iPhone 14 Pro Max 1 Year Later Honest Review

iPhone 14 pro Max one year later what is up guys Nick here helping you to master your technology and take a look at this iPhone 14 pro Max does that look old to you does it look a little bit dated well maybe that's because you've seen it a thousand times technically this phone is not even one year old but I think a lot of us are already itching to see what Apple's gonna bring with the next version of the iPhone you know and the iPhone 15 models which is going to be coming next month so be subscribed for that I will be getting that ready for many comparisons and probably through the next few months you're going to be seeing a lot of showdowns between the upcoming 15s including with the older iPhone like the iPhone 14 pro Max right here but I want to talk about my experience with this phone that I've had for a full year now it's not technically a full year but I'm not gonna have time next month so this is gonna stand as my one year video because I'm not going to cover this in its own review at that point so one year later when it comes to the phone call Quality and stuff like that if you notice got the SOS that's because right now I just simply switched to the iPhone 14 plus as I'm giving it a little run to see how that phone performs a year later as well so my sim him just got taken out of this but I could tell you one year later with the iPhone 14 pro Max the phone call Quality has been very good I haven't had any dropped calls this is kind of you know cool for an iPhone I really always haven't had dropped calls on pretty much all the iPhones I've tried um but this one has been one that I don't really get many drop calls on 14 pro any of the 14s they did pretty good here however I will say the bar string did decrease versus like a Samsung phone like it did have like maybe one or two less bars in raw areas but it never lost signal so very good in this area the audio was also pretty good at the bottom of the phone as well so I enjoyed that speaking of the audio performance [Music] let's begin with a boot up in three two now this has been one of the loudest the crispiest the best sounding smartphones on the market first now we've covered the 14 in terms of the audio now we do have the Dolby system on the Samsung phones and while those sound good I feel like the iPhone just has some of the best crisp audio at the highest level there's been times when I really just don't even reach for my external speakers or anything like that because this phone just sounds so good so I would just place it on the table and just hear it out and it just really sounds good so audio has been a really good thumbs up throughout the year it definitely thumps for sure so you probably don't always need an external speaker when you're rocking the 14 pro Max however it's not going to get nearly as loud but for a phone is definitely loud enough where you could share a video or watch a music video or just even hear some music with somebody nearby it's definitely good enough to share now Dynamic island has been more than just timers as you'll see right here it's definitely been pretty decent for when people people are calling you hit the you know answer button or the end button stuff like that but I'll also notice that it pops up with like certain Sports things you know Uber rides things like that there's many areas where software developers have added support for the dynamic Island but I gotta tell you you know this point one year later it's still a big blotch on the screen that is distracting and I don't think it looks as pretty as some other phones here's a nothing phone too for example um probably not the best example because most Android phones have this but you'll see just a punch hole right there and definitely you know these phones that don't have Dynamic Islands just they look like you have more screen so I still find this you know pretty distracting well it's not overly distracting but this doesn't look as um all screen so while it is useful you kind of forget about it after the honeymoon phase of getting this phone or just the you know few weeks that you first get it you'll get used to it and then I just don't think it looks as good that's there's no other way to put it how else can I put it it just doesn't look as good to me as a full screen like something like the OnePlus 7 Pro they came out a few years ago with a pop-up camera or even you know an under display camera just not my favorite look but for some people they're really going to enjoy the practicality of having you know showing like sports scores and showing like you know the call button up here and stuff it is useful it's fun but I don't think it's the Revolutionary feature that Apple made it out to be it is decent though esim this sucks I gotta be honest with you this is goes for all the 14 models forcing the e-sim on us users was just ridiculous and then because I'm a T-Mobile and then they kind of like you know made it where it's kind of hard to switch between Android and iPhone it's so it's it's annoying it just straight up is annoying um I know you you gotta just accept the changes if you're gonna stick with the brand but at the same time listen it's been a little bit annoying to switch between Android phones so much so that I actually got a separate sim card with a different carrier just so I can use my Android phones and I mean I know it's costing me a little extra which is really annoying but the same time not everybody's gonna be able to do that and I'm just not a fan of it I'm not a fan of you know being having the you have to have an esim when every other carrier or every other filmmaker still puts a SIM card slot on their phone I really hope that other filmmakers don't adapt this where you're just forced to use esim we'll have to see how that goes and I don't say it like I don't mean it like it sucks in the sense of like it's horrible like it doesn't work what I mean is that it does have some benefits like you don't lose a SIM card what I mean is if you like to switch if you like to switch phones or especially you like to switch easily or you get bored of a phone pretty quick and you want to trade in for another one it just creates a new hassle that just didn't have to be there creating complexity for no reason so at this point I would say you know I'm not super I'm not a fan of I'm not a super big fan of the esim I still prefer I could be old school with that but I still prefer the regular Sim but I think in the future you know that's going to be kind of like oh who cares like nobody cares about that anymore and everyone's just gonna just accept the fact that that's how you use a phone as with an esim but for now you know since we still have phones with SIM cards it's kind of annoying to me moving on to the cameras I gotta say one year later if I'm be honest I love these cameras if I think about any phone that I want to use for the top level cameras on a phone I'm thinking Promax right here s23 Ultra maybe some of the Sony phones that are out there the Xperia one Mark V these are my top three I'm picking and the iPhone I'm picking for a couple of reasons number one it has a really good macro mode so when you get really close to objects you can get really really close and yes I do realize we're taking a picture of an Android man in this video but you could see that you can get really really close on things here for this you know iPhone also more zoom than the regular iPhone but I it did definitely honestly was thinking a lot about switching to my Samsungs when I really wanted some more zoom even the pixel going 30 times 15 times it's just weak for a phone at this price point Apple really needs to get on board with more zoom like for real Apple like we're paying more sometimes and we're getting we're paying less on Samsung phones and we're getting way more zoom this is just I want better Zoom let's just put it that way in terms of the video though I just I can't pick any other phone when it comes to video Apple just has I mean Sony makes a sensor but Apple just has a really good you know focus on here they have the software that makes it easy and I just think it's a phone that gives you Pro like video without having to have Pro skills which is really cool because you know not everybody wants to take the time they just want to hop into their creativity they just want to get on with the show get on with their video making and just get on whatever they're doing and then you add the action mode and then for people who like you know really stable video you can do that now as well on the iPhone's camera cinematic to me is a cool party trick for most users but if you're definitely a pro you'll use that but at the end of the day portrait modes improved this whole camera is just well rounded besides the fact it doesn't have you know the most zoom out there now the front-facing camera is also very good and it matches up very well with the rear this has been the case over the past few years however I haven't seen any major major changes from this since like the iPhone 12 Pro Max so you know it's great but it's not like anything special that blew me away versus what I had previously experienced and here are some samples I took right here I'll just show you a few you'll see very good colors very natural looking as well doesn't over saturate night mode is pretty solid on here as well look at the sky definitely holds into gets objects pretty well and you can still see good levels of detail even when it's laid out at night time so definitely pretty good here and then if we go through here you'll just see overall the results are usually kind of um really nice kind of pro level almost you know I still prefer having you know a real camera around that's why I still make videos on a real camera but you know iPhones are definitely good enough to replace most cameras these days and this one was just very very good with the results the only issue I would say is that it wasn't quite as good at focusing as the iPhone 13 Pro Max just because the 13 Pro Max had offered up a really good you know focus and but this one the change in aperture and the new raw modes and stuff like that it really just made things you know definitely a little bit I would say when you focus a little bit more tricky for just average consumer sometimes they would think it's out of focus and stuff like that but really you just had to find the minimal Focus distance on the camera once you got that down it was easy so taking it on to the battery life now this is an area where a lot of people complained and let me tell you I'm here to tell you that you know many reviewers LED you to believe that this phone is this really bad in battery life it's not true you know I've talked about how it's not as good as a 13 Pro Max but I wasn't saying it's bad this one could still make it through a day easily and there's some Android phones that still can't beat this phone and battery life so don't believe everything you hear when they say oh this is worse and bad and but no those people are really pushing the phone the average person would not kill this phone in one day it's just not happening now if you are a heavy user and if you're a heavy user you're probably going to kill most phones yeah you will drain this phone down and is it as good as a 13 Pro Max and battery life no the answer is no it's not if we go over here to the low power mode you'll get even further but you'll have to deal with 60 hertz which is not really a big deal because 60hz is still smooth on this phone due to iOS being very well optimized I'll say that I'll say this the only time I really notice this thing really drained a ton was when brightness was Max enabled outdoors and I was doing heavy video Work other than that this phone never drained fully by the end of the day I was finishing by the end of the day around 36 37 same versus like 48 47 on the 13 Pro Max so it was like a 10 to 15 drop for the full day for me versus the 13 Pro Max which is disappointing but you traded for more brightness outside and you traded for you know definitely a better camera on here so you did get some improvements but if you don't like that just wait it out for the 15 Pro Max next month they're going to have bigger batteries and it's going to last much longer I'm pretty sure that's going to be one of the standout improvements on the 15 models so I find that the iPhone 14 pro Max honestly over a year has been really a nice practical flat display but the design is not super comfortable to hold mostly because this flat back with these Corners is a little sharper than I would like you know nothing phone 2 actually has a little bit of a curve on the back with a similar design and then you combine that with the weight and this is just kind of a heavy it just feels like a heavy brick that's not super comfortable to hold um cases definitely help this phone feel more manageable and just better but at the same time this thing just feels like a brick it's just heavy and I really hope Apple goes with titanium like the rumors are pointing to to lighten up the Pro Models the 14 plus is actually much more comfortable to use that's why I've been using it for the past couple of weeks um over my 14 pro Max although I still been updating the apps and playing around with this one the 14 pro Max just not the most comfortable to hold that's why you see me placing it down on the table a lot you know I think over over a long time if you're a heavy user you might even get aches in your hands maybe in your wrists if you're if you're using this thing all day it's that you know heavy and like cumbersome to hold if you're putting it down you're not a heavy user you won't even notice but we're we're getting into the details here and I think this is an area Apple can improve is making this phone lighter but still retaining the more premium feel with a little bit of smoother edges so it just feels more like they nailed it when it comes to ergonomics the iPhone 11 Pro Max was my favorite with this area it was light enough it was smooth it felt amazing but one year later with the iPhone 14 pro Max's display we talked about its brightness we talked about you know how good it looks when it comes to the photo quality and natural but they nail it when it comes to the natural colors as well so we don't really have an over saturation on this panel and it is like the most usable brightness there is one con to that or one thing about that though is that the max brightness does you know definitely trigger this thing where it gets too warm and then Apple actually dims the phone to protect the battery I know it's a Fail-Safe feature you don't want to damage your battery but at the same time it doesn't feel super premium when it's constantly dimming in warm weather because the brightness is too high and then you've got to wait like forever for the thing to cool down and get back to its normal brightness there's been times where I actually had to restart this film because it was so dim I couldn't see it so that's super annoying um so you can't always take it full advantage of the full brightness but when when the phone's cooled down and when you're indoors you can always use it and um it's incredibly bright so I do like that and I will say that you know this phone has the smoothest animations one of the smoothest displays out there with the 120 hertz promotion I do find app Library doesn't look as smooth for some reason as like over here on the home screen but overall it's just very consistent and it's a great display you know it has this punch hole up here that definitely will punch all this Dynamic Island which definitely digs into as you can see right there it definitely digs into what you're looking at sometimes especially when you're watching video if you're like in this landscape mode but at the same time you you have probably like the same the highest quality one of the highest quality displays out there so definitely it's strong it's definitely worth the money when it comes to the pure quality display now from a performance standpoint this phone does have the Apple a16 bionic that's clocked in at 3.46 gigahertz the s23 ultra I beat this one the speed test and it's kind of weird because Apple always usually wins every speed test throughout the year but this was just kind of an a15 all over again and what I mean by that is not that it doesn't have the better benchmarks I am aware that it does have better benchmarks it is definitely the better performer when you get down to the technical specs but in the reality is is that you know an a15 iPhone 13 Promax or 13 Pro performs exactly the same as the 14 pro and pro Max so you didn't really gain much in performance I think the a17 is going to be a bigger you know brag when it comes to the performance improvements but what iOS 17 not really giving you again no split screen how are you taking advantage of it really like at the end of the day what are you doing on an iPhone when all it does is have home screens widgets some applications one at a time like how are you really taking advantage of this power if you're watching this video Apple I feel like we need to go ahead and add ways where we take advantage of it mostly by a split screen mode or something like that where you would definitely notice that this phone can handle a lot more multitasking and stuff like that at that at that point I mean we're just adding specs for the sake of adding specs a16 hasn't really impressed me at all it felt exactly like my phone last year and besides 120 hertz the 13 Pro Max actually felt just like the 12 Pro Max all these phones have been performing uh like bosses and it really hasn't changed my life at all having a16 a15 even A14 they've all been pretty much the same in terms of day-to-day experience for me not software it's simple but I love it I love iOS and the reason I love iOS is because it's so simple in fact and you could call it boring call it what you will but they have some of the best apps on the market today period Point Blank they are some of the best applications out there the some of the best most well developed applications out there you just can't get around that developers spend more time creating you know a lot more time creating great applications for a lot of them do for iPhone the widgets are clean and I think a lot of cases they look better than the Android widgets and the phone I think just works so well and it's so easy to use um that once you get used to it there's not really much to think about with this phone and it's really good because while it is boring to some people that's actually a good thing it's a sign of maturity for this product it's a sign that this product has gotten so good that it's a product that you're never going to want to give up it's a product that you are just going to have in the background of your life and it kind of just reminds you of like your shoes or your clothing you grab your wallet your keys you put on your shoes you put on your clothes and you head out the door you grab your iPhone it kind of feels like that it's just there it just works it's easy you don't really think about it and get on with your life and that's not something you could say about every other phone I feel like when I'm playing around with an Android phone for example I want to play around with the glyph I want to play around with stuff I want to customize stuff and my brain is just thinking about it this one my brain doesn't really think about I'm like okay I'm going to take some photos and I'm out of here I don't know how to describe it it's something that you you you just know when you have this when you have an iPhone it just kind of just works and you just kind of forget about it I think the closest Android phone to that is the pixel the pixel is kind of like that too they don't got too much going on and it's just very simple and smooth so when you can nail those things you have a great product because then person don't have to like spend all their time on their phone unless they want to and if you want to that's why Samsung exists because Samsung has everything you want in the kitchen sink but for this you know software has been great updates come in consistently we haven't been getting rapid security responses which really help out the experience I think on the iPhone because what it does is that when some bad security flaw comes out then Apple will go ahead and just push out that update really quickly for you so it's a really good thing to have that as well which is really good and the ecosystem is obviously still a draw you have the iPad the air pods airpods Max you know Apple watch all that stuff is still a draw it's kind of something that I think Apple's getting comfortable with they know they got their ecosystem so they're kind of just relying on that to keep people there but they do improve those products like their air pods get better the iPads get better and they just all really work seamlessly together a lot of other brands are starting to get that now down pack too where they're they're air pods and their headphones and everything works very well together as well they took a page at Apple's book with that one but Apple's products still do that as well and they're kind of the ones who started all that so definitely that's still a draw another thing that's a draw is brand perception believe it or not you know you just can't get over the fruit sign the the Apple logo people are gonna buy this phone just because of that it's just like you know Nike or some other you know Major Brands out there people are just gonna buy the brand because the brand they're just gonna do that and there's nothing wrong with that people like you know the brands they like and Apple's got that brand perception now downward you feel like you've just got to have an iPhone and I feel like unlike other brands this is one of those phones that you just a lot of the majority of the public you know especially in the US just feels like they gotta have and what that Apple knows they ain't gonna have no problems with sales of these phones even going forward in the next iPhone you know they talk about the sales have dipped on in this past quarter for iPhone well of course why do you think that is because everybody and their brother is waiting for the iPhone 15 models and when those come out you're going to see sold out in uh maybe what six minutes seven minutes and now you got to wait three weeks watch you'll see end of the day I'm giving this phone an 8 out of 10 almost dropped it I'm giving it 8 out of 10. the reason why is because it didn't dramatically improve my experience over iPhone 12 Pro Max or 13 Pro Max it's a dramatically better specked out phone for sure but the actual feel the body the phone itself it's just a more refined version and space black was neat I was really hyped about the space black and I do still think it's sleek and really good I which the back was black the space gray right here did I say space black I don't even know if that's the name of this phone's color it probably is but it has like a gray back here with a black side I like the sides I wish the back was fully black too though um but that was pretty cool just to have a different color at the end of the day my excitement quickly waned with this phone I enjoyed comparing it to a bunch of other phones because I always think it's the Benchmark you know especially here in the US um but definitely it's been a really solid iPhone I could see why people are starting to get bored with the iPhone experience the competitors are really exciting by comparison and that's mostly because Apple's launch cycle 2 takes a whole year so there's a lot of time for other phones to come out and just kind of take your attention away but at the end of the day I feel like the biggest launch always comes in September with the new iPhones that's the launch everybody waits for and so at the end of the day I feel like they still have one of the strongest phones out there and I do really love this iPhone 14 pro Max as well although I'm definitely itching for an upgrade and the reason why is not because I need to upgrade my phone every year is because I'm looking for more changes in the iPhone experience it's been pretty similar Dynamic Island was different but it really didn't push the envelope for me I thought it would but it didn't I think having a periscope camera on here maybe titanium I feel like it's going to feel like an all different phone with the iPhone 14 or 15 Pro Max I really hope it does and I'm really excited for uh iPhone 16 which is probably going to be a total redesign we'll have to see what happens next year so you'll want to be subscribed for those upcoming videos if you found this video helpful entertaining and for me do me a favor click the like button for me and if you've had the 14 pro or 14 pro Max let me know your experience with that and if you had the iPhone 14 pro or Promax let me know your experience that you've had all year what you've learned everything about that down below in the comments section thumbs up if you enjoyed it subscribe if you haven't already Nick here be sure to be well and peace [Music]

Channel: Nick Ackerman

Views: 52,468

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Id: BU3mNCTb85Q

Length: 23min 38sec (1418 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 04 2023