Was it worth sticking to a one-year upgrade cycle on the iPhone Pro Max? (see the comments in Are iPhone 18 sales off to a weak start? for the costs: “$414/year for annual, $345/yr for every 2 years, $281/yr for every 3 years.”)
So far, I think so! The provisioning process wasn’t too bad, maybe because I had the new phone copy everything directly from the old phone rather than going through the cloud. It seemed that a lot more apps were already signed-in and ready to use. Battery life is vastly superior to the year-old iPhone 17 Pro Max. Is the camera way better? Tough to say. Here are some samples.
Predator emerges from the sea in Jupiter, Florida:
(This isn’t Mindy the Crippler, in case you were wondering. She actually doesn’t like the water!)
A high-contrast scene due to shadows from the mangroves:
Let’s check text sharpness:
This high-contrast scene of a father and son strolling by the Juno Beach Pier doesn’t seem to have been handled well… (the humans are too dark):
Here’s one that worked out, though:
A local restaurant (Double Roads in Jupiter, Florida) held a small car show. Click to read some of the text and, also, think back with nostalgia to a simpler time when Americans could buy cars that weren’t tainted by any Nazi associations (1966 Volkwagen Beetle). In my opinion, it is impressive how well the camera handled the engine, which has a lot of Black parts (that matter) and is shaded by an overhanging lid.
(Maybe the Tesla Y, currently at 4 million, will surpass the Beetle’s production record of about 23 million? Elon doesn’t seem to be in any mood to update the name or the body shape.)
This 1960 Corvette was handled well:
I bought the wrist strap and the Apple silicone case. My idea was that the strap would be useful when using the device primarily for photography. Unfortunately, it gets in the way when using the smartphone as a smartphone, e.g., putting into and pulling it out of one’s pocket. It would be great if there were a way to store the strap somehow inside the case or up against the case, but there isn’t.
Loyal readers know me as a historical hater and mocker of Apple (part of my successful record as a stock picker!) so it pains me to admit that Apple has done a nice job with the iPhone 18 Pro Max!
I bought an iPhone 17 Pro not too long ago (so no iPhone 18 for me!), and it’s a1 TB model (but at the old price!). Had to pay full price, but my phone plan is <$200/yr, which makes up for that. I upgraded from a 512GB iPhone 12 Pro and like you, let the phone do its wireless phone to phone copy over (≈14 hours). My next phone will be a 21 or 22? 😉 While I have yet to do a definitive comparison of iPhone 17 Pro photos vs. older iPhone 12 Pro or DSLR[s], I recently shot some (just 720P) video with it in poor-ish concert lighting and thought it did fairly well (and the audio is fine too) — on this clip from the Cabot Theatre (most venues will not let you bring in "detachable lens cameras", so I used to bring my LX5). Clip, further ruined by Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19G5H2ZL9x/ The version at my @autoxtl3 on Instagram looks a bit better, I think. Wait until the end to see the zoom out. 🙂