This year we decided to do a three-part review of the iPhone 13 Pro Max. I went with 12 Pro Max for a year and will gladly tell you about EMOTIONS and FEELINGS, but Ilya Kichaev will tell you about the photo part and the video much better. Well, now let’s together with me quickly tear open the box and get out the sweet and glorious NEW iPhone 13 Pro Max. Yes, the box is now without film – the era is gone.
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Design
You can quickly distinguish the iPhone 13 Pro Max from the iPhone 12 Pro Max only in one case: if a person bought a new product in Sierra Blue, he drags a transparent case and shows you the back of the smartphone. Yes, the bangs have become narrower, but visually it is almost imperceptible. If anything, on the left is a new iPhone.
How good or bad is that? Hard to say. Each new iPhone reflects the current agenda in the world – and in the world, as you know, a wide variety of components are in short supply. I agree with the idea that they would call the iPhone 13 in the old style – iPhone 12s – there would be no questions. On the other hand, the changes are also in order: from a new display to a completely new camera, a new processor, new iOS chips.
But let’s talk about design. I am slowly writing about the experience of using the iPhone 12 Pro Max – of course, there are some quibbles, but globally, this is the best iPhone I have ever had. And I had them all, starting with the first. I like the body, I like the display, the camera, I like Face ID, the speed, the chips. If it were not for the work need to switch to the iPhone 13 Pro Max, I would have walked calmly with the age of twelve – I like everything so much.
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There is, of course, nothing to complain about. After all, the iPhone 13 Pro Max offers the same body and color match. If you want to stand out – choose the already mentioned Sierra Blue. By the way, in real life it is more gray-blue than blue or light blue. The color is strict, not at all playful – you will see it yourself in stores. For the photographs do not convey the real state of affairs.
I again chose the usual combination for myself: a gray Pro Max with a transparent case. Old MagSafe cases don’t fit – sadly, this is the price to pay for a larger camera unit. The buttons are located the same way, there is nothing new here. The new fringe is practically indistinguishable from the old one. Well, in general, the most important change here is, of course, the display and cameras.
The operating time of the iPhone 13 Pro Max has not yet been studied by me. 28 hours of video playback is claimed – let me remind you, this is several hours more than the 12 Pro Max. During my work, I just love the smartphone, I have never returned home with a heavily discharged iPhone, it holds on, holds on and holds on. For a couple of days with 13 Pro Max, I don’t notice a strong difference – besides, there is also a completely new battery. There is no power supply included, I advise you to immediately buy a fast charger.
As in the twelfth model, the weakest point of the device is Lightning and the transfer of content in general. Hundreds of captured gigabytes need to be transferred to a laptop – I’m sure only a few know how to do this with a cable connection. And only a few know how bad it can end. Why not USB Type-C or some kind of high-speed Lightning 2.0, I can’t imagine.
The front camera has moved to the left, the speaker is located at the very top – it seems to me, Apple is thus preparing to remove the “bangs” completely. I also have another scary thought: the iPhone 14 can be the same as the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13, only the famous “bangs” will disappear altogether. Well, look, can iPhones get thinner? I doubt very much, until new batteries have yet been invented and other elements have not been reduced so much – for example, the camera unit requires space and will require it in the future. Could the sloping ends of the iPhone 11 or iPhone X be brought back? They can, but hardly, and why. All modern devices of the company are in one style, from iMac to iPhone.
Read Techobig Review of the Samsung Galaxy A02
Rumor has it that the current look of the iPhone is with us for another five years. Over time, new processors will reduce the size of the battery – and maybe the batteries will change. Apple smartphones will become thinner, get rid of buttons and connectors, maybe that’s why Lightning is still with us – in order to then move on to something completely new.
In the meantime, the familiar volume buttons, the Mute lever, Lightning and you can do everything here with your eyes closed. Seriously, even moving to a new smartphone turned into something everyday: I downloaded a backup copy, waited until all the programs were downloaded. The most difficult part of the procedure is to enter all passwords and log in everywhere.
In general, my advice is this: if you want something new, order the Pro Max in Sierra Blue. Everything else here is familiar to us. And I highly recommend buying a cover right away – both for the sake of protection and so as not to scratch the cameras. In a year of use, I seriously dropped my iPhone 12 Pro Max ten times without consequences – thanks to Clear Case. A brilliant piece.
By the way, there is another interesting thing: the declared “IP68 rating according to the IEC 60529 standard (immersion in water to a depth of 6 meters for up to 30 minutes is allowed)”. Six meters! This is a lot. I have two tips. First: after all, you should not take the recommendation as the ultimate truth; for deep underwater shooting, it is better to use specialized things. Second tip: technology doesn’t like salt water! After bathing, the iPhone should be rinsed in fresh water, dried, and try not to charge for at least an hour or two after bathing.
Display
The diagonal of the OLED display is 6.7 inches, the resolution is 2778 × 1284 pixels, the name Super Retina XDR, 120 Hz technology is supported – how long have we been waiting for it, hurray. The screen is shine! Everything is smooth, smooth. I can’t say that you will immediately see a HUGE difference with the 12 Pro Max, but in some programs the eye will just become more comfortable and easier. Try navigators, different sites, games, a slightly different feeling.
Memory
The device is produced in four modifications. If we talk about memory, it is 128, 256, 512 GB and the coveted by many 1 TB – it is almost impossible to find such in Moscow, everything is sold out. The 256 GB version seems to me to be a reasonable choice, for most this is enough, but the clouds allow you to safely remove all unnecessary from the built-in memory. If you are going to shoot a lot of video in ProRes, then you should also think about 1 TB, in all other cases it will not be useful to you.
Performance
A new A15 Bionic chip is used. Subjectively, the smartphone began to work faster than its predecessor, it concerns application loading, rendering speed. I’m not used to focusing on all sorts of tests – you know perfectly well that the 12 Pro Max was fast, it gives speed and the 13 Pro Max. The resources of the new processor will also be used to work with the camera, with various complex programs.
Again, there is no USB Type-C here, but Apple offers to edit video directly on the iPhone. It seems to be strange, but, on the other hand, here is TikTok: can such a video be well edited on the phone? Can. Necessary! Or if you do shoot a lot of videos, install LumaFusion, a great tool for amateur editing. Although it’s getting harder to separate one from the other – our colleague Ilya Kazakov collects minute-long reviews of all sorts of things in LumaFusion, and it turns out well.
As before, you can install a second SIM card – we are talking about eSIM – and make yourself a second Telegram profile. This is convenient, for example, for the same “Avito”, but the second number can be fed to delivery services.
From what was noticed during the short operation so far. It seems that AirPods Max and other AirPods connect a hundred times faster, the same applies to CarPlay. I have a 2018 MINI Countryman, one of the first cars on the market with wireless CarPlay support. He has seen many different iPhones, I responsibly declare: here is the fastest and most reliable connection.
In the title picture, you can see a very strange setup: this is an iPhone 13 Pro Max, plus a Chord Mojo portable DAC, plus an Audeze Penrose, plus Tidal, an MQA subscription. Naturally, everything is connected by cables.
There are two thoughts: it’s not for nothing that Apple does not declare support for its Lossless branded headphones. If you remember, from this many AirPods owners burned the fifth point. And everything is simple: Bluetooth, in fact, like Lightning, does not allow a huge amount of data to reach another device quickly and in full volume. Therefore, if you want to listen to music well, then here is one of the solutions for you.
Thought two: It’s amazing what kind of music machine the iPhone has become over the years. When I had my first iPhone, I didn’t even think about such a variety. I had original wired headphones, then I blissed out with Bowers & Wilkins P5, then the wireless era came, AirPods appeared. And now the iPhone owner has thousands of options to provide great sound. I understand that not everyone wants to bother with cables in the wireless era, but, alas, audiophilia cannot do without it.
Verdict
The top version of the iPhone 13 Pro Max with 1 TB of storage costs 159,990 rubles. And once again I will advise you to take 256 or 512 GB, this is 119,990 or 139,990 rubles, respectively.
Who should update? Obviously, if you have money, then switching to 13 Pro Max from 12 Pro Max will give you pleasure and brighten up the evening – data transfer, new iPhone, beauty.
If there is not much money, then you can not think about the most modern iPhones – seriously, the same iPhone SE is very good.
If you choose practical, the iPhone 12 is very good. I think Apple will keep it in the lineup until the last, with the release of the iPhone 14, the iPhone 13 will disappear, but the twelfth model will be with us for a long time. That is, the iPhone 12 Pro Max looks like a great buy too.
If you choose as a Moscow gentleman or a Moscow lady with a salary of a million rubles, then there is only one modus operandi: in one pocket a blue iPhone 13 Pro Max for 1 TB (it is almost impossible to get it in Russia), in another pocket there is a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3. This set will be valid until next fall.
But seriously, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is a very good flagship smartphone, and we all have yet to get to know it. In the second part, we’ll talk about photos, and I’ll tell you separately about the best accessories – about what I use myself. Even in a difficult year for the industry, a new generation appeared on the market. Of course, this is a real treat for both fans and the market as a whole. Hooray!
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