Earlier today, Apple revealed the iPhone 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max. There are a lot of details to dig into, so let’s dive in.
iPhone 17
The new iPhone 17 is both colorful and a significant upgrade. There are a total of five colors – Lavender, Mist Blue, Black, White, and Sage – all of which look great.
As for the upgrades to the hardware, the most significant to my mind is that the iPhone 17 is finally getting ProMotion and a 6.3-inch Always-On display that can refresh adaptively between 1 and 120 Hz. The front screen is protected by Ceramic Shield 2, which Apple says is three times more scratch-resistant than before, has a peak brightness of 3000 nits, and includes an improved seven-layer anti-reflective coating. From the specs, it appears that this is the same screen found in the iPhone Air, only slightly smaller.
The phone includes the A19 chip, which uses a 3-nanometer process for improved performance and efficiency. This not only makes more computationally intensive tasks like games and generative AI possible; it also means longer battery life. It’s a rather arbitrary measure, but Apple says that means you could watch video for 30 hours straight, which is nice I suppose. The point is, though, between the more efficient chip system and Adaptive Power Mode, the iPhone 17 will last longer than its predecessors.
The device charges faster, too, reaching up to 50% in just 20 minutes using an adapter like Apple’s new 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max. The phone also supports Qi2.2 fast charging. Plus, with the Apple-designed N1 wireless networking chip, the iPhone 17 supports Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, and Thread. As with the Air, Apple says this will improve AirDrop and Personal Hotspot performance.
As for the camera system, the iPhone 17 has Apple’s new 18MP Center Stage front camera. The sensor is square, which makes it possible to take selfies in portrait or landscape while holding the phone vertically. The software also uses AI to identify faces, allowing the field of view and image composition to be adjusted based on the number of faces detected.
On the rear of the iPhone 17 are two lenses, both of which use 48MP sensors, which is a first. The 48MP Fusion Main camera supports a 2× Telephoto mode that crops the image in-camera to simulate a physical zoom mechanism. The 48MP Fusion Ultra Wide camera is used for macro photography as well as wide shots and can capture up to 4× the resolution of the prior wide angle camera, according to Apple. As for video, the rear cameras are capable of shooting in 4K 60fps Dolby Vision.
The iPhone 17 starts at $799 with 256 GB of base storage. Pre-orders begin on Friday, September 12, and deliveries begin September 19.
iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max
With the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, Apple is returning to aluminum, with a unibody design incorporating a vapor chamber for heat dissipation that the company says will make the phone more comfortable to hold and sustain higher performance for longer.
Both models feature the A19 Pro chip, three 48MP cameras on the rear, faster MagSafe charging, and Apple’s new 18MP Center Stage selfie camera. Of course there are a number of differences too:
| iPhone 17 Pro | iPhone 17 Pro Max | |
|---|---|---|
| Display size | 6.3″ | 6.9″ |
| Resolution | 2622x1206 @ 460 ppi | 2868x1320 @ 460 ppi |
| Physical dimensions | 150.0 x 71.9 x 8.75 mm | 163.4 x 78.0 x 8.75 mm |
| Weight | 206 g | 233 g |
| Video playback (max) | up to 33 hours | up to 39 hours |
| Video playback (streamed) | up to 30 hours | up to 35 hours |
| Storage options | 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB | 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, 2 TB |
| Starting price (USD) | $1099 | $1199 |
The unibody design of the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max wraps the antenna system around the camera housing, which Apple says provides superior connectivity. The displays on both Pro iPhones are protected by Ceramic Shield 2 on the front and feature ProMotion, the 1Hz-to-120Hz display technology now also found in the iPhone 17 and Air. Like those devices, the screens output up to 3000 nits of brightness and support Apple’s Always-On feature. The back of both Pro phones is protected by Ceramic Shield for the first time, too.
Apple says the A19 Pro chip is up to 40% faster than the previous-generation chipset and is capable of better graphics performance thanks to an updated 6-core GPU architecture, with each core equipped with a separate Neural Accelerator. Apple also mentioned during the keynote that the iPhone Pro line has more memory, but I haven’t seen exactly how much it has yet. The new Apple-designed N1 chip handles Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, and Thread, too.
The Pro line’s cameras are also greatly improved. All three are 48MP Fusion cameras capable of capturing more and sharper detail. The tetraprism design of the Telephoto lens has been enhanced, allowing for up to 8× optical zoom and digital zoom up to 40×. Apple says that the three cameras, together with the software that supports them, are the equivalent of having eight cameras on your iPhone. It will be interesting to see what professional photographers have to say about that.
As for the selfie camera, it’s the same 18MP Center Stage camera that is in the iPhone 17 and Air, which I describe in greater detail above.
Finally, the Pro line’s video output is very impressive. The phones can record 4K 120fps of Dolby Vision HDR footage in ProRes Log with support for ACES. The Pro line also supports ProRes RAW, Log 2, and genlock for syncing multiple cameras.
The iPhone 17 Pro starts at $1,099 with 256 GB of base storage, and the 17 Pro Max starts at $1,199 with a base storage configuration of 256 GB, which goes up to 2 TB for the first time. Pre-orders begin on Friday, September 12, and deliveries begin September 19.
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