Apple iPhone 17 Pro Review: The most ‘complete’ iPhone yet

Design

• Ceramic Shield 2 for protection
• Three colours: blue, orange and silver
• Aluminium shell

Apple has gone in a very different design direction with the iPhone 17 Pro, and even after using the phone for several weeks, I am not sure whether it’s a good move or a step backwards. This is mostly because there are some bits I like, and some I really dislike.

While the iPhone 16 Pro felt soft, almost like a piece of jewellery, the 17 Pro is more brutal and industrial. The use of titanium has been swapped for a colder aluminium unibody and it’s not quite as light as a result. It’s only 6g heavier (205g as opposed to 199g), but it does feel weightier.

The switch in material choice gives the 17 Pro its industrial look. The aluminium wraps around the sides, with the rear cameras raised on a ‘plateau’. The camera housing is far more obvious than before, and much more a part of the overall design. I quite like how it looks, even if it’s certainly not to everyone’s tastes.

Below the camera housing is a rectangular glass panel that contrasts with the metal around it. Inside this, there’s a very off-centre Apple logo that looks odd, and nothing else. This whole addition just doesn’t feel like the usual very precise design from Apple.

There are three colours available for the 17 Pro. I have the blue model, which is my favourite. It’s deep and dark, but it is still obviously blue. With the Sky Blue MacBook Air, I felt this wasn’t blue enough, and I am glad that’s not an issue here.

The silver hue is the most neutral and looks very sleek, and then there’s Cosmic Orange. This is the funnest colour Apple has ever used on a ‘Pro’ labelled phone, and it’s certainly eye-catching. I’m glad Apple has finally given in and added a colour to the Pro phone that isn’t a version of black, but it doesn’t completely work. It looks better in photos than in person – for me, it’s just a little too loud.

The obvious omission is any sort of black, typically a stalwart of the Pro range of iPhones. The blue is easily the easiest colour to recommend if you’d typically choose black.

Durability felt like a key selling point of the iPhone 17 Pro. There’s a new Ceramic Shield 2 covering on the front, which Apple claims offers 3x better scratch resistance than before. This rings true in my testing. I haven’t used a screen protector, and so far, there are none of those micro scratches that tend to crop up on iPhone displays after a few days of use. 

On the back, there’s the same Ceramic Shield that covered the display on the iPhone 16 Pro and the phone remains IP68 certified, so it can be dunked in 6m of water for around 30 minutes.

Since the iPhone 17 Pro’s release, social media has been awash with claims that this phone scratches very easily. Whether it’s the housing around the camera scratching, or the unibody denting – many haven’t been happy.

There’s always a controversy with a new iPhone, and throughout my time with a caseless 17 Pro, I have dropped it a couple of times (not on concrete or anything like it, I should add) but it is still in pristine condition.

The rest of the device will feel familiar to long-time iPhone users. On one side, you’ve got the customisable Action Button, and on the other side, the Camera Control. The latter is a capacitive pad that can be pressed to quickly open the camera and take a photo. I like it, and do use it a lot for quickly jumping into the camera.

While the iPhone Air has gone eSIM only globally, certain regions still have an iPhone 17 Pro with a physical SIM slot. In the UK, for example, my review unit has one, and it supports eSIM too.

Screen

• 6.3-inch XDR OLED display
• ProMotion 120Hz refresh rate
• Dynamic Island remains

The screen on the iPhone 17 Pro is great. Whether you choose the ‘Max’ model with its 6.9-inch panel or the standard Pro with its smaller, more manageable 6.3-inch panel, you’re getting one of the best phone screens around.

The most notable upgrade here is the higher maximum outdoor brightness. Apple claims the 17 Pro can hit 3000 nits (up from 2000 on the 16 Pro) in specific outdoor settings, and comparing the two, I found the newer phone is significantly easier to read in brighter sun.

There is still much more glare present than on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra though, and while Apple has improved this slightly, I think it could still do more.

All the big display boxes are ticked here: it supports HDR (and plays HDR very well), moves up to 120Hz for smoother movement and features the always-on skills that are now present across the whole iPhone 17 line.

It’s great that you no longer need to get the very best iPhone to benefit from the adaptive ProMotion refresh rate, however this was one of the reasons why I often recommended the Pro over the standard iPhone in past years. I had thought the iPhone 17 Pro might make a huge screen enhancement to ensure that the upsell was still there, but there isn’t really anything. 

For instance, there’s still the Dynamic Island – that floating cutout that hides the array of front cameras and sensors. It doesn’t bother me in the slightest,  although finding some way to hide it under the screen would again give the Pro phones that extra benefit not found elsewhere.

Camera

• Triple 48MP rear camera array
• 18MP Center Stage front camera
• Dolby Vision HDR recording up to 120fps

The iPhone 17 Pro has a beastly camera array, with multiple versatile cameras that can take very good photos and class-leading videos. General photo quality hasn’t seen a huge upgrade over the 16 Pro, however the zoom quality has. All the cameras on the back (and front) of this phone are excellent, meaning whatever situation you are in, you will get a good shot.

It’s also great that both sizes of iPhone 17 Pro get the same cameras, so you’re not having to sacrifice anything if you prefer, like I do, a more compact device.

I’d usually start with the rear cameras, but the biggest upgrade here is the fantastic new selfie camera. This 18MP camera is now a square sensor, so you can take landscape shots while holding your phone vertically with just a tap of a button. It might sound small, but it makes taking selfies with lots of faces so much easier, and they look great.

Flipping the iPhone 17 Pro over, there are three rear cameras. All of these are now 48-megapixel sensors, so there’s a 48MP main camera with an f/1.7 aperture, a 48MP ultra wide and a 48MP telephoto.

These sensors don’t all necessarily shoot, by default, at the full 48MP level, but having that larger sensor allows for more freedom when cropping in. Ultra wide shots, along with those from the main and when using the 4x zoom options, capture at 24MP. This drops to 12MP in darker situations and when pushing the zoom further to 8x. 

My favourite of the cameras is the telephoto, which can now punch in further (8x, as opposed to the slightly restrictive 5x on the 16 Pro) and retains plenty of detail in the process. Using the 4x (100m) option still results in the best pictures, with the most detailed retained, but having an extra jump to 8x (200m) is always nice to have for certain instances.

This is the best zoom camera ever on an iPhone, and it adds so much more versatility to the phone. As much as I like the iPhone Air, the single camera and comparatively poor zoom really take something away from that phone.

Photos from all the cameras are very good, whether you’re shooting in bright daylight situations or dingy bars with fluorescent light. Colours are wonderfully accurate, detail is plentiful, and there’s a pleasing look to skintones. 

There’s plenty of control over images too, with the Photographic Styles giving you the chance to warm up or cool things down. I like to add a hint of amber to my photos to give them some extra warmth, but that’s purely personal preference.

The Pro series of iPhones has long been the best option for those who want the best camera phone for videography, and with the 17 Pro, the suite of features has just grown. I love the new Dual Camera mode, which lets you capture video from the front camera and rear cameras at the same time, making reaction-style videos much easier.

For the Pros, there’s Apple Log 2 video recording, Genlock support for synchronising multiple video streams and the ability to record directly to an external drive. 

Performance

• Powered by the A19 Pro chip
• 6-core CPU, 6-core GPU, 16-core neural engine for AI
• Up to 1TB storage (2TB for the Pro Max)

While the A19 Pro chip powers both the iPhone Air and the iPhone 17 Pro, it’s really only the 17 Pro that has the true Pro edition. It’s got a beefier GPU and much-improved thermals, leading to better performance both in extended day-to-day use and in our benchmark tests.

The phone stays a lot cooler than the iPhone Air (which lacks the fancy new cooling system used here), and it can retain its high performance for longer as a result. There’s a little bit of warmth that comes from the metal unibody after long bouts of gaming (or benchmarking), although not to the levels of the 16 Pro.

If gaming is key, this is the much better choice – not just because of the extra GPU core, but because, in my testing, the iPhone 17 Pro can keep up with higher frame rates for longer while keeping the phone much cooler.

This is a great gaming device, and the available titles are consistently improving. There are portable console-like games available now, like Red Dead Redemption and recent Assassin’s Creed titles, that play fantastically well and feel like they are really pushing the chip.

The A19 Pro chip is paired with 12GB RAM and storage options of 256GB, 512GB and 1TB. The larger Pro Max also comes in a 2TB flavour, which is the largest there’s ever been on an iPhone.

There’s Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and support for Apple’s latest UWB chip. Call quality and network reception have both been exceptional, and you can of course use an eSIM if you like. 

Battery Life

• MagSafe wireless charging up to 25W
• Faster wired charging
• Strong endurance, although the Max is the battery champion

Apple has really upped the endurance of the standard Pro iPhone this year, and that’s great for anyone who wants a smaller phone that doesn’t require constantly topping up. 

Of course, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is still Apple’s battery king, but the 17 Pro lasts far longer than the iPhone Air, and it’s an upgrade over the last two smaller Pro phones.

During the review process, I looked back at what I said about the iPhone 16 Pro. I claimed, at the time, that I was typically left with 10-20% left at the end of an average day – with the iPhone 17 Pro I would say it’s about 15-30%. That’s not an insignificant amount, and it has made a real difference in those situations where I would be hitting below 10%, like a late night out.

The iPhone 17 Pro is also more efficient, at least in my tests. It sucks up less juice while gaming, streaming from Netflix and those more intensive tasks that previously drained battery life very quickly.

However, my biggest issue with the battery life on iPhones has been how fast they degrade. I used a 16 Pro solidly for a year – charging it every night – and the endurance steadily worsened, to the point where I would likely need an evening top-up. Of course I can’t comment on how the 17 Pro will last 12-18 months down the line, but I’d hope it’s not a similar situation. 

The iPhone 17 Pro supports faster Qi2 wireless charging and faster charging in general compared to older iPhones. Apple claims a 20-minute charge with a 40W plug should get the phone from 0-50%. I did this very test, and got to 51% in that timeframe. A full charge took 80 minutes, which is about 25 minutes faster than the iPhone Air.

Software

• Apple Intelligence is still limited
• Plenty of updates
• Liquid Glass

Throughout my three months of testing the iPhone 17 Pro, iOS 26 has undergone significant changes. We’re now onto iOS 26.2, and the big Liquid Glass redesign has relented somewhat. There are now ways of reducing the transparency effect, making it less obvious and likely more familiar.

Personally, I like Liquid Glass and think, in most ways, it’s a step forward for the design of the OS. I’m sure it’ll develop over time, but the way certain parts of an app blend behind others is a real joy.

Apple is very good at supporting phones for extended periods, although Android competitors are improving at this, so you’ll get new features as they become available over the next few years.

It’s probably quite damning on Apple Intelligence, the brand’s first attempt at an AI system, that it’s merely a footnote in this section. It feels like Apple Intelligence is still waiting for a reason to exist, as the existing features are all very basic and not really things I have gone back to.

The Clean Up feature, for example, which removes unwanted elements from pictures, can’t compete with similar tools from Google and Samsung. Rather than realistically removing a photobomber, it just sort of blurs them out.

The writing tools are forgettable too, too often leaving me with robotic phrases that are so clearly AI it’s almost painful. The GenAI features inside the Playground app, where you can create images based on prompts, are fun – but there’s not enough to make it more than an app you’ll try once and forget about.

The reason why Google’s Gemini on Android devices, especially the best Pixel phones, is good is that it just works in the background, offering up handy features without the user having to go searching for them.

Gemini makes Android phones better, whereas Apple Intelligence can just be forgotten. That might sound good if you’d rather forget AI exists, but Apple really needs to start catching up if it wants to compete in this area.

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