Price: More Bang for Your Buck
iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. iPhone 16 Pro Max: How Do Their Specs Compare?
Apple prices the iPhone 17 at $799 for 256GB of storage or $999 for 512GB. With the iPhone 17 here, Apple has dropped the iPhone 16’s price to $699, but it’s only available with 128GB of storage.
If you’re looking at price only, the iPhone 16 is $100 less, but it has half as much room for your apps and content.
Winner: iPhone 16
Design: They Do Sure Look Alike
iPhone 16 (Credit: Eric Zeman)
The iPhone 17 and 16 share a strong physical resemblance. The front is dominated by a screen with the Dynamic Island at the top, the sides and back are flat, and the two rear cameras are contained in a vertical, pill-shaped module. Button and port placement have not changed.
iPhone 17 (Credit: Eric Zeman)
However, there are some minor differences. The 16 is smaller at 5.81 by 2.82 by 0.31 inches (HWD) and 6.00 ounces compared with the taller and heavier iPhone 17, at 5.89 by 2.81 by 0.31 inches and 6.24 ounces.
iPhone 16 (Credit: Eric Zeman)
The iPhone 16’s screen is covered in Apple’s Ceramic Shield, while the 17 uses Ceramic Shield 2. Both are resistant to cracking and scratching, but Apple says the second-generation material is three times more resistant to scratching. Both have aluminum frames and are rated IP68 to withstand dust and water.
iPhone 17 (Credit: Eric Zeman)
Each comes in five colors. The iPhone 17 is available in Black, Mist Blue, Lavender, Sage, or White, while the 16 comes in Black, Pink, Teal, Ultramarine, or White.
Winner: Tie
Display: One’s Simply Superior
iPhone 17 (Credit: Eric Zeman)
The iPhone 17 and 16 both feature a Super Retina XDR OLED screen with a density of 460 pixels per inch (ppi), but the similarities end there.
The iPhone 17 has a 6.3-inch screen at a resolution of 2,622 by 1,206 pixels, a variable refresh rate of 1Hz to 120Hz (Apple’s ProMotion tech), and a peak brightness of 3,000 nits. Its display is covered by an anti-reflective coating, which, when combined with its brightness, should make the screen easy to see even under bright lighting conditions. The new adaptive refresh rate brings the always-on display feature of the Pro iPhones to the standard iPhone for the first time. The iPhone 17 has the exact same screen as the iPhone 17 Pro.
iPhone 16 (Credit: Eric Zeman)
The iPhone 16 has a smaller 6.1-inch screen with a resolution of 2,556 by 1,179 pixels, a static 60Hz refresh rate, and a peak brightness of 2,000 nits. It does not have an anti-reflective coating and does not support the always-on display.
The iPhone 16’s display is not bad, but the iPhone 17’s is much better.
Winner: iPhone 17
Performance: The A19 Beats the A18
iPhone 17 (Credit: Eric Zeman)
Apple upgrades the chips inside its iPhone line every year. The new A19 processor powers the iPhone 17 and features a six-core CPU with two performance and four efficiency cores, a five-core GPU with Neural Accelerators (to handle AI tasks), a 16-core Neural Engine, and hardware-accelerated ray tracing. The phone has 8GB of RAM.
The iPhone 16’s A18 chip also features a six-core CPU, a five-core GPU (but not marketed as having Neural Accelerators), and a 16-core Neural Engine.
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In benchmark testing, the A19 performs well. On Geekbench 6, it nabbed a single-core score of 3,653 and a multi-core score of 9,246. On the same test, the iPhone 16’s A18 scored 3,267 and 8,004. On the AnTuTu benchmark, the 17 earned 2,221,350, while the 16 scored 1,539,646. That’s a 50% improvement year over year. Both phones ran through the GFXBench score at about 60 frames per second, but it seems Apple is capping the rate there. And for 3DMark, the iPhone 17 ran 4,884 frames at 27.4fps, while the iPhone 16 ran it at 3,881 frames at 23.2fps.
Clearly, the A19 outperforms the A18 and that’s not a surprise.
Winner: iPhone 17
Cameras: FaceTime Flexibility Is the Key
iPhone 17 (Credit: Eric Zeman)
The iPhone 17 and 16 use the same basic rear camera system, which includes Apple’s 48MP Fusion camera with an aperture of f/1.6. It takes 24MP blended images by default, and it can also shoot 12MP 2x optical-quality telephoto pictures, though a dedicated telephoto lens is absent.
iPhone 16 (Credit: Eric Zeman)
The ultra-wide cameras are quite different, however. The iPhone 17 has a new 48MP ultra-wide sensor with an aperture of f/1.2 and a 120-degree field of view; it can also produce 24MP or 48MP images. Meanwhile, the 16 uses a 12MP ultra-wide camera with the same aperture and the same field of view. The iPhone 17’s higher-resolution sensor delivers far better ultra-wide photos and gives you more flexibility when shooting.
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Both phones share equivalent video cameras. They can record video at up to 4K resolution and 60 frames per second.
Apple upgraded the iPhone 17’s front-facing camera in a big way. The 17 has an 18MP Center Stage camera with an aperture of f/1.9. It tracks and keeps the subject centered in frame, like certain iPads do. But it has one other big party trick: Because the sensor is square in shape (rather than 4:3), the iPhone 17 can shoot vertically or horizontally with the front-facing camera, no matter how you hold the phone.
The 12MP front-facing camera of the 16 cannot do this (nor can most phones). The 17’s front camera also has stabilization when recording video, and a dual capture mode that lets you shoot video with both cameras at the same time.
In testing, the iPhone 17 not only has a more powerful camera system but also takes sharper, clearer photos.
Winner: iPhone 17
Battery: Which One Lasts Longer?
iPhone 17 (Credit: Eric Zeman)
Apple says the iPhone 17 can play locally stored video for up to 30 hours or up to 27 hours when streamed. Last year, Apple claimed the iPhone 16 could last up to 22 hours via local video playback or 18 hours via streamed video.
In our battery rundown test, which involves streaming a 1080p video with the display at full brightness, we found the iPhone 17 lasted an impressive 24 hours and 31 minutes. In comparison, the iPhone 16 lasted 17 hours and 47 minutes. The iPhone 17 lasts about 40% longer per charge, giving it a huge advantage over the iPhone 17.
If you suffer from any level of battery anxiety, the new iPhone is the superior choice.
Winner: iPhone 17
