The iPhone 14 Pro Max is a beast of a phone. This large-screen flagship, with its new 48MP camera, always-on display, and new A16 Bionic processor, should once again set it apart from its Android competitors.

But what intrigued me most about the iPhone 14 Pro Max hands-on was Apple's new "Dynamic Island" feature that replaces the notch. This pill-shaped cutout morphs depending on what you're doing and displays everything from music playing in the background to a countdown timer.

I had the opportunity to spend a little time with the iPhone 14 Pro Max at the September Apple event and was also impressed with its new camera, especially its low-light capabilities and new action mode for video.

My iPhone 14 Pro Max Hands-On Review has covered the pros and cons so far.

The iPhone 14 Pro Max will be available on September 16, and iPhone 14 pre-orders will begin on September 9 for all four new models. The starting price is expensive at $1,099 (A$1,899), which is good news in a way, since there were rumors that the iPhone 14 Pro Max would be raised in price. [However, it can be upgraded to 256GB for $1,199 (AU$2,099); an upgrade to 512GB will cost $1,399 (AU$2,419) and 1TB will cost $1,599 (AU$2,769).

For more information, see our iPhone 14 deals and discounts guide.

The iPhone 14 Pro Max looks different from iPhone models released after 2017. This pill-shaped notch takes up less space and delivers alerts, notifications, and activity.

For example, when I started playing a song in Apple Music and returned to the home screen, a small playback window appeared with album art and song information. A long press on the dynamic island would display detailed information in a pop-up window.

When a timer is started, it is added to the Dynamic Island on the right. Even better, Apple is working with developers to leverage this feature, so you can see sports scores and Lyft rides in real time.

For more information on this feature, see the iPhone 14 Pro's Dynamic Island description.

Otherwise, the iPhone 14 Pro Max design is almost identical, with one major exception. Apple has eliminated the SIM card tray in order to focus carrier provisioning on the eSIM. Some people may not like the loss of this feature, and I am one of them.

On the back, the iPhone 14 Pro Max has a larger sensor on the camera bump. Overall, the design is slightly thicker and heavier at 8.47 ounces, 6.33 x 3.05 x 0.31 inches versus the iPhone 13 Pro Max's 8.46 ounces, 6.33 x 3.07 x 0.3 inches.

The iPhone 14 Pro Max comes in four color options: deep purple, silver, gold, and space black. I like the Deep Purple the best because it pops the most.

I wasn't kidding when I said the display on the iPhone 14 Pro Max is the best I've seen on a phone. And this 6.7-inch panel is ultra-bright, with a brightness rating of 1,600 nits. Outdoors, the Pro Max's brightness rating reaches a whopping 2,000 nits.

Up close, watching a video recorded in the new action mode really brings out the rich colors and detail. It's like having a mini movie theater in your pocket.

Even better, the iPhone 14 Pro Max has an always-on display that shows widgets and notifications in color while consuming less power. This is far better than anything Android phones have attempted. In addition, the display scale is reduced to 1 Hz, so power consumption should be negligible.

The new 48MP camera on the iPhone 14 Pro Max gives a lot of shooting flexibility. One is a quad-pixel sensor that captures four times as much information. This allows the user to crop the image after it is taken or merge the four pixels into one for a brighter photo.

Another major upgrade to the camera is the addition of a 2x telephoto zoom option. That is, 2x or 3x telephoto zoom is available.

Apple showed off some sample photos, and I was impressed with the low-light images. This is thanks to the new Photonic Engine Computational Photography feature, which promises up to 2x better low-light performance for the main camera, up to 3x for the ultrawide camera, up to 2x for the telephoto camera, and up to 2x for the TrueDepth camera.

On the video side, a new action mode allows for smoother recording on the move (side-by-side sample footage was compelling) and the ability to record cinematic mode footage at 4K resolution. The actual video shows how the action mode looks on the iPhone 14 Pro.

Although it still needs more testing, the iPhone 14 Pro Max has the potential to top our best camera phone list.

The iPhone 14 Pro Max is powered by the new A16 Bionic chip, which uses a 4nm process, and Apple claims its 6-core CPU is up to 40% faster than the competition. The five-core GPU is also faster, with 50% more memory bandwidth.

All this power for what it's worth: the CPU, GPU, neural engine, and image signal processor are designed to work together to support the new camera hardware, performing up to 4 trillion operations per photo.

We plan to test this A16 Bionic chip in our own benchmarks.

Apple claims that the iPhone 14 Pro Max will have an all-day battery life. This is the same as the iPhone 13 Pro Max, but is rated at 25 hours of streaming video playback. The good news is that the iPhone 13 Pro Max lasted more than 12 hours in our web surfing test, putting it on our Best Battery Life list.

The bad news is that the iPhone 14 Pro Max charges at the same 20W as before, so you should expect to get to 50% in 30 minutes. It would have been nice if it could charge at 30W as had been rumored.

Also, official battery capacity details for the iPhone 14 series reveal that the iPhone 14 Pro Max will actually have less capacity than the iPhone 13 Pro Max it replaces. Hopefully, other upgrades will not affect its longevity too much.

If cellular connectivity is not available, the iPhone 14 Pro Max will offer emergency SOS via satellite in the US and Canada this fall. This feature connects the antenna directly to the satellite, allowing for messaging with emergency services.

Another safety feature on the iPhone 14 Pro Max is collision detection. Utilizing the new dual-core accelerometer and high dynamic range gyroscope, it detects severe vehicle collisions and automatically calls emergency services.

The iPhone 14 Pro Max feels more like a true leap forward for Apple's flagship than another iterative upgrade. You get a powerful new 48MP camera, a really smart notch replacement, and an always-on display that can make life easier while saving battery life.

The regular iPhone 14 Pro looks great, but if you prefer a larger display and longer battery life, the iPhone 14 Pro Max is your best bet. Stay tuned for our iPhone 14 Pro Max review.