iPhone 18 Pro Max Review — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:00] Oh my god, I'm so done with this. Every year Apple does a flashy event, every year I buy a new iPhone, and every single year, after 10 minutes of setting it up, it looks the exact same. What were you expecting it to do? I think this is one of the best I've ever seen.

[00:13] I don't know, just something that doesn't involve me watching a 20 minute YouTube deep dive. Um, I mean literally right there in the middle of your screen. That's Dynamic Island this morning. Oh wow. My mind is aglow with the possibilities of an extra 1% of screen area.

[00:28] This was an example. I can give you three proper reasons, if you give me the chance, that are irrefutable. Okay, fine. I'll hear you out. But if you can't convince me, which you won't, then my iPhone buying spree ends today.

[00:41] Pressure's on. Well, let me start with an easy win, then. I assume you've tested the battery. In fact, what are we on right now? 56%. And we're almost approaching bedtime. What do you want me to say? Yeah, the battery's good, but battery life is a very solved problem at this point.

[00:55] I mean, how many phones are there now? how many Oppos and Xiaomi's and Divo's that actually have like 7,000mAh batteries. And you're here trying to make it seem like Apple just invented the battery itself because they have

[01:07] what 5,400? Oh you're not gonna like this. You weren't looking so I decided to secretly slip one of your precious Oppos into one of your battery tests. You did? What? Hang on,

[01:20] as soon as you do this. But do you wanna know what happened? It lost. The iPhone 18 Pro Max lasted 7 minutes longer than one of its 7,000 mAh-plus, world-leading silicon-carbon battery counterparts.

[01:32] This is a violation. Yes. Yes it was. And you want to know the fun part? The iPhone that I was using in that test is the smaller battery capacity, physical thin version. If I had the Easter model, it would have been a substantial lead. So this isn't just good battery for an iPhone.

[01:45] This is world-class because it's so efficient now. And the one side to this where Apple was, I'll admit, bottom of the pile, the charging, that's caught up too now. Now, don't start telling me that battery's not important. Alright, okay, fine.

[01:59] I've been slightly crooked. You can have battery, one point to you, congratulations. But that's an exception, because, I mean, what else even changed? Every event these days, they keep talking about thermal efficiency, but I've never had a thermal problem in my life.

[02:12] Even when gaming, they keep talking about power, but how many games of balloons do they think I'm running at once? And they are multiplying their AI performance, but do they not see how hilarious that sounds when they have literally the least sophisticated AI of any current smartphone?

[02:28] Like, what do you do? I can turn an astronaut into a dinosaur in Image Playground, or I can reframe this perfectly normal, real photograph of my family into an AI slot piece, because of course that's worth it for a better angle.

[02:41] But why am I still struggling with absolute basics, like being able to search for what I want in my settings, or my phone understanding my voice when I dictate to it? Apple said they just improved it, but still, why am I still struggling with absolute basics?

[02:56] It's actually self-corrected its own grammar. Okay, stop for a second, because that is exactly it. It's only if the thermals are working well that you don't notice them. You not ever worrying about thermals does not mean that Apple shouldn't worry about thermals.

[03:10] And in fact, you are benefiting, because your phone running cooler is actually just going to extend how long it lasts. And it's very clear that the new A20 Pro chip is able to push itself much harder now and it can only do that because it has adequate heat dissipation Yes but the point is why I was playing the latest Drift Racing game on my 18 Pro Max

[03:29] yesterday. It's a gorgeous game, and I was feeling for a second like maybe, just maybe, this purchase was worth it. So then I bumped into my friend, who, it turns out, was playing the exact same games perfectly on his 15 Pro Max. So every year when Apple gets on stage and they

[03:45] they show these beautiful gaming demos to try and convince you that you need the new chip, they're skinning over a very important detail, which is that they could have just played the exact same game on their last-gen chips. Let me ask you a question.

[03:57] Why didn't you try that game on a 14 for a night? Um, because I'm a saddo who has every single iPhone ready to go at all times? Three shits? But here's the thing. If you had, you'd have realised that actually, it does lag on that phone,

[04:11] and definitely doesn't run at the almost smooth 60 frames per second that the 15 gets. Literally, dude, why would I care about what's happening with the iPhone 14? You don't get it, do you? Even if your friend hadn't felt the benefit of the iPhone 15 Pro Max when he first bought it,

[04:26] him spending the extra then is the reason that he doesn't have to upgrade now. And in the same way, of course, no one needs an 18 Pro's power in this moment. But what Apple and every other phone maker is building with all this graphics potential,

[04:38] AI power, and thermal architecture is headroom. It's the ability to buy the current generation and then happily use it for three to four years without missing out on what's going to come in that time. Because they're forecasting that there will be demand for this tower.

[04:51] And this one in particular has a lot of headroom because of its next-gen 2nm chip. And guys, how many developers are you expecting to be making apps and games that require chips that no one has yet? The chips have to be in people's hands, right?

[05:04] Before developers are going to start working on software made around them. So violent. George, you're annoying. Fine. I'm grateful for the performance headroom. Are you happy now? But that is the last point you're getting out of me.

[05:18] There are just so many things about the iPhones that feel so stubborn. I mean, think about the headline features over the last few years. Don't think I've forgotten about Apple Intelligence, which has now basically become Google Intelligence, but glassy and delayed.

[05:33] Conveniently forgot to respond to that one, didn't you? An action button that actually requires more action to reach than just opening it up manually. Camera control. Hardly a good time when their most innovative idea two years in a row is

[05:45] this new button. Even Zany knows it sucks because they've physically disabled the capacitive layer by default. Oh, I got one. The titanium body. Yeah. Titanium body. What the hell was

[05:59] that? They sold me on aluminium, then they sold me on titanium, and now they're selling on both at the same time. Like, ooh, look how thermally efficient our aluminium is, while also convincing me that titanium is the way to go because it's more durable.

[06:11] You know what I think? I think the best thing that Apple does is marketing. Like, that thing with the colours. They always make one colour that's clearly for the superfans. And every year I buy it, because it's the only way to prove you have the new one. But it's such a trap,

[06:24] because this is also then the colour that becomes immediately dated the moment the next one comes out. So the superfans have to pop up and buy that one too. Or how about, let's just go back to basics for a second. Every single thing that Apple does is late.

[06:37] How has it taken them seven years to make affordable since Samsung? Or like I saw my friend the other day He pulled out his S26 Ultra showed me this privacy display thing and he already said to me he said don worry you probably get this feature in five years And I starting to think he got a point Your friend sounds like a Samsung user

[06:57] Frankly, I don't want to be using the phone that's the first to get any kind of experimental feature. There is a reason that first-gen products have such a bad rep. Like, am I in such a rush that I can't just wait a few years till someone's figured out

[07:11] how to implement it without compromise? Wow, you think you're so high and mighty. Well, how about the fact that Apple, they're constantly talking about how these pros are for photographers and videographers, right?

[07:23] But then, how have they managed to not upgrade a single camera sensor on this phone? It's been four years since they've increased the size of its main camera. Four years! I barely had a girlfriend at that point, and now I have a son.

[07:38] That'll turn into a change in by the way. I swear to god if you say the word variable aperture as if that somehow makes up for all this. I'm going to scream. So is he. If Apple actually wanted to upgrade the things that mattered,

[07:51] They would have given this a 1 inch sensor like all the needing camera centric phones. But what do they do instead? They upgrade the phase that makes for a nice story, that makes their phone sound quirky and interesting. I'm telling you, the only benefit to a variable aperture on an iPhone is

[08:05] to stop you accidentally blurring someone out in the background. But I don't know about you man, when people are in the background of my photos, it's because I want them blurred out. And to be honest, that's giving Apple too much credit. Their sensor isn't even large enough to blur anything properly anyway.

[08:20] I think there is truth in what you're saying, but let me show you something that I thought was interesting. Which of these two photos looks better to you? Left is 18 pro max and right is 17 pro max?

[08:32] It's the 18, right? It's pretty clear. Like, there's an entire layer more detail when it comes to these game graph windows. Let's do another one. These two photos, exact same theme, but the 18 wins again, right? Quite a bit more detail, especially as this one's a slightly darker theme than the last one.

[08:47] It actually looks like a person's face here. Okay, I can see it. The new variable aperture is obviously doing something, but these are just cherry-picked examples to suit it, right?

[09:01] I was hoping you'd think that. What is going on here? See, when I shot both of those side-by-side, I disabled variable aperture entirely, which means that both of those phones were shooting with the same aperture and the same sensor that you were just complaining about.

[09:15] Well, that doesn't make any sense. How can there have been all that difference? Oh, sorry. Well, here's the thing. I think you're right. But one of the best things Apple does is marketing. They spend ages talking about variable apertures because it is a great story.

[09:29] But the thing that you're missing is how much refinement goes on behind the scenes that they don't talk about. All of that detail difference that you just told me that you saw is purely advancements in image processing happening on the chip. Apple's been quietly doing this every year for the last decade.

[09:43] decade, and it's taken them from, I would say, quite behind mainstream companies like Samsung and Google to quite far ahead. Like, if we just put this side by side with Samsung now, in just about every situation, whether it's video quality like here, where you can see more detail on the iPhone and

[09:58] less noise, whether it's skin tones, where Samsung makes you look like an overly brightened wax figure by comparison or it just resolution where yeah the iPhone lead was tenuous a few years ago but with each iteration the visible difference is becoming less subtle And maybe the most impressive scenario is Night Mode where they gone all the way from new kid on the block to one of the ones to be

[10:20] You really are a piece of work, aren't you? The iPhone is so boring to shoot with, though. Those photos are technically nice, but they're so drained of any personality. Seriously, what now?

[10:33] I just think that actually having a technically correct, pure image, if anything, is the best starting point for adding some personality into. And Apple just started allowing you to do that properly.

[10:46] These upgraded photographic styles are actually a pretty amazing way to add your skin, your colour profile, your ideal level of skin smoothness level, or film grain. And these aren't just subtle undertones like they used to be when the feature first

[10:58] dropped. how big of a deal it is that we can now choose which pro camera settings that we want to be able to change, and then make the rest disappear. It's such a simple addition, but it makes such a massive difference, because it means there's now a whole wave of creators

[11:12] who don't need to touch those pro apps like Blackmagic Camera, and they can just use what they got, with Apple's level of user interface polish. You know what I think? I think this is getting a bit niche. In fact, this whole thing is

[11:25] a bit niche. You prove your battery point using a professional test bench, you prove your gaming improvements with side-by-side slow-mo footage. You show me the camera improvements by secretly disabling the aperture and zooming in 600%. The whole reason this even started

[11:40] is because I didn't want to have to watch a 20 minute deep dive. And because of you, I've just been sitting inside of one. Apple's improved, but I'm just not getting it at third point. To act like the average 17 pro user picking up one of these on launch day

[11:54] is going to be like, oh, what an incredible upgrade is false on day one for an average user who's already on a 17 Pro. I think you're right. I'm right. Wait, I win. You didn't convince me,

[12:09] so game over, right? What do you think you won exactly? The argument that I'm not upgrading to the next iPhone. So don't upgrade next time. I'm definitely not going to, but that's because this

[12:22] is a really good phone, not a bad one. This is not the most exciting upgrade, but I think it's one of the safest ones because it creates so much headroom. So, see you in three years? Well, I don't know about that. Imagine how crushed this aluminium is going to be by then.

[12:39] It already looks like this now. To be fair, that's a pretty good point. I think this almost requires a case like the Q3 Rugged from Alphonse of Tora. This is the most affordable one they do, but it's such a no-brainer. If you get their OSAND, easily the most versatile, mindless

[12:52] way to prop your phone up in existence. You get these concrete-inspired back plates and ultra grippy sides, so you actually struggle to drop the thing. And even reinforced corners, just in case people like you still find a way. So search for Torath O-Stand Q3 Rugged

[13:05] on Amazon or their site. Discount code in the description. To be fair, that's a pretty good choice. But I think if you're going to get the most advanced iPhone, then might as well just get the most advanced protection too, with the Q3 Air Pro. Because this thing

[13:18] also has two sets of airbags to almost entirely kill the impact from a drop. And that is a wrap on the weirdest video we've ever filmed. Uh, you can turn around now.