching OnePlus levels of endurance without relying on over-the-top app hibernation. On most days, reaching six or seven hours of screen-on time is simple, and that’s with another 20 or 30 percent left. Put simply, this phone is built to last.
Although Apple — much like Google and Samsung — seems uninterested in adopting charging speeds faster than 27W,I’m as in love with MagSafeas the first time I tried it. That remains an advantage exclusive to the iPhone (at least without a case), though with Qi2 lingering on the horizon, it won’t be for much longer.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention some mysterious issues affecting iPhone 14 Pro models a year after that device hit the market. Battery degradation seemed to hit that phone far faster than it did in the past, though not at a consistent level. Apple, as usual, didn’t fess up to anything, nor did it promise any changes in this year’s lineup. With any luck, that rapid aging won’t be a problem this year — though buyers won’t know until it’s already too late.
Competition
What site am I on again?
Well, you’re on an Android site, right? There’s plenty of competition to be had here, and with a year’s worth of hardware on the horizon, your choices feel pretty endless.
I’ve always found the Pixel series to be the most iPhone-like Android device on the market, and that’s especially true with thePixel 8 Pro. Although you may find devices with far more flexibility, the experience Google offers — from its launchers to its ever-expanding ecosystem — feels like something right out of Apple’s playbook. It’s more restrictive than what you’ll find on, say, Samsung devices (particularly if you stick to the stock launcher), but these days, that level of stability might feel right to some users.
I’ve always found the Pixel series to be the most iPhone-like Android device on the market.
Those comparisons continue onward into the camera system on the Pixel 8 Pro, which I found matched or beat the iPhone 15 Pro Max in most situations. Video capture is still leagues above what Google’s offering at this moment, though, and if I’m being perfectly honest, the camera UI on iOS is far easier to navigate than Google’s recently redesigned app. But I’m nitpicking here — I’m a big fan of the Pixel 8 Pro, and I think anyone even thinking of jumping ship to Apple will be too. Unless, you know, you’ve been burnt by buggy Pixel experiences in the past.
Of course, if you’re after an iOS device, you don’t have a ton of competition as far as premium iPhones go. Until next September, this isthepro-level iPhone. Thanks to its lesser telephoto lens, even the smaller iPhone 15 Pro can’t compete. And although Android devices exist at basically every price level, Apple really keeps its prices pretty high. Outside the third-gen iPhone SE — which, frankly, is feeling pretty long in the tooth, especially from a design perspective — the iPhone 13 remains the cheapest smartphone sold by Apple, for a whopping $600.
Should you buy it?
Do youwantto buy it?
At the end of the day, I mostly like the iPhone 15 Pro Max. It’s a reliable smartphone, a true jack of all trades. The camera is good; the hardware lives up to its price tag, and the quality-of-life improvements here — including a lower overall weight and USB-C — make it one of the most accessible iPhones in years. Even iOS mostly stays out of my way these days, something that feels borderline blasphemous to say ‘round these parts.
But can I, writing for an Android-centric website, tell you to drop your Pixel 8 Pro or Galaxy S23 Ultra to run out and buy Apple’s latest hardware? Not particularly. Samsung — and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Google — have caught up on the hardware front, with phones that look and feel as premium as any iPhone before it. Their cameras are more flexible and fun to shoot with, even if video quality can’t measure up. And iOS still has plenty of quirks guaranteed to drive ex-Android die-hards mad — youwillmiss notifications and be mad every time it happens.
Frankly, the smartphone industry is in a lull. Devices are as excellent as they’ve ever been on both sides of the fence, which makes it far easier to dig your heels in on whichever ecosystem you’ve already picked. Swapping to an iPhone might sound like a way to reinvigorate your love of gadgets, but frankly, I think users bored by the concept of modern smartphones are better off looking at foldables for something novel. And if you’re perfectly happy with your Android phone as it is, I’m not sure you’ll find much on iOS that leaves you feeling grateful for the swap — you know, give or take an iMessage.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is the latest and greatest from Apple, with a slick new SoC that can handle console games and a new telephoto camera that finally uses periscope technology. It also finally adds USB-C, so you won’t be carrying a Lightning cable around with you anymore. These upgrades all come together to make one compelling package.
