iPhone 18 Pro Max Review: Massive Power and Battery — But Is the Price Worth It?

There’s no base iPhone 18 or an “iPhone Duo” in this September launch. Apple chose to highlight its Pro lineup first. From the outside, the new Pro models hardly differ from the iPhone 17 Pro beyond updated color finishes; the real changes are under the skin. Apple has refined many components to deliver an experience that corrects several shortcomings of the previous generation — heat management, battery life, charging speed and low-light photography have all been revisited. The iPhone 18 Pro models take a familiar formula and make it more mature.

After a thorough review of the smaller Pro, it’s time to focus on the iPhone 18 Pro Max. I’ve been using this larger model for nearly two weeks, which gave me enough time to notice how it differs from the iPhone 17 Pro Max I’ve owned for the past year.

Apple has greatly narrowed the differences between its two Pro phones. Up until the iPhone 15 Pro, the Pro Max stood out with a superior telephoto module. That gap disappeared with the iPhone 16 Pro. Today, only three meaningful distinctions remain: overall size, the screen and the battery.

Because of that, I’ll concentrate on those three areas here. For everything else, please refer to Ulrich’s exhaustive review of the iPhone 18 Pro.

Apple iPhone 18 Pro MaxSpecifications

Apple iPhone 18 Pro MaxDesign

The iPhone 18 Pro Max accepts cases made for the 17 Pro Max. I checked this myself using my old shell — it fits perfectly. Apple had indicated otherwise, but the reality is that the camera island on the 18 Pro Max is slightly thicker; nonetheless, cases still protect it well.

The external dimensions (length, width, thickness) are exactly the same as the 17 Pro Max: 163.4 x 78 x 8.75 mm. The only physical difference is weight — it jumps from 231 g to 249 g, an 18 g increase. That change is more noticeable than on the regular iPhone 18 Pro.

That extra mass is mainly due to a larger vapor chamber, which has been expanded across these models, and to a physically larger battery with increased capacity.

You do feel the weight difference when holding both phones side by side, but in everyday use it’s not particularly bothersome. It remains a very large handset that’s already tricky to operate with one hand.

Apple iPhone 18 Pro MaxDisplay

The iPhone 18 Pro offers a 6.3‑inch panel, while the 18 Pro Max steps up to 6.9 inches. The resolution scales accordingly to 2868 x 1320 pixels, while the pixel density remains the same at 460 ppi.

There’s little to criticize about the screen: it’s well calibrated and bright enough for virtually every situation.

For a deeper dive, consult the display section of our iPhone 18 Pro review.

Apple iPhone 18 Pro MaxPerformance

Both 18 Pro models share the A20 Pro chip, but because the Pro Max is larger it houses a bigger vapor chamber. That difference alone made me want to re-run the full performance suite on the Max.

It was worth the effort. The 18 Pro Max shows a slight edge over its smaller sibling.

The advantage is primarily visible in graphics workloads — GPU scores are a bit higher for the 18 Pro Max in tests such as 3DMark and Geekbench.

Don’t expect a dramatic jump: overall benchmark results show roughly a 1.3% advantage for the iPhone 18 Pro Max. The larger vapor chamber helps the phone control temperatures better, which in turn allows for a small increase in sustained performance.

Apple iPhone 18 Pro MaxSoftware

On the software side, the iPhone 18 Pro Max delivers the exact same iOS 27 experience as the smaller Pro. The system is very stable and smooth, without the typical teething bugs. However, the AI picture is unchanged in one important way: despite the beefy on‑chip compute, Siri AI is still not available in France, which leaves a sense of incompleteness. Voice dictation also still has occasional hiccups.

Because the software experience is identical across models, we refer you to the software section of our full iPhone 18 Pro review for our more detailed impressions.

Apple iPhone 18 Pro MaxCamera

The iPhone 18 Pro Max carries the same camera setup as the iPhone 18 Pro. The headline hardware change this year is a mechanical variable‑aperture main sensor (f/1.48 to f/4).

That aperture range is mostly irrelevant in bright daylight — automatic mode frequently prefers f/1.48 over f/2.8 — but it becomes meaningful at night, where the wide setting captures noticeably more light. It’s also valuable in video for achieving cinematic looks by stopping down to f/4 without using an ND filter.

The 4x telephoto is starting to show its limitations compared with some Android rivals once you push digital cropping beyond 8x. Because camera modules are identical between the two Pro models, you’ll find all our comparative photos, measurements and the full verdict in the photo and video section of our iPhone 18 Pro review.

Apple iPhone 18 Pro MaxBattery

The iPhone 18 Pro Max is heavier, but for a good reason. Its battery capacity has grown by about 11% to reach 5,391 mAh — a figure Apple does not publish directly but one we obtained from the European product database where manufacturers must report such values.

According to its EPREL listing, the iPhone 18 Pro Max achieves 62 hours on the European standardized endurance test, which is 9 hours more than the iPhone 17 Pro Max managed.

I also ran my own measurements after allowing the phone to complete its initial indexing. Last year, on the 17 Pro Max with typical daily use (2–3 hours of screen time per day) I got over a day and a half, the handset dropping to 1% around 16:00 on the second day.

With the iPhone 18 Pro Max I pushed that further — admittedly without using GPS — and without enabling low power mode (I had used it in my 17 Pro Max test). My usage was typical: streaming, gaming, scrolling, calls and photo/video capture. In practice I left the phone at 7:00 on Saturday and went to bed on Sunday at 23:30 with 15% left — plenty of margin.

That’s an impressive showing, which I also confirmed with streaming. Using my protocol — Wi‑Fi only, display locked at 250 nits and volume at 50% — 2h30 of Netflix playback (Watching “No Country for Old Men” style) used only 6% of the battery. That’s remarkably low. For comparison, a well‑optimized Android phone typically drains around 9% in the same test. The iPhone 17 Pro Max was already excellent here, using about 7% on the same workload.

In gaming, I ran an hour of Genshin Impact with settings pushed high except for frame rate. Although 120 fps is available, I limited the test to 60 fps to match common Android comparisons. The result was excellent: the session used only 8% of the battery — well below the average. It also beat the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which consumed roughly 11% in the same one‑hour run.

One caveat: I enabled MetalFX, Apple’s upscaling technique that renders the game at a lower internal resolution and reconstructs a sharper frame before display — essentially Apple’s answer to technologies like NVIDIA’s DLSS. MetalFX reduces SoC load and saves battery. Without it, an hour of Genshin at the same settings consumes about 17% on the iPhone 18 Pro Max, a substantial difference.

Charging

Charging has been improved as well. Apple claims the iPhone 18 Pro Max can reach 50% in roughly 15 minutes, versus nearer 20 minutes before. Using a 140 W Anker charger I tested, the phone reached 40% in 15 minutes and took 1 hour 9 minutes for a full charge. That’s slower than Apple’s headline figure, but the explanation lies with the charger.

To meet Apple’s 15‑minute benchmark the charger must support USB Power Delivery 3.1 and the AVS profile. My charger didn’t negotiate that profile, so with most available chargers the recharge speed remains comparable to the 17 Pro Max.

Apple iPhone 18 Pro MaxNetwork and connectivity

Like the iPhone 18 Pro, the Pro Max ships with Apple’s N1 wireless chip, supporting Wi‑Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread. The major change is the modem: the new Apple C2 replaces the previous Qualcomm‑based modem except on US Pro Max units.

Apple advertises faster data transfers and about 15% lower power usage than the previous C1X modem. My battery measurements support the reduced consumption, but on the Bouygues network I used in the Yvelines I didn’t notice faster 5G throughput.

In France the handset accepts one nano‑SIM plus an eSIM, or two eSIMs. It retains Ultra Wideband, NFC, dual‑frequency GPS, satellite features and a USB‑C port capable of 10 Gbit/s suitable for professional video workflows.

Apple iPhone 18 Pro MaxPrice and availability

The iPhone 18 Pro Max is currently Apple’s most expensive iPhone. It’s offered in configurations from 256 GB up to 2 TB, and none of the tiers escaped price increases.

Expect to pay an extra €150 to €650 this year to own an iPhone 18 Pro Max. Price hikes are industry‑wide with the new lineups, and Apple is far from the only vendor increasing tags.