Longer Zoom. The iPhone 12 Pro Max has an advantage in its zoom abilities, or zoomability, if you will. The Pro Max has a maximum optical zoom of 2.5x versus 2x found on the regular Pro model. Additionally, it has a maximum digital zoom of 12x versus 10x. For videos the zoom is also longer on the Pro Max as well.
The longer optical zoom on the Pro Max has one very important function — it’s used in portrait mode to take tighter, and richer portraits. The difference isn’t huge, but it definitely gives you a noticeable advantage if you’re a portrait photographer.
One quick note on aperture. The Pro Max Telephoto lens has an aperture of ƒ/2.2 versus the ƒ/2.0 on the regular Pro. It’s a very slight variation and won’t have any discernible difference in the field. It’s not exactly clear why Apple did this.