iphone 16 pro max

 

 Apple is here again flaunting titanium on the new Iphone 16 Pro Max .At first glance it appears to be the same titanium exoskeleton design that we saw last year. That's bonded to an aluminum mid-frame with solid state diffusion. I successfully debonded my own titanium iPhone 15 Pro Max last year, and this was all the titanium that was used in the build. I imagine they'll be milking this titanium exoskeleton thing for the next few years. It's actually pretty nifty stuff and of course I'm always impressed by Apple's ability to run an hour and a half event over what essentially boils down to slapping a new number on the box.

 while I personally do believe Apple's whole event this year could have been an email. There are a few subtle improvements on this 16 Pro Max that we should take a look at. There's a braided USBC cable Inside the box. This included cable can only transfer data at USB 2 speeds and not the USB 3 speeds that the iPhone 16 Pro Max is capable of. Kind of a bummer getting throttled right out of the box like that, but Apple fans are used to it. This shade is aptly named desert titanium. Desert's the right word since it's definitely the color of dehydration. The singular new physical feature that Apple has graced us with this year is the sapphire plated camera control button on the right side of the phone. Apple has gone out of their way to not call it a button even though it most definitely is. The coolest part about this button is not its ability to act as a shutter button or control the camera zoom. Is that it's supposedly covered not only is the button clicky, but also capacitive. Meaning it can sense full presses half presses and subtle strokes of your finger. I imagine Apple is using sapphire because one, it's smooth and slick, but also because of its thermal conductivity.

 The watts per meter kelvin of glass is around a one watts per meter kelvin is just the units used to measure thermal conductivity and not something you have to remember. It's not going to be on the quiz, but the watts per meter kelvin of sapphire crystal is a whopping 35. A huge increase in sensitivity not to be confused, of course, with diamonds though. Which have over 2,000 watts per met kelvin thermal sensitivity. I don't think we'll see Apple rolling out any diamond covered capacitive buttons anytime soon though. They can barely give us the right cable in the box.

 The sapphire Apple is using though is the same Sapphire that Apple has always been using. Although subtle I do see marks at levels 5, 6, 7 and 8. While pure Sapphire would only scratch at levels 8 or 9. It might be due to the micro fracturing of whatever cutting process Apple's using to extract the button shape from the large sapphire boules. You can see that even with my gem tester the sapphire button barely registers as a gemstone on the digital readout. My Cassio F91W has a glass screen. Which obviously doesn't move the meter, but if we take a look at pure sapphire on a Tissot watch or actual brick of sapphire. Don't ask where I got it. The reading goes off the charts. Apple’s sapphire has always been a bit or a let down, but it's cool to see them trying something new with the camera control button. I do hope someday Apple perfects the sapphire manufacturing process enough to create entire screens from the material. But for now it appears as if they are sticking with the ceramic infused glass once again. Wobbling seems rather excessive. They said their ceramic shield this year is 50% tougher than the first generation ceramic shield. And two times tougher than any smartphone glass found in any other smartphone, but it still scratches at a level six with deeper grooves at a level seven.

 Glass is glass. And no matter how many adjectives are added in front of the word, it will still break. And apple is charging a whopping $379 to repair broken screens. If you want to preemptively save your screen for a fraction of that cost, but the idea of applying a screen protector gives you anxiety. My channel sponsor dbrand has you covered with their all new prism 2.0. This recyclable tray has a screen protector suspended inside. Precisely positioned for the perfect alignment on your screen. When the clear liner is pulled out it statically charges against the glass of your device pulling away any particles for a clean dust-free installation. Just swipe down the middle and give a few seconds for the adhesive to work its magic and just like that a perfectly installed screen protector. Protecting against scratches while also being a buffer layer for impacts. Each order comes with two protectors, so you'll have a spare for later. I'll drop a link down in the description for you to get a pair for yourself. The upper front-facing 12 megapixel camera is protected by that same front glass. With an itty bitty razor thin earpiece slit between the glass and the titanium frame.

Speaking of which… The PVD coated grade five titanium exoskeleton can indeed be scratched just as easily as anodized aluminum. Obviously the camera control is sapphire but the raised buttons themselves feel the same to my Jerry Rig knife as the frame does. And based on the fact that the buttons survived the furnace last year and blued the same way as the titanium frame. I would say the buttons as well are also titanium. The top of the iPhone 16 Pro Max is also titanium. Along with the left side, volume buttons, and action button. The bottom has our stereo loudspeakers and our USBC 3.0 port, that you'll need to buy a new cable for to fully take advantage of. Coming around to the backside we find our soft touch matte texture all over the back glass. Except for the Apple logo itself. Which is super smooth.