KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 29 — I started doing tech reviews 20 years ago and like long marriages, it takes work to keep the spark alive.

So I’m going to dispense with the overly technical details because the people who want that are going to look up Ars Technica or GSM Arena anyway or maybe YouTube.

Instead I just decided to take the iPhone 18 Pro Max out on a casual outing, doing the things I like best (eating, mainly).

So let me tell you how the day went, the way I might talk to a girlfriend about someone I met on a dating app.

To start things off I had to go pick up the phone instead of me getting picked up, but isn’t that modern life?

While I collected my phone elsewhere, the Apple faithful were already at the store before 8am to get their hands on the new phones but fortunately our photographer Firdaus took some very nice pictures of people picking up their iPhones.

My review kit consisted of the iPhone, a nice silicone case (with MagSafe), long shoulder straps as well as a shorter wrist strap that Apple just introduced.

In just five days, I managed to scuff the edge of the silicone case by dropping the phone while getting out of a car which demonstrates why phone cases are very necessary things.

Anyway the following unboxing video has a Lego mini-me for scale so you can have an idea of how big the iPhone 18 Pro Max is. Yes, it’s big. No, that’s not innuendo.

Every year there will be the “it” or “hero” colour and this year it is the Burgundy, a very deep wine red that is rather striking without being garish.

I already wrote about my first impressions of the phone here.

Apple’s long straps are very sturdy and they help keep your hands free, but after a week with them I decided the wrist strap was more practical on a daily basis.

But on a day around town? The long straps lessen the mental load a little and let’s be real here, the iPhone 18 Pro Max is a big phone.

Taking a selfie before you start the day or an outing or, in this case, a mirror selfie is probably par for the course.

I’ve gotten used to how large the phone is and its weight but having a strap attached to it means better stability and no fear of dropping the phone when you’re perching at the edge of a table or something just as precarious.

There’s one thing we’ve gotten used to doing now — taking pictures of our food.

Please, for the love of god, take pictures. Take lots of pictures. 

If you’re selling food, take even more pictures because I would rather see blurry pictures taken by shaky hands than whatever LLM-monstrosity (burgers with teeth made of cheese!) is in my food delivery apps.

So I went to my current favourite Japanese eatery, Hikiniku To Come.

If I’m going to take pictures of food, it’s going to be food I like.

Life is too short to take shots of awful food.

The interior of Hikiniku To Come comes with the standard pitfall of indoor locations; lighting you can’t control, staff who will just happen to walk in front of your phone while you’re trying to take video and the challenge of getting the best angles or close-ups.

Despite all the challenges, the telephoto lens as well as the ability to control aperture and shutter speed meant that I could take pictures with more control and flexibility than with the iPhone 17 Pro.

While of course the iPhone, due to its smaller sensor size, can’t quite match an actual DSLR’s output when it comes to better, beautiful bokeh, what you can get is fairly pleasing and a step up over previous generations.

Of course I also had way too much fun messing with the shutter speed to get motion blurring, mostly of random shoppers in the mall — the easiest setting if you need it: aperture f/4 and shutter speed 1/16. You’re welcome.

The dial does take some getting used to and I find it mildly clunky especially if you try to change the settings one-handed.

If you set the phone on a tripod, though, you’ll have both hands free in case you need to take more “serious” photos because it is called the “Pro” for a reason.

Much has been made of the new Photographic Styles that come with the stock camera.

While the previous iteration wasn’t bad, the new choices as well as the ability to adjust textures meant you could get closer to an authentic “film” look or at the least, get a result that matches your taste.

It’s a shame the new Styles might be an iPhone 18 Pro exclusive but I guess that’s where third-party camera apps come in.

Since I was out with the phone the whole day from 9.30am to 7.30pm, how did the battery fare?

Well, like an amiable date who is feigning enthusiasm while you recount another story about your ex, the iPhone 18 Pro Max was a trooper.

I didn’t feel the need to take out my power bank until it was nearly 6pm. This despite taking multiple photos and video, listening to music, watching the odd YouTube, scrolling Twitter too many times.

However, if you have a Pro Max, you will need a larger, faster charging power bank as a smaller one won’t be able to charge it fast enough, and you will also need a better cable.

The battery is a monster so at least you won’t feel as much battery anxiety.

I was also pleased not to have any of the dreaded “sorry we can’t take more photos until the phone cools down” episodes I experienced with past Pro models. A testament to the new vapour chamber design I suppose.

For a while, I’d toyed with getting a second hand mirrorless camera, but seeing how much more capable the iPhone 18 Pro Max’s camera is, it looks like I won’t have to go back to juggling batteries, lenses and flashes.

At least until I reach the iPhone 18 Pro Max’s limits and it feels like I’m just getting started.

Now I just need the next “shot on iPhone” video to be a bit more exciting than what’s come out so far (my favourite still has to be NewJeans’ ETA, the song is even my alarm tone).

If you got the iPhone 17 Pro/Pro Max because you just needed a new phone then I don’t think the 18 Pro will rock your world that much to justify an upgrade.

But if you’re like me, relying on the phone to take photos and videos for stories, even write them sometimes, as a storyteller or creative’s phone, it sets the standard — ease of use, flexibility, manual controls and reliability on the go.

On the other hand, Xiaomi’s Leica Leitzphone and the company’s own 18 Pro models probably are the nearest competitors for the crown of ultimate phone camera and if you like the Android experience, maybe they might suit you better.

After years of wishing Apple would have better telephoto then hoping for aperture controls, part of me feels like the tech gods have listened.

Now I’d like to manifest better battery tech and cheaper RAM please.

So in summary, my iPhone date was easy on the eyes, could keep up on a long excursion, seemed to display stability and reliability and gave me a good reason to look forward to future dates.

Who might not be impressed by this tech Tinder profile: expensive, very heavy, would prefer a way to ensure Apple doesn’t overdo the image processing.

Still a good time, four out of five stars