The iPhone 11 Pro Max is the largest and most powerful phone Apple’s ever created, taking the very best of its technology and combining it with an upgraded design that includes a new matte back, three cameras designed to rival the best from Samsung, Google and Huawei, and an enhanced battery for greater endurance.

However, it’s also one of the most expensive phones on the market as the much more powerful member of the iPhone 11 series.

Digging deeper into the camera, we’re impressed most with the Night mode: the iPhone 11 Pro Max is capable of turning night almost into day, but doing so while preserving plenty of detail.

We found the newly-added ultra-wide camera to be handy when you want to squeeze in more of a scene (although we didn’t find we needed it that often) and for improving the background defocus effects… although it still wasn’t perfect in our testing.

The design of the iPhone 11 Pro Max will be familiar to most, with the same design language as the previous two models (the iPhone X and iPhone XS), although the matte back feels nice in the hand. The 'Max' size won’t appeal to all, but it does facilitate the large and impressive 6.5-inch OLED display, which offers a brilliant cinematic experience, both visually and through the upgraded stereo speakers.

The camera bump on the rear of the phone feels a little sharp and takes up a lot of space, although if you’re right-handed it stays out of the way when you're going about your daily tasks.

Apple promises that the iPhone 11 Pro Max’s battery will last five hours longer than the XS Max from last year, and that claim is borne out in our tests - it particularly excelled when playing back HDR video on the phone, and the 20-hour battery life for multimedia seems accurate.

In day-to-day use we found that this is just about a 24-hour smartphone (assuming you sleep for a portion of that time), and the fast charger that (finally) comes in the box gives you around 20% in 15 minutes, and a full charge in just an hour and a half.

With iOS 13 on board, the Pro Max feels more refined than previous models, and tweaks to the accuracy and range of Face ID make it simpler to use every day, with things like opening a notification when the phone is placed flat on a desk made much easier.

The raw performance of the iPhone 11 Pro Max also impressed, although we did encounter some slowdown in the camera app; however, if you're looking to edit video on the go (and don’t forget this phone can shoot 4K at 60 frames per second, and do it well) then you’ll enjoy the extra grunt on offer.

Overall, the iPhone 11 Pro Max is a real step forward, and the most advanced iPhone yet. However, when thinking about what’s truly new here, we weren’t able to single out much beyond the improved camera (especially Night mode) and the slightly upgraded cinematic experience.

If you want to save some money, we’d suggest checking out the iPhone 11 - while we constantly found little nuggets of impressive performance throughout our testing of the 11 Pro Max, we couldn't shake the feeling that this is really only a phone for the Apple fan who wants the best of everything, with no compromises.

The iPhone 11 Pro offers Apple’s best-ever image quality

Pros:

• A lovely, supremely bright display
• One of the best camera systems on any phone
• Includes a quick charger in the box

Cons:

• Design hasn’t changed much and the notch remains annoying
• 64GB is still the base storage option
• The iPhone 11 is a better pick for most people

Glitzier, flashier and far more expensive than the iPhone 11, the iPhone 11 Pro sits at the top of Apple’s current phone line-up along with its larger iPhone 11 Pro Max sibling – at least it does until the iPhone 12 launch later this year. For the extra cash you get a Super Retina XDR display, a triple-camera array on the back and higher-end materials.

Apple has seriously improved its photographic output with the iPhone 11 Pro – and, in many ways, with the iPhone 11 – which now holds its own among the best phone cameras out there. Packing three distinct 12-megapixel cameras, the iPhone 11 Pro is the first iPhone to feature an ultra-wide-angle lens (13mm equivalent, f/2.4). You also get a standard lens (26mm, f/1.8) and a 2x telephoto lens (52mm, with an improved maximum aperture of f/2.0).

The video recording, audio and super-bright XDR display are all tremendous, and the iPhone 11 Pro is also an absolute performance beast. The new A13 Bionic chipset helps put it up there with the fastest phones we’ve reviewed. This is also the first 5.8-inch iPhone that doesn’t feel hamstrung by a battery which needs constant attention to get it through a full day.

Downsides include the meagre amounts of base storage, the speed of the refresh display and Apple’s resistance to fully embracing USB-C. The idea of being able to charge the MacBook Pro, iPad Pro and iPhone 11 Pro with the same block and charger just makes so much sense.

The iPhone 11 Pro offers many improvements over its predecessor, but there are still areas that Apple could have pushed forward in, especially as it has now decided to label these phones as Pro. 5G was never going to happen but would have been nice anyway and other notable omissions include some sort of Touch ID-enabled fingerprint sensor inside the display and the rumoured reverse wireless charging, which could have juiced up a pair of AirPods.

It’s worth bearing in mind that the iPhone 12 could be set to land towards the end of this year. There is no confirmed release date yet, but many commentators are expecting a September release. So, if you want the latest and greatest iPhone, it might be worth hanging fire for now.