iPhone 14 Pro Max or iPhone 14 Plus Which One?

iPhone 14 Pro Max or iPhone 14 Plus, which of which of these 2 phones would be better for you.

 

iPhone 14 Pro Max Price  start from $1099 (Apple Store)

iPhone 14 Plus Price start from $899 (Apple Store)

 

Now, is the iPhone 14 Pro Max version is really worth $200 more than the 14 Plus?

 

In this article, I will cover all the differences, similarities and in what ways the 14 Plus is actually better than the Pro Max and ultimately helping you make the right choice.

 

Let’s start with the displays, the sizes of the displays are the same but what isn't, is the materials. The Plus comes with the aluminum and stainless steel on the Pro Max. Now, stainless steel does look nice but there’re major downsides. First of all fingerprints you can see them, you have to wipe it all the time compared to aluminum where you don't have that and you’ll notice scratches way more on the stainless steel as well. If you do drop it, the stainless steel is much sturdier and protective with that the back glass which is very expensive to replace. The Plus has shiny finish that is glossy. It shows a lot of fingerprints but it gives you a nice grip to it whereas the Pro Max doesn't leave fingerprints but it is a little bit more slippery.

 

Now, Apple talked about crash detection and spent a ton of time on satellite connectivity and thankfully both of the phones have this, both of them have the same exact waterproofing and a lot of the other upgrades apply as well such as bluetooth 5.

 

Now, the one thing that really stands out is the difference in processors and I have to say that's probably not going to be the deal breaker where people were getting upset that the new iPhones have an old chip. If you're comparing to the Pro Max the latest benchmarks do show that there's a 17 difference in CPU and an 8% difference in graphics but of course even the A15 Bionic and the A14 Bionic were so fast that it doesn't make a major difference.

 

Now, one area where I think there is going to be a difference is battery life with the Plus being better. Now, apple mentioned that has the best battery life in any iPhone ever but that was audio playback whereas in video playback it is actually worse than the 14 Pro Max and that's just because of the extra efficiency of the A16 chip but personally I think that if you are a lighter user you will get better battery life out of the 14 Plus because it has a larger battery in general and it doesn't have some of the extra features that eat up extra battery. For example we have to talk about the display because this is where we have a ton of differences. What really shocked everybody was the dynamic island which is the new version of the notch and not only does it look different but they're using it as a part of the UI so a lot of shortcuts and apps and controls and notifications are going to be shown there and this does look super cool, it is handy but personally it's not like something that you have to have, it makes a massive difference in actual usability and it is more of a luxury feature.

 

Now, one thing that really matters to me is the always-on display. Now, Apple is able to do this because the screen goes down to one hertz, now which saves battery on the 14 Pro Max and of course if you enable always on display it's going to use extra but it is so nice to have all your notifications showing up there. Just dims down and if your phone is laying there you see all that instead of having to tap it.

 

Now, promotion also taps into that because that variable refresh rate goes up to 120 hertz, which makes the phone so smooth but there is a major downside if all of your other devices that you use only have 60 hertz for example maybe your iPad, your different computer monitors all of that when you're used to your iPhone everything else just seems slow and glitchy so at that point you want to upgrade your other devices or it gets annoying but personally if you can afford it, it is nice to have.

 

Now, where things get really different are the cameras. Apple showed off the 48 megapixel camera and it looks really good but the 14 Plus gets the camera from the iPhone 13 Pro Max so it's still a very good camera but there are some limitations. First of all, you're not going to get the ProRes RAW, you're not going to get the progress video. Both of those take up way more space and the results aren't that much better so even if you get the Pro Max I don't think a lot of you guys will use that.

 

Now, with that the action mode still works great on both as well as the Cinematic mode, it works in 4K HDR in both which is great but the larger sensor of the 14 Pro Max will make it more accurate. Along with that the front-facing cameras are identical they are both new and much improved so if you love selfies there's no different but the other difference really comes in with that three times telephoto lens and with LiDAR having that three times telephoto allows you to zoom in 15 times instead of five and it looks so much better on the iPhone 13 series so the same thing's gonna go with this setup. If you like to zoom in you have kids or animals further away it makes a dramatic difference. It also allows you to take portraits with that lens which does give you a whole different perspective more like a realistic camera and with that the LiDAR sensor if you take portrait shots at night it allows for night mode the 14 Plus still doesn't have that and there is a shocking difference in terms of the quality, the brightness, the sharpness all of that.

So overall, if you care about cameras it is such a huge difference you have so much more options with the 14 Pro Max.

 

Now, if you're going to be selling your 14 Plus say in a year from now to upgrade to the iPhone 15 well the 15s are going to get that as well at that point the iPhone 14s are going to get outdated much quicker than previous iPhones where we didn't have that difference. So I would definitely think about that and if you're somebody that doesn't resell their phone you keep it for a long time say three, four, even five years then you have to think well this is actually 200 bucks but what difference is that price when you spread it over five years and if you're going to be sticking for phone that long that's where I would highly recommend to get the 14 Pro Max not only do you get that new design that's going to stay fresh for a long time with a new notch, always on display, much better cameras,  you have the LiDAR you just get so much more value for that $200 price.

 

Now, who should buy the iPhone 14 Plus I would say two people one somebody that doesn't have great eyesight or you really like a big screen but you know don't care about anything else you'd be happy with an iPhone 6 or iPhone 7. If you need the best battery life because if you're not a heavy user and your screen is going to be off for a long time and you're not gonna be pushing your phone hard with games and other things the standby time should be really good with this phone much better than what apple specs show off.

 

So, do not make the wrong choice look over all of the differences that I mentioned above and think about how long you're going to have this phone.