In addition to switching up the camera module design seen on the new iPhone Air, Apple has given the new iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max their long-overdue redesign, which should give you a reason for you to upgrade from 16 Pro/Pro Max if the features and specs did not.
I am not sure if it is because of the Mere Exposure Effect and/or Habituation, but somehow, the new iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max do look very good. Could it be that my love for Cosmic Orange is clouding my judgment? I don’t know. Anyhoo, the mix of Ceramic Shield and the aerospace-grade 7000-series aluminum alloy does help break the monotony of today’s smartphone design.
The Pro and Pro Max now come with a brushed aluminum unibody reinforced with a laser-welded vapor chamber that moves heat away from the A19 Pro chip. Translation: your phone will game harder, edit video faster, and run Apple Intelligence models without toasting your hands. The vapor chamber also frees up room for a larger battery, which, in the case of the Pro Max, delivers the best endurance ever on an iPhone — up to 39 hours of video playback. It also supports fast charging, hitting 50 percent in 20 minutes with Apple’s 40 W USB-C adapter.
On the camera front, you are looking at three 48 MP Fusion shooters (Main, Ultra Wide, and Telephoto), plus the quirky new 18 MP square Center Stage selfie camera. Together, they give you the equivalent of eight lenses, including a 200 mm 8x optical zoom, the longest on an iPhone to date. Digital zoom now stretches to 40x, and next-gen Photonic Engine magic brings richer detail and better colors. Video nerds will appreciate ProRes RAW, Apple Log 2, and genlock, making this thing production-ready right out of the box.
The 6.3-inch (16 cm) Pro and 6.9-inch (17.5 cm) Pro Max Super Retina XDR displays crank up to 3000 nits peak brightness with ProMotion 120 Hz and Always-On. Ceramic Shield 2 now covers both front and back, offering 3x better scratch resistance and 4x better crack resistance compared to the old glass backs. And yes, they are still IP68 rated — good for 6 m of water for 30 minutes.
Available in deep blue, silver, and that delicious cosmic orange, the iPhone 17 Pro starts at 1,099 US dollars, while the iPhone 17 Pro Max starts at 1,199 US dollars. If anyone’s tracking, the base model is now 100 bucks pricer than its predecessor.
Images: Apple.