Apple opens a new chapter with the launch of its new iPhones – it introduces the slender Air and significantly buffs the base iPhone. But how is the iPhone 17 Pro doing? It has major changes on the surface and below that too, join us as we experience them first hand.
Apple iPhone 17 Pro
We will talk about the design in a minute, first we have to address the materials. Apple has switched several times over the last few years and now it is back to aluminum, a material it hasn’t used on a premium iPhone in many years.
Looking back at the iPhone 14 Pro, the last stainless steel model, and the iPhone 15 Pro, the first titanium model, the material switch resulted in reduced weight – dropping from 206g to 187g.
The next titanium model, the 16 Pro Max, got heavier and tipped the scales at 199g. Now titanium is replaced with aluminum and weight jumped up further – to 206g. The 2025 model is also bigger by fractions of a millimeter in all three directions. It’s subtle, but you can feel it in the hand. Also, the iPhone Pro was already one of the heavier 6.3” handsets, now even more so.
Apple iPhone 17 Pro
Aluminum is important in other ways too – it conducts heat better than titanium. Of course, this year Apple also added a vapor chamber for the chipset (Apple A19 Pro). We expect to see significant improvements in sustained performance because of these two factors.
We’re not done talking about the materials – the dual-tone look of the back is quite noticeable (we have the Deep Blue iPhone 17 Pro, by the way). This “window” is Ceramic Shield similar to the front. It certainly adds to the look, though with the full-width camera island, the back is now quite busy. And that camera island is a love-it-or-hate-it type of thing – we will just say that it’s new (for Apple) and change can be good.
The 2025 Pros have a brand new look
No, not done yet – Apple refined the Ceramic Shield for the front and made it 3x more scratch resistant (going from Mohs level 4 to level 5) and 4x harder to crack. Also, it has an anti-reflective coating, which is something that Samsung only uses for its Ultra model. To be fair, Apple was also quite protective of anti-reflective tech in the past – the nano-etched glass for iPad Pros is still a $100 upgrade (on top of being available only on pricey, high storage capacity models).
This coating, combined with the overall brighter display (peaking at 3,000 nits, up from 2,000 nits) makes it more legible under very bright sunlight, though you won’t see much of a difference most of the time.
And we’re done talking about new materials – and almost done talking about the changes too. One of the major things left to cover are the new camera modules, telephoto and selfie.
The largest camera island ever on an iPhone Pro
The telephoto module gets four times the resolution (48MP) but a shorter lens – 4x/100mm, down from 5x/120mm. This is countered with the option to double the focal length to 8x/200mm in-sensor, giving you more flexibility. Combined with the main camera, you now have 1x, 2x, 4x and 8x modes.
The iPhone 17 Pro offers up to 8x lossless zoom
Apple used a square 18MP sensor for the new Center Stage camera. This does the familiar trick of keeping you in frame automatically, plus expanding the field of view if more people walk in the frame. There’s a new old trick too, Dual Capture, which records video from the back camera plus a picture-in-picture view from the front camera. Many other phones have done it in the past, but this is a first for Apple and it is a genuinely useful mode, so we’re not complaining.
Another major thing to cover is faster wired charging – unfortunately, a key component is not in the box. Remember when Apple removed the charger, saying that you have plenty of chargers already? Well, you almost certainly don’t have an AVS-enabled charger, which is what Apple recommends for the fastest and most efficient charging.
You only get a USB cable in the box, no charger
We’re itching to test how much of a difference it makes – we have AVS and PPS chargers at the ready and will try out both. Maybe your 65W PPS charger is good enough. Maybe you need to shell out $40 and get Apple’s new AVS charger. We’re eager to find out which it is.
The increased battery capacity is worth pointing out too – the 17 Pro has a 406mAh larger battery if you get a nano-SIM model and 670mAh more if you get an eSIM-only model (which one you get depends on where you live).
There are other improvements this generation, less impactful ones. But that’s it for our first look at the iPhone 17 Pro – it’s time for tests to begin, expect results soon.