Apple iPhone 17 Pro review

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Introduction

It has been a while since we last saw an iPhone Pro that looked fresh and it's this new generation that brings a new look. The iPhone 17 Pro marks a shift towards an aluminum unibody, but it also brings a square sensor selfie camera (in a way), an improved telephoto shooter, bigger battery, faster charging - it sounds like this time it's actually worth it.

Aluminum replaces titanium as the best material for an iPhone this year, and along with it Apple is bringing a vapor chamber for improved heat dissipation. That should keep the brand new Apple 19 Pro chipset nice and cool, helping the new Liquid Glass interface and animations of iOS 26 run like a breeze.

Labeled at 18MP, the selfie camera has a wide angle lens and can capture landscape selfies with the phone held vertically - that just might be useful. The telephoto, meanwhile, now stands at 4x zoom and uses a larger 48MP sensor (formerly 5x, 12MP).

The 17 Pro gets a significant battery capacity upgrade - the biggest increase of this year's roster, even in the regions of the world where the physical SIM slot eats up space for the cell (eSIM-only versions have larger batteries this year). A new charging standard is also on the menu. Some things will never change though, apparently - like the pill-shaped front camera cutout (and, somewhat related, the lack of a fingerprint reader).

Apple iPhone 17 Pro specs at a glance:

• Body: 150.0x71.9x8.8mm, 206g; Glass front (Ceramic Shield 2), aluminum alloy frame, aluminum alloy back/ glass back (Ceramic Shield); IP68 dust tight and water resistant (immersible up to 6m for 30 min), Apple Pay (Visa, MasterCard, AMEX certified).
• Display: 6.3" LTPO Super Retina XDR OLED, 120Hz, HDR10, Dolby Vision, 1000 nits (typ), 1600 nits (HBM), 3000 nits (peak), 1206x2622px resolution, 19.6:9 aspect ratio, 460ppi; Anti-reflective coating.
• Chipset: Apple A19 Pro (3 nm): Hexa-core (2x4.26 GHz + 4xX.X GHz); Apple GPU (6-core graphics).
• Memory: 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 12GB RAM, 1TB 12GB RAM; NVMe.
• OS/Software: iOS 26.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 48 MP, f/1.8, 24mm, 1/1.28", 1.22µm, dual pixel PDAF, sensor-shift OIS; Ultra wide angle: 48 MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120˚, 1/2.55", 0.7µm, PDAF; Telephoto: 48 MP, f/2.8, 100mm, 1/2.55", 0.7µm, PDAF, 3D sensor‑shift OIS, 4x optical zoom; Depth: TOF 3D LiDAR scanner.
• Front camera: Wide (main): 18 MP multi-aspect, f/1.9, 20mm, PDAF; Depth: SL 3D.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@24/25/30/60/100/120fps, 1080p@25/30/60/120/240fps, 10-bit HDR, Dolby Vision HDR (up to 120fps), ProRes, ProRes RAW (up to 120fps), Apple Log 2, 3D (spatial) video/audio, stereo; Front camera: 4K@24/25/30/60fps, 1080p@25/30/60/120fps, gyro-EIS.
• Battery: 3998mAh; Wired, PD3.2, AVS, 50% in 20 min, 25W wireless MagSafe/Qi2, 50% in 30 min (15W - China), 4.5W reverse wired.
• Connectivity: 5G; eSIM; Wi-Fi 7; BT 6.0; NFC.
• Misc: Face ID, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer; stereo speakers; Ultra Wideband (UWB) support (gen2 chip), Emergency SOS, Messages and Find My via satellite.

iPhone 17 Pro unboxing

The iPhone 17 Pro arrives in the usual white cardboard box, with a likeness of the phone's back printed on the cover - so you know which colorway is inside.

The contents bring no surprises either - a thin but nicely braided USB-C cable (3A max) is included, as well as a SIM ejection pin if you're in the regions where iPhones have physical SIM slots. That's it.

This year, a new charger was made with the iPhone 17 models in mind, the descriptively named 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max. Perhaps it could have been part of the standard bundle for the first iPhones to adopt the AVS charging protocol, though we also realize how that wouldn't have been a very Apple thing to do. The fact that you can't actually even buy it outside of North America yet is probably more annoying.