Review: A Week With the iPhone 17 Pro

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Apple's iPhone 17 models have been out for a week now, so we thought we'd do a longer-term review of the flagship iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max now that we've been able to spend more time with them.

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MacRumors videographer Dan Barbera has a Silver ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ and a Cosmic Orange ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ Max, and despite a lot of concern over scratches and the state of ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ models in Apple Stores, they remain in pristine condition with caseless home use. iPhones may be scratching in stores, but that appears to be less common in daily use at this point.

Apple used Ceramic Shield 2 for the front of the ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ models, and made some big claims about its scratch resistance. So far, the ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌'s display is holding up. Dan's been testing the display with keys, coins, and other common pocket items, but there isn't a single scratch. With past iPhones, sticking a key in your pocket was a sure way to cause damage.

The display is supposed to have an anti-reflective layer, but it's hard to notice a difference compared to the iPhone 16 Pro. It's definitely a subtle change and not a major selling point.

Dan has already seen major improvements with the updated vapor chamber cooling system and aluminum frame for thermal management. Unlike the ‌iPhone 16‌ Pro models, the ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ models barely get warm.

There's been time for more substantial battery life testing a week in, and both the 17 Pro and Pro Max have impressive gains. The 17 Pro Max in particular can last for hours longer than the 16 Pro Max, but it's definitely heavier and thicker than before.

The front camera is a major improvement in terms of quality, and selfies look much better than before. The option to take a wider-angle landscape selfie is great for group shots. As for the new Telephoto lens that supports up to 8x optical zoom, as long as you have solid lighting, your 8x shots will look great. Low-light performance isn't as solid, but the 4x lens still performs well in poorer lighting.

If you're still on the fence about upgrading from an older phone to one of the ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ models, it's potentially worth it. The thermal changes make a huge difference, Apple's claims about scratch resistance seem to be true, and battery life will be night and day. If you already have an ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌, let us know what you think of it in the comments below.

Related Roundup: iPhone 17 Pro
Buyer's Guide: iPhone 17 Pro (Neutral)
Related Forum: iPhone

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Top Rated Comments

uacd Avatar
uacd
19 weeks ago
While I totally respect your opinion and most people who shoot casually will absolutely love iPhone 17 Pro cameras, I feel like HDR came way too far, and Apple doing nothing about it.

Imagine if you walk into sunset and from a distance you look like a shadow, due to how light works. And then iPhone decides to use SmartHDR, Deep Fusion and Photonic Engine all at once to get you out of this shadow. And I am not even making this up at this point! It happened to me even with such an ancient device as 11 Pro, but on it at least I can disable HDR whenever I want to, I do still have that toggle in camera settings! Also the burst shutter trick works to avoid this.

But what truly makes all iPhone photos look same and “stand out” in a bad sense is this, stole that example from Reddit ('https://www.reddit.com/r/ios/comments/vo3hdh/beautiful_sunset_this_evening_but_the_photos/') but I guess everyone got that:



I mean, what is that? All iPhones since 12 shoot sunsets like this. I have never ever seen similar sunsets in real life, this is not how it actually looks.

I am pretty sure older iPhones had more balanced photo output.

And sunsets is the only one example, it happens everywhere: when shooting buildings, daytime landscapes, even greenery and trees. I think Apple should give way to opt out of this cheap-looking AI stuff on new phones

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Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cjsuk Avatar
cjsuk
19 weeks ago
a week in here too. No scratches. No issues. Camera is *excellent*.

Sample images attached (Warsaw + London)











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Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
alexandr Avatar
alexandr
19 weeks ago
I can't recall ever wanting to upgrade less than this year, other than maybe when 3GS came out...
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sharprichnorth Avatar
sharprichnorth
19 weeks ago
I don't upgrade my iPhone very often — once every five years or so. The 6S to the 12 mini was a significant upgrade; MagSafe was one of the standouts for me. I went from a 12 mini to the 17 Pro, and my main observations so far are (1) Battery life is (obviously) far superior; (2) Newer software, like AI and the UI in general, feels more responsive (comparing iOS 26 on the two models); (3) The camera is another obvious improvement, especially zoom; (4) Honestly there is no huge leap in terms of functionality: my apps run identically. The "dynamic island" is nice, but not really worth the hype from when it was introduced; and I wonder what they'll say when it goes away (will it?) with under-screen sensors. I don't miss the small form factor of the 12 mini as much as I thought I would. Overall, my opinion is that it's a very very nice iPhone (sure, "the best ever," but it would want to be), but we're in a long period of stability and incremental change that doesn't add up as much as it used to.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
vertsix Avatar
vertsix
19 weeks ago
It's been really good honestly, seems like a phone to keep long term with the upped RAM and improved thermals. It might be the next iPhone 6s.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BelgianChoklit Avatar
BelgianChoklit
19 weeks ago
For everyone who got a Pro, good for you. However, I find that since the introduction of the Pro models in 2019, the difference between the standard model and the Pro has never been smaller only second to the iPhone 12 line-up. In the iPhone 12 lineup the only difference, if I'm not mistaken, is the back camera. where you could zoom with the Pro. Same display, same battery life, same chip, the regular iPhone 12 was even lighter. In other years the Pro models always had a better display and some other stuff over the regular model. Which is why I expected that when the rumors were clear that the regular iPhone would finally get Pro Motion, the Pro model would get something else over the regular model like a much less reflective display.

The difference this compared to the iPhone 12 lineup is that the price gap between the regular model and the Pro is much larger (12 Pro was 250€ more expensive than the regular, 17 Pro is 360€ more expensive than the regular one). You do get better battery life, a better chip and better cameras, but the difference however is too small imo. I also find the regular iPhone to be much prettier.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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