I was the owner of the Hero 7 Black for 2 years before purchasing this one, and I have the following to say:
1) I use it several times a week and what I noticed is that it doesn't freeze. I have the impression that it hasn't frozen or crashed even once, unlike the Hero 7 which crashed even in the middle of a trip, and I had to turn back and retake a large part of one of my routes.
2) It doesn't heat up as much as the Hero 7 Black. Because with the Hero 7, many of the crashes were due to poor thermal conductivity caused by its small size, and because the Max is twice the size, the larger size significantly helps in maintaining the temperature at satisfactory levels. Just to give you an idea, with the Hero 7 Black, I could only shoot videos with the camera in my hand during winter, but with this one, I shot videos with an external temperature of 40 degrees without any problem!
3) The sound is excellent thanks to the 6 microphones! It is even better than the Hero 9 (without microphone extension) and its stabilization when held in hand is very good. The difference between videos with Horizon Leveling (stabilization) and videos without Horizon Leveling is huge!
4) It takes perfect 270-degree panoramic photos with just one movement! If you use it directly from your phone, reset the timer so you don't have to wait, while in any other case, the 3 seconds it gives you are more than enough if you have it on a tripod or handle.
5) If you shoot in 360 and have it connected to your phone, you will see on your phone what the camera sees at the point where you have your phone facing, you don't need to turn the camera towards the direction you want to see something, but rather use your phone!
6) Although its lenses protrude quite a bit, their glass is durable. During a trip to Kastoria, due to my own stupidity, the camera came off its mount, fell onto the windshield with the lens, and nothing happened to it! If you're worried about potential damage, GoPro provides the Max with 2 glass domes that function as protectors... I didn't use them that time.
7) Its battery lasts about 1 hour and 20 minutes when connected to the phone, and over 1.5 hours when used on its own. I have 3 batteries and I forgot 2 of them in the car. I went to the island of Ioannina by boat, recorded the entire journey there, the walk on the island, the return trip, and a walk in the harbor, and the battery still had 30%.
8) Unfortunately, in simple night photo shoots, with exposure up to 30s, it is inferior to the Hero 7 Black.
9) It doesn't shoot 4K from one lens. I don't know if there is another setting, but with one lens, it gives me options for 1080 and 1440 at 60fps, and with both lenses (360), it captures 5.6K at 30fps.
10) If it has a zoom option, I haven't found it yet, and when I wanted to photograph the pelicans at Lake Kastoria, I had to resort to the Hero 7 Black.
11) I haven't tried it since the 1.5-hour battery life is more than enough for me, and the fact that I have a total of 3 batteries and the corresponding charger (one battery is given as a gift with the charger) has freed me from any need for video recording with the camera plugged in. By the time all 3 batteries run out, the first one has already recharged to 100% and the second one to 50%. However, if you are shooting timelapse or any other videos where the camera needs to stay on for hours and you need this feature, there is a door available in the market that replaces the factory one and allows you to connect the camera to a power bank or the USB port of your car and record videos even without a battery while the door is closed.

In the end, I am very satisfied with its capabilities, and although it doesn't replace the cameras in the Hero series, so I am considering either getting the 9 or waiting for the 10, the long battery life, good thermal conductivity, operational stability, and sound quality have made me love the GoPro Max!

I am providing you with 2 videos to see how it looks with the camera's Horizon Leveling:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqHXCibjXyw&list=PL1jGP80kKPFXI38m7qMXAX3Z3k3XfQ9ww&index=3

and without Horizon Leveling, but with image stabilization through external software (DaVinci):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cB_kH5nTyU&list=PL1jGP80kKPFXI38m7qMXAX3Z3k3XfQ9ww&index=2

I was torn between hero 9 and MAX. I ended up with MAX.

What I like:
1. The 360 shooting in 5.6K
2. The conversion to regular video with reframing through the app (the quality drops to 1080p)
3. It also has a hero mode if you don't want to shoot in 360
4. Six perimeter microphones for 360 sound

What I don't like:
1. It breaks the video into 8-minute parts
2. The video sizes are huge (an 8-minute 360 video is 3.6GB) and it takes a long time to transfer to the phone. Uploading to the cloud takes even longer and is always interrupted, resulting in pending videos waiting to be uploaded.
3. The battery lasts for one hour of continuous recording, at best.

Things to watch out for:
1. With the purchase, extra accessory purchases are needed. Mounts, selfie stick, tripod, memory cards, extra batteries, protective cases, wireless remote, etc. See if you can buy the camera in a bundle with gifts. I bought it in a bundle with a storage case and a 64GB memory card. Right after the purchase, I ordered the selfie stick-tripod, spare lens caps (you lose them easily), a second battery, and a charging dock.
2. It cannot charge and play at the same time because it requires an open lid to connect the charging cable. The solution of having a power bank in your pocket connected to the camera while playing is not possible. The power bank doesn't replace the second battery when you're out, as the camera needs to be turned off to charge its battery.
3. Although there is the option to manage the camera from the phone to view the content and preview what the camera is capturing, you cannot preview while recording. This means it requires proper setup before pressing "rec".