Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max vs iPhone 12 Pro

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.7-inch Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max (with Apple A16 Bionic) that was released on September 7, 2022, against the Apple iPhone 12 Pro, which is powered by Apple A14 Bionic and came out 1 year and 11 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max
  • Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
  • Delivers 120% higher peak brightness (1751 against 796 nits)
  • Comes with 1508 mAh larger battery capacity: 4323 vs 2815 mAh
  • Has a 0.6 inch larger screen size
  • Shows 52% longer battery life (30:06 vs 19:45 hours)
  • Better camera quality (According to DxOMark rating)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
  • The rear camera has a 3x optical zoom
  • Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5
  • The phone is 1 year and 11 months newer
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 12 Pro
  • Weighs 51 grams less
  • Better grip in hands – the body is 6.1 mm narrower

Review

Evaluation of Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone 12 Pro crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
DeviceFacts Score
Final comparison evaluation
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Value for money (Beta)

To get an accurate value-for-money index, update the default prices with actual prices from your country’s retailers (for the selected memory configs) and press the "Calculate" button.
Currency
6 / 128 GB
VS
6 / 128 GB
78.3
(Good)
Value Index
75.9
(Good)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type OLED OLED
Size 6.7 inches 6.1 inches
Resolution 1290 x 2796 pixels 1170 x 2532 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 19.5:9
PPI 460 ppi 460 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (1-120 Hz) No
Max rated brightness 2000 nits 800 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1600 nits -
HDR support Yes, Dolby Vision Yes, Dolby Vision
Screen-to-body ratio 88.3% 87.1%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space 99.9% 99.6%
PWM 240 Hz 277 Hz
Response time 1 ms 3.6 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Screen space comparison
iPhone 14 Pro Max
6.7″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 17.1 in2
iPhone 12 Pro
6.1″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 14.2 in2
~20% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
1751 nits
796 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 160.7 mm (6.33 inches) 146.7 mm (5.78 inches)
Width 77.6 mm (3.06 inches) 71.5 mm (2.81 inches)
Thickness 7.85 mm (0.31 inches) 7.4 mm (0.29 inches)
Weight 240 g (8.47 oz) 189 g (6.67 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Black, Silver, Gold, Purple Silver, Gold, Gray, Blue
Fingerprint scanner No No
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Chipset specifications of Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max and Apple iPhone 12 Pro
SoC
Chipset Apple A16 Bionic Apple A14 Bionic
Max clock 3460 MHz 3100 MHz
CPU cores 6 (2 + 4) 6 (2 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 2.02 GHz: Sawtooth
- 2 cores at 3.46 GHz: Everest
- 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Icestorm
- 2 cores at 3.1 GHz: Firestorm
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 4 nanometers 5 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Apple Neural Engine Apple Neural Engine
GPU
Graphics 5 core Apple GPU Apple GPU
GPU shading units 640 256
GPU clock 1398 MHz 1278 MHz
FLOPS ~1789.4 GFLOPS ~654.3 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max and Apple iPhone 12 Pro
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
22851
Compute Score (GPU) 22851 16822
Single-core score 2669 2160
Multi-core score 7024 5104
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
CPU 329807 372871
GPU 444294 322471
Memory 150297 168174
UX 400202 464616
Total score 1324600 1328132
Samples [8 tests] [15 tests]
3DMark Solar Bay
Stability 74% 76%
Graphics test 16 FPS 10 FPS
Section 1 20 FPS 13 FPS
Section 2 16 FPS 10 FPS
Section 3 12 FPS 7 FPS
Graphics score 4266 2668
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability 71% 71%
Graphics test 19 FPS 12 FPS
Graphics score 3335 2149
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-08-09 -> Kryon296AnTuTu 111425670
📘 2026-08-09 -> Kryon296AnTuTu 111302538
📘 2026-08-09 (Trinh Anh Khoi)AnTuTu 111302538
📘 2026-07-17 (Astreeek)AnTuTu 111267503
📘 2026-07-16 (Oleg)AnTuTu 111267503
Apple iPhone 12 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-06-29 (Kirillkryt)AnTuTu 111284629
📘 2026-06-02 -> FoolishJevinTECHAnTuTu 111378105
📘 2026-05-31 (Cour27)AnTuTu 111340740
📘 2026-04-21 (PANDUSHA LOVER)AnTuTu 111236057
📘 2026-04-15 (Flaffer)AnTuTu 111341072

Memory

RAM
RAM size 6 GB 6 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR4X
Channels 4 2
Storage
Storage size 128 GB 128 GB
Storage type NVMe NVMe
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system iOS 16 (Can be upgraded to iOS 27) iOS 14.1 (Can be upgraded to iOS 27)
OS size - 14 GB
OS updates 6 years -
Security updates 6 years -

Battery

Capacity 4323 mAh 2815 mAh
Max charge power 23 W 20 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (7.5 W) Yes (7.5 W)
Reverse charging No No
Bypass charging No No
Fast charging Yes (48% in 30 min) Yes (59% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:52 hr 1:30 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 11:49 hr 07:12 hr
Watching video 18:59 hr 12:00 hr
Gaming 06:50 hr 04:33 hr
Standby 144 hr 101 hr
General battery life
30:06 hr
19:45 hr

Main camera

Matrix 48 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 8064 x 6048 4032 x 3024
Zoom Optical, 3x Optical, 2x
Flash Dual LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording No No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 240 FPS (1080p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 120° 120°
Lenses 1) Standard: 48 MP
2) Telephoto: 12 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
4) Depth
1) Standard: 12 MP
2) Telephoto: 12 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
4) Depth
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 48 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/1.8 f/1.6
Focal length 24 mm 26 mm
Sensor Sony IMX803 Sony IMX372
Sensor size 1/1.28" (≈ 0.78 inch) 1/3.4" (≈ 0.29 inch)
Pixel size 1.22 micron 1.4 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 12 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/2.8 f/2.0
Focal length 77 mm 52 mm
Sensor Sony IMX713 -
Sensor size 1/3.5" (≈ 0.29 inch) 1/3.4" (≈ 0.29 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1 micron
Stabilization Optical Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 12 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.4
Focal length 13 mm 13 mm
Sensor Sony IMX633 -
Sensor size 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch) 1/3.6" (≈ 0.28 inch)
Pixel size 1.4 micron -
Stabilization Digital Digital

DxOMark main camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
Bokeh 80 70
Preview 91 77
Zoom 139 111
Samples Photo samples of Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max from DxOMark Photo samples of Apple iPhone 12 Pro from DxOMark

Selfie camera

Megapixels 12 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 4032 x 3024 4290 x 2800
Aperture f/1.9 f/2.2
Focal length 23 mm 23 mm
Sensor Sony IMX714 Sony IMX514
Sensor size 1/3.6" (≈ 0.28 inch) 1/3.6" (≈ 0.28 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron -
Autofocus Phase autofocus No
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) Yes Yes
DxOMark front camera
Photo 139 127
Video 154 140

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5.3 5
Bluetooth features LE LE, A2DP
USB type - No
USB version 2 -
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
DisplayPort Yes -
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* - 1
Type of SIM card eSIM Nano
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* 20 18
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness
92.3 dB

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced September 2022 October 2020
Release date September 2022 October 2020
Launch price (MSRP) $1099 $1000
Successor - Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max - Apple iPhone 17 Pro
SAR (head) - 0.99 W/kg
SAR (body) - 0.99 W/kg
Sensors - Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Face recognition sensor
- Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Face recognition sensor
Bundled charger Not included -
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
83 (67.5%)
40 (32.5%)
Total votes: 123

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