At today’s Apple event, the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max made their grand debut. If you’re anything like me, the first thing you’ll notice is the enormous, horizontal camera bar across the back. Subtle it is not, but I actually don’t mind. Beneath the surface are some rather decent camera upgrades.
The design gets a big makeover this year, ditching titanium for a half-glass, half-aluminium rear panel. Ceramic Shield makes its way to the rear back panel, which is 4x stronger than the previous glass back panels. The Apple logo’s also been shunted down a bit to accommodate all the new magnetic bits in the MagSafe ring. Ceramic Shield 2 comes to the front display, which is 3x stronger than previous displays. Note that the new devices are a little chunkier than previous Pro handsets.
As for the display, it features the same 6.3in and 6.9in LTPO OLED panels with ProMotion, now with a anti-reflective coating as part of Ceramic Shield 2. That’s useful, but I’m disappointed there isn’t a matte display option. Apple’s iPads, Macs, and monitors all have this option so it’s about time it made its way to the iPhone. Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra offers a similar screen coating, and it dramatically reduces reflections.
The new rectangular bump isn’t just for show – it’s housing an upgraded (and larger) 48MP Wide, Ultrawide, and a fancy new Tetraprism Telephoto lens. That makes the Pro Max the first iPhone with three 48MP Fusion sensors. With the new zoom lens, you get up to 8x optical zoom rather than 5x – with no cropping required. With digital zoom, you can get up to 40x zoom rather than just 15x zoom. The selfie snapper is Apple’s new 18MP Center Stage shooter, which is designed with content creators in mind.
Speaking of content creation, there are plenty of new “pro” camera features for real professionals. You can now shoot in ProRes RAW for even better quality and more editing options. Genlock support is available, which lets you use the new handset with other professional cameras. If you want to see how good these cameras are, Apple’s entire event was shot on the iPhone 17 Pro.
Performance-wise, the Pro models pack the new A19 Pro chip, with an upgraded GPU, faster neural processing, and upgraded cooling thanks to a new vapour chamber cooling system that directs heat through the handset. Thanks to the vapour chamber, Apple reckons it is 40% more efficient than previous Pro devices.
Apple claims that the CPU is the fastest in any smartphone, while the GPU gets improved caching for even better performance. I’d go as far to say it’s near MacBook-levels of performance, and Apple would agree. Battery life is also improved, and wireless charging gets a boost to 25W over Qi 2.2.
Alongside the new iPhone, there’s a new TechWoven case to replace FineWoven – it uses overlapping yarn threads to create the look. Of course, there are also new clear options which can show of the flashy new orange colourway. All the new cases feature new buttons which allegedly feel better. There are also lanyard straps you can get to go with them, if that’s your thing.
Colours this year include a classy dark-orange shade and the usual suspects: black, silver, grey, and dark blue. All the models start at 256GB of storage, which is a first for the regular Pro. On the Pro Max, you can even spec up to 2TB for the first time! Pre-orders for iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max open on Friday 12 September from $1099/£1099 for the Pro and $1199/£1999 for the Pro Max, with devices shipping the following Friday (19 September).
