iPhone 12 Pro Max Impressions

I’ve been using the Pro Max since Friday night and feel it’s been enough time to post a few thoughts I’ve had so far.

As far as the design goes, I love the squared-off design. This was a staple during the iPhone 4/4S/5/5s era, and I’m glad it has made a return. The edges help make the phone feel super solid when gripping. The glass is flush with the stainless steel band with the exception of the camera bump, which seems to protrude slightly more than the 11 Pro Max did but isn’t a huge deal for me. I went with the gold model this year and it looks absolutely stunning.

I haven’t properly gone out and played with the camera too much, however it does seem to offer noticeable improvements over the previous Pro lineup. I’m looking forward to spending more time with it.

Of course, the size of the phone has increased and it feels enormous. Despite only being slightly larger, it is no longer a one-handed phone for me, and for most things I now find myself having to use both hands. This was expected and it is the price you pay for the larger display, better cameras, and battery life. But I do dream about an iPhone 12 Pro mini with the same camera setup.

I have Verizon and I’ve seen their nationwide 5G network show up, despite the coverage map lacking any official coverage yet for my area. The speeds are slightly faster than LTE, which usually pulls in 70-150mbps in my area. Boston also has support for 5G ultra-wideband, but it is super sparse and so far I’ve only been able to connect to it with a weak signal while driving. A speed test I did below pulled in a good speed but a far cry from the 1-4Gbps speeds that I’ve seen people achieve, likely because of how far I was from the antenna. I’m definitely going to explore more and post some speed tests once I find the perfect spot.