iPhone 14 Pro Max vs iPhone 14 Plus: Which big new iPhone should you get?

Apple just unveiled the latest updates to its flagship smartphone line, including a new, larger 14 Plus model to take the place of the iPhone 13 Mini. But how does the iPhone 14 Plus stack up to the top-of-the-line 14 Pro Max?

A range of four Apple smartphones have just been shown off at the brand’s September event. Read on to discover all the major differences between the two largest phones in the iPhone 14 series, both of which feature 6.7-inch displays.

Dynamic Island

One of the most obvious visual differences between the two is the presence of the all-new Dynamic Island at the top of the screen of the iPhone 14 Pro Max. This feature is not present among the two standard edition iPhone 14 devices, and so it will strongly mark out the Pro editions from the others.

Whereas the iPhone 14 Plus has a similar notch design to the one we’ve seen gracing the screens of Apple’s smartphones ever since the iPhone X, spreading across and connected to the top of the screen, the dynamic island is a pill-shaped design that is surrounded by the the colourful display and can adjust itself based on the apps being run the phone at the time. It can expand or contract depending on background tasks running at the time, and even splits off into two “bubbles” if there’s more than one activity running in the background.

Always-On Display

The iPhone 14 Pro Max is capable of running an always-on display, thanks to the combination of intelligent dimming, which reduces the brightness down automatically, and the adaptive refresh rate which can be lowered all the way down to just 1Hz, to keep it ticking over without being a drain on the battery life.

This efficient application of Always-On tech will allow you to keep track of notifications from your iPhone without having to wake it, but unfortunately, you won’t be able to use this feature on the iPhone 14 Plus as it’s exclusive to the Pro editions.

Camera

The iPhone 14 Pro boasts some significant camera upgrades over the standard editions of its same generation.

Most notably, the main camera now has a 48-megapixel resolution, and while typically this will be subject to 4-in-1 pixel binning, you’ll be able to take shots in the original resolution with ProRAW mode enabled.

The iPhone 14 Plus has at least seen an upgrade to its front-facing camera equipment, with a new TrueDepth camera on board.

Chipset

There’s also a big upgrade in processing power on the way to the iPhone 14 Pro Max, which is going to come running Apple’s latest A16 Bionic chipset. Built on a highly efficient 4nm process, and with almost 16 billion transistors, this silicon once again seems to have left other smartphone rivals in its wake, apparently being 40% faster and yet one-third as power-hungry as its competitors.

On the other hand, the iPhone 14 Plus will stick with the A15 Bionic that we first saw unveiled last year with the iPhone 13 range. We found this to be a highly impressive bit of silicon when we tested it, capable of running even the most arduous apps, so we doubt you’ll notice the difference in maximum performance when you’re using the iPhone 14 Plus on a day-to-day basis.

Price

Perhaps most significantly of all, of course, is the difference in price between these two brand new devices. While the iPhone 14 Plus has a starting price of $899 (£949), the iPhone 14 Pro Max is significantly more expensive, at $1099 (£1199) for the base storage model. Both handsets will go on sale on September 16.