Apple’s largest Pro iPhone gets its biggest battery upgrade yet to make it a true two-day phone with new Siri AI and a variable aperture camera. The iPhone 18 Pro Max is the supersized sibling of the regular 18 Pro and, though it is no longer Apple’s most expensive phone thanks to the £2,000 iPhone Duo, it has a similarly large price tag to match costing from £1,299 (€1,599/$1,299/A$2,299). The 18 Pro Max follows the familiar formula of its Pro Max predecessors: take everything that’s great about the 18 Pro and supersize the screen and the battery.
That means it has a first-class camera, the fastest performance and very long software support. But it also means the 18 Pro Max is hard to use with one hand and pretty big to fit in a pocket. It weighs 249g, which is really heavy for even a very large smartphone, 23g more than its nearest rival, 38g more than its smaller sibling and heavier still than folding phones.
It made my hand hurt after 10 days of use and is a two-handed phone needing some sort of handle or strap. The 6.9in screen is a joy to behold. Super bright, crisp, smooth and with a very effective anti-glare coating it’s great for films, TV or games, and offers a similar level of real estate for video to most folding phones.
It also has the new, smaller camera cut out and bigger dynamic island of the regular 18 Pro. Screen: 6.9in Super Retina XDR (120Hz OLED) (460ppi) Camera: 48MP + 48MP UW + 48MP 4x, 18MP front-facing Connectivity: 5G, wifi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 6, Thread, USB-C, Satellite, UWB and GNSS Water resistance: IP68 (6 metres for 30 mins) The 18 Pro Max has the same new A20 Pro chip as the 18 Pro, which is one of the fastest chips you can get in a phone, plus a resigned cooling system that helps maintain peak performance during long gaming sessions. It has the longest battery of any iPhone, lasting almost three days of light usage between charges, actively using the screen for seven hours for apps, browsing, messaging and photos.
That is about four hours longer than its predecessor and almost a day longer than the 18 Pro. Even with heavy use, the 18 Pro Max still managed to end the day with about 50% left in the tank, meaning most people will have to charge it only every second or third day. The 18 Pro Max runs the same iOS 27 as smartphones from the iPhone 11 onwards.
The new software speeds up app launches and other parts of the system, refines the Liquid Glass redesign from last year and revamps Apple’s AI tools. The new Siri AI chatbot is a significant step in the right direction, able to better understand you and perform tasks. It has its own app to review previous conversations and can see what is on your screen or through the camera.
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