Apple unveiled its flagship iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max earlier today at the ‘Awe dropping’ event alongside new AirPods Pro 3, Apple Watch Ultra 3, and more. Here’s how the new iPhone 17 Pro compares to last year’s 16 Pro models.
Displays and durability: Brighter and more scratch resistant
iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max come in the same 6.3-inch and 6.9-inch sizes as their predecessors.
One advantage of this year’s models is they can get even brighter outdoors, and have 2x better outdoor contrast.
iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max: 3000 nits peak brightness outdoors
iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max: 2000 nits peak brightness outdoors
Durability is a big area of improvement with iPhone 17 Pro, thanks to the new Ceramic Shield 2 with 3x better scratch resistance. There’s also now a Ceramic Shield on the back of the iPhone, which 16 Pro didn’t have.
Performance upgrades: A19 Pro, more RAM
iPhone 17 Pro comes with the new A19 Pro chip, which is supercharged by an “Apple-designed vapor chamber to enhance heat dissipation and performance.”
Benchmarks aren’t available yet, but Apple says the A19 Pro delivers “up to 40 percent better sustained performance than the previous generation — ideal for gaming, video editing, and running large local language models.”
On paper, both the iPhone 17 Pro and 16 Pro include:
6-core CPU
6-core GPU
16-core Neural Engine
The A19 Pro’s GPU comes with Neural Accelerators—which the A18 Pro didn’t offer.
iPhone 17 Pro also has about 50% more RAM, with 12GB widely reported (Apple has only confirmed so far that it has “more memory”) versus 8GB last year on the 16 Pro.
Cameras: Center Stage front camera, 48MP Fusion trio, 4x and 8x optical zoom
Cameras are a big area of focus for this year’s iPhone 17 Pro line.
To start, 17 Pro’s front camera is a new Center Stage 18MP lens, up from the 12MP selfie camera on 16 Pro.
The Center Stage camera has a square sensor, enabling you to capture photos in portrait or landscape while still holding the iPhone vertically. Additionally, AI enables the camera to automatically expand its field of view when it detects more people entering the frame.
On the back of the iPhone 17 Pro is an array of three 48MP Fusion cameras: Main, Ultra Wide, and Telephoto.
Previously, only the Main camera carried the ‘Fusion’ billing.
The biggest changes are to the 48MP Telephoto lens, which is upgraded from 12MP in the 16 Pro and has a tetraprism design with a much larger sensor than before.
Telephoto now offers 4x and 8x optical zoom options, replacing the 5x zoom on 16 Pro. You can also digitially zoom up to 40x.
Video features new to iPhone 17 Pro include:
ProRes RAW support
Log 2 support
Genlock
Videographers will be able to “precisely synchronize video across multiple cameras and inputs.”
Finally, Dual Capture enables you to record video simultaneously on the front and back iPhone 17 Pro cameras.
Design and colors: Rear ‘plateau,’ aluminum, but no black
iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max include a new aluminum design, replacing titanium from the 16 Pro. And the rear camera bump has made way for a camera ‘plateau’ that’s full-width.
Here’s how Apple describes the 17 Pro design:
The new brushed aluminum unibody design is crafted with a lightweight aerospace-grade 7000-series aluminum alloy to deliver the best-ever thermal performance in an iPhone. On the back, the plateau creates additional space for internal components — making room for a larger battery. The antennas are integrated around the perimeter for the highest-performing antenna system ever in an iPhone.
Colors might prove the most controversial change of Apple’s Pro line.
iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max come in just three colors:
Cosmic Orange
Deep Blue
Silver
Pro users have long wanted more “fun” color options, and Apple definitely delivered on that front this year.
However, where things get controversial is in what’s missing: there’s no Black or Space Gray finish this year. No Gold or ‘Desert’ option is available either.
If you’re the type of iPhone Pro user who always buys a black model, Apple’s best option for you this year might be the iPhone Air.
Battery life: Reaching higher heights than ever
Apple has made significant gains in battery life this year. It’s given the smaller iPhone 17 Pro even better battery than last year’s large Pro Max model, while the 17 Pro Max hits even higher heights.
Here’s how Apple says battery compares on the smaller Pro:
iPhone 17 Pro: Up to 33 hours video playback, or 30 hours streamed
iPhone 16 Pro: Up to 27 hours video playback, or 22 hours streamed
And here’s the Pro Max:
iPhone 17 Pro Max: Up to 39 hours video playback, or 35 hours streamed
iPhone 16 Pro Max: Up to 33 hours video playback, or 29 hours streamed
Storage and pricing: Surprisingly good news
Apple has big storage changes coming to this year’s iPhone 17 lineup.
All iPhone 17 models, including the Pro and Pro Max, now start at 256GB of storage.
With iPhone 16 Pro, the smaller model started at 128GB while only the Pro Max started at 256GB.
Also new this year: iPhone 17 Pro Max offers the first-ever 2TB storage option.
On the pricing front, despite persistent rumors of price hikes, Apple’s new Pro models have good news.
iPhone 17 Pro starts at $1,099 : this is technically a $100 increase over iPhone 16 Pro, but with the higher starting storage, it’s actually the same cost as a 256GB 16 Pro
: this is technically a $100 increase over iPhone 16 Pro, but with the higher starting storage, it’s actually the same cost as a 256GB 16 Pro iPhone 17 Pro Max starts at $1,199: exactly the same price as the iPhone 16 Pro Max
If you want to upgrade storage, the 17 Pro Max will cost you $1,399 for 512GB, $1,599 for 1TB, and a whopping $1,999 for 2TB. iPhone 17 Pro has similar $200 bumps for 512GB and 1TB, but there’s no 2TB option.
iPhone 17 Pro vs iPhone 16 Pro: wrap-up
Overall, the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max offer a lot of changes and improvements over the 16 Pro.
Big upgrades to cameras and battery life provide users some of the most requested feature upgrades, and the performance boosts seem like they might be significant.
Then again, the iPhone 17 Pro’s new aluminum unibody design might prove controversial, and the lack of Black or Space Gray finish might be too.
Do you plan to upgrade from iPhone 16 Pro to 17 Pro? Why or why not? let us know in the comments.
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