Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max review: terrific camera, battery life, and performance, but it's close to being too big and 60Hz display lags behind the competition
This review lands three weeks after The Verge's verdict on the smaller iPhone 12 Pro, which had already flagged battery life inferior to its predecessor — so the Pro Max read as the chance for the big-battery tier to redeem the generation. It also extends a two-year arc of Pro Max reviews: last year's iPhone 11 Pro Max was dinged mainly on ultra-wide camera detail, not ergonomics or screen tech.
What changed this cycle is that the critique moved from cameras to display refresh rate — a gap competitors had been exploiting — and that the reviewer found the device close to too big. A year later, the iPhone 13 Pro added a high-refresh display, effectively conceding the point this review raised.
First-order effects
Buyers deciding between the 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max now face a trade-off the review makes explicit: the Max buys the best camera and battery life in the lineup at the cost of one-handed usability.
Second-order effects
Android flagships shipping higher-refresh panels gain an easy spec-sheet talking point against the iPhone, pressuring Apple to close the 60Hz gap rather than defend it.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, display smoothness becomes table stakes across premium tiers — as the 13 Pro's high-refresh panel later confirmed — shifting flagship differentiation from camera counts toward screen and battery fundamentals.
The trend: Premium smartphone competition has shifted from camera hardware toward display technology and battery endurance, forcing each iPhone generation to answer the previous review's biggest complaint.
Always so excited to read @austinmann's amazing iPhone camera reviews. This iPhone 12 Pro Max review is insanely thorough. The images are wild. https://austinmann.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Apple not including the same camera system for both the 12 Pros makes me a bit upset and angry as I have sworn not to run with a giant ass phone anymore. Sigh. Maybe next year. Pro Max looks great this time round. https://twitter.com/...
lots of great reviews and debate over the iPhone 12 Pro Max camera today! my advice? get a dedicated camera, it will provide orders of magnitude better images (especially in low light and of fast moving kids!)
The state of 5G in the United States is summed up by the ferocious pixel-level discussion of photos in our iPhone reviews, and near-silence about this paragraph where I say 5G is bad and worth ignoring https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
I'm getting mine tomorrow & while I generally don't mind big phones (example: the LG Wing or Note 20 Ultra is not too big for me), I do think this one will be too damn wide to use full time in HK, where I have to one hand a phone often and there are always 376 people around me ht…
iPhone 4 reviews: “good news, the camera works now” iPhone 12 reviews: “wait until blackest night and enable NightPicture(TM). a photo of the inside of your closet with the lights turned off will now display 9 more grams of MicroFidelity(TM)”
“5G in the US continues to be a deeply mixed bag that is barely worth discussing ... 5G is not only hard to find, it's slower ... Anyway, I cannot stress this enough: 5G in the United States is more hype than reality” - @reckless https://www.theverge.com/...
I also reviewed the iPhone 12 Pro Max. It's great, but will be an ergonomic shock to anyone who hasn't ‘gone Max’ before. The camera has plenty of draw though, which could push people on the edge over that cliff. https://techcrunch.com/...