Before writing this iPhone 14 Pro Max review, I would like to explain it to you first. Although iPhone has been released for more than ten generations, as a so-called old Android fan, I have never used iPhone as a main phone. But due to the influence of the industry, it is fake t

Preface

Before writing this iPhone 14 Pro Max review, I would like to explain it to you first. Although iPhone has been released for more than ten generations, as a so-called old Android fan, I have never used iPhone as a main phone. But due to the influence of the industry, it is fake to say that nothing has been used, but it is not as familiar as Android.

So in this review today, I may be more like an ordinary consumer. From a more practical perspective, let’s talk about what upgrades have been made on the iPhone 14 Pro Max released this time.

Because this time, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus are really not interesting, so let's skip them and focus on the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Lingdong Island

14 The entire series still maintains the design language of facing the middle frame + straight screen, but the details on the keys and openings will change. If the phone is not turned on, you can hardly tell who it is from the previous generation. In addition, this iPhone 14 Pro Max is 2g heavier than the previous generation. After wearing the ordinary water cover , it has reached 282g, which is a perfect "half-pound machine".

The biggest highlight of the appearance of the iPhone 14 Pro Max this time is the "Lingdong Island" above the front screen.

"Lingdong Island" is a series of sensors such as Apple has changed the bang design that has lasted for many years into a long strip (in fact, it is a long strip hole). But unlike conventional hole-punching phones, this long hole-punching can be combined with animation and UI, presenting more eye-catching messages and prompts on some applications.

But if you look closely in the light, you can still find the clues. It is actually a hole in the shape of an exclamation mark, not a whole strip. Fortunately, under normal circumstances, you look almost like a long strip without the abrupt feeling of being alone.

You said it looks ugly, it really can't be washed. Compared with the previous iPhone 13, this strip will be more lower, and in some video, games and other applications, it will have a more obvious abrupt feeling than the bangs. But Apple is very smart. Under such flaws that many people complain about, it perfectly covers this point through animation and UI. In some aspects, the ugly combination of holes + UI makes it feel like 1+1>2.

However, in my actual test, it currently only supports some system-level applications, and will be divided into the following two experiences:

The first type is instantaneous reminder, such as when locking the screen, Lingdong Island will extend out at both ends, showing the Face ID recognition animation; when inserting the charging cable, Lingdong Island will have a "charging" and a charging prompt of battery percentage; when switching mute and ringtone, similar prompts will also appear. These situations have a characteristic, which is that they will gradually disappear after a few seconds of presentation.

The second type is permanent reminder, and this experience will have more ways to play. For example, when playing music, after scrolling the software back to the desktop, it will shrink directly and slide to the top of the smart island, extending the album cover of the music on the left, and extending the sound wave map when the music is played on the right.

, for example, a timer, after setting the time and counting down, you can also scroll up and place it on the Lingdong Island. At the same time, the timer icon will be displayed on the left, and the real-time countdown time will be displayed on the right.

And you can also click Lingdong Island to jump to this app under many other software that are not full screen. You can open it faster than iPhone without a short screen. Another one is to long press. After long pressing Lingdong Island, it will present some quick operations of this software, such as the previous/next song of the music, pause/play, and pause/stop of the timer.

But unfortunately, there are still many third-party applications that do not support Lingdong Island, such as our commonly used WeChat, QQ, Feishu , etc. Fortunately, there is no need to worry about this. With Apple's voice at the software level, these software will be adapted in place soon, just wait patiently.

Performance

After talking about the appearance, let’s briefly talk about performance.This time Apple arranged two chips for the 14 series. The 14 and 14 Plus still continued the A15, but replaced it with a full-blooded version, while the 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max use the A16 as usual. I won’t talk about the parameters of A16, let’s just look at the performance through actual testing.

In iOS 16.0.1 version, iPhone 14 Pro Max has the highest image quality and ultra-high dynamic blur, and after running back and forth for half an hour on Liyuegang, the average frame rate can reach 59.2fps. The entire process has almost no fluctuations or unstable experience, and the experience is still very good. The fever is mainly concentrated on the back, with the maximum temperature of 46.4℃, which is not good, but it is not bad.

As a comparison, our iPhone 13 Pro Max has a half-hour frame rate of 55.3fps under the same picture quality. Judging from the frame rate alone, its performance improvement is not very obvious. After all, the Android side next door is not very powerful, so it is normal for Apple to make a bad move.

In addition, this time the iPhone 14 Pro Max still uses 6GB of running memory. In my actual test, after opening 20 applications, 19 applications were retained. Compared to the usual use, only three or five permanent applications are retained, this performance is actually no need to worry at all.

Let’s talk about battery life. Previously, our iPhone 13 Pro Max had 33% left after the 5-hour battery life test. This time, the 14 Pro Max had a slight decline in battery life, and the remaining 24% left after the 5-hour battery life test. Perhaps the screen-off display was added, so the battery life was not as strong as the previous generation, but fortunately, it was basically not a dream to charge it a day. The charging power of

has not changed much, it is still officially promoted 20W, but we used a higher charger for actual testing, making the maximum power at around 26W. Although it only lasted for more than ten minutes, it was mostly above 20W. When the phone icon shows 100%, we charged for 117 minutes in total. It has indeed made many Android users look despised by nearly two hours, but after so many years of complaints, everyone has become accustomed to it. Another major upgrade point on

image

iPhone 14 Pro Max is that it has finally upgraded the ancestral 12-megapixel to 48-megapixel, and the main camera and ultra-wide-angle sensor area have increased, which is a major improvement in iPhone imagery. However, it is the hardware upgrade that has made the iPhone 14 Pro Max have a larger module, and has also made considerable "progress" in terms of area and height of bulge.

I don’t like to explain too many parameters. You just need to know that if you turn on the camera directly to take pictures in broad daylight, the actual sample performance is actually not much different from the previous generation. If you want to experience the different feelings brought by 48 megapixels, you need to turn on "Apple ProRAW" in the Settings-Camera-Format, and then select the 48MP resolution below.

When you turn on the camera again, you will find a "RAW" switch on the upper right. After turning on it, you can take 48 million pixel photos. In this way, you can get more resolution, sharpness and dark details, which really widens the gap in the image with the iPhone 13 Pro Max.

But don’t be happy first. Before you take a lot of photos like this, you need to consider whether the storage space is enough. In this mode, the occupancy of a film taken can easily reach more than 50MB or even more than 100MB. If you really like taking photos, it is recommended that you buy a large storage version, or consider using third-party software.

In addition, thanks to the high resolution of 48 million, you can also get better imaging quality on the 2x telephoto of the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

But the disadvantage is not lacking, this is also an old problem that everyone knows: as long as you take photos under strong light, it will still have a "ghost" effect and it cannot be eliminated at all.

Purchase suggestions

If you happen to want to buy an iPhone recently, but your budget is stuck within 5,000, then you can take a look at the previous generation of iPhone 13. After all, in terms of daily use, it is really not much different from iPhone 14; if your budget is unlimited, you can take a look at iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. There is no problem with buying new or old ones.

Of course, if you think Lingdong Island and 48 million pixels are useless to you, you can also consider iPhone 13 Pro or iPhone 13 Pro Max. After all, apart from these two points, there is really no difference in daily experience.

Of course, I still need to remind you here. Before purchasing a machine, you must pay attention to what you need at this stage before choosing what to buy. Never create needs for yourself. There are no necessary things, which is likely to be a waste.

Conclusion

The day after the Apple press conference ended, I opened the Apple official website with curiosity, and like in previous years, to see what new upgrades will Apple, the technology giant, bring this time. The first thing that caught my eye was this "strongly out of the circle" iPhone 14 Pro. After seeing it, I would unconsciously focus my attention on this "hole". When I wanted to learn more about this top flagship, a short film animation of Lingdong Island was reappeared, which made me start to develop a strong interest in it.

But as I understood, I found that this thing was not that mysterious: combining hole digging with UI, not to mention that it is so smooth and reasonable. It is difficult not to let me feel Apple's intentions, and I have to sigh at Apple's innovation.

But in this situation where mainstream manufacturers seem to be able to typing code, what does it bring?

The emergence of Lingdong Island makes me feel even more like a "scam". When we focus more on Lingdong Island, other things you have ever cared about may not be cared about slowly.

Although I did not use the iPhone as the main machine, I can also tell a lot about its advantages and disadvantages after so many years. It has to be admitted that this time the iPhone 14 Pro Max is still the top of the industry and is likely to become the "imitation" object of the industry. But I will continue to use my Android phone like in previous years and will not consider paying for it out of my own pocket.

No matter how beautiful its Lingdong Island looks, how smooth the animation, how outstanding the image, or how high the software, it will definitely not be destined to be with me. Because after waiting for so long, it has not solved the pain points I have experienced from beginning to end.