After months of rumors, the iPhone 17 Pro is here. Unveiled as part of Apple's "awe dropping" September event, the phone will launch with the latest version of Apple's iOS 26 software, along with rumored updates to the design and expected updates to Apple Intelligence (the company's rival to Google's Gemini AI).
The iPhone 17 Pro will go on sale starting at $1,099 with 256GB of storage while the larger iPhone 17 Pro Max will start at $1,199.
While it might seem that the iPhone 16 Pro has had a slight price hike from its $999 starting price last year, it's now got double the storage and actually costs the same as the equivalent 256GB iPhone 16 Pro, putting to bed fears of significant price hikes due to Trump's tariffs remains to be seen.
iPhone 17 Pro: Design and display
The rear of the phone is where you'll notice the biggest physical change. The camera unit now stretches across the whole top of the phone, rather than simply occupying a small square in the corner. The cameras themselves are still clustered in the same location as before, although Apple says the expanded space gives more room for batteries and for the updated telephoto zoom camera, which I'll come to later.
The orange is the stand out color here. Apple/Screenshot by CNET
The Pro models are now built from aluminum, instead of the titanium frames that debuted on the iPhone 15 Pro. It's a unibody construction, which should make it especially durable -- as should the new Ceramic Shield toughened glass on the front and back which Apple says is 3x more scratch resistant. From the front, the phones remain almost indistinguishable from previous models, with only the Dynamic Island breaking the display in the small cut out towards the top. Apple has yet to confirm the water resistance rating of the phones but it's pretty safe to assume they'll continue to be IP68-rated as has been the case with pretty much all iPhones since 2018.
The new range does bring some new colors however, with the vibrant-looking orange model being my personal favourite. I've found the Pro iPhone range to often take itself a bit too seriously with its reliance on darker or more muted tones so that new life-affirming orange color looks right up my street.
iPhone 17 Pro: Cameras
The Pro's cameras have had a series of significant upgrades. The optical zoom now goes to 8x, doubling the range of the zoom on the last model. It offers an equivalent focal length of 200mm, which will be great for photographers wanting to really get in on the action from a distance. The main camera's sensor is 56% larger than before, giving more space to gather light for brighter low light images and generally better-looking daytime images with hopefully less reliance on image sharpening.
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