Apple iPhone 16 Plus vs. iPhone 16 Pro Max: Which big-screen iPhone should you buy?

If you want an iPhone, location are aggregate models to take from, pinch smaller options and bigger models alike. We’ve already covered nan differences betwixt nan iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro, but if you want nan bigger iPhone screen, should you spell pinch nan iPhone 16 Plus aliases nan iPhone 16 Pro Max?

Both characteristic nan latest procreation of processors and connection akin camera experiences, albeit pinch a fewer cardinal differences successful some areas. Both besides characteristic nan aforesaid Action Button and Camera Control features.

Do you spell for nan bigger non-Pro iPhone aliases nan champion Apple offers successful nan iPhone 16 Pro Max? Let’s dive into nan differences to find out.

Apple iPhone 16 Plus vs. iPhone 16 Pro Max: specs

iPhone 16 Plus vs. iPhone 16 Pro Max: design

Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends

The iPhone 16 Plus and iPhone 16 Pro Max stock akin designs, but nan changes are smaller than successful erstwhile years. Crucially, nan iPhone 16 Plus offers astir of nan iPhone 16 Pro Max acquisition astatine a importantly little price.

The iPhone 16 Plus gained nan Action Button that was exclusive to nan Pro phones past year, and some phones now person nan Camera Control button, which is caller to each of nan iPhone 16 series. To further differentiate nan ranges, Apple opted for a redesigned vertical camera array alternatively of nan diagonal array recovered connected nan iPhone 15 Pro range.

The iPhone 16 Plus is 0.5mm thinner and 2.1 mm shorter than nan iPhone 16 Pro Max, but some phones person akin widths astatine 77.8 and 77.6mm, respectively. The iPhone 16 Plus weighs importantly little astatine 199 grams than nan iPhone 16 Pro Max, which weighs 28 grams much astatine 227 grams. We recovered that nan astir noticeable quality betwixt nan 2 is said 28 grams, which you’ll person to woody pinch if you opt for nan Pro Max. The Plus feels overmuch lighter by acold erstwhile utilized regularly.

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The bottommost correct of some phones houses nan Camera Control button. This beingness fastener sits flush pinch nan lodging and features a capacitive sensor underneath that lets you swipe, press, and half-press to alteration circumstantial camera features. It will besides beryllium basal for nan Vision Intelligence features erstwhile they motorboat adjacent nan extremity of nan month.

The iPhone 16 Plus features a Corning Gorilla Glass backmost pinch an aluminum framework and comes successful 5 vibrant colors: Black, White, Pink, Teal, and nan leader color, Ultramarine. The iPhone 16 Pro Max retains nan aforesaid titanium build from nan iPhone 15 Pro scope and comes successful 4 colors: Black Titanium, White Titanium, Natural Titanium, and this year’s caller color, Desert Titanium.

These 2 connection nan aforesaid design, but if we had to prime a winner, nan titanium build connected nan iPhone 16 Pro Max is amended than nan aluminum build connected nan iPhone 16 Plus. We’re still going to telephone this a tie.

Winner: Tie

iPhone 16 Plus vs. iPhone 16 Pro Max: display

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Until this year, nan Plus and Pro Max phones shared very akin show sizes; past year, they were moreover identical. This year, Apple  made nan Pro phones 0.2 inches larger than their non-Pro equivalents. At 6.9 inches, nan iPhone 16 Pro Max features nan biggest iPhone show ever.

For immoderate people, this whitethorn beryllium excessively large, but nan iPhone 16 Pro Max features nan thinnest bezels of immoderate iPhone, which helps summation nan ergonomic friendliness of nan larger display. The 6.9-inch show connected nan iPhone 16 Pro Max is besides nan largest of immoderate flagship smartphone successful nan U.S., moreover larger than nan 6.8-inch show connected nan Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, Google Pixel 9 Pro XL, and OnePlus 12.

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Both phones characteristic a Super Retina XDR OLED show pinch a emblematic brightness of 1,000 nits, 1,600 nits for HDR content, and a highest brightness of 2,000 nits. They tin some besides dim down to conscionable 1 nit successful acheronian conditions, which helps forestall them from blinding you successful a acheronian room aliases environment. Both displays are protected by Ceramic Shield, which Apple claims is nan strongest solid of immoderate iPhone. These displays tin grip astir bumps and drops pinch added scratch protection.

Both displays characteristic galore similarities, but location is simply a large quality betwixt them. The iPhone 16 Plus features a fixed 60Hz refresh complaint and lacks an Always-On show (AOD), while nan iPhone 16 Pro Max gains an AOD acknowledgment to nan ProMotion display, which uses LTPO exertion to alteration a adaptable refresh complaint betwixt 1Hz and 120Hz. However, nan iPhone 16 Plus gained nan Dynamic Island that was exclusive to nan Pro iPhones past year.

The iPhone 16 Plus’ 6.7-inch show is nary slouch, but nan ProMotion features connected nan iPhone 16 Pro Max make it better.

Winner: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max

iPhone 16 Plus vs. iPhone 16 Pro Max: cameras

Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends

Cameras were a large portion of nan iPhone 16 motorboat event, and for nan first time, nan non-Pro phones gained nan aforesaid group of caller camera features arsenic their Pro siblings. Both phones characteristic updated cameras, but arsenic successful erstwhile years, nan iPhone 16 Pro Max has a higher-grade camera for much master photos and videos.

The iPhone 16 Plus features a caller 48-megapixel Fusion camera and a 12MP ultrawide camera successful its caller vertical camera array. The Fusion camera uses pixel binning — a exertion that combines pixels to make larger ones — to seizure 24MP photos pinch amended ray capture. The iPhone 16 Plus besides sports a 2x telephoto feature, but alternatively than a dedicated lens, Apple crops nan mediate 12MP of nan image to alteration nan aforesaid effect. This cropped telephoto lens has a faster aperture than immoderate erstwhile dedicated 2x telephoto lens connected an iPhone and lets successful much ray to vastly amended wide nighttime photography. The 12MP ultrawide camera has galore similarities to past year’s, but gains autofocus, enabling a caller macro photography mode for non-Pro phones for nan first time.

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The iPhone 16 Pro Max features nan aforesaid 48MP Fusion camera and has an improved 48MP ultrawide camera. This caller ultrawide improves connected nan 12MP ultrawide successful past year’s iPhone 15 Pro Max, though it features a overmuch smaller 0.7µm pixel size, which whitethorn impact lowlight ultrawide photography. The iPhone 16 Pro Max besides has nan aforesaid 5x telephoto lens recovered successful nan iPhone 15 Pro Max, pinch nary notable year-on-year improvements.

While nan camera tin return fantabulous photos connected nan Plus, it does thin to person issues pinch lowlight capacity pinch dim indoor lighting. It alternatively cranks retired grainy shots, and photos pinch optical zoom extremity up lacking immoderate detail.

Both cameras besides person galore caller software-based features designed to return advantage of nan camera capabilities. Audio Mix allows you to set nan sound recorded during a video and alteration really nan audio sounds successful nan last video. Both phones tin besides seizure spatial video and photos, which is perfect for nan Apple Vision Pro, while nan iPhone 16 Pro Max tin besides seizure Dolby Vision and 4K signaling astatine 120 frames per 2nd (fps).

The iPhone 16 Pro Max represents nan champion camera connected an iPhone, but for once, nan non-Pro iPhone offers overmuch of nan aforesaid experience. If you don’t request a telephoto lens aliases a amended ultrawide camera, there’s small logic to bargain nan iPhone 16 Pro Max for its camera.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max has a somewhat amended camera than nan iPhone 16 Plus — mostly acknowledgment to nan further telephoto lens — but they connection very akin experiences otherwise.

Winner: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max

iPhone 16 Plus vs. iPhone 16 Pro Max: package and performance

Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends

Both nan iPhone 16 Plus and iPhone 16 Pro Max are designed pinch Apple Intelligence successful mind. This intends they characteristic nan latest 3nm processors, which connection increases successful representation bandwidth, neural processing portion (NPU) capabilities, and gaming performance.

The iPhone 16 Plus is nan first non-Pro big-screen iPhone to characteristic nan aforesaid latest-generation processor arsenic its Pro counterpart. In erstwhile years, Apple opted for a year-old processor, but pinch Apple Intelligence successful mind, it picked nan A18 processor for nan full iPhone 16 lineup.

Apple

The A18 processor successful nan iPhone 16 Plus features a six-core CPU pinch 2 capacity cores and 4 ratio cores. This latest-generation processor is up to doubly arsenic accelerated arsenic nan iPhone 15 bid for instrumentality learning tasks and up to 30% faster successful wide tasks. It besides features a desktop-class five-core CPU that is up to 40% faster than nan iPhone 15’s. The iPhone 16 Pro Max features nan A18 Pro chipset, which has nan aforesaid characteristic group and 1 further halfway successful its GPU. Ultimately, this intends location should beryllium small quality betwixt nan capacity of some devices.

The iPhone 16 Plus and iPhone 16 Pro Max tally iOS 18 retired of nan box, and Apple Intelligence has now launched too. Apple doesn’t guarantee a circumstantial number of updates for its devices, but based connected its way record, it’s apt that some phones will person betwixt six and 8 years of updates and support.

This is an easy one: they’re efficaciously nan aforesaid phone.

Winner: Tie

iPhone 16 Plus vs. iPhone 16 Pro Max: artillery life and charging

Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends

Apple doesn’t uncover individual artillery capacities for its phones, but nan Pro Max scope is wide recognized arsenic having nan champion artillery life of immoderate iPhone. With a virtually identical artillery capacity, nan iPhone 16 Plus is rated little by Apple, but still performs good connected its own.

In our review, we recovered nan Plus lasted astir six hours pinch on-screen usage from a azygous charge. Meanwhile, nan iPhone 16 Pro Max provides fantabulous artillery life, lasting 2 days betwixt charges during our reappraisal period.

Joe Maring / Digital Trends

This year’s biggest improvements are successful charging, pinch Apple vastly bolstering nan charging acquisition crossed nan full iPhone 16 lineup. Regardless of which iPhone 16 exemplary you buy, you’ll get enhanced charging speeds, whether utilizing a cable, Qi-wireless charging, aliases a MagSafe charger.

MagSafe wireless charging has been boosted to 25 watts pinch Apple’s caller MagSafe cablegram and a 30W charging puck. Qi-wireless charging has been accrued to 15W utilizing a first-generation aliases second-generation Qi charger. If you plug successful to charge, some phones support up to 45W charging via USB-C.

They’re very similar, truthful this is simply a tie. It’s imaginable nan iPhone 16 Pro Max has a longer lasting-battery, but we won’t cognize for judge until we’ve had much clip pinch nan iPhone 16 Plus. It’s a tie, for now.

Winner: Tie

iPhone 16 Plus vs. iPhone 16 Pro Max: readiness and price

Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends

The iPhone 16 Plus starts astatine $899 and is disposable successful 5 colors: Black, White, Pink, Ultramarine, and nan 1 successful photos successful this guide, Teal. It comes pinch 128GB of guidelines storage, pinch different options available: 256GB costs an further $100, while nan type pinch nan maximum 512GB costs $1,199.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max is importantly much costly astatine $1,199, but this isn’t nan afloat story. This guidelines exemplary for nan Pro Max comes pinch 256GB of storage, and if you want much storage, 512GB will costs you $200 more, while nan maximum 1TB exemplary is $1,599. The iPhone 16 Pro Max comes successful 4 titanium colors: Natural, Black, White, and Desert.

iPhone 16 Plus vs. iPhone 16 Pro Max: verdict

Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends

The iPhone 16 Pro Max delivers nan champion iPhone acquisition you tin buy, but astatine $1,199, it costs $300 much than nan iPhone 16 Plus. With truthful fewer differences betwixt nan 2 phones and a important value difference, it’s difficult to urge nan iPhone 16 Pro Max. For nan first time, nan iPhone 16 Plus whitethorn beryllium nan amended big-screen iPhone for astir people.

If you want nan telephoto lens, an improved ultrawide camera, aliases somewhat amended artillery life, nan iPhone 16 Pro Max is worthy nan further premium. However, arsenic we covered successful our iPhone 16 vs. iPhone 16 Pro comparison, there’s small that separates nan non-Pro and Pro phones this year, and those 2 devices only person a $200 value difference. The differences betwixt nan iPhone 16 Plus and iPhone 16 Pro Max are identical, but nan value quality is higher.

Regardless of which big-screen iPhone you buy, you’ll get 1 of nan champion iPhones that Apple has ever made. One is nan biggest, nan different is nan champion Plus telephone to grace nan iPhone lineup, and some characteristic nan aforesaid scope of features that make this year’s lineup truthful special. Both phones are astir identical to their smaller counterparts.