Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max 128GB

Completely illogical and not ‘user friendly’ unless you’re a long time Apple sucker.
Speakers and battery are good. That’s it.
Phone does not have dial number auto-fill. (girl at store said ‘that wpould be good!). Good is what android has had since day One/10 years ago.
If you go to another mode while on a call, and back to phone you get the white dial screen with no chance to hang up.
You have to go to past screens, and choose the black one you’re on when on a call with the red hang-up button.
The phone doesn’t know you’re on a call !
How do you get back to that screen.? ‘Simple’/’intuitive,’ you just scroll your finger an inch up from the base of the phone to see past screens. This gesture is obvious. NOT.
The camera is good in close-up mode but otherwise an disastrous low res blur at landscape distance. I can’t even post a picture on FB it’s so blurry, even 4″ square.
RETURN.

For the money that it cost, I was expecting a little more from it. Some of it may be because of my age. I’m a senior and this is my 3 iPhone. Apparently doesn’t like my face, always have to put in my pin. The camera is really good, the battery last a couple of days.
Hopefully this phone will last a long time.

I traded in my 11 pro max 64 GB Midnight Green to get the Apple 13 Pro Max 256 GB Sierra Blue, carrier locked by a major carrier.

The iPhone looks a bit fresh, slick and feels very sturdy. I like the color alright but I always use Apple leather cases on my iPhones and those colors released do not quite go with the Sierra Blue phone. I ended up getting purple and it is not quite a match. Apple should have released the Blue Jay color in leather as well. For me the Pro Max phones are hard to handle without a case and there are no better ones than Apple leather cases. The new phone slips out of your hands easier than the 11 pro max, which was much easier to hold with the case than this.

The audio quality improvements (increased clarity and fidelity) are great on the 13 pro max and you can see that in the speaker mode as well. That alone can justify the upgrade for me but for some minor setbacks, more on that later. While at home I use Wi-Fi calling and it is super clear, better than the previous phone. The 120 hz refresh rate that auto adjusts based on the need for it is a welcome addition. Scrolling looks great and so does video playback. Although I do not play video games on iPhones, it can be a game changer for those who do. The other major improvement is the speed of processing with the improved processor, you can see the iOS completing tasks faster.

I liked my old Apple 11 Pro Max, but needed a phone with 256 GB as 64 GB on the 11 pro was too small and the carrier ran out of other sizes at the time I got it. The storage capacity offerings that Apple released the new one with can be very important for some consumers and I am really happy with the 256 GB. I have a big Spotify library, a photo library of my family and extended family as well. Whatsapp takes quite a bit too and I already filled almost half the storage.

Battery improvements over the 11 pro max are small and really should not play a part in your decision to upgrade, if you are upgrading from a 12 pro max it is a significant difference. The 13 Pro Max has a good camera package and that alone can be worth upgrading for folks who need it, but for me the quality of the pictures and videos with the old phone were just fine for casual use for most occasions. I have good Nikon equipment for serious pictures and a good camcorder. Apple’s ios15 privacy protections can be used on the older phones too, but on this device the new processor and 5G can make a difference in speed with VPN and private relay feature for iCloud.

Negatives:
I use a lot of apps: financial, grocery, shopping, sports, news, Spotify, podcasts and travel. Most of the apps show really small font in large areas of the screen. There are no settings I know of to fix that, this happened with the new phone and iOS 15. I did not have this issue with the older phone and previous iOS. The settings do not change the font size in the apps entirely, meaning it leaves certain important portions of the screen unchanged (you can increase the text size in iOS settings and add the text size feature in the control center and try what works best for you). For example, on the Amazon app, while writing this review, the font couldn’t be increased no matter how big I go, it just increases in some areas, same case with my other shopping apps. This is likely not Apple’s fault but the Apps are to blame. However, that small font shouldn’t have been allowed by Apple.

While away from home and not connected to Wi-Fi I have had choppy phone calls for which the carrier recommends turning off Wi-Fi calling as 5G or even 4G should provide good quality. This setting change is a hassle as I like using it while at home. I will need to observe this more.

The 13 pro max is also harder to handle even with the leather case comparatively and you can easily feel it is quite a bit heavier. It is impossible to handle it in your hands without a case as it is very slippery and heavy. You almost always have to use two hands, as the 6.7 inch phone with a rather large bezel is too big for most. If you are not already using a holder in your car for your mobile phone, you have to now. I would rather have the old size because of the weight issue, but all the improvements need that extra space and mass. Also this one slipped out of my pocket while sitting in the car seat a few times already while the old one rarely did. Another issue I noticed several times is that safari freezes up on me on the new one, likely iOS 15 bugs. The bugs are likely temporary unless there are hardware problems that cannot be corrected with software updates. The smaller notch is slightly better but still a negative as it looks weird along with a big bezel, which is pretty un-Apple-like.

Summary:
All in all the upgrade is worth it for me but really the new one is not quite necessary if you are a light user and have iPhone 11 or 12 for most use cases, nevertheless it is worth considering it as you may discover an important feature you would rather have. Please try it at a store before buying it, you may be impressed with the improvements. The smaller 13 pro and 13 versions of the device are pretty good too. If you are happy with the 6.1 inch size, the 13 pro may be perfect as weight and handling won’t bother you. I have also seen the 13 and it is very light to hold, but it does not have the same camera package, but it can be a perfect choice depending on your preferences, it won’t slip out of your hands nor pockets.

Recommended accessories you can get on Amazon:
Spigen glass screen protector, Apple leather case, Apple 20 watt fast charger USB C type, cradle type car holder mounted on air vents (I use Mongoora brand).

I took the Apple survey but it does not let you leave comments, so I came here to post this review.

Very nice typical iPhone with a great screen. I tried to like it but it bored me. I’m a n Android-ite forever. For iPhone lovers they’ll like it.