iPhone 17 Pro Review

Titanium lasted two years. The 17 Pro went back to aluminium, a single forged unibody with a laser-welded vapour chamber that pulls heat off the A19 Pro, and Apple quoted 40 percent better sustained performance than the 16 Pro; in use it means the phone does not throttle a 4K120 recording or a long game and never gets uncomfortable to hold. The camera plateau spans the full width, the finish comes in Silver, Deep Blue and a Cosmic Orange that people either loved or refused to be seen with, and the anodised edges around the plateau were the first thing to show wear, with reports of chipped demo units within a week of launch.

All three rear cameras are 48 megapixels now: the main, the ultra wide and a new telephoto on a 56 percent larger sensor that gives a true 4x at 100 mm and an 8x optical-quality crop at 200 mm, the longest reach an iPhone has had. The 18-megapixel front camera sits on a square sensor so you shoot landscape selfies holding the phone upright. The 6.3-inch ProMotion panel reaches 3000 nits behind an anti-reflective Ceramic Shield 2.

The 4252 mAh cell in the eSIM-only US model gives 33 hours of video by Apple's count and is the best battery in any Pro so far, with 50 percent in 20 minutes on a 40 W adapter. It shipped on iOS 26, whose Liquid Glass redesign traded legibility for looks until 26.1 added a tinted option. Base storage went to 256GB and the price to $1,099.