Apple’s latest flagship phone arrives with a new burgundy finish and a higher price, but is there enough underneath to convince you to upgrade? At a glance Expert’s Rating
Pros
Long battery life
Big, vibrant screen
Slick performance
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Variable aperture camera
Cons
Heavy
Price rise
Minimal upgrades
Our Verdict
The iPhone 18 Pro Max is another big, bold phone from Apple and there’s lots to like about it. As usual, it offers high-end performance, reliable battery life and decent cameras – now with variable aperture on the main lens. However, 2026 continues to be an odd year for tech where higher prices and minimal differences to previous generations mean an older model is better value if price is a factor. Price When Reviewed
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Best Pricing Today
Price When Reviewed $1,299
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Best Prices Today: Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max
$1299
2026 is quite simply an unprecedented year for tech. From the AI boom to surging prices, to Apple launching Pro models of the iPhone separately for the first time.
That’s right: the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max launched alongside the all-new iPhone Duo, with cheaper models in the line not expected until spring. Unless you want a foldable, your options for a new iPhone are limited to two models. I’m testing the top-of-the-line 18 Pro Max. Apple’s smartphones couldn’t avoid price hikes forever, so this model now starts at £1,299/$1,299 for the cheapest SKU.
So, is the iPhone 18 Pro Max worth splashing out on? Or should it be tossed on the ever-increasing pile of 2026 phones to pass on? I’ve been using it for the last few weeks to find out. Design & Build
New colours with better panel matching
High-calibre build quality
Big and heavy
It’s actually interesting to see how much the iPhone 18 Pro Max has changed since Apple’s original Pro Max seven years ago. On the whole, it looks remarkably similar. Apple has stuck with the triangular layout of the three cameras and retained the high-end iPhone look which is so recognisable.
Of course, there are big differences. The cameras now sit on the much larger plateau, the old notch for the front camera et al, is now a compact Dynamic Island and the rear has a part-aluminium, part-glass design. Chris Martin / Foundry
The big improvement this year from the 17 Pro models is that the aluminium and glass are colour-matched more closely. Between Tech Advisor and our sister site Macworld, we have all four colours. I’m testing the plain black one and the colour wasn’t a big deal previously, but this year’s hero colour is Burgundy and it looks far more cohesive than last year’s Cosmic Orange. If you didn’t like the glass section standing out like some sort of track pad, then it’s good news.
It’s one of the heaviest candybar phones on the market
Although the iPhone 18 Pro Max has the exact same dimensions as its predecessor (good news if you already have a case), the phone is heavier. It now weighs in at a whopping 249g. Chris Martin / Foundry
To put that in context, the Google Pixel 11 Pro XL is 226g and the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is 214g. Even the foldable iPhone Duo is only a few grams more at 254g. This is not only a big phone, but it’s been getting heavier.
That’s worth bearing in mind if you want to avoid fatigue. It’s one of the heaviest candybar phones on the market.
Elsewhere, the iPhone 18 Pro Max is as you’d expect from Apple’s flagship phone. It’s beautifully made, with no flaws in build quality at all. You get IP68 dust and water resistance as usual. Screen & Speakers
Large 6.9-inch OLED panel
Smaller Dynamic Island
Stereo speakers
On the whole, the iPhone 18 Pro Max has the exact same screen as last year. All the specs are identical. That means you get a large 6.9-inch Super Retina XDR OLED panel with the same 120Hz ProMotion refresh rate, 3000 nit peak brightness, support for Dolby Vision and so on.
This is almost all the same as the 16 Pro Max too, so it’s telling that display hardware has hit something of a ceiling. I think you’d have to be upgrading from a 15 Pro Max or 14 Pro Max to really notice a big jump. Chris Martin / Foundry
The noticeable change this year is the shrinking of the Dynamic Island (the black cutout for the selfie camera and FaceID sensor).
Apple has made it 25% smaller. There’s a reasonable amount of volume available and the audio is well-rounded
It, of course, isn’t as small as some Android ‘punch hole’ cutouts, which are a small circle, but you benefit from the best facial biometrics on the market and Dynamic Island can now handle up to three live activities at once, should that be something you’ve been craving. There’s some chatter online about the 18 Pro Max’s screen calibration, but I personally haven’t noticed any big problems with things like white balance and colour. As you probably know, there’s no fingerprint scanner on iPhones these days. FaceID works amazingly well as it has done for years, so this isn’t a problem unless you particularly want a fingerprint scanner instead.
Chris Martin / Foundry
The stereo speakers on the iPhone 18 Pro Max are decent. There’s a reasonable amount of volume available and the audio is well-rounded. However, compared to the best Android phones for speakers, they lack some richness and clout.
Specs & Performance
New A20 Pro chip
12GB RAM
Up to 2TB storage
This won’t take too long as, by now, performance of high-end iPhones (Duo issues aside) is well documented. The iPhone 18 Pro Max comes with the latest chipset in the engine room. What you need to know is that the 18 Pro Max is powerful
The Apple A20 Pro is said chip. It’s moved on from the 3nm A19 Pro in its predecessor to a 2nm manufacturing process. It’s not only more efficient, but faster in terms of clock speeds and it has an additional GPU core.
If that’s all mumbo jumbo to you, what you need to know is that the 18 Pro Max is powerful. It’s been super slick in my testing, with only one minor glitch in many weeks with it – and I think that was the app’s fault anyway. Chris Martin / Foundry
The ‘it just works’ catchphrase associated with Apple products feels appropriate here.
Unofficially, the phone has a decent 12GB of RAM and has the same storage options as last year. Starting with 256GB isn’t as high as some Android rivals but you can also go all the way up to 2TB if you like, which is rare. iPhone 18 Pro Max benchmarks
Geekbench 7 multi-core: 11,548
3DMark Wild Life Extreme: 8346
3DMark Wild Life Extreme Frame Rate: 50fps
3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test: 68.8%
Cameras
Triple 48Mp rear cameras
New variable aperture feature
18Mp front camera
When it comes to cameras, it’s the same but different. Once again it’s 48Mp all round for the rear cameras (main, ultrawide and telephoto), along with the same 18Mp front facing camera as previously used. The big new feature this year is variable aperture on the main rear camera. While not new to the industry – it’s a feature which has come and gone repeatedly – it’s never been seen on an iPhone before. Instead of a fixed aperture (f/1.8 on the main 17 Pro Max camera), the iPhone 18 Pro Max can change between f/1.48 and f/4.
Aperture controls the amount of light entering the lens, much like the pupil of your eye in different lighting conditions, and also affects the depth of field. Chris Martin / Foundry
In this sense, it acts more like a proper DSLR camera and, while the iPhone will automatically change it for you, it’s available to adjust manually if you like. There are four f-stops available in total: f/1.48, f/1.8, f/2.8, and f/4. Although light and depth are two of the key measures, aperture has other effects on your photos and videos when it comes to things like sharpness. There’s always a trade-off and using the right one for the right subject and conditions requires knowledge and skill. If all this aperture stuff sounds familiar, I’m certain you can have some fun playing around with it across video and photo. For example, you can slide down to f/1.48 to get a natural bokeh effect without having to use portrait mode, use f/4 to get everyone in focus for a group shot or shoot video with a lower shutter speed.
It’s an improvement on the 17 Pro Max but, I think, largely if you know how to use it
For everyone else, I imagine you might have a go with it (you’ll find it under lens aperture in the menu when using the main camera) and then likely forget about it and let the phone decide which to use. Whether you find it to be a gimmick or not really depends on your own photography knowledge and skill. It’s an improvement on the 17 Pro Max but, I think, largely if you know how to use it.
Overall, I’d say the cameras are very good – as you’d expect from a high-end iPhone. Are they the best on the market? Not for my money, with the likes of Oppo, Xiaomi and Vivo appealing to the fanatics out there with insane specs and camera kits including proper shutter buttons, extra batteries and even detachable teleconverter lenses. On the video front, the iPhone still remains the leader in terms of point and shoot, but if you’re looking for features such as 8K video recording, you still need to look elsewhere.
4K at 120fps, though? No problem. There’s also a new intelligent Focus Tracking which can lock onto an object or subject and, even if they leave the frame and come back, it will still recognise them and keep them in focus. It works impressively well.
Chris Martin / Foundry
Oh – last and definitely least, the camera control button on the side of the phone remains but is still far too far away from the corner of the phone to be comfortable to use. I only ever use it to quickly launch the camera app and nothing more. Battery Life & Charging
Two-day battery life
Faster wired charging
MagSafe as usual
As ever, one of my favourite things about the Pro Max model is the battery life.
This is where it feels a large part of the ‘Max’ moniker comes from. It might not have the biggest battery in the world. Chinese brands are hitting 10,000+mAh now while the 18 Pro Max has (unofficially) a 5391mAh cell (or 5567mAh for the eSIM only model) but as always, Apple seems to be able to do more with less than some rivals. Chris Martin / Foundry
We can’t run the same PCMark battery benchmark test we use on all Android phones, but something about Apple’s hardware and software optimisation means the 18 Pro Max is a juggernaut. Apple seems to be able to do more with less than some rivals
In my real-world usage, I’ve found it will easily get through two days as long as I’m not hammering intensive tasks like streaming video. Even then, watching episodes on Netflix during a flight barely seems to make a dent. Apple quotes six more hours of video playback than its predecessor at 45 hours.
When it comes to charging, Apple doesn’t state a speed in wattage as other phone brands do. There is an improvement this year, however, with a quoted “50% charge in around 15 minutes using a 60W charger”. The issue, as ever, is that you need the correct type of charger as even using a 125W adapter I typically use for testing didn’t provide fast topping up.
It went to 15% in 15 minutes and 31% in 30 minutes, stating “53 minutes to 80%” at both points. Get the right adapter, though, and you’ll see it top up much quicker.
We saw the regular iPhone 18 Pro get an impressive 77% in half an hour and Apple gives the same charging figures for both. You also have the benefit of built-in MagSafe charging (magnetic wireless charging if it’s new to you). It can handle Qi2.2 speeds of up to 25W and there are countless accessories out there that use MagSafe. Best Battery Life Phones 2026: Get more screen time with these handsets
Software & Apps
iOS 27
Siri AI and adjustable Liquid Glass
Long software support
With a new iPhone comes a new version of software, so the 18 Pro Max gets iOS 27, but iOS 27 is available all the way back to the iPhone 11 making this less of a differentiator. However, you don’t simply get every feature if you do own an older model.
The key feature is Siri AI, the latest and now generative version of Apple’s digital assistant. The firm has been playing catch-up with Google Gemini and other rivals for a while but now claims it to be: “Truly helpful. Truly yours”. Before long, I don’t trust it and I just don’t use it at all
Whether that’s the case for you, I think depends on a number of elements. Trust being the biggest one in my experience – and I’m talking about AI agents in general, not just Siri.
Chris Martin / Foundry
It’s all fine when things work (typically when sticking to simple tasks) but as soon as something goes wrong or is blatantly incorrect, then the next time I fire it up, I’m not confident it will be able to help. Before long, I don’t trust it and I just don’t use it at all. I’m a believer in the truth that if you want something done right, do it yourself, so AI agents aren’t particularly suited to me and this is just my experience. However, you might find it to be a real life-saver and, if you put the work in to learn what’s possible and (unlike me) keep appointments in a digital calendar, for example, it will be infinitely more useful. It can search across Mail, Messages, Notes, Reminders and Calendar primarily, plus it can see what’s on your screen.
There’s now also a standalone Siri app where you can talk to it as well as see your history. Chris Martin / Foundry
Elsewhere in iOS 27, things are largely similar to iOS 26.
That was the version which felt like something of an overhaul, principally due to the introduction of Liquid Glass. You’ll get this on older iPhones if you have one and 27 brings the ability to adjust how transparent the look is, along with other tweaks here and there. Apple doesn’t state a software support policy like most Android phones, but can be considered at the top end, along with Samsung and Google. Considering that the iPhone 11 gets iOS 27, that gives you a good idea of how long you’ll get upgrades.
Price & Availability
As mentioned, the iPhone 18 series has received a price rise, so it now starts at £1,299/$1,299. The days of iPhones being a lot more expensive than Android rivals are long gone so, in the wider market, this is pretty typical for a flagship phone of this calibre. That base price will get you 256GB of storage, where some Android rivals will get you double that, but Apple lets you go all the way to 2TB if you like. You will have to pay £2,499/$2,499 for it though. As you would expect, the iPhone 18 Pro Max is available from Apple as well as plenty of retailers and phone networks.
As a reminder, the cheaper iPhone 18 models are due in 2027, so you may want to hold off for now or even wait for the iPhone 19/20 anniversary launch. $1299
Should you buy the iPhone 18 Pro Max? As with almost every new phone in 2026, upgrading is tricky to recommend in an all-encompassing way.
Rising prices, combined with minimal hardware upgrades means that the iPhone 18 Pro Max is likely one to skip for many people. New colours are nice but that’s not enough unless you’ve got money to splash, in which case you probably don’t need a review to make the decision. For everyone else, there’s lots to like about the 18 Pro Max, including its long battery life, big vibrant screen, slick performance and more. However, considering you can get one of the major new features, Siri AI, on older models including the 17 Pro Max, it almost certainly makes for a better value purchase right now.
The standout, exclusive feature is the variable aperture on the main camera but that’s really a niche one for the photography enthusiasts. Specs
iOS 27
6.9-inch, 1-120Hz LTPO AMOLED display
Apple A20 Pro
12GB RAM
256GB/512GB/1TB/2TB storage
Up to 45 hours of video playback
48Mp main camera with a variable aperture from ƒ/1.48 to ƒ/4.0 (24mm, sensor-shift OIS)
48Mp ultrawide camera (13mm, 120° field of view, ƒ/2.2)
48Mp telephoto camera (100mm, tetraprism, up to 8x optical-quality zoom, ƒ/2.8)
18Mp Center Stage camera (ƒ/1.9 aperture, autofocus with Focus Pixels, Retina Flash, and ultra-stabilised video)
IP68 water and dust resistance
Ceramic Shield back
Ceramic Shield 2 front
249g
Best Prices Today: Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max
$1299
