In smartphone design there's Apple and then there's everybody else, but I actually don't mean that in a good way. While Android manufacturers have mastered the art of new designs every year, Cupertino is like the automaker that holds on to it for two to three years, and yet what's interesting is how Apple gets away with it. You'd assume consumers would complain about the practice, but nope, it's really just us tech nerds. Apple's approach to build on the same design with new features has been kind of a staple, and yet, I think this is the first time this is not just an "S"-year.

In one corner we have the iPhone 14 Pro Max, what Apple dubs as "Pro. Beyond." and what I'm going to call its most controversial update yet. In the other we have the iPhone 13 Pro Max, which was maybe not the best phone of its time, but certainly my favorite iPhone in a while. It is a rarity for me to make this comparison and not just tell you that they look the same and are different.

So to clarify, the iPhone 13 Pro was my favorite, not really the Max given the heft, but it's pretty much the same phone in everything else. With this larger variant, I feel Apple did an amazing job at maturing the playground with a product that had lots of power, more than enough battery life, great color options, camera features and even a smaller notch.

Design

This year might look the same from the back, but even that's slightly different. Deep Purple on the new variant has garnered a lot of praise, but I do miss Sierra Blue a lot. I feel it handles fingerprints better, and my unit aged pretty gracefully where I still don't know what to expect from this darker tone. Both phones are massive, so forget about one-handed use, but their dimensions are slightly different. The 13 Pro Max is actually a hair taller and wider, while the 14 Pro Max is a hair thicker, though both are the same weight, which means even that isn't necessarily easy to handle. Both wobble on a table if used bare, though the newer model has a much larger camera hump. They each share the same ceramic shield glass, stainless steel, so durability is about as good as it gets, and then MagSafe remains something you can use as well.

Display

Flip them around and you will see changes, but not necessarily good ones on my book. I know a lot of you hated the notch, but I can't say I like the Dynamic Island. It's lower than the notch, making it more intrusive for content, even if sure, while providing added functionality that can be cool some times. I personally still don't like it, but I'll let you be the judge. I feel that if Face ID won't die, a dynamic notch would've been just as good. The 14 Pro Max can get dramatically brighter in extreme scenarios, but then both have gorgeous panels with fantastic color reproduction, viewing angles, and variable refresh rate up to 120Hz. That said, since the 14 Pro Max can drop to an even lower rate, it enables one of the most controversial always-on displays. I happen to love it, but I won't blame you for finding it confusing to know if the phone is on or off. And as for sound quality, I think both phones are just as good at it.

Internals

A major player into how this always-on display works has to do with the upgrade in internals. Apple claimed its new A16 Bionic has a couple of extra perks that enable those levels of power efficiency, but then again, it's not like if the A15 Bionic is a slouch in any way. RAM hasn't changed in years and the same goes for all storage options. 5G capabilities remain the same, and so does Wi-Fi, but then the 14 Pro Max has a newer version of Bluetooth. Batteries are also nearly identical, and the same goes for charging protocols and IP rating.

A major advantage of going iPhone is that even if the 14 Pro Max launched with iOS 16, you could access it on the 13 Pro Max a week before it was replaced. You'll have a hard time trying to find differences between them. It still isn't my favorite operating system for large displays, with lots of controls on the top, making you do a lot of juggling. There's still no split window multi-tasking, and sadly the status of apps doing Picture in Picture even today is limited. In its defense, this is my favorite implementation of a lock screen, like ever. Apple wasn't first, but these widgets and combinations are seriously awesome. Everything else, though, is more a bunch of nice little things that you'll probably forget. Seriously, iOS 16 was more about a major change to mask the insignificance of the rest.

Performance

If anything what I have heard is a ton of complaints over how the 13 Pro Max got hit in the endurance department, and I agree. I think it had far better battery life than the 14 Pro Max before I updated it, but since I did, I will say both are about the same, which is still better than others, but no longer as fantastic. Then comes controversial change number 3 with the full switch to eSIM on the 14 Pro Max vs the 13 Pro Max. This alone is enough of a deal breaker for me to not want to upgrade given how much I travel. And listen, don't get me wrong, the process to set it up was seamless on AT&T, and data connectivity on both is just as fantastic. I know you've been able to use eSIM on iPhones for years, but as of now in the US, the lack of a regular SIM means less flexibility when you travel.

Camera

So far, I know, it almost seems like the 13 Pro Max is a better phone, so the last link to defend the 14 Pro Max is the camera. This is the first time since the iPhone 6S that Apple moves away from 12 megapixel shooters, but then ups the ante even further by adding a sensor so large that even the Galaxy S22 Ultra looks small by comparison. It enables a lossless crop in 2X, matched with a brighter camera in the Ultra-Wide, even if the telephoto didn't change much.

As for results, well, I spent a good deal of time looking at these daylight photos and I'll tell you I kept double checking if I wasn't seeing the same shot twice. They are nearly identical, and where I prefer the 14 Pro Max because it has a slightly wider field of view on the primary, it then also provides the extra kick of that 2X crop which I prefer for street photography, but then I'll prefer the 13 Pro Max because it triggers Macro at a shorter distance. 3X then seems nearly the same, and the same goes to 15X which looks just as cartoony.

Once you kick into low light is where you'll notice a difference. The Ultra-wide falls apart less on the 14 Pro Max, though not by much, and I do notice the primary being faster and slightly more detailed. In the past I wouldn't recommend any other focal length in the dark, but I think the new 14 has taken that from bad to decent.

You'll notice more of the processing improvements in night selfies where the 14 Pro Max just obliterates the Pro, though once you go back to regular lighting, you'll notice differences stop being so evident, and that even extends to portraits.

Tricks now include more detail in Pro Raw on the 14 Pro Max, which I did notice, and then 4K Cinematic video, which even if slightly overdone the lower the light gets, is a dramatic improvement over what we had before. I can't say I'm much of a fan of the Motion Video (Action Mode) for the newer models given the loss in resolution and need for more light, but it's not like if regular video isn't already great at stabilization. Even in the dim scenarios I had to pull these tests off due to the weather I think both phones performed admirably in both primary and selfie video, though I do notice a slight edge from the 14 Pro Max in how much extra light it's pulling in.

Conclusion

To conclude I think this is probably the least common comparison I've ever done. Usually it's all about me showing you the new phone and how much better it is over the previous one, but that's not the case here. The camera improvements are there, but not dramatically better. I'm in this weird case where I prefer the notch over the Dynamic Island, believe it or not. Software doesn't seem any better on either, and it's not like if you'll be able to tell any sort of difference in performance. The Always-on display is cool, but not really something I'd consider indispensable.

I think you know where I'm going. This is honestly the first time I wish I didn't upgrade to the newer iPhone. The lack of a SIM Tray alone is a huge problem for me that I'll be testing soon in my first trip abroad, and which I consider unnecessary drama as teardowns have proven this space is used by nothing. I understand how Apple wants to push the market forward, but that kind of explains why I don't like this phone.

I'm not going to say it's ahead of its time, but in typical Apple Fashion, it's trying to force us to say good bye to solutions that aren't yet a standard. To a certain degree you're paying live the curse of the early adopter, and it's mainly because of this that I feel that if you have a 13 Pro Max, you might want to wait another year so that everyone else catches on.