Background
Every year around early September, Apple announces new products, including the iPhone, Apple Watch, and more. This year, Apple hosted the annual event on Sept. 9, announcing the iPhone 17, 17 Pro, Pro Max, and Air, as well as new generation AirPods Pro, Apple Watch, Watch Ultra, and SE. Following patterns from previous years, iPhones were available for preorder on Sept. 12 and available in stores on Sept. 19. Most pre-ordered iPhones were also delivered on Sept. 19.
As a student photographer and an Apple enthusiast, I am excited to share my hands-on review and thoughts on Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro.
Design & Appearance
- Aluminum unibody and vapor-cooling chamber for thermal management
- New-generation ceramic glass protecting display, ceramic-infused glass on back
- The Camera Plateau
- 3 new color options: a bold “Cosmic Orange”, magnificent “Deep Blue”, and minimalist Silver
Straight out of the box, the new aluminum unibody and the Camera Plateau (the rectangular box the cameras are in)- as Apple calls it- are obvious changes in the phone’s design. With the aluminum unibody, the phone feels smoother and more like one unit with the screen. For me, upgrading from the 15 Pro, the phone felt larger overall, thanks to its slightly larger size and thinner bezels (Apple made these changes with the iPhone 16 Pro as well).
One fear I had with the new aluminum enclosure was its durability. Apple really had me sold on titanium when they announced it on the iPhone 15 and 16 Pro, and they replaced it two generations later with aluminum. Unfortunately, while aluminum offers significantly better heat dissipation, it is heavier and less strong than titanium. Additionally, early tests show that the iPhone 17 Pro models are susceptible to scratching and cosmetic damage on the aluminum, especially on the Cosmic Orange and Deep Blue models. However, the iPhone also has a new-generation Ceramic Shield on the display, providing 3x better scratch resistance, according to Apple. Fortunately, I haven’t yet had to test that, and I don’t plan to. Along with the switch to aluminum, another change to improve the safety of phones’ heat dissipation is the vapor chamber. While using the 17 Pro, those changes and their effect on the phone’s ability to dissipate heat are apparent; while using photo editing software (Adobe Lightroom Mobile) or browsing the web on a cellular connection, the 17 Pro only sometimes gets warm— not hot in one spot.
Another new and welcome change is the display. The iPhone’s new display with up to 3,000 nits (measurement of brightness) of peak outdoor brightness really shines while displaying content, pun intended.
In summary, the iPhone 17 Pro offers superior durability, usability, and aesthetics in most aspects compared to previous generations of iPhone.
Performance & Battery
- New A19 Pro chip with 12GB of memory (RAM)
- Advanced cooling technology for better sustained performance
- Up to 33 hours of video playback
The iPhone 17 Pro introduces multiple advancements in performance and battery, too. It uses the A19 Pro chip, which includes a 6‑core CPU with 2 performance and 4 efficiency cores, a 6‑core GPU with Neural Accelerators, a 16‑core Neural Engine, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and 12GB of RAM. In reality, all that tech-talk is just about as cool as it sounds. While editing, transferring, and downloading a colossal 96 megapixel photo, I noticed it took significantly shorter time than on my 15 Pro. The Neural Accelerators in the CPU allow computationally-demanding AI models to run locally and efficiently; as a result, everyday features like Apple Intelligence’s Summarize email and photo searching happen fast and smoothly.
The iPhone’s redesigned internals include a bigger battery, too. Apple claims it achieves up to 33 hours of video playback, and though I haven’t tested that claim, I can tell a noticeable difference in daily use.
Camera
- New 200mm (8x) optical zoom option at 12 megapixels
- New 100mm (4x) optical zoom option at 48 megapixels
- 0.5x, 1x, 2x, 4x, and 8x optical zoom lenses
- New 18 megapixel front camera with Center Stage
As a photographer and an Apple enthusiast, I have a lot to say about cameras, especially those on iPhone. While I primarily use a mirrorless Canon, especially for sports and wildlife photography, I still have a lot of praise for the iPhone’s cameras. iPhone cameras offer some advantages over cameras that cost the same or even more, for example, a higher resolution, a lower minimum ISO, and phenomenal on-device HDR processing. This year, as usual, Apple has delivered again. Today, while testing the iPhone camera, I was impressed with the results. The 48 megapixel 4x lens offers awesome reach to give you super high resolution photos, and the 8x lens offers even better reach. Along with a larger, higher-resolution front camera, this year’s iPhone offers a robust upgrade to the camera system.
Verdict
- New aluminum unibody offers superior cooling, but worse strength
- New-gen Ceramic Shield on display is more scratch-resistant, Ceramic Shield protects most of the back
- Stunning color options
- Bigger, better battery
- A19 Pro chip and cooling system allow higher sustained performance
- New lenses and sensors are a solid upgrade, allowing higher resolution photos at higher zoom