iPhone 16 Pro Max vs Google Pixel 9 Pro XL: Which high-end phone wins?

Apple recently unveiled its iPhone 16 series with the new range of smartphones led by the iPhone 16 Pro Max. 

The 16 Pro Max is bigger and more powerful than ever, but how does it compare to Google’s own high-end handset, the Pixel 8 Pro XL? 

Keep reading to learn all about how these two phones compare when it comes to price, design, screens, cameras, performance and batteries. 

Price 

The iPhone 16 Pro Max is available to buy from September 20 2024, with pre-orders starting September 13. The Pro Max starts at $1199/£1199 when paired with 256GB of storage. 

The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL was released on August 22 2024 and can be yours with prices starting at $1099/£1099 with 128GB of storage or $1199/£1199 with 256GB. 

The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL has a brighter screen 

The iPhone 16 Pro Max might have a slightly bigger screen, but the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL has a brighter one. 

The iPhone 16 Pro Max features a spacious 6.9-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display with a 2868 x 1320 resolution and a maximum brightness of 2000 nits. 

The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL, on the other hand, boasts a 6.8-inch Super Actua OLED display with a 1344 x 2992 resolution and a max brightness of 3000 nits, making it the brighter and higher resolution of the two. 

Both phones also feature an always-on display setting and 120Hz refresh rate, but the iPhone 16 Pro Max has the most interesting display feature thanks to its interactive Dynamic Island notch. 

The iPhone 16 Pro Max has a new Camera Control button 

One of the most unique new features on the iPhone 16 Pro Max (at least if you ignore Sony’s Xperia phones) is the Camera Control button. 

This button allows you to launch the camera app from anywhere on the phone. From there, the touch-sensitive button can be used to focus, zoom, adjust the exposure and snap photos by swiping or pressing it down. 

The Camera Control button can also be used to quickly access Apple’s Google Lens-like Visual Intelligence feature. 

When it comes to the camera sensors themselves, the iPhone 16 Pro Max carries a 48-megapixel main camera, a 48-megapixel ultra-wide camera and a 12-megapixel telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom. The phone can capture 4K Dolby Vision video at up to 120p. 

The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL, meanwhile, features a 50-megapixel wide camera, a 48-megapixel ultra-wide camera with macro focus and a 48-megapixel telephoto camera with up to 5x optical zoom. The Pixel can capture 8K video at up to 30fps or 4K at 60fps. 

The iPhone 16 Pro Max is powered by the A18 Pro chip 

When it comes to sheer performance power, Apple has been knocking the competition out of the water in recent years with its Pro smartphone chips. 

We won’t know exactly how the new A18 Pro compares to Google’s Tensor G4 until we run our own benchmarking tests, but we would expect the iPhone to be the more powerful of the two based on last year’s iPhone 15 Pro Max. 

Both chipsets are designed to power a wide range of AI features this year, with Google offering plenty of AI camera capabilities and photo editing tools, from Zoom Enhance and Add Me to the GenAI-powered Magic Editor. Aside from the camera, there’s also the Pixel Studio image generation tool, Call Assist for phone call summaries, Google Circle to Search and the Gemini Live chatbot. 

Apple has also announced its fair share of AI tools, including system-wide Writing Tools and summaries in the Notes and Phone apps, image generations with Image Playground and Genmoji and ChatGPT-backed Siri. There’s also the aforementioned Visual Intelligence feature, which is essentially Apple’s answer to Google Lens and Circle to Search. 

The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL offers faster charging 

If you’re tired of waiting ages for your phone to recharge, you’ll be happy to hear that both Apple and Google offer faster charging this time around. However, Google takes the lead on wired charging with the Pixel 9 Pro XL’s ability to hit 70% in 30 minutes using a 45W charger. 

The iPhone 16 Pro Max, comparatively, is capable of reaching 50% charge in 30 minutes using a 20W adapter. The iPhone does, however, take the lead on wireless charging, with its MagSafe standard also able to hit 50% in 30 minutes when paired with a 30W adapter. 

Early verdict 

The iPhone 16 Pro Max and Pixel 9 Pro XL are two large-screen phones equipped with capable cameras and packed with AI features. However, you’ll need to wait for our review of the iPhone to hear our final verdict on how these two devices compare.