iPhone 15 Plus vs iPhone 15 Pro Max: clash of Apple’s latest titans

There are four handsets in the iPhone 15 line, but for fans of larger phones, there’s a simple choice to make: the iPhone 15 Plus or the iPhone 15 Pro Max?

It's an interesting smartphone generation, this one, with the Pro and non-Pro lines getting closer in certain ways and growing even further apart in others. Indeed, the iPhone 15 Pro Max has in some ways pulled away from the entire line, including the iPhone 15 Pro.

But with all that in mind, which of Apple's big phones should you buy? To help you answer that question, you'll find a detailed, specs-based comparison below, along with the findings in our iPhone 15 Plus review and our iPhone 15 Pro Max review.

iPhone 15 Plus vs iPhone 15 Pro Max: specs comparison

We’re going to break things down into finer detail in a moment, but first permit us to hit you with the vital statistics. Here’s a summary of the key iPhone 15 Plus and iPhone 15 Pro Max specs.

iPhone 15 Plus vs iPhone 15 Pro Max: price and availability

The iPhone 15 Plus and iPhone 15 Pro Max were unveiled alongside the rest of the iPhone 15 line on September 12, 2023, before hitting stores on September 22.

As usual with iPhones, both of these phones are widely available across the world, but they have very different price tags.

The iPhone 15 Plus is of course the cheaper phone, with its starting 128GB model costing $899 / £899 / AU$1,649. There's also a 256GB model for $999 / £999 / AU$1,849, and a 512GB model for $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,199.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max isn't available with 128GB of storage, so the starting capacity is instead 256GB, which costs $1,199.99 / £1,199 / AU$2,199. Then there's a 512GB model for $1,399.99 / £1,399 / AU$2,549, and a 1TB model for $1,599.99 / £1,599 / AU$2,899.

So, the starting price of the iPhone 15 Pro Max is $300 / £300 / AU$550 more than the starting price of the iPhone 15 Plus, but that's with double the storage. It costs $200 / £200 / AU$350 more than the equivalent (256GB) iPhone 15 Plus model.

iPhone 15 Plus vs iPhone 15 Pro Max: design and display

At first and even second glance, these two super-sized phones look quite similar, with the big, flat-edged look that’s been present for the past several years sticking around this generation, albeit with slightly rounder edges.

Apple has also brought its Dynamic Island to the iPhone 15 Plus and iPhone 15, leaving the Plus and Pro Max looking very similar from the front, though not identical, as Apple has reduced the size of the bezels on the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

This has made the Pro Max fractionally (and we do mean fractionally) smaller overall at 159.9 x 76.7 x 8.3mm, to the 160.9 x 77.8 x 7.8mm iPhone 15 Plus. The iPhone 15 Pro Max is marginally heavier though, at 221g, while the iPhone 15 Plus is 201g.

Apple’s Pro models traditionally use shiny stainless steel for their frames, marking them out from the muted aluminum of the non-Pro models. Not so with the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which uses an even more premium material in the form of titanium.

The main other visual differences include the fact that the iPhone 15 Pro Max features an extra camera lens, and has also switched out the iPhone 15 Plus’s traditional alert switch for a customizable Action button.

Their colors also differ, with the iPhone 15 Plus being available in Black, Blue, Green, Yellow, and Pink, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max comes in Black Titanium, White Titanium, Blue Titanium, and Natural Titanium

Finally, one change on both phones is a switch from Lightning to USB on the charging port front, so the bottom of both phones looks much the same.

In terms of displays, both of these phones pack a 6.7-inch OLED with a 1290 x 2796 resolution and a peak brightness of 2,000 nits. However, while the Pro Max uses an LTPO panel capable of refreshing at anything between 1 and 120Hz, the iPhone 15 Plus is stuck at 60Hz.

The knock-on effect of this is that only the Pro Max supports Apple’s always-on display function, permanently showing key information when the phone is asleep.

Overall, we were impressed by both screens when we reviewed these phones, but with its higher refresh rate and always-on functionality, the iPhone 15 Pro Max's is undoubtedly the better of the two.

iPhone 15 Plus vs iPhone 15 Pro Max: cameras

The iPhone 15 Plus has taken a Pro-shaped step forward in the camera department, swapping out the 12MP main sensor of previous models for a 48MP component.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max also has a 48MP main sensor, though this is a new, larger sensor, so it still has the iPhone 15 Plus's snapper beat.

Both phones also have a 12MP ultra-wide camera and 12MP selfie snappers, but the big difference comes in the zoom department. Only the Pro Max has a dedicated telephoto camera, and it’s a markedly improved one at that, being a 12MP camera offering 5x optical zoom (where the iPhone 15 Pro is limited to 3x optical zoom).

iPhone 15 Plus camera samples

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iPhone 15 Pro Max camera samples

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The upshot is that the iPhone 15 Pro Max is a vastly better handset for telephoto photography than the iPhone 15 Plus, but its main camera also has the upper hand.

In our iPhone 15 Pro Max review, we described the camera as capable of capturing some "truly eye-popping images", so this is the iPhone to buy if photography is your focus. That said, we also praised the iPhone 15 Plus's camera, so it's a strong lower cost alternative.

iPhone 15 Plus vs iPhone 15 Pro Max: performance and software

2022 saw Apple taking the historic decision to split its smartphone line, giving the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus an older and less capable chipset than the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. We’ve seen the same thing happen with the iPhone 15 line.

Specifically, the iPhone 15 Pro Max comes with the brand new 3nm A17 Pro chipset, while the iPhone 15 Plus has been left with the 4nm A16 Bionic previously found in the iPhone 14 Pro. The Pro Max chipset is therefore much faster and even more efficient.

This significant performance advantage has also been bolstered by additional RAM, as the iPhone 15 Pro Max comes with 8GB to the iPhone 15 Plus’s 6GB.

Still, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max is exceptionally powerful, outside of its ability to play recent console games like Resident Evil: Village, there's little that really requires that power, and day-to-day you should experience almost as good performance from the iPhone 15 Plus.

iPhone 15 Plus vs iPhone 15 Pro Max: battery

Both of these phones have bigger batteries than their predecessors, but not by much, and they're a similar capacity to each other, with the iPhone 15 Plus having a 4,383mAh battery and the iPhone 15 Pro Max having a 4,441mAh one.

In practice, both of these phones have superb battery life, both compared to other iPhones and other phones in general.

We were impressed by both devices in our review, and Apple, for its part, claims that  the iPhone 15 Plus can last for up to 26 hours of video playback or 100 hours of audio playback, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max can last for up to 29 hours of video or up to 95 hours of audio.

iPhone 15 Plus vs iPhone 15 Pro Max: verdict

Apple’s wider smartphone philosophy is shifting, and the differences between its two 2023 titans illustrates that point nicely.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max is significantly more expensive than the iPhone 15 Plus. To justify that price bump, it has a major lead in camera technology, processing power, and even the materials used in its construction.

Conversely, the iPhone 15 Plus looks broadly the same as its pricey brother, with similar design flourishes headlined by the adoption of Apple’s brilliant Dynamic Island. If all you want is a stylish, broadly feature-complete and super-sized iPhone, it's arguably Apple’s best-value offering yet.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max is Apple’s highest-performing phone yet by some margin, but it's not the best value. As such, the iPhone 15 Plus has a vital role to play in these financially tightened times.