Why the iPhone 17 Pro is the best iPhone Apple’s made in years
This review of the new iPhone 17 Pro should probably start with some gushing words about the cameras, which are now capable of “optical-quality” 8x zoom, or the A19 processor that’s so powerful it requires a tiny “vapor chamber” to cool it down, or the screen that’s now so bright you could use it on the surface of the sun.
But the thing I love most about this phone – and I love it more than I have loved a new iPhone in quite some time – is how it looks. Switching from a titanium frame to a unibody aluminium chassis, it now comes in a mad Cosmic Orange that looks, to my eye, quite retro-futuristic. You could picture Ash sneaking off to speak into it on the bridge of the USCSS Nostromo in the original Alien. After a week with the handset, I still get a little thrill when I catch a glimpse of its metallic orange hue. It makes me want to call Mother and tell her the specimen is secure.
It’s not just the colour that’s different – the back of the phone has been reconfigured, with the raised camera “plateau” now taking up most of the top third of the phone (with the lenses peeking out even further) and a glass panel in a slightly brighter orange lying flush with the aluminium below. It is neither thinner nor lighter than its predecessor but it is certainly cooler. It feels almost… playful, which is not a word you’d usually associate with the iPhone Pro range. And while all this may seem a bit frivolous, it matters when you’re going to have this thing in your hand for more hours a day than you’d like to admit.
Far away details on the zoom shots look almost like they’ve been shot on film
The rumour mill is absolutely convinced Apple will next year release its first foldable phone, which might explain why this year’s new releases have an ‘end of term’ feel (the Cosmic Orange Pro comes out at the same time as a new iPhone Air, a ludicrously thin device that measures just 5.64mm).
The iPhone 17 Pro doesn’t just look great: those new cameras really are something. The main camera is a 48MP beast which, although it defaults to shooting at 24MP, gives avid photographers plenty of options. One of these is using some technical wizardry to achieve what Apple is calling 8x “optical quality” zoom using its 4x optical zoom lens (I won’t go into the details because, despite having had it explained to me several times, I still don’t really understand how it works). Shooting at 8x zoom on a phone sounds frankly horrible without the use of some kind of tripod but Apple’s image stabilisation is the best in the business and I have been happily snapping genuinely impressive pictures of the tops of skyscrapers and distant streets.
Unlike some of its rivals – cough, Samsung, cough – Apple focuses on naturalistic pictures, which might not pop quite as much at first glance but are much better for serious photographers. Colours are true to life and there isn’t any aggressive algorithmic sharpening going on. Far away details on the zoom shots look almost like they’ve been shot on film.
The low light sensors are also next level. I shot a picture using the selfie camera (now with an 18MP sensor located in the pill-shaped ‘dynamic island’) of three people in a pub so dark you could barely read the menu in front of you. The result made us appear bathed in a subtle candlelight, every detail clear with no noise whatsoever; very impressive. The selfie camera now comes with Centre Stage, automatically reframing your shots to accommodate more people without you having to contort your arm. This works for video too.
As a man who enjoys painting small things, the macro lens has always been a big draw for me and the detail you can capture is still amazing. A shot of the inside of my wedding band, featuring a stamp so small you can’t begin to make it out with the naked eye, is so clear you could print it on a sheet of A4 paper without losing any detail.
There has been some talk since release of the rear glass panel being prone to scratching – something that’s been attributed to worn out MagSafe stands in Apple stores. I’ve not seen any evidence of this. I’ve always rawdogged my iPhones, tossing them into pockets brimming with keys and coins and the detritus of life, allowing them to jingle and jangle to their heart’s content. This inevitably leads to screens criss-crossed with battle-scars, although they have eased up in recent years as materials have improved.
The iPhone 17 Pro now has battery life north of 30 hours, meaning you can forget to charge it overnight and still make it to the office the next day
The new Ceramic Shield 2 on the iPhone 17 Pro is said to be three times more scratch-resistant than the previous version; I’ll let you know how it looks in a year’s time but after a week existing alongside sharp metallic objects, it remains in showroom-new condition.
Finally, it now has battery life north of 30 hours, meaning you can forget to charge it overnight and still make it to the office the next day before it needs to be topped up. It also charges in no time so snatching a few minutes of juice at a coffee shop will keep you out of the red.
The iPhone 17 Pro is the best upgrade Apple has made in years – possibly since the iPhone X all the way back in 2017. If rumours of that folding phone are true, we may have something genuinely new to play with in a year’s time but until then, this feels like a perfection of the modern iPhone formula that’s absolutely worth picking up.
• The new iPhone 17 Pro costs from £1,099 for 256GB to £1,499 for 1TB