The Finest iPhone Worth in Years

Fundamental design

Take the iPhone 16 design, stretch it a teensy bit up, and also you get the iPhone 17. That will sound harsh, however it’s true: the iPhone 17 is 5.89 inches tall versus the 5.81-inch iPhone 16. In some way it’s 0.01 inches narrower, although. It’s unlikely you’ll really feel that it’s 0.24 ounces heavier, both; I didn’t.

In the event you had been hoping for extra materials change, you’re gonna be dissatisfied. I don’t assume it’s price fretting over because the iPhone 17 feels nice within the hand. Not that most individuals will care since they’ll slap a case over it.

Apple has caught with an aluminum body and gently curved sides that soften into the duvet and again glass. The again has a vertically aligned pill-shaped bump for the twin cameras. What you may’t see with the bare eye is the improved scratch resistance for the display. Apple is utilizing Ceramic Defend 2, its second-gen cowl materials with elevated sturdiness, which Apple claims is 3x extra scratch resistant than the iPhone 16’s first-gen Ceramic Defend display. Apple additionally says Ceramic Defend 2 cuts down on glare. It doesn’t eradicate reflections from what I might see, and any discount in glare is minimal at finest. Nonetheless, I’ll take the elevated scratch resistance. I requested Apple if Ceramic Defend 2 now signifies that keys or sand or pocket lint received’t simply scratch it, however the firm clarified that its sturdiness claims usually are not for a single occasion the place there’s unlucky contact with some scratchy objects; it’s over time. Take that for what you’ll.

Colours are subjective, however should you ask me, I believe the iPhone 17 colours are uninteresting. In addition to black and white, there’s lavender, sage, and mist blue. Sage appears the very best to me, however it’s nonetheless a muted inexperienced. I believe it’s time for Apple to deliver again crimson or coral or pacific blue. Give the common iPhone some soul to face out between the iPhone Air and iPhone Execs.

A extra “professional” show

That 0.08 inches of additional peak means Apple was in a position to squeeze in a barely bigger 6.3-inch display versus the 6.1-inch show on the iPhone 16. This is identical display because the iPhone 17 Professional, with the identical decision, similar 3,000 nits of peak outside brightness, the identical 120 Hz “ProMotion” refresh charge, and the identical always-on show. Ultimately, Apple’s common iPhone collection isn’t saddled with a 60Hz refresh charge.

To my eyes, there’s no seen distinction between the display on the iPhone 17 and the 17 Professional. Each Tremendous Retina XDR shows look crisp, have wonderful and broad viewing angles, and get greater than vibrant sufficient indoors and outdoor. I uncared for to say this in my iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pros review, however I actually want Apple would come with one thing akin to the “Aqua Contact 2.0 expertise” within the OnePlus 13 that makes the touchscreen extra responsive when there’s liquid on it or your fingers are moist. The slightest droplet of water on the iPhone 17 nonetheless confuses the display into pondering you’re touching it once you’re not.

Almost professional efficiency

Not like Android telephones, the place efficiency can take a significant downturn if the chipset maker (Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek, and many others.) has structure or manufacturing issues, Apple’s A-series silicon simply steadily will get higher yr after yr.

I’ve lengthy stopped placing an excessive amount of emphasis on artificial benchmarks like Geekbench 6, however simply to see how a lot much less highly effective the iPhone 17’s A19 chip is in comparison with the A19 Professional within the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Execs, I ran the CPU take a look at. The outcomes really shocked me. Utilizing the common of three assessments taken on the iPhone 17, iPhone Air, and iPhone 17 Professional, the iPhone 17 was 1.6% extra highly effective than the Air and 1.3% much less highly effective than the 17 Professional for single-core duties.

The A19 Professional chip pulls forward of the A19 for multicore purposes, however not by a lot: the Air is 5% extra highly effective and 17 Professional is 9.48% extra highly effective than the iPhone 17. I believed for certain with one much less GPU core (5 as a substitute of six) that the iPhone 17 Execs can be extra highly effective by a bigger margin, however that doesn’t appear to be the case.

That’s nice information should you’re fearful about getting FOMO from not having the A19 Professional chip within the iPhone 17. However there’s one other factor to contemplate: thermals and sustained efficiency. In comparison with the iPhone 17 Execs, which have a vapor chamber that retains temperatures down and spreads warmth throughout the cellphone extra uniformly when apps push the GPU onerous, the iPhone 17 will get hotter rather a lot faster. And if it will get too scorching, it takes somewhat longer to chill down. Usually, my iPhone 17 assessment unit by no means received toasty, however should you’re planning to play 3D video games like Genshin Impression or shoot a number of 4K video with the cellphone or do both underneath the solar in scorching environments, you could run into the notorious “”iPhone wants to chill down” sooner.

The Middle Stage digicam is legit

The iPhone 17 has some strong digicam upgrades, too. The twin rear digicam is now a “Fusion” digicam consisting of a 48-megapixel major digicam and now a higher-resolution 48-megapixel ultrawide (up from 12 megapixels on the iPhone 16). Images look about the identical to me in comparison with the identical photographs taken with my iPhone 16 Pro. Even the ultrawide photographs look practically equivalent; okay, they’re barely brighter, however that’s nothing dialing up the brightness slider within the Images app couldn’t simply deal with. There’s no telephoto lens on the iPhone 17; if you need that, you’ll have to step as much as the iPhone 17 Execs, which have a 4x telephoto lens that’s additionally able to 8x “optical-quality” photographs. You do get the 2x “optical-quality” lens from the principle 48-megapixel picture sensor, however that was already a characteristic on the iPhone 16.

As I stated in my iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Execs assessment, the Middle Stage digicam is the most important improve for pictures and video since Apple first added a front-facing digicam on the iPhone 4. The 18-megapixel Middle Stage digicam is a sq. picture sensor, which might seize horizontal selfies even should you’re holding the cellphone vertically. It’s also possible to take vertical pictures should you maintain the iPhone 17 horizontally. The characteristic additionally works for video recording. It’s a really cool characteristic that everybody goes to understand, not simply Gen Z TikTokers. The Twin Seize mode that data from the entrance and rear cameras can be very enjoyable, particularly for reaction-type movies.

Because the iPhone 17 is just not a “professional” iPhone, it doesn’t have the extra superior recording options discovered within the iPhone 17 Execs, like ProRAW for stills, ProRes for video, Apple Log 2, or genlock. Sluggish-motion video recording can be restricted to 1080p at 240 fps in comparison with 4K at 120 fps on the 17 Execs. Lastly, you don’t get the “studio-quality” microphones discovered within the 17 Execs. I don’t assume any of those “lacking” options makes the iPhone 17 a dealbreaker, however it does really feel like Apple might have included them if it needed to, aside from to feature-lock them to the higher-end iPhones.

And identical to I stated in my iPhone 17 Execs assessment, I believe Digital camera Management remains to be largely wasted. It’s there, however no more helpful than as a shortcut to launching the Digital camera app. I a lot want the digicam shortcut on Android, which has been a factor for over a decade: double-clicking the facility button.

Extra battery to doomscroll

No quantity of battery life is ever going to be sufficient, however I’ll gladly take extra hours gen-over-gen. Within the iPhone 17’s case, battery life has elevated by 8 hours in comparison with the iPhone 16—as much as 30 hours versus 22 hours (for native video playback, which is how Apple measures battery life). It’s 3 fewer hours than the iPhone 17 Professional, which will get as much as 33 hours.

Utilizing the iPhone 17 like a standard human being (as a result of who’s insane sufficient to observe native video for 30 hours straight), I discovered the iPhone 17 lasted about so long as my iPhone 16 Professional, which Apple says will get as much as 27 hours for video playback. Give or take, I used to be in a position to go from off the charger at 8 a.m. to six p.m. on a single cost with round 20 to 25% left within the tank. That’s nice battery life and you may simply go two days with gentle utilization.

Extra for a similar cash

If all of that doesn’t sound like a ok worth, how about double the storage (256GB versus 128GB) versus the iPhone 16—for a similar $799? That’s a great deal. Yeah, inflation and all that, however that’s nonetheless a rattling whole lot for the whole lot that you just get.

There’s a $300 distinction between the iPhone 17 and the 17 Professional this yr, which is $100 greater than final yr. For most individuals, the iPhone 17 has greater than sufficient, and the additional $300 will be pocketed or put in the direction of an adjunct just like the new $250 AirPods Pro 3.

I actually couldn’t discover a lot to complain about on the iPhone 17. iOS is iOS. In the event you don’t just like the “walled” Apple backyard, there’s nothing new to report right here, because it’s the identical deal. Apple Intelligence, sadly, remains to be underwhelming and we’ll have to attend till subsequent yr to see the brand new AI-powered Siri. If there’s something to actually gripe about, I want the USB 2 switch speeds for the USB-C port had been the sooner USB 3 on the iPhone 16 and 17 Execs.

In the event you’ve reached this far and also you’ve been nodding your head in any respect the brand new stuff and don’t really feel an urge to leap as much as the 17 Execs, congrats, possibly the iPhone 17 is for you. In the event you nonetheless have an iPhone from latest years and it’s not having any points, simply update to iOS 26 (unless you really hate Liquid Glass). The very best factor about iPhones is that they final a very long time and Apple helps them with annual software program updates for at the least 5 years, and safety updates for just a few years after. You get rather a lot with the brand new iPhone 17, however you additionally might not want one if yours works simply superb. For folks switching from Android—you’re both gonna love Apple’s ecosystem or hate it and crawl again.