Apple iPhone 17 review: Stuck in the middle

Apple’s iPhone 17 has finally caught up with the Pro models in almost every way that users will notice. It has a camera that’s almost as good as the one on the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max. Battery life is excellent. The display is so much smoother and nicer than before, thanks to Apple’s 120Hz ProMotion tech.

It’s the iPhone that makes the most sense for most people.

So, why am I not excited?

Despite all these important upgrades, Apple is still giving us a tough choice between the iPhone 17 and the new iPhone Air, which is downright sexy, an adjective rarely used to describe handsets. Yes, the Air has shorter battery life and lacks an ultra-wide camera, but it’s nicer, cooler, and thinner, while the iPhone 17 looks pretty much the same as last year’s iPhone 16.

Apple iPhone 17: Price and specs

Apple’s base iPhone sometimes feels like a lot of compromises, which were necessary to avoid cannibalizing the sales of the more expensive Pro phones.

This year, it’s the opposite: It feels like Apple decided to give the iPhone 17 most of the goodies that are important to most people. Besides the telephoto camera, the rest of the iPhone 17 Pro’s exclusives are fairly exotic, such as a vapor chamber cooling system and RAW video support. In that sense, it’s easily the most compelling standard iPhone in years.

Here are the key specs for the iPhone 17:

• Display: 6.3-inch, Super Retina XDR display with 120Hz refresh rate

• Design: Aluminum frame with Ceramic Shield on front

• Rear cameras: 48-megapixel dual rear camera array with wide and ultra-wide lenses

• Front camera: 18-megapixel selfie camera with center stage

• Processor: Apple A19 chip with a 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine

• Storage: 256GB or 512GB

• Battery life: Up to 30 hours of video playback

• Software: iOS 26

Apple iPhone 17: Design and display

The display is almost as good as the one on the Pro models.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable

This review will mention the iPhone Air too many times, as it’s impossible to give a verdict on the $799 iPhone 17 without at least considering the iPhone Air. Yes, the iPhone Air costs two hundred bucks more than the iPhone 17, but it’s still way closer to it than the iPhone 17 Pro, which costs $400 more.

Starting with the design, there’s almost nothing to say about the iPhone 17, as it looks the same as the iPhone 16. That means it has an aluminum frame, a 6.3-inch OLED display with a Dynamic Island up top, two cameras on the back, a standard array of buttons (including the fairly new Camera Control button) on the sides, and a USB-C port on the bottom. The choice of colors is between black, lavender, mist blue, sage, and white; Apple sent me a review unit in plain old white.

Technically, the iPhone 17 is ever so slightly inferior when compared to the Pro and Air models. For example, it’s the only one that doesn’t have a Ceramic Shield on the back. But the most important part, the display, is very similar across all three. The iPhone 17 has a 6.3-inch Super Retina XDR display that’s very bright and also satisfyingly smooth thanks to Apple’s ProMotion tech. The inclusion of ProMotion also gave the iPhone 17 some tricks previously reserved for Pro models, such as Always On display and StandBy mode, which is something I (curiously) missed the most on the iPhone 16e.

Apple iPhone 17: Performance and AI

Two cameras and a dedicated Camera Control button on the side.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable

I can’t really tell the difference between any of the new iPhones when it comes to performance. They’re all blazing fast, period.

Again, the chips that power them aren’t quite the same; the iPhone 17 gets the A19 chip, while the Pro and Air get the A19 Pro, the main difference being 5 vs. 6 GPU cores. Apple doesn’t say how much RAM these phones have, but we know from teardowns that the iPhone 17 only has 8GB of RAM vs. 12GB on the other new models. None of the differences are noticeable in daily use.

Perhaps more importantly, all three phones now start at 256GB of storage; the iPhone 17 can also be had with double that amount, but the extra storage will cost you $200 more.

As for AI, which Apple endearingly calls “Apple Intelligence,” you get a few nifty features such as AI image recognition, smart note rewriting, and simple image generation. Frankly, Apple’s take on AI is severely lacking where it matters most, which is when you use Siri. Sure, Siri can now relay your questions to ChatGPT, but on her own, she’s just not capable of holding a decent conversation, which is hard to believe.

Apple iPhone 17: Cameras

How does it stack up against the other phones in the lineup? Pretty well.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable

I’ve taken a deeper look at how all of Apple’s new iPhone cameras compare, and you can see for yourself the results of my iPhone 17, iPhone Air, and iPhone 17 Pro Max camera tests.

Suffice to say that the iPhone 17 has a camera that’s almost as good as the one on the Pro models in most scenarios. It also wins versus iPhone Air as it has an ultra-wide camera, which also enables macro photography. It does lack a dedicated telephoto camera, which is a pretty big deal.

Apple iPhone 17: Battery life

Apple’s battery life figures for its iPhone lineup can be deceiving. The company rates iPhone 17 as being capable of up to 30 hours video playback, compared to up to 33 hours on the iPhone 17 Pro, and up to 27 hours on the iPhone Air. But the iPhone 16 was only rated for up to 22 hours, meaning that all three new devices are significantly better than Apple’s base phone from 2024.

It’s easy to get used to more battery life, and I’m sure people will compare the iPhone 17 against the new benchmarks, not old. But still: Apple has vastly improved battery life on all of its phones. The iPhone 17 may not be a two-day phone like the iPhone 17 Pro Max, but it should definitely last you a full day or even day and a half.

Is the Apple iPhone 17 worth it?

Aluminum frame, but no Ceramic Shield on the back.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable

Absolutely. The iPhone 17 is the most sensible choice for most users. I actually think it compares better with the iPhone 17 Pro, as it offers all of the key features — great camera, beautiful display, 256GB of storage, fast performance, and long battery life — for less. money.

The question, however, is whether you’ll go for the regular-looking iPhone when you can get the sexier and thinner iPhone Air? My advice: Check them both out in person, then decide. You won’t make a mistake either way.