title: What are the benefits of using VARCHAR(max), NVARCHAR(max) and VARBINARY(max) instead of TEXT, NTEXT and IMAGE?
body: <p>I know TEXT, NTEXT and IMAGE are deprecated and will, eventually, be removed from SQL Server.</p>
  
  <p>But, <strong>besides this deprecation</strong>, why are VARCHAR(max), NVARCHAR(max) and VARBINARY(max) datatypes better? Why did Microsoft chose them?</p>
  
  <p>I noticed VARCHAR and NVARCHAR can be used with = and GROUP BY, while the old types can't. Are there more benefits?</p>