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00:00How has it been two months? Anyway, here we are.
00:04iPhone 15 Pro Max. I've been using this every day as my main phone, and now the
00:08launch hype has died down a little bit. We've had a couple of updates, including
00:11mostly fixing that overheating issue that we had at launch. I've also
00:14successfully dropped it. As you can see, I've dinged the glass here a little bit,
00:18which is just my luck as I was literally switching between cases when I dropped
00:23it. Sod's law, I'm telling you, which is definitely why I suggest protection at
00:27all times. I suppose the silver lining is that it's like half the price now to
00:31replace this glass back that it was on old models, which is great, but still not
00:35ideal. And also, if you've seen JerryRigEverything's video, I would avoid
00:39doing this. I've also shot a little wedding video for my friend on this.
00:44Nothing too fancy, and literally just handheld with the iPhone using
00:47cinematic mode, and the same for the styled shoots that Mrs. Tech Chat worked
00:51on for her wedding floristry business. I've played a solid five minutes of
00:55Resident Evil Village, mainly because I've already completed it on PS5, but
00:59just to prove that I could, because we've got the A17 Pro chip, I've also taken I
01:03think over 3,000 photos with this, including doing a full camera comparison
01:07with the Galaxy S23 Ultra, and I've also tested it versus the OnePlus OPPO and
01:12the Pixel 8 Pro. We've had quite a few launches since this came out, although to
01:15be fair, most of my photos are of Sylvie. So basically, I've been using it quite a
01:20bit, even though I am a basic B-word and still use the default wallpaper. I just
01:26quite like it, even though the dynamic wallpapers are quite nice. So, has this
01:30been worth the upgrade? Well, let me answer that over the course of the next
01:3310 minutes, and I want to start off with story time, because I went to the pub the
01:36other day with my friend Will, who I haven't seen in a while. He obviously
01:39assumes that I always have the latest tech, which I do, so he was like, oh is
01:43that a new iPhone? I was like, yes it is. Well, this is the new iPhone 15 Pro Max.
01:46Gave it him and he was like, oh, how is it different from my 13 Pro Max, he said. And I
01:52paused, possibly because I had like three or four pints by this point, but I was
01:56also considering what are the upgrades with this that would actually mean
01:59something to him. He's not particularly techie, I mean the fact that it has a
02:02matte titanium frame now, rather than stainless steel. It's a little bit
02:06lighter, which actually I do appreciate, as someone who's been using the, let me
02:11unplug it, the 14 Pro Max for basically the whole year. Last year, this is
02:15definitely, I should probably switch it around because left is always old, this
02:18is definitely a notably lighter phone and you do sort of feel it every day you
02:23pick it up. So I do appreciate the light weightness. There's the slightly thinner
02:27bezels, we can shoot video in log now, although I doubt he'd know what that is,
02:30and then there's the faster chip. We have 24 megapixel photos now, rather than 12,
02:34and different focal length shortcuts, and the battery life is about the same as
02:39his phone. So except for being a little bit lighter, and also maybe one or two
02:43camera features like their next-gen portraits that let you turn a photo into
02:46a portrait, I love that and I'll come back to in a second, the main thing, the
02:50first thing I said was, well it's got USB-C. To which he said, oh actually that
02:55is quite a big deal, I'm sick of having to carry a separate lightning cable
02:58alongside his iPad and his laptop, and it is true. For most people, I reckon
03:02this is the main reason you may want to upgrade. I mean for me, being able to
03:06share the same charger as Mrs. Tech Chap's Pixel, or to easily plug in a USB
03:10drive so I can then shoot the 4k 60 ProRes in log, and to just not have to
03:15faff around with lightning adapters. I recently reviewed the new X-Reel AR
03:18glasses, these Air 2 Pros are properly amazing by the way, and with just one
03:23USB-C cable from the glasses to my phone, it mirrors the screen to a 130 inch OLED
03:27display right in front of your eyes. So life is just easier with USB-C, and
03:32obviously this will be the new standard going forward for all iPhones, as well as
03:35obviously every other phone on the planet, which we've had for years now. The
03:38downside, for me at least, is the MagSafe PowerPack, the Apple one which I've been
03:42using for a while now. This is still lightning, hasn't been updated, and neither
03:46has the MagSafe Duo charger that I use by my bedside. So for a minute I'm still
03:50having to carry a lightning cable around with me for some of the peripherals. What
03:53I haven't really noticed as much is the action button. This was one of the key
03:57features, I mean you could tell they were kind of clutching at straws when they
04:00were hyping the titanium frame and the action button for a launch of a new
04:04iPhone, but I can't say I've really used it that much. I think like most people I
04:08immediately changed it to open the camera app, which then obviously doubles
04:11as a shutter button, but then the volume down still acts as a shutter button and
04:15most of the time I just open it that way anyway. Recently I've actually changed it
04:19to do not disturb, effectively turning it back into like the mute toggle switch
04:23that we had before, so it's not really been a big deal for me at all. I do
04:27appreciate the use cases for some accessibility settings and if you do use
04:31the action button a lot let me know how you use it, maybe I can get some tips. Now
04:35I mentioned the overheating issue because at launch there was some
04:38software issues with iOS where it would kick the processor into high power mode
04:41and drain your battery and the phone would get too hot. Now the good news is
04:45Apple was pretty quick to send out an update and right now I'm on 17.1.1
04:49and that did largely address the issue and it's a chip that's capable of
04:52running Resident Evil Village with PS4 level graphics, albeit at 720p 30fps, but
04:58it is impressive. Right now there's still like one game and maybe a couple more
05:02coming like Resi 4 and Assassin's Creed that are like this and to be honest any
05:06iPhone from the last two or three years will play any normal game on the App
05:09Store pretty much flawlessly. Although I will say coming from the 14 Pro Max, which
05:14of course is already incredibly powerful with the A16 chip, I did notice this was
05:18just a little bit more consistently smooth. So while you can't really see the
05:22difference just swiping around going between apps, you know iPhones have been
05:25incredibly fast for years now, just every now and then when you're doing a bunch
05:28of stuff where you've got you know apps running in the background on the camera
05:31you just notice fewer issues I think with this. Having said that I still have
05:35experienced one or two little bugs every now and then where maybe the screen
05:38rotates and gets stuck or the camera app freezes or the keyboard doesn't type, very
05:43hard to replicate so I can't really show it very easily, but on the whole it's
05:46been a pretty slick experience and much better than it was at launch with last
05:50year's 14 series. But whichever phone you pick make sure you keep it safe and so
05:54I've teamed up with the lovely folks over at Casetify, who are very kindly
05:57sponsoring this video, to show you just how safe these cases are and in fact
06:01they sent me this nice big block of their eco shock material and they use it
06:05in their protective cases and just look at how it absorbs the shock of this
06:09metal ball landing on it compared to some competing material. At the molecular
06:14level this plant-based eco shock material turns the kinetic energy of
06:17dropping a phone into heat while its twister pattern dissipates the energy
06:21across the surface of the case dissipating up to 95% of the impact. You
06:26could drop your shiny new iPhone 15 Pro Max in an ultra bounce case with a
06:30screen protector of course from over 32 feet and it should be fine. Now I have a
06:34selection of the latest bounce, ultra bounce, impact and impact ring stand
06:38cases all of which have been refreshed for the iPhone 15s and of course the
06:42latest Samsung and Google devices. So they're tough, they look good with tons
06:46of customization options and then check this bad boy out this is Casetify's
06:50impact ring stand case. This little guy just folds out from the back of the
06:54camera module here and you can use it like you have a pop socket. It still
06:58gives you over six feet of drop protection, it's made from 65% recycled
07:01and plant-based materials and then you can watch your movies or do whatever you
07:04like without having to hold your phone. So keep your phone safe and click my
07:08link in the description below to get 10% off your next Casetify order and
07:12experience the protective power of eco shock. In terms of battery over the last
07:18couple of months I've been averaging about nine hours of screen on time and I
07:22find it is lasting just a little bit longer than my 14 Pro Max and it's
07:26roughly on par with the 13 Pro Max. Obviously it'll all come down to how you
07:29use it, are you gaming, are you shooting 4k video all day, are you on 5G or Wi-Fi
07:33that sort of thing and also if you are coming from an older iPhone which I
07:36imagine you would be, chances are the battery health on that has gone down
07:40quite significantly because one thing I was a bit disappointed by last year, my
07:4414 Pro Max after 11 months, 11 and a half months, the battery health went down to
07:4988% which is not ideal. Now so far after like eight weeks or so I'm still on 100%
07:54with the 15 Pro Max which I hope to see. Obviously we'll have to see how it goes
07:59over the next 6-12 months but I think for me there were three main reasons
08:03this has been worth the upgrade. The USB-C port, the fact that it is noticeably
08:07lighter and I absolutely love the camera. Now it is not perfect and I made a
08:11camera comparison with the S23 Ultra a few weeks ago where they kind of trade
08:15blows, there are pros and cons for each and of course we should also see the S24
08:19series in January and that will really be its true competition but right now
08:22for me I find the 15 Pro Max's camera the most consistent and also the most
08:27visually pleasing and that goes for both photos and video. And there's a couple of
08:31features that really make it stand out and I think for the average person not
08:35just a tech pro user will actually make a difference and perhaps will be worth
08:38upgrading and the first one the main one for me is the next-gen portrait so if I
08:43can tap that you can see I can turn any regular photo into a portrait and then
08:48even change the focal point and the strength of the blur. The iPhone 15s
08:52actually capture the depth information when you take a normal photo and it
08:55means I haven't touched the portrait mode in the camera app since my initial
08:59review. I just take regular photos and then every now and then I'll go back
09:03into the photos app and turn it into a portrait and it means if you're a kid or
09:06in my case your cat is doing something funny or cute you don't have to go
09:10between oh should I take a photo or portrait I like portraits but it's gonna
09:13take longer just take a photo every time and then you can change it later. Aside
09:16from that I appreciate the photos are now 24 megapixels and there is more
09:20detail and shots even compared to the 14 pros camera and the higher resolution
09:26does give me more confidence to shoot at the different focal lengths including
09:29the 2x zoom more than I have before. Now I have to admit at the start I thought
09:34the whole changing of the 1x focal length was a bit of a gimmick that only
09:39maybe a few photographers might want to use but I take that back I've actually
09:43really come to like it and I have set 35mm the equivalent of 1.5x
09:47zoom as my default lens now shall we say which you can change or turn off
09:52entirely in the camera settings. I just really like the look of that focal
09:56length and it's funny to see the competition this is the OnePlus Open
09:59which I actually think is a terrific phone in its own right you have this
10:03default wide-angle focal length option I can't say for sure they just copied and
10:08pasted it but it is peculiar that only a few weeks after the iPhone came out we
10:12also have this option now on the OnePlus. Now the big hardware change with the 15
10:17Pro Max is the jump up to that 5x optical zoom from the 3x we've
10:21been used to and which its smaller brother the 15 Pro still uses and it
10:24basically means between 3 and 4.9x zoom the 15 Pro is better but for 5x
10:30and beyond the Pro Max is better. And the longer zoom does kind of force you to
10:34rethink your shots a little bit I do like the more compressed look although
10:38for portraits I always find myself having to take a couple of steps back to
10:41get them nicely in frame and not too zoomed in and it can produce some really
10:45nice shots although while it does have an impressively wide aperture for its
10:48range the sensor still isn't that big so in lower light you do see quite a bit of
10:53noise. It's also a little bit frustrating considering Samsung gives us four lenses
10:57you don't have to think about do I want three times with the 15 Pro or five
11:01times with the Pro Max. With the S23 Ultra they give us both the 3 and the 10
11:04times so it's annoying but for a similar flagship phones one will give you four
11:08lenses one will give you three. Would be nice to see that on the iPhone but I
11:12doubt we will anytime soon. So the Samsung is still the zoom king although
11:16I do appreciate the much smoother transitions between the lenses on the
11:19iPhone and the fact that I can now go between the ultra wide all the way up to
11:23the telephoto while recording at 4k 60. Now I just wish I could also pause
11:27recording like you can on almost all Android phones. I've also found myself
11:31using the cinematic mode a lot more than I have before and I genuinely love this
11:36I use this all the time. No other phone in my view has a cinematic or portrait
11:41video mode as good as the iPhone and of course while it won't match a proper
11:44shallow depth of field on a full-frame mirrorless camera for something you can
11:48carry around in your pocket and also rely on handheld stabilization I
11:51absolutely love it. One of my absolute favorite features though is to be able
11:59to shoot in lock and actually when I first made my initial review I didn't
12:03really have a lot a lookup table so you can sort of color it well but now we've
12:07had a few weeks there are plenty you can download from Apple or third parties and
12:11it just makes a heck of a difference to how natural how cinematic your videos
12:17can look. I'm shooting this at 4k 30 you can shoot up to 4k 60 ProRes in log and
12:22it just means you can get away from that iPhone look but while still being you
12:26know hashtag shot on iPhone and remember all that good stuff the cinematic mode
12:30ProRes shooting in log the next-gen portraits also applies to the selfie
12:35camera. So overall I am really happy with the 15 Pro Max but it's not perfect the
12:40zoom isn't as good at three times which is annoying skin tones can sometimes
12:44still be a bit too warm or too orangey especially for darker skin tones and we
12:48do still get that lens flare. I've also managed to ding the glass and that was
12:52pretty easy actually it fell off onto this wooden floor from like table height
12:56we also can't really utilize the power of that a 17 Pro chip that's just like a
13:00couple of games now that are that console level but of course it does
13:03future-proof it. I know not many people care but I still wish there was a split
13:07screen mode I mean this is a pro phone we've got a big screen it's on iPad so
13:11why not and I'm sure you'd agree it does just still feel a bit iterative we
13:15haven't had that sort of big exciting moment for an iPhone since I guess the
13:19X. I would love to see a flip or a fold or you know a budget a good
13:24budget iPhone like a replacement of the SE and the fact that the main features
13:28include being USB C and an action button and the titanium frame suggests
13:33that this isn't the most exciting iPhone ever but it does all add up and I think
13:36being USB C a little bit lighter some of those camera features including the next
13:40gen portraits this is definitely a worthy upgrade I would say if you happen to be
13:44an iPhone 12 or earlier. But what do you think? Do you own an iPhone 15 Pro or
13:49Pro Max and if so let me know what you make of it in the comments below. If you
13:51enjoyed the video a like and subscribe would be fantastic and I'll see you next
13:54time right here on The Tech Chat.