It’s kind of weird for me because I went from a 14 Pro max to a refurbished 12 Pro max so for me, the 12 Pro Max is the new phone.
What I gained: lol, no more migraines from the display. That’s actually why I did this and likely won’t affect you.
A much better camera experience in some ways. My 12 Pro Max gives me photos with accurate colors pretty much like my eyes see them and the subjects look natural.
The processing on the 14 Pro Max looked weird. It took slight details and exaggerated them so that with a flower for example, there appears to be veins and textures that my eyes don’t see. When I examined everything I could see those details were indeed there but very subtle. The processing exaggerates them to make them way more prominent than they really were.
And the colors would be cooler. So I’d have to choose a warmer style preset to get a closer representation of the actual flower’s pink. Otherwise it would look more blue toned pink. But then the leaves and dirt would be too warm.
What the 14 Pro max did better than my 12 Pro max was freeze action in lower light so I had slightly better, fewer blurry indoor photos. But not by that much.
And it has a more powerful zoom.
The 14 Pro max does have other advances like Pro Raw. But I’m not really the target market for that after all, because I am often asked to share my photos with friends and family and I’d have a lot more work to convert those pictures into lower file size jpegs.
What I miss was the smooth scrolling pro motion. But that may be what contributed to migraines. I don’t know.
And I did like dynamic island, very much.
What I really noticed going from 14 Pro Max to 12 Pro Max was the advancement made to the modem after 2 years. My husband and I would be in the same location and he’d have a good connection with 5G speeds and I would have a slower LTE connection. I was not happy with that. Call quality was very good on my 14 Pro Max and just okay on my 12 Pro Max. When I’m on my 12 Pro Max I have to ask people to repeat themselves more. It’s frustrating. Which is why I’m willing to try the 15 Pro Max.
The phone itself is a little slower. Just a bit.
I’m trading the 14 Pro Max for the 15 Pro Max, so I’m still going to be keeping the 12 Pro Max.
If I were having to give up the 12 Pro Max I guess I’d be worried about losing the older processing for the camera that didn’t exaggerate and over sharpen everything. I have to admit, it’s great being back to this camera even if there are some night and distance shots the 14 Pro Max does a little better.
My other worry would be losing a display that works with my nervous system better. But that’s not likely going to be your problem. From what I can tell, my issue with iPhone displays is relatively rare.
I don’t know how important those advanced camera features like Pro Raw Res are to you. I used them sometimes but the high file sizes were a barrier to immediate sharing with people with limited data and/or storage.
If my 12 Pro max were my only phone and it’s all I had to trade for the 15 Pro max I definitely would not do this now. I would wait a couple of months if necessary to see the 15 Pro max in stores and to see all the reviews, especially for the camera.
My original 12 Pro Max I had a couple of years ago had a defective display that made everything in a dark scene in photos and videos look bright green in a darkened room. That’s why I traded it for a 13 Pro. I remember liking everything else about it especially the camera. My 13 Pro had a defective camera and gave me the worst migraines of my life. I hated that phone. I actually chose to go to an iPhone 11 from that phone until the 14 Pro Max came out.
I really did like my 14 Pro Max. I was able to use it for several months before the headaches became too frequent and unbearable. If not for the headaches, I would still be keeping that phone. Even with the photo processing issues I complain about, most of my photos were “keepers” and I rarely got an unusable photo with it.
I’m hoping with the 15 Pro Max that Apple has improved and refined the photo processing and changed the display just enough I can use it without getting migraines. I’m expecting connectivity to be much better than what I have on the 12 Pro Max.
I have no complaints about my 12 Pro battery life since the battery is new. It’s actually better than what I was experiencing with my 14 Pro Max.
