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Posts tagged with "iPhone 17 Pro"

Digital Foundry Documents the iPhone 17 Pro’s Major Gaming Gains→

Yesterday, Digital Foundry published their review of the iPhone 17 Pro, which as you’d expect, focuses on the Pro model’s gaming capabilities. Tested against iPhone 13 and 15 Pros and using a series of benchmark tests as well as real-world gameplay, Digital Foundry’s tests revealed significant improvements in several areas, including:

  • GPU performance;
  • Ray tracing capabilities;
  • Second-generation dynamic caching; and
  • Improved thermals.

Benchmarks are one thing, but Digital Foundry’s tests also revealed real-world benefits to the iPhone 17 Pro, such as:

  • a 60% performance increase over the iPhone 15 Pro on Resident Evil Village,
  • the elimination of freezing and big frame rate drops in Assassin’s Creed Mirage,
  • more reliable 30 fps gameplay in Death Stranding.

Those are significant improvements in just two generations of the A-series chips.

What really caught my eye, though, was the impact of cooling. The iPhone 17 Pro uses a vapor chamber and aluminum chassis to help cool the device and keep its chips running at full speed longer. When Digital Foundry placed the 17 Pro on a desk fan, it became clear just how important that cooling is.

Running a benchmark stress test with air blowing across the back of the iPhone 17 Pro reduced the performance drop by roughly 50%. With those sorts of results, I expect external cooling solutions like this X5s telescopic controller and FX5 Cooler combo from GameSir to become a popular accessory in the coming year, so of course, I’ve ordered one and will report back soon.

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Halide and Kino Developers Review the iPhone 17 Pro’s Cameras→

Source: Lux.

Source: Lux.

Earlier this week, I shared my early impressions of the iPhone 17 Pro Max and included a few galleries of photos I’d taken at each of the model’s standard zoom levels. I was impressed by the results, which made me all the more excited to learn more of how Apple pulled this off.

One of my favorite annual iPhone camera reviews is from the team at Lux, the makers of Halide and Kino. Their experience with the iPhone 17 Pro’s cameras was similar to mine, but with a lot of nerdy camera detail that I love. The overall conclusion of their testing in New York, Iceland, and London is that:

This is, without a doubt, a great back camera system. With all cameras at 48MP, your creative choices are tremendous. I find Apple’s quip of it being ‘like having eight lenses in your pocket’ a bit much, but it does genuinely feel like having at least 5 or 6: Macro, 0.5×, 1×, 2×, 4× and 8× .

The story covers every camera and each zoom distance. Of the 2x, Lux found that:

Shooting at 2× on iPhone 17 Pro did produce noticeably better shots; I believe this can be chalked up to significantly better processing for these ‘crop shots’. Many people think Apple is dishonest in calling this an ‘optical quality’ zoom, but it’s certainly not a regular digital zoom either. I am very content with it, and I was a serious doubter when it was introduced.

Lux’s highest praise was probably for the 8x zoom:

The overall experience of shooting a lens this long should not be this good. I’ve not seen it mentioned in reviews, but the matter of keeping a 200mm lens somehow steady and not an exercise in tremendous frustration is astonishing. Apple is using both its very best hardware stabilization on this camera and software stabilization, as seen in features like Action Mode.

There are loads of beautiful photos in the post and a lot more detail than I’ve quoted here. Be sure to read through the entire post because what Apple is doing with camera hardware and software is really quite remarkable.

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Austin Mann Tests the iPhone 17 Pro Cameras in the Dolomite Mountains→

Professional photographer Austin Mann published his annual tests of the new iPhone’s cameras. This year, Mann traveled to the Dolomite Mountains in Northern Italy to bike and photograph the mountain landscapes.

It’s probably not surprising that the 17 Pro’s telephoto cameras were a perfect match with the Dolomites:

After extensively testing the iPhone 17 Pro camera system, I can confidently say the biggest improvement for photographers this year is the new 48MP 4x lens and the 8x telephoto. These focal lengths feel right and open up opportunities to capture fresh perspectives.

Mann’s photos are stunning. What stood out to me the most is the level of detail that can be captured with the 4x and 8x cameras. I spent some time testing this over the weekend myself and it’s seriously impressive.

Mann is also a fan of the new selfie camera, using it to take selfies as he biked through the mountains:

This is one of those features that just works without any effort and will make everyone’s selfies better, and many users won’t even be aware of what it’s doing. Just as I hoped, I can hold the iPhone in horizontal or vertical orientation and the camera automatically adjusts based on whether I’m alone or surrounded by others.

As always, it’s worth scrolling through the entire post because the Dolomites are a beautiful mountain range that offered a lot of opportunities for Mann to show off the new iPhone 17 Pro’s cameras.

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Jess Weatherbed Breaks Down Why Apple’s Crossbody Strap is a Great Idea→

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

In the run-up to yesterday’s Apple Event, there were increasingly loud rumblings that Apple would introduce a crossbody strap or lanyard that could be attached to new iPhone cases.

What followed was a noticeable amount of confusion from those in the tech sphere as to why Apple was entering this market. Now that the Crossbody Strap has been released, Jess Weatherbed at The Verge has a great explainer on why crossbody straps are an increasingly popular trend and why Apple’s take on them is so good. (Spoiler: it’s magnets. It’s always magnets.)

This trend seems to be more popular in Europe and Asia, but it’s picking up steam in the United States, too. I personally see them all the time in London, both as fashion accessories and practical ways for people to carry their most important device. In fact, as a quick experiment, I counted almost 20 of them on my five-minute walk back from this morning’s school drop-off.

The Apple Crossbody Strap is available to order now and is only compatible with Apple’s cases for iPhone 17, Air, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max. For more on all the accessories Apple released this week, check out Niléane’s overview.

You can follow all of our September 2025 Apple event coverage through our September 2025 Apple event hub or subscribe to the dedicated September 2025 Apple event RSS feed.

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Apple Announces Final Cut Camera 2.0 with Support for ProRes RAW and Genlock

Today, in tandem with new video recording capabilities and lenses in the iPhone 17 Pro line, Apple announced version 2.0 of Final Cut Camera, its pro video recording app for the iPhone.

The update introduces support for ProRes RAW and genlock, which the new iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max are able to record in. ProRes RAW is an industry-standard way to record video, allowing the capture of RAW data, which unlocks incredible control of recorded video in post-production. In upcoming releases of Final Cut Pro for Mac and Final Cut Pro for iPad, exposure, color temperature, tint, and demosaicing can all be adjusted on ProRes RAW footage.

Genlock, a process of synchronizing multiple video sources by having them lock onto an external reference signal, will allow filmmakers to make frame-accurate edits in a fraction of the time it would take when doing so manually.

As part of the recording process, version 2.0 supports open gate recording, allowing the use of the whole camera sensor to capture video, instead of the current cropped version. This opens up possibilities for reframing shots, stabilizing footage, and setting final aspect ratios without reducing the quality of the image.

As well as these announcements, Final Cut Camera introduces the following new functionalities:

  • Support for recording in portrait and landscape using the new square sensor-equipped front-facing camera. The new camera can shoot portrait or landscape video without the need to rotate the device
  • Manual adjustment of the new front-facing camera on the iPhone 17 Pro
  • Support for Apple Log 2, which features a wider color gamut
  • New Timecode options like Time of Day or other external timecodes.
  • Support for recording ProRes up to 4K60 fps with the new 200mm telephoto lens on the iPhone 17 Pro

Final Cut Camera will be available later this month.

Apple Announces iPhone 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max

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

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

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.

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Apple’s September 2025 Event: All the Small Things (Bento Box Version)

Several things are ubiquitous with Apple Events. Tim Cook’s “Good Morning!”, Craig Federighi being, well, Craig Federighi, and the keynote bento boxes. Offering up a summary to each keynote section, these bento box slides provide a great way to recap a new product.

So, after today’s bumper announcements, let’s take a look at today’s bento box slides.

iPhone 17

iPhone Air

iPhone 17 Pro

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