iPhone 17 Pro Review: Practicality over gimmicks

For years, Apple was known as the company that puts design first, and practicality second. Super thin iPhones became the symbol of the early Apple design era, led by design hall of famer Jony Ive.

But what’s hiding beneath the vibrant orange surface? And isn’t this just another iPhone that ultimately doesn’t differ much from all the others before it?

In our PhoneArena Review Rating, the iPhone 17 Pro scores 7.9 points, a slight upgrade over the 7.7 score of the 16 Pro. A lot of that comes from just the boost in performance speeds and charging, while the camera changes have not affected the scoring much as colors and dynamic range remain largely the same.

iPhone 17 Pro Specs

A big boost in RAM and storage

Let’s kick things off with an overview of the iPhone 17 Pro specs:

The first thing you notice when you look at this new iPhone has got to be the color, especially if you look at the striking Cosmic Orange model. This year, Apple limits itself to only three colorways: a bright Silver one, a darker Deep Blue model, and that unmistakable orange one. 

What’s notably missing is a black model, which we’ve always had, but Apple execs argue that the Deep Blue version is already quite dark and will please those looking for a darker shade. While we tend to agree, we also know a few people who religiously stick with a true black color.

Then the second thing that you cannot miss is that camera island on the back. Apple being Apple, it calls this a “plateau”, a pompous name for what most people would just name a giant camera bump. Call it whatever you want, it’s not a new concept. The point of this larger camera bump is to allow for a bit more volume to squeeze components in and leave space for a bigger battery. And we approve — practicality!

All of that new design is enabled by a new aluminum unibody. Having this unibody structure helps a lot with the durability of the phone. Instead of having the whole backside made of glass, we now have just the lower part being glass, and the rest is all a part of that aluminum unibody. Less glass on the back means a lower chance of cracking it, and ultimately — happier users. Yep, you guessed it right, it’s practical design!

One downside of an aluminum unibody, however, is that aluminum can be scratched easier than titanium or stainless steel. YouTuber JerryRigEverything reveals that the sharp edges of the camera plateau are a weak point in particular. This will not be noticeable on the silver model, but it will be seen on the blue or orange ones. Don’t forget that aluminum also deforms far easier than titanium or steel, and we’ve already seen a few images of dropped iPhone 17 Pro with a ding on the aluminum frame.

On the plus side, you now have Ceramic Shield for the glass insert on the back, meaning that part will be better protected against scratches.

The big new feature is the increased peak brightness. All iPhone 17 models can now hit 3,000 nits of peak brightness, and with better cooling, they don’t go dim outdoors quite as fast.

There is also a new seven-layer anti-reflectivity coating, which does a better job reducing outside reflections. It is a very subtle effect though, nowhere nearly as powerful as what we have on the S25 Ultra.

All iPhone 17 models come with new anti-reflection coating on the screen (iPhone 17 Pro Max on the left, 16 Pro Max on the right)

Biometrics on the iPhone 17 Pro are unchanged, as it uses the same Face ID sensor as in all recent iPhones.

iPhone 17 Pro Camera

New 4X telephoto camera is great news

The iPhone 17 Pro camera looks bigger and more impressive in its new “plateau” housing, but the main and ultra-wide cameras have actually not changed from last year.

The thing to remember here is that there are three cameras on the back, full stop. Apple likes to advertize that these three cameras behave like nine cameras (implying that it uses software tricks to simulate different lenses). But that does not make a 2X sensor crop its own lens, and you can still notice the difference between a sensor crop and a true 2X camera, so be aware of that.

iPhone 17 Pro Camera Samples

The new 4X telephoto lens is definitely an improvement. It uses a 56% larger sensor so the quality is better, and you notice this the most in low light. With a 48MP native resolution, you also have the option to sensor crop and to get lossless quality at 8X zoom (200mm). The maximum digital zoom is now 40X in photos, up from 25X previously.

At an arm’s length, you can capture a wider selfie on the 17 Pro and you no longer look to the side!

The other big camera change is a brand new 18MP front camera with a square sensor. This enables a cool new ability: you can now take landscape selfies while holding your phone vertically! This is not only cool, it’s practical. Previously, while taking a landscape selfie, your eyes would always look to the side, because we usually look at the screen when taking a picture (and the lens is to the side). Now, that problem is gone and people in landscape selfies finally look AT the camera.

And one more thing: the front camera now features a much wider lens, so you can fit more in. The new lens has a focal length of around 20mm vs 23mm on the iPhone 16 and earlier. Nice!

Video Quality

Every year, we hear rumors that this time Apple will finally support 8K video. This never materializes, and we don’t think it needs to happen right away as even most TVs are still 4K ones.

But while 8K is niche, the Pro video features added this year are ultra-niche. One is ProRes RAW, which gives you the maximum dynamic range you can get, and GenLock, which allows you to easily sync multiple cameras on a big production (think Hollywood-style). I don’t think I have a single friend who would EVER use these features, so this is telling just how pro-oriented these features truly are.

iPhone 17 Pro Performance & Benchmarks

A19 Pro is a beast, and the new vapor chamber also helps

The iPhone 17 Pro is powered by the new A19 Pro chipset and the phone now also has 12GB of RAM.

And while you may be used to smartphone processors getting ever faster every year, this is indeed a very big leap for both CPU, but especially for the GPU performance. 

All of this results in amazing single-core performance and solid-multi core numbers.

GPU Performance

In GPU testing, we see even bigger gains.

On 3D Mark’s Solar Bay Extreme test, which is heavily focused on ray tracing, the A19 Pro GPU on the iPhone 17 Pro beats the one on the M3 iMac!

Vapor Chamber cooling

A lot of the improvements in the new iPhone also come from its efficient design combining an aluminum unibody, much more adept at dispersing heat, and a vapor chamber cooling that quickly transfers that heat away from the core.

In thermal imaging, you can clearly see the effects of that. While running performance tests, the iPhone 17 Pro heats up uniformly around the body, while the previous model has one big red spot around the processor, indicating that heat dissipation was indeed a problem on the 16 series.

While the iPhone 17 Pro hits around 42C degrees, the iPhone 16 Pro runs much hotter at nearly 45C. You can also see the benefit of the 17 Pro vs the glass back on the vanilla 17 model, which gets hotter at nearly 44C to 45C.

iPhone 17 Pro Software

Not keeping that AI promise given with the iPhone 16 series has definitely left a mark on Apple, but we think that’s actually good. Don’t overpromise, just deliver.

What Apple did mention is that the A19 Pro chipset is perfectly tailored to handle on-device AI with neural accelerators in each GPU core. That’s a good signal that the company plans some big AI unveilings next year, so let’s wait and see.

The US eSIM version has a 4,252 mAh battery. We tested the global model with a physical SIM card slot and a slightly smaller, 3,988 mAh battery.

Still, both of those options are a big upgrade over the 3,582 mAh battery on the 16 Pro.

In our lab battery tests, we see some gains but only in some cases. On our lightest web browsing test, the 17 Pro scores a bit over 17 hours, a 30-minute improvement over the 16 Pro.

At the same time, video streaming has not changed at all at roughly 8 hours and a half.

In real life, we did notice a slight upgrade over the 16 Pro that we are using for a daily driver, but we’d need to spend a bit more time with the phone to be more conclusive.

However, we don’t need extra time to appreciate the much faster 40W wired charge.

Apple promises a 50% top-up in 20 minutes on the 17 Pro, up from 50% in 35 minutes on the 16 Pro. And that is indeed pretty much what we get.

Keep in mind that Apple recommends its new $40 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max that uses a new USB-C PD protocol called AVS (Adjustable Voltage Supply). Android phones typically use a different protocol called PPS. The iPhone 17 does not support PPS, but that’s not such a big deal. If you use a third-party charger like ones from Anker with PPS, the iPhone 17 Pro will fall back to the standard charging steps on the charger and you will only miss on the fine-grain voltage adjustments, but it will still fast charge. In other words, you will get almost the same charging speed.

Strangely, the iPhone 17 Pro audio quality has changed quite a bit from the previous model. The 17 Pro does not get nearly as loud as its predecessor, which can be disappointing. Admittedly, at those loudest volumes the sound quality was distorted, but we still prefer having the option to blast sound loud and clear.

There are no issues with the clarity, though, and you still have a decent amount of bass. All of that, of course, is said in the context of smartphone audio, and naturally, you would be much better off listening to music from a speaker or headset.

There are also no changes to haptics, they feel tight and precise as usual with the Taptic Engine.

Should you buy it?

The iPhone 17 Pro is a bigger upgrade than it might seem at first, but it’s still fundamentally an iPhone, like all others before it.

Enthusiasts who care about benchmarks, performance numbers and fancy cooling should definitely buy the iPhone 17 Pro. Its new processor is a big leap forward, much bigger than your typical yearly upgrade, and the device feels more future proof with 12GB of RAM. And same goes for the camera changes which will be appreciated by the enthusiast. The more practical 100mm 4X lens for zoom and portraits is nice, finally bringing the iPhone on par with Android rivals, and the new square Center Stage front camera is industry leading and clever.