If you’re looking for the best iPhone on the market, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is it: it’s powerful, has the longest battery life on an iPhone we’ve tested in 2020 and the camera is top-notch. You'll need to be ready to carry the extra heft, as this is also the biggest iPhone of all time, and the cost isn't to be sniffed at, but we're adding an extra half star for all those iPhone fans that just want the best Apple can bring – the iPhone 12 Pro Max manages to do that rather well.

Great screen; Longer battery life; Powerful camera;

Feels almost too large; The most expensive iPhone; Camera not hugely better than the 12 Pro

The iPhone 12 Pro Max is truly excellent, if you can stomach its size. It offers excellent battery life, a marginally better camera than the smaller Pro, and a screen that’s a pleasure to use for watching, reading and playing.

Striking new design; Excellent quality screen; One of the best phone cameras going ; Actual multi-day battery life;

Flat design doesn't suit the size as much as the 12 Pro; Camera only marginally stronger than other iPhone 12 models; Lacks a high refresh-rate screen;

Apple's biggest phone to date excels as a photographic tool, especially in the dark.

It sets a new bar for low-light photography, even if the bar isn't drastically higher than the competition. If you like big phones, you'll love the massive screen. Excellent battery life. Also makes phone calls.

Expensive. No 120-Hz refresh rate or USB-C port, two features commonly found on other large phones at this price.

It’s an iPhone 12 Pro, only bigger. The super-long battery life is the real draw here, while the improved camera doesn’t offer much benefit over the already-fantastic iPhone 12 Pro.

Best battery life ever in an iPhone, A slightly better camera than the iPhone 12 Pro, Blazing fast performance

Camera improvements are minimal

Ginormous performance. LiDAR sensor, ceramic shield, 5G, MagSafe. Apple's top-of-the-line iPhone 12 Pro Max high-end smartphone features the latest technology, albeit the differences to the iPhone 12 Pro are small. Find out in our test who this ginormous smartphone is for.

great build quality, water and dust proof, accurate location services, long battery life, flexible high-quality camera system, very bright and color-accurate display, plenty of performance

short warranty, charger must be purchased separately, expensive repair costs, display only 60 Hz, PWM flickering

“This is the iPhone with amazing battery life and an exceptional camera experience, but it comes at the price of being too big for most people to manage.”

Large and beautiful display; Excellent hardware quality; Top-notch camera experience; Long battery life

Incredibly large; Very heavy

The iPhone 12 Pro Max, the largest model in Apple's iPhone 12 lineup, adds super-long battery life and a giant screen to the 12 Pro's excellent camera capabilities.

Long battery life; Big; bright screen; Excellent cameras

Exceedingly heavy and large; Expensive

One of the greatest iPhones to date, packing in the best smartphone camera, outlandishly good performance and cutting-edge features like 5G and Dolby Vision, but a few too many issues undermine an otherwise excellent experience.

Best camera phone to date; Premium, elegant design; Amazing performance; Superb battery life; Beautiful display;

Charging and MagSafe are a mess; iOS underutilises big screen; Display tops out at 60Hz; Heavy, unwieldy form; Price;

2020 is an anxious year. If that anxiety manifests for you in worrying that your smartphone will run out of charge, you might want to consider upgrading to the iPhone 12 Pro Max ($1,099 and up), a giant serving platter of a handset with the longest battery life of any iPhone, ever. It's also the largest, heaviest iPhone to date, and one of the most expensive, which makes it hard to recommend over our Editors' Choice award winners, the iPhone 12 mini ($699 and up) and the iPhone 12 Pro ($999 and up). Before I continue, I should note that we also have reviews of the aforementioned iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 Pro, as well the iPhone 12 ($799 and up). These phones are comparable in many respects—with similar screen technologies, the same processor, and iOS 14—so here I'll focus on how the Pro Max is different from its siblings. If one of your questions about the iPhone experience isn't answered below, see our main iPhone 12 review. It's a Big 'Un Apple has had big phones for severa...

The iPhone 12 Pro Max, the largest model in Apple's iPhone 12 lineup, adds super-long battery life and a giant screen to the 12 Pro's excellent camera capabilities.

Long battery life; Big, bright screen; Excellent cameras

Exceedingly heavy and large; Expensive

It was in some ways frustrating for the iPhone 12 Pro Max to launch a month later than the iPhone 12 Pro, because we couldn’t immediately compare them side by side. But working under those constraints has provided me with extensive time using the iPhone 12 Pro, so now that I finally have a 12 Pro Max in my hands, I can leverage that considerable experience with the platform. That lets me evaluate the three huge things (emphasis on huge) that differentiate the iPhone 12 Pro Max: The size of the phone, its subsequently larger battery, and its improved camera system. The “Max” iPhones have a short history, but have gained an extremely enthusiastic following. Some people have seen the value of having a huge iPhone and never looked back. For those people, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is wonderful — it’s yet another huge iPhone, brought up to the modern era of Apple hardware design and features. If you like the design of the new iPhones, as I do, you’ll love that you just get more of it in the 12 P...

Large and beautiful display; Excellent hardware quality; Top-notch camera experience; Long battery life;

Incredibly large; Very heavy;