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Shadowing practice: iPhone 12 Pro Max Review: The Biggest Ever!

Listen to the line, then say it out loud
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Full transcript

  1. Hey what's up, NKBHD here.0:15
  2. Alright, iPhone 12 Pro Max, the big boy.0:17
  3. So if you've seen the reviews of iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, you probably, you basically already know everything you need to know about the new generation of iPhones.0:21
  4. So now we have iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max dropping at the same time, opposite ends of the spectrum.0:29
  5. So yes, I am dropping two videos at the same time.0:36
  6. This one is all about the Pro Max and I'll link below the video about the mini if you want to check that out too.0:39
  7. So the Pro Max is the everything phone.0:44
  8. It's the biggest, it's the most Apple has to offer.0:48
  9. Fun fact, even the sticker in the Pro Max box is the biggest of any iPhone box.0:51
  10. But also now, interestingly, in the past, iPhones of all just typically bend the same thing across the board, but different sizes.0:56
  11. Maybe an extra camera in the Pro.1:03
  12. This year, there's an entirely new, different special camera system in just the Pro Max.1:05
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  1. That's not in any of the other new iPhones.1:11
  2. So naturally this was the focus of my testing.1:13
  3. That's a pun.1:17
  4. So I think all the other benefits of a bigger iPhone sort of speak for themselves, right?1:18
  5. The display is a slightly higher resolution and it's of course now a 6 .7 inch screen instead of the 6 .5 inch from last year's Max.1:22
  6. So this is the biggest canvas of a screen Apple's ever put in a phone.1:31
  7. I would have really, really liked for them to make it higher refresh rate.1:35
  8. But again, in the reviews, I've talked about why it's not there, most likely battery.1:39
  9. But in every other metric, this is a top of the line, excellent smartphone display.1:43
  10. But also speaking of battery, the iPhone 12 Pro Max does have the biggest battery in any of the new iPhones.1:47
  11. And yes, it does last noticeably longer.1:53
  12. First of all, it has an incredible standby time.1:56
  13. And I've typically ended days with it around 25 % with six, maybe seven hours of screen on time sometimes.1:58
  14. So if you're looking for the iPhone with the best battery, this is definitely it.2:05
  15. It's comparable to the 11 Pro Max, I would say maybe just a tiny bit less.2:09
  16. Then also the biggest iPhone does technically also get the biggest speaker.2:13
  17. If you look at the bottom of all these phones, the 12 Pro Max has a bigger grill than the others.2:17
  18. But honestly, it's not a noticeably louder speaker at all.2:21
  19. Really I just found it has slightly bassier sound at the highest volumes.2:24
  20. That's about it.2:28
  21. And the biggest iPhone also will of course have the biggest viewing area.2:29
  22. And also because it's the same size notch on a bigger screen, the notch kind of feels maybe a tiny bit smaller, even though it is still comically big compared2:33
  23. to other phones.2:42
  24. But this is at least a no brainer of a choice of an iPhone.2:43
  25. If people want to watch videos, do a lot of typing, a lot of texting, a lot of photo editing, big screen stuff like that.2:45
  26. If you're not used to the size of this bigger iPhone, it's going to feel huge.2:52
  27. Like the toughest thing is you'll notice right from the start, reachability is kind of tough.2:56
  28. You can't reach all four corners of this phone with one hand like you can with the mini for example.3:00
  29. But other than that, I have no problems with it.3:05
  30. Also, side note, this is my first time using the gold iPhone and sheesh, this is a shiny gold outside rail.3:07
  31. The back of the phone actually isn't that gold.3:16
  32. It's more kind of like an off white sand color with the matte finish.3:18
  33. And then the rings around the camera and the stainless steel sides are the really gold part.3:22
  34. But they're still going to collect fingerprints like crazy.3:26
  35. Honestly, it's not the color I would pick, but they don't have like a matte black pro iPhone this year.3:28
  36. So I guess I could just pick any color and then grab a D brand skin literally just for the side rails.3:34
  37. Did you know you could do that?3:40
  38. Yeah, just matte black for the shiny sides and all my complaints are solved.3:41
  39. So I'll drop a link below if you want to do the same thing.3:45
  40. Shout out to D brand for being a channel sponsor.3:48
  41. But enough of that, well, you're probably here for is this camera, right?3:50
  42. The question is, is this new camera system on the 12 pro max worth like spending the extra money and getting it over the 12 or the 12 pro?3:54
  43. If you're a creator, if you're a pro.4:02
  44. No.4:06
  45. So first of all, okay, I just want to point out, it really is a physically larger camera module like the rounded circle that the cameras live on is bigger.4:07
  46. And the camera rings and lenses themselves are all also bigger.4:14
  47. And that's to house the new hardware inside, namely the 47 % larger main camera sensor that now has sensor shift stabilization instead of lens based stabilization.4:18
  48. And there's also a new 2 .5 X telephoto lens.4:28
  49. So that's huge, literally, like a physically larger sensor plus better stabilization just screams like way better light gathering ability.4:32
  50. So I'd be looking for improvements, not just in regular everyday photos and normal situations, but especially in lower light when you need to maximize light gathering.4:42
  51. So ideally, you see better night mode performance.4:51
  52. You see maybe even not having to kick into night mode as often because it's gathering so much light and maybe even not having to hold the phone still for4:54
  53. as long when you do have to kick into night mode.5:04
  54. But I found none of these things to actually be true.5:08
  55. Now, trust me, I really wanted to see a difference.5:11
  56. Like this is the one with the actually new camera hardware.5:14
  57. This is the first big jump for the iPhone in a little while with the cameras.5:16
  58. But with the bigger sensor, I was hoping maybe to see some more natural depth or some more of that bigger sensor look that photographers know to look for.5:19
  59. And I didn't see much of that.5:27
  60. To be honest, you could already get a solid amount of natural bokeh without portrait mode on plenty of smartphone cameras, including other iPhones.5:29
  61. This one's no different.5:36
  62. Still takes great photos and videos with smart HDR.5:37
  63. Still does all the typical iPhone computational photography.5:40
  64. All that's great.5:43
  65. I'm just not seeing much of a difference versus the other new iPhone 12.5:44
  66. So at this point, I'm like, all right, maybe to see the difference, I just got to put it side by side.5:48
  67. Like most people won't do that.5:53
  68. And that's actually a telltale sign of a feature that probably regular people won't notice is if you have to put it side by side with something else to even5:55
  69. see it in the first place.6:02
  70. But I want to see the difference.6:04
  71. I'm testing them.6:05
  72. I'm testing the mini at the same time.6:06
  73. So I'm going around with both the 12 Pro Max and 12 mini taken photos side by side.6:07
  74. And when I tell you I couldn't see much of a difference.6:12
  75. I mean, seriously, you're seeing the results here for yourself.6:15
  76. I did a back to back photo testing in regular light and even much more here in lower light, where I was expecting to see the bigger sensor and better6:18
  77. stabilization shine and show me a difference.6:26
  78. And believe it or not, I just didn't.6:29
  79. So the only really noticeable stuff I can point to between the mini and the Pro Max seems to be slightly better edge sharpness and some of those wider landscape6:31
  80. type shots.6:38
  81. But in the dark, I didn't see any noticeably lower noise levels.6:39
  82. I didn't see any shorter night mode stabilization times.6:44
  83. I didn't see much of the better quality and low light shots I was hoping to.6:48
  84. Now again, let's not forget it is still really impressive photography in this low light and in regular light.6:52
  85. It really speaks to, I guess, how good the computational photography and iPhones has gotten over the years more than anything bad about the Pro Max phone.6:57
  86. By the way, it also doesn't fix any of the haloing sort of glowing orbs you see in nighttime videography.7:06
  87. They still show up pretty much anytime there's a point light in the scene in low light video, something I noticed when I first started testing the 12s.7:11
  88. So all right, the main camera, I've tested it.7:17
  89. It's physically different, yes, but the results are very difficult to see any differences with.7:21
  90. I'm glad I tested it, but we can't forget there's also a second telephoto lens.7:26
  91. There's the 2 .5x instead of 2x.7:31
  92. So my photographer friends out there, that's about a 65 millimeter equivalent instead of 52 millimeters.7:33
  93. It's not a dramatic difference as you may have guessed, but yeah, it's right there now.7:39
  94. Now there's a 2 .5x button in the camera now and the final maximum allowed zoom in camera is 12x instead of the usual 5 or 10x.7:43
  95. Yeah, it didn't make a massive difference for me.7:53
  96. Really, what I actually noticed more is getting locked into 2 .5x or 1x for portrait mode shots because regular iPhone 12 Pro does portrait mode at 1x and 2x.7:54
  97. So this one punching in a little bit further, starting to get a little bit further away, but I still stick with 1x for portrait mode when I can.8:04
  98. So yeah, I guess the story is Apple finally made a jump in hardware and nothing really happened.8:12
  99. Not much happened.8:21
  100. I mean, I was kind of hoping for a bigger jump in hardware to be honest.8:22
  101. Like if you just pay attention to iPhones, you might think, oh, they finally made a 50 % bigger sensor.8:27
  102. That's a big deal.8:31
  103. But if you look at the rest of the world around the iPhone, there's a lot of crazy hardware stuff going on.8:32
  104. There's 50, 60, 100 megapixel sensors.8:38
  105. There's 8K video happening.8:42
  106. There's 3x, 5x, 10x telephoto with periscope lenses inside.8:44
  107. There's incredible computational photography and gimbal mode stabilization.8:51
  108. Like there is a lot going on with hardware advances available for cameras.8:55
  109. But that's not the Apple way, of course.9:00
  110. The Apple way is more sit back, take the landscape in, see what sticks around for a while and starts to become an obvious benefit, then grab that.9:02
  111. Make it a little better, make it the Apple thing, fit it into the ecosystem puzzle.9:13
  112. Unless it's USB -C.9:17
  113. So yeah, the camera in the 12 Pro Max, I'm just going to go ahead and say is not the biggest reason for you to upgrade to it.9:18
  114. But this is definitely the phone you should get if you want the biggest iPhone.9:26
  115. I mean it's clearly the biggest and best battery, it's the biggest and best screen, it's your biggest and best viewfinder, biggest and best keyboard, biggest and best iPhone for9:29
  116. sure.9:38
  117. That's what I'd recommend for this.9:39
  118. So I don't know, maybe the 12 Pro isn't such a bad move after all?9:41
  119. Or just stick with the 12.9:46
  120. I don't know.9:48
  121. All the reviews are out now, you can check it out.9:48
  122. Let me know what you think.9:50
  123. Would you spend the 1100 bucks on the 12 Pro Max?9:51
  124. Or would you settle for a different iPhone?9:55
  125. Let me know in the comments.9:56
  126. Let's hang out there.9:57
  127. Either way, that's been it.9:58
  128. Thanks for watching.10:00
  129. Catch you guys soon.10:02
  130. Peace.10:03

English Speaking Practice with an American Tech Review at B2 Level

This clip is Marques Brownlee opening his iPhone 12 Pro Max review, a spoken commentary at B2 level in an American accent. It moves at 213 words per minute, faster than most of the catalogue, so it is a good test of whether you can keep pace with real, unscripted American speech rather than slowed down teaching audio.

What is actually happening in these opening lines is a presenter setting up his video: greeting the audience, naming the phone, comparing it to the iPhone 12 mini released the same day, and explaining why the camera system made this model worth a dedicated review. It is the kind of everyday English speaking practice you get from listening to how a confident speaker structures an explanation on the fly, not from a scripted dialogue.

The Colloquial Turns in This American Accent Shadowing Clip

A few lines are worth slowing down for before you shadow this line by line.

  • "Hey what's up, NKBHD here." is his channel greeting, said fast and flat, three short beats with almost no pause between them, a good line for practising how casual American openings compress into one breath.
  • "So the Pro Max is the everything phone." packs the whole review's thesis into one clause. Notice how little weight falls on "the" and "is", and how the stress lands hard on "everything", that stress pattern is what makes the sentence sound confident rather than flat.
  • "So naturally this was the focus of my testing." is a good one to repeat for connected pacing: "naturally" and "the focus of" run together at speed, and getting your mouth around that without slowing down is the actual challenge of this clip.

How to Work Through the Opening of This iPhone Review

Treat this as a listening and speaking exercise together, not just something to play once in the background.

  • Play lines 1 to 9 once through without pausing, just to get the overall pace of 213 words per minute in your ear before you try to produce any of it yourself.
  • Isolate "Hey what's up, NKBHD here." and repeat it five times, focused only on matching the rhythm, not the meaning.
  • Move to "So the Pro Max is the everything phone." and "It's the biggest, it's the most Apple has to offer.", say each one out loud and check that your stress lands on "everything" and "most" the way his does.
  • Take "So naturally this was the focus of my testing." on its own and practise it slowly first, then at full speed, this is the line most likely to trip up your fluency if you skip the slow pass.
  • Finish by shadowing lines 1 through 14 in one take with the audio playing, aiming to improve your English speaking pace and accent rather than perfect pronunciation of any single word.
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