Iphone 13 Pro Max

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by David Munch

My iPhone 13 mini order was pushed again to the 11th of January, but it surprised me by arriving on the 22nd of December!

So far, very happy with it. Size is perfect for me, as I come from an iPhone 5S, and it is very fast which is of course enjoyable. Haven't had time to play around with the cameras much yet, but it is of course quite an upgrade so far..

Your old 5S is 8 years old, so any new phone will be a huge step up in speed and technology! I tend to stick with my iPhone models for 4 years or so. I'm currently using my 3 year old XR and will likely keep it for at least until this coming Fall of 2022, perhaps even a year more than that. I upgrade my iPads more often though as I use them for way more tasks than I use my iPhone.

[Jack Torrance]

While not a 13, I traded my 7+ (4-1/2 years old) In for a 12PM right before summer. I didn’t want to spend the $1100 plus tax etc and I didn’t. Verizon had a screaming deal and took my 7 in on trade for $579 plus $110 device dollars I saved $690 Total. That left me about $450 to finance and at 0% for two years was thought it pass on.

The phone is amazing. I’m seeing the 13 has some incremental improvements but most of this is wasted on me. I’m a big screen big battery guy and this has it in spades.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by OtinG

…I tend to stick with my iPhone models for 4 years or so. I'm currently using my 3 year old XR and will likely keep it for at least until this coming Fall of 2022, perhaps even a year more than that. I upgrade my iPads more often though as I use them for way more tasks than I use my iPhone.

Changed my mind and ordered an iPhone 13 Pro Max 256GB today. I should get it tomorrow. I got a good deal through T-Mobile with interest free financing. This will be the first time I get a top-of-the-line iPhone. I usually get the lesser model and/or the previous year’s model. I’m keeping the iPhone XR as a backup. I guess I can finally retire the iPhone 5 as my backup, and I never had to use in that role. Apple turns out so-so iOS releases these days, but their iPhones are pretty solid devices which tend to last.

[OtinG]

Really nice phone!

I used the Quick Start feature to set up my new iPhone 13 Pro Max 256GB by placing the iPhone XR 64GB next to it. I’ve used this before with my iPad Air 2020 when I got it, so I knew it worked well. The one nit pick is that the iPhone 13 Pro Max came with the display set to turn off after 30 sec. I had to keep touching the screen every few seconds to keep it on. Not that big of a deal, but a PITA. They should allow for changing the time out to Never before beginning the transfer. Other than that it went fairly well, except at the end od setup it got hung up on the Settings screen for entering the AppleID. I was able to get around that fairly easily though.

It is still updating all the apps so I haven’t had a chance to check out the features yet. Although it is heavier than my XR when both are in Otterbox Defender cases, they are close to being the same over all size. The XR case is thicker in places though, and the iPhone 13 Pro Max case is streamlined much better, so that helped keep the size in case to a manageable one.

Actually one more nit pick. You would think that a $1200 phone would come with the little tool to open the Sim card tray, but no. Fortunately I was able to find a paperclip, and thankfully it wasn’t Microsoft’s Clippy.

ETA 1: I can’t get it to charge on my Anker Wireless Charger PowerWave 7.5 Stand. A review I read said this charging stand would work with the 13PM, but it doesn’t, at least not with it in the Otterbox case. My XR charges on this stand while in the case. Not sure why the 13PM won’t.

ETA 2: A few hours went by after initial setup and I noticed hardly any of the apps had downloaded. Finally dawned on me that perhaps they were trying to use cellular data which is really slow. I put the 13PM in Airplane mode and they loaded in just a few minutes. I’ve now set the 13PM to always ask if it can use cellular data for DLing apps. With 220Mbps of Wi-Fi you would think it would default to that when it has a strong connection. Apple really sucks at programming these days!

[OtinG]

Really loving the new iPhone 13 Pro Max 256GB!

5G cellular is blazingly fast. With T-Mobile I was lucky to get 20 Mbps download speed and 11Mbps upload speed. With T-Mobile 5GUC I’m now getting 389Mbps DL speed and 22Mbps UL speed which is 1.7x faster than even my Spectrum 200Mbps service. See attached screen captures.

I'm pleasantly amazed at the cameras. They are what they are of course, and that being tiny smartphone cameras, so they will never compete against decent cameras like my Sony ILCs, not even close. But compared to the other smartphone cameras I’ve had these are far and beyond the best. Physics still limits them. You can scale down camera lenses and sensors, but you cannot scale down the size of photons (light particles). Basically, the more light particles a camera can capture, the better the images they produce. But I have to say Apple has done a lot more with these cameras than I thought they could. For the average person who just needs social media and family photos and videos, these are great cameras. Just don't expect them to replace your 1", APS-C, or full frame cameras.

And of course 4K HDR video is stunning on them, not that you would really want to hold a small screen in front of your face for two hours watching a movie.

The bad news is that Qi wireless chargers are not going to work well with the iPhone 13 Pro Max if you have a thicker case on it like the Otterbox Pro Defender. My Anker Powerwave cradle charger worked great with my iPhone XR in an Otterbox Defender case, but it won't work with the iPhone 13 Pro Max. I bought a newer Anker Powerwave II charger which claimed it would work with the iPhone 13 Pro Max in a 5mm thick case, but it didn't, so I returned it. After doing a lot of internet searching, I saw there are many complaints about this. These chargers tend to work okay when there is no case or a very thin one, but not with a thick case. Magsafe charging is supposedly okay, but again it isn't going to work with thick cases. Otterbox makes a special Defender case just for Magsafe, but it is slick plastic and not a protective as the rubberized non-Magsafe case. I like protecting my expensive iPhone 13 Pro Max, so wireless charging with my preferred case is not going to be possible. So that is something to think about. If you don't mind charging via the lightning port, which is faster and better for the battery anyway, or you don't mind taking the case off before placing on a wireless charger, then a thick case is an option. Otherwise, you need a thinner less protective case.

[drofgnal]

I was going to buy a wireless charger, but I've just remained old school and plug it in at night. Fortunately I can go two days with heavy usage with this thing before a recharge.

[OtinG]

Wireless charging is convenient, but it is slower than plugging in a lightning cable. It is also less likely to overheat while plugged in as opposed to charging wirelessly.

Apple switched to Magsafe from Qi with the iPhone 12 Pros, but kept them compatible with Qi, and apparently changed the coil location again on the iPhone 13 Pros, making Qi charging cradles less likely to work with them. Magsafe is fine if you don’t have a case on the iPhone, but not much good for people like me who actually want to protect their iPhone with a rugged case.

The cameras are much better on the iPhone 13 Pros, but Apple still has zero clue about how to make them user friendly. I messed around with mine last night outdoors. There still is no true Manual focusing available, which makes them nearly useless in very low light situations, especially since Auto focusing doesn’t work well, if at all, in low light. And the whole control system is convoluted and time consuming. The cameras are obviously made for social media and not for much else. They are great for daytime photography, but lack the usability necessary to work in dark areas. The cameras can definitely handle dark scenes, but the user will have trouble getting them to focus without Manual focusing capability. Apple could easily add true Manual focusing via an iOS update, but they won’t. They are too set in their “you get what we give you and you will will like it” ways. So we get a best in class camera hardware system but with a rubbish interface that has hamstrung controls. Bottom line is this, I can set up and capture any photo in any situation in moments with any of my Sony cameras, but it takes a lot of time and effort to capture the same photos with an iPhone (or any other smartphone) because the controls simply are not there. Fishing through a convoluted menu system to capture a once in a lifetime photo is a recipe for failure. So camera hardware gets a best in class, but camera usability gets a D- grade.

[GigiHais]

Yeah, deciphering those long and confusing phone logs can really be a nightmare. I used to get so tangled up in them when I started my own business. Between figuring out who called when, and what they wanted, I was getting buried. Then I found a solution that made all the difference. I started using a business phone service that provided easy-to-understand call logs. Not only do they show all the inbound and outbound calls, but they also show missed calls, voicemails, call durations, and the time of the call. It's like having my own personal secretary keeping track of everything! Plus, I can access it all from an app on my smartphone. Phone logs don't have to be a headache, there's help out there. You can find it here, if you're interested. Saved my sanity, that's for sure!

[HLS]

I upgraded to 14 pro max purple and regret it. A month later the yellow came out the same size, but cheaper for it was not a max. if i only waited i could have gotten the larger phone at a smaler price and in a better color