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The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max introduce some major improvements in camera technology, adding a 48-megapixel lens with the new Photonic Engine and low-light improvements to all lenses. We’ve spent the last week working on an in-depth comparison comparing the new “iPhone 14 Pro” Max to the previous generation iPhone 13 Pro Max to see how much better the “iPhone 14 Pro” is. Max can be.
Although there’s a 48-megapixel lens, the “iPhone 14 Pro” models use pixel binning to combine four pixels into one, resulting in a standard 12-megapixel photo, unless 48-megapixel Images are activated via the ProRAW switch. When comparing a 12MP image from the “iPhone 14 Pro” Max to a 12MP image from the “iPhone 13 Pro” Max, there is no immediate difference in quality, especially when the lighting is ideal.
You’ll see some improvements in shadows and highlights for improved HDR, and colors can be more vibrant on the “iPhone 14 Pro” Max, but for the most part it’s a subtle difference.
Where you’ll find the biggest upgrade is to enable ProRAW for those higher quality 48MP images. The 48-megapixel image has so much more detail than the 12-megapixel image of the “iPhone 13 Pro” Max, but the file size is a major downside. 48-megapixel images can be over 60MB, which eats up your iPhone storage quickly. However, if you want to capture a special photo with the highest quality, turn on this ProRAW option and you’ll see remarkable improvements over what you can get from the “iPhone 13 Pro” Max.
Apple uses the 48-megapixel camera for a new 2x telephoto option that crops into the image from full resolution. This adds a whole new focal length to the iPhone 14 Pro models, with the iPhone 13 Pro models being limited to 3x telephoto. The 2x telephoto is a great length for portraits or if you just want to zoom in a little, and as it’s the main camera the quality is better than the telephoto, even when cropped.
Apple says the Photonic Engine, developed to enable Deep Fusion earlier in the computed photography process, brings at least a 2x improvement to all camera lenses, but it’s hard to see that improvement in full in side-by-side Night Mode photos from iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone 13 Pro Max.
There is less noise and less light reflection in the photos of the “iPhone 14 Pro” Max in “Night mode”, so there is a difference, but it’s not day and night. Some of the “iPhone 14 Pro” Max photos may also look brighter, but there are no drastic upgrades here as the “iPhone 13 Pro” Max was already great.
As for video, Apple has added Action mode, which aims to mimic the stabilization you get with a gimbal, and there are improvements to Cinema mode. Cinema mode now works in 4K at 24 frames per second, up from the 1080p maximum resolution on the “iPhone 13 Pro” Max, so it’s just more flexible for those who like to shoot in 4K.
Action mode indeed improves stabilization when recording videos while moving, so it is useful for filming a pet or a child running or for taking action shots. As it’s limited to 2.8K resolution, you probably don’t want it enabled all the time as it’s downgraded from 4K, but it’s a solid feature if you need the extra stabilization. In many cases, you may not need the stabilization boost provided by Action Mode as the default built-in stabilization is good enough.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max cameras are a significant improvement over the iPhone 13 Pro Max cameras, but the new features will only be used every now and then for most people, rather than on a daily basis. If you already have an iPhone 13 Pro Max, it’s probably not worth upgrading just for the camera, but there are of course other features to consider, like Dynamic Island, Always-On Display technology, Emergency SOS via satellite, and Crash Detection .
What do you think of the “iPhone 14 Pro” Max camera compared to the “iPhone 13 Pro” Max camera? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to check out the full video to see both phones in action.
