Both of these devices have their advantages, and both of them are excellent choices. At the same time, they’re considerably different in comparison, which is why you should get informed before opting to get one of them. They differ in a lot of ways, actually, not only in the design department, even though the difference in that regard is huge. We’ll first show you their specs, and will then compare them across a number of categories.
Specs
Google Pixel 7 Pro vs Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max: Design
Both of these phones feature huge 6.7-inch displays which are packed in huge frames. Both phones are over 160mm tall, with the Pixel 7 Pro being a bit taller. It is a bit narrower and thicker at the same time. The iPhone 14 Pro Max does weigh a lot more at 240 grams, compared to 212 grams of the Pixel 7 Pro. That is mainly because it uses a stainless steel frame, unlike the Pixel 7 Pro, which utilizes an aluminum frame. Both phones have glass on the back, and both offer thin bezels. The Pixel 7 Pro does include a curved display, while the iPhone 14 Pro Max sticks to a flat one. Apple’s flagship is actually really flat all around. Its front and back sides are flat, as are its sides all around. Its corners are curved, though. The Pixel 7 Pro has boxier corners, but a lot more curves overall. Both devices are quite slippery in the hand, and using a case is recommended. Both do feel quite premium, but different. The Pixel 7 Pro has a small display camera hole on the front, while the iPhone 14 Pro Max includes a pill-shaped cutout dubbed ‘Dynamic Island’. If you flip the two phones around, you’ll notice massive differences on the back as well. Google’s logo is way more subtle, while the phone includes a camera visor on the back. That visor is covered by aluminum this time around, and it basically protrudes from the phone’s sides. The iPhone 14 Pro Max has a more regular-looking camera island on the back, in the top-left corner. It is worth noting that the iPhone 14 Pro Max does cut into your hand a bit more during usage. Mainly due to its heft and shape.
Google Pixel 7 Pro vs Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max: Display
These two phones do have displays of the same size, but they’re not the same, not at all. The Pixel 7 Pro features a 6.7-inch QHD+ (3120 x 1440) curved display. This is an LTPO AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate. It supports HDR10+ content, and it gets up to 1,500 nits of peak brightness. The Pixel 7 Pro’s panel is protected by the Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, by the way.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max, on the flip side, has a 6.7-inch 2796 x 1290 LTPO Super Retina XDR OLED display. This panel is flat, and it supports a 120Hz refresh rate. HDR10 content is supported, as is Dolby Vision. This panel gets extremely bright at 2,000 nits peak brightness. The iPhone 14 Pro Max’s display is protected by the Ceramic Shield glass. Both of these displays are truly excellent. They offer vivid colors, with deep blacks, and they’re more than sharp enough. The viewing angles are excellent, and both displays are plenty bright. If you do spend a lot of time in the sun, the iPhone 14 Pro Max’s display will get brighter. Truth be said, we didn’t really have any problems with the Pixel 7 Pro, it was more than bright enough, so… there you go. The touch response is excellent on both panels.
Google Pixel 7 Pro vs Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max: Performance
Both devices offer excellent performance, but have considerably different performance-related internals. The Pixel 7 Pro comes with Google’s Tensor G2 SoC, along with up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 flash storage. The iPhone 14 Pro Max uses the Apple A16 Bionic SoC, along with 6GB of RAM and NVMe storage. Apple’s SoC is more powerful, but not the rest. What does this mean, performance-wise? Well, both of these phones offer outstanding performance in every way. The Tensor G2 is optimized for Pixels, as is the Apple A16 Bionic for iPhones. You’ll get buttery smooth performance from both phones, regardless of what you’re doing. Both are extremely fast to open and close apps, the same goes for multitasking, and even gaming. The Pixel 7 Pro does get a bit warmer during longer gaming sessions, though. It’s also worth noting that both smartphones offer excellent animations. Those, in addition to those 120Hz panels, add an extra level of smoothness to the experience. These are some of the smoothest-performing phones out there.
Google Pixel 7 Pro vs Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max: Battery
The Pixel 7 Pro includes a 5,000mAh battery, while the iPhone 14 Pro Max comes with a 4,323mAh battery. The two OS’ handle battery consumption quite differently, so ignore the difference in battery capacity. Having said that, both smartphones offer really good battery life, not as good as their predecessors, though. The Pixel 7 Pro can provide you with around 7 hours of screen-on-time, and from what we’ve seen, the iPhone 14 Pro Max is on the same playing field. Having said that, we’ve seen that other people managed to get considerably different results, in various directions. So it may require a couple of extra updates, and a bit of usage for the battery life to stabilize itself on both phones. Those are really good numbers, though, and chances are you won’t be left without a charge before the end of the day. Your mileage may vary, though, of course. The Pixel 7 Pro supports 23W wired, 23W wireless, and reverse wireless charging. The iPhone 14 Pro Max supports 20W wired charging (approximately, not officially confirmed), 15W MagSafe wireless, and 7.5W Qi wireless charging. Neither of the two phones comes with a charger in the box, though. You’ll need to get it separately, if you don’t already have one.
Google Pixel 7 Pro vs Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max: Cameras
These two smartphones differ quite a bit in the camera department. Let’s first talk about the hardware real quick. The Pixel 7 Pro utilizes a 50-megapixel main camera, which is backed by a 12-megapixel ultrawide unit, and a 48-megapixel telephoto camera. The iPhone 14 Pro Max has a 48-megapixel main camera, and two 12-megapixel cameras (ultrawide and telephoto) on the back. A ToF 3D LiDAR sensor is also included on the back of the phone.
Both phones can take some truly excellent pictures. The Pixel 7 Pro tends to provide images with cooler tones, while the iPhone 14 Pro Max leans towards warmer tones. Both phones capture really well-balanced, and sharp images in basically all scenarios. The Pixel 7 Pro images are more vivid, while the iPhone 14 Pro Max’s are closer to real life. You can change that with a different shooting style preset, though. The Pixel 7 Pro handles HDR situations a lot better. It is the king of HDR still. The iPhone 14 Pro Max has a tendency to blow out the highlights. It also tends to oversharpen foliage in some situations. In low light, the iPhone 14 Pro Max keeps images noticeably darker, to look more in line with real life, which you may prefer. Low light images from the Pixel 7 Pro do look a bit unrealistic as it brightens up such shots quite a bit, but they do look excellent at the same time. Ultrawide and telephoto cameras perform great on both phones. The Pixel 7 Pro offers more optical zoom, though, and a slightly wider ultrawide camera FoV. The video performance is still better on the iPhone, even though the Pixel 7 Pro improved things quite a bit this year. It’s close to what the iPhone 14 Pro Max offers, but not yet there. So, we’d opt for the Pixel 7 Pro for pictures, and for the iPhone 14 Pro Max for videos, basically.
Audio
Both of these smartphones come with a set of stereo speakers. They do not include an audio jack, which is not surprising at all. The speakers are really good on both phones. They’re loud, and sharp, while the soundstage is wide enough. The sound is well-balanced, and the vocals are detailed. There’s even some bass here, in both cases. The Pixel 7 Pro supports Bluetooth 5.2, while the iPhone 14 Pro Max comes with Bluetooth 5.3. If you opt for a wired connection, there is a Type-C USB port on the Pixel 7 Pro, and a Lightning port on the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
