iPhone 17 Pro Max Review: First Week Ownership Experience

Pros	Cons
Pro Fusion camera system with 48MP quality across all lenses, significant battery life gains, lighter heat-forged aluminium unibody feels great, brighter 3000-nit display, and pro-level video features, including 8x “optical quality.”	Still expensive, smaller gains over the standard iPhone 17 and 16 Pro Max, some aluminium scratch concerns, Pro features may be overkill for most users.

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The best thing about the new iPhone 17 Pro Max is its new “Pro Fusion” camera system, which sounds like the most cliché new Apple sentence a person could ever string together. However, if you’re upgrading from an iPhone 12 Pro, 13 Pro, or even 14 Pro Max, the difference will be like stepping out of a Toyota and into a Porsche.

Every camera on the back of the new iPhone 17 Pro Max is 48MP, and in layman’s terms, that means every shot you take will be equally high-quality. Previously, you’d swap from the Main Camera to the Ultrawide, and it would be like going from a Sony mirrorless to the Panasonic point and shoot you found in your grandma’s house. But now, you have the same high-quality imagery at every focal length, and that’s a huge win for content creators, photographers, and anyone who uses their phone to market their business.

While there are many minor changes to the new iPhone Pro that I’ll discuss in greater detail as I become more familiar with it, the other significant change is moving from titanium to a heat-forged aluminium unibody. It feels great in the hand, is smoother around the edges, is lighter, and is 20x more thermally conductive than titanium, which should prevent some of the overheating issues I found when using my iPhone 16 Pro Max. With that said, let’s start my iPhone 17 Pro review by talking about the design in more detail.

Price

The iPhone 17 Pro line-up starts at AUD$1,999 (+$0) for the Apple iPhone 17 Pro 256GB and extends to the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max 2TB, which is priced at AUD$3,799.

Here’s a complete list of pricing for the new iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max line-up:

• Apple iPhone 17 256GB – $1,399
• Apple iPhone 17 512GB – $1,799
• Apple iPhone 17 Pro 256GB – $1,999 (+$0)
• Apple iPhone 17 Pro 512GB – $2,399 (+$50)
• Apple iPhone 17 Pro 1TB – $2,799 (+$100)
• Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max 256GB – $2,199 (+$50)
• Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max 512GB – $2,599 (+$100)
• Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max 1TB – $2,999 (+$150)
• Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max 2TB – $3,799

Apple announced the new, thinner, lighter Apple iPhone Air, which is priced from AUD$1,799:

• Apple iPhone Air 256GB – $1,799
• Apple iPhone Air 512GB – $2,199
• Apple iPhone Air 1TB – $2,599

If you want a full, in-depth look and comparison of the new iPhone models, check out this article’s full list of prices, specs, and features.

Design and Build Quality

Unibody! That’s the first thing Rob from our team noticed when I handed him the iPhone 17 Pro Max to feel in his hand. Even he, as a welded-on Samsung user, said that he likes the way Apple has curved the edges of the device, and its heat-forged aluminium unibody (made from Apple-designed 7000-series alloy), now sits more comfortably in the hand compared to the squared-off iPhone 16 Pro Max. Of course, this feeling is mostly ruined when you put a case on, but it’s a nice design touch nonetheless.

The new iPhone 17 Pro models come in three new colours:

• Deep Blue (as tested)
• Cosmic Orange
• Silver

I was provided with a Deep Blue iPhone 17 Pro Max (512GB) loan device for this review, and I will return it once the review period is over. Is it my favourite colour? No. The Cosmic Orange colour has grown on me immensely, and while it’s obviously clever marketing from Apple, it’s the colour I would choose if I were to go out and buy one.

So, what’s the benefit of aluminium, and why did they abandon titanium? Well, it’s all about performance, battery life, and repairability. The phones are running out of internal space, and they clearly didn’t want to make the device any larger to squeeze more stuff in. Instead, they switched back to aluminium.

The heat-forged aluminium material is lighter than titanium and 20 times more thermally conductive. It’s also at the core of the new thermal management system, which promises better sustained performance with an Apple-designed integrated vapour chamber laser-welded into the chassis. This chamber moves heat away from key components and transfers it into and out of the aluminium structure, resulting in up to 40% better sustained performance than previous models. Will you notice the difference? Unlikely.

This new design allows the brand to fit a larger battery into the device because of the increased internal volume. When it comes time to use Apple Care, it also makes it easier to replace components, including the battery.

Durability-wise, you’ll find Ceramic Shield 2 on the front (three times better scratch resistance than before) and Ceramic Shield on the back, which is the first time that’s been applied to the back of an iPhone. It’s four times more resistant to cracks than the previous back glass, but I have seen that the anodised aluminium is prone to scratches in online tests. Still, it’s not something we’ve noticed in the first week of use.

With the new glass and heat-forged aluminium unibody, the iPhone 17 Pro models are all IP68 dust and water-resistant for 30 minutes at up to 6 metres. That’s good news if you like scrolling TikTok in the shower.

Finally, when I look around the device, the Action Button, Camera Control button, USB-C port (USB 3 speeds), and volume buttons all return. Notably, the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max are made with 30% recycled content, including 100% recycled cobalt in the battery and 100% recycled gold plating in circuit boards.

Display

The best thing about the new Super Retina XDR Display (the latest generation) in the iPhone 17 Pro models is that it’s twice as good for outdoor contrast and improves readability in direct sunlight outdoors with 3000 nits of peak brightness (highest yet on iPhone). However, the same screen is now used across the iPhone line-up, so it’s no longer a key reason to choose the Pro phone over the standard model.

Here are the two screen sizes and resolutions for the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max:

• iPhone 17 Pro: 6.3-inch, 2622 × 1206 at 460 ppi (Pro)
• iPhone 17 Pro Max: 6.9-inch, 2868 × 1320 at 460 ppi (Pro Max)

I’ve been a Pro Max user for three generations now, and while I love using the standard Pro in small bursts, I consume a lot of video content on my phone, so the larger model makes the most sense.

No matter which iPhone model you choose (including Air and iPhone 17), the Super Retina XDR Display has ProMotion technology with up to 120Hz refresh rate. This will be particularly noticeable for users upgrading from an iPhone 12, as ProMotion wasn’t released until the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max in 2021. If you’re not coming from a Pro model, it will be a massive upgrade for every other iPhone user, and it’s available on the entry-level model now, which is a big step forward.

Like before, the Always-On display returns to both Pro models, and the screen has 33% better anti-reflection coating compared with previous models, which also helps it achieve that claimed two times better outdoor readability.

Those who spend their nights doom-scrolling will appreciate the minimum brightness of 1 nit.

Camera

The first thing I did after setting up my new iPhone was test out the new “Pro Fusion” camera array.

Every rear-facing camera on the new Pro models is 48MP for the first time, and that includes:

• Fusion Main camera
  • 24mm (default)
  • 28mm (1.2x custom main)
  • 35mm (1.5x custom main)
  • 48mm (2x telephoto)
• Fusion Ultra Wide camera
  • 13mm (macro)
• Fusion Telephoto camera
  • 100mm (4x telephoto)
  • 200mm (8x telephoto)

The brand has consistently said this is the equivalent of “eight pro lenses in your pocket,” but now they’ve delivered, as there’s no noticeable drop-off in quality when switching between the optical focal lengths. Of course, when you start leaning on the digitally altered lenses, you notice a slight drop in quality, but it’s not as noticeable as previously. It’s still a clever, computational method of photography. Still, when the hardware is this good, the algorithm does an even better job of making your images look like they were shot on a camera that costs twice what an iPhone does.

Photography

The Main camera still fuses a 48MP + 12MP frame into a 24MP photo by default, but you can override this to a full 48MP capture in the Resolution Control in Camera settings.

One of the most significant upgrades to the iPhone camera I noticed was the change in the integrated 2x telephoto, which is taken from the middle of the 12MP quad-pixel sensor. It’s higher quality than the previous dedicated 2x camera, and it supports Action mode and native 4K120 Dolby Vision video, which is excellent when you want a completely flat image.

Of course, I was most excited about testing the flagship 8x “optical quality” telephoto lens (200mm), and I spent most of my time shooting with it and the 4x optical telephoto (100mm) this week.

Where my previous-generation iPhone 16 Pro Max had a 5x optical telephoto lens, the next-generation tetraprism design in the new Pro has improved 3D sensor-shift stabilisation and a 56% larger sensor for better detail and resolving power across all light conditions. This is the secret sauce for how the phone can capture these “optical quality” 8x zoom photos and videos. Again, it’s all about advanced computational photography, which isn’t always for the purists.

Still, I’m sure even the purists would struggle to poke a hole in this phone’s ability to take a very good shot at a focal length that no one would ever have imagined taking from a phone. Oh, and I will quickly acknowledge that my S23 Ultra has 10x optical zoom, but it’s not great, and I’ve used it as a reference image to show you just how good the 8x lens is on the iPhone.

Ultrawide Sample Images

Main Camera Sample Images

Telephoto Sample Images

Video

Video can be captured at Dolby Vision HDR up to 4K at 120fps, which is the benchmark for smartphones.

The capability of the Ultrawide, Telephoto, and Main Camera lenses carries over from photo to video, and they can even shoot ProRes and ProRes RAW (first time on a smartphone) and Log up to 4K 120fps directly to SSDs (≥220Mb/s write speeds and up to 4.5W draw).

Besides the epic telephoto lens, the most significant change I noticed was the front camera, now an 18MP Centre Stage unit with a square sensor cropped in for Ultra-stabilised video for selfie recording, and to take advantage of that Centre Stage functionality. You don’t have to turn your iPhone on its side to fit more people in on a FaceTime video call. Because the square sensor can recognise faces, crop the video from portrait to landscape (with Tap-to-Rotate), and fit people in accordingly.

I also tested Action mode, which is now supported on telephoto lenses for smoother long-zoom recordings. You’ll want to remember that this digitally crops the image in, so quality takes a slight hit.

Users upgrading from an iPhone 12, 13, and 14 Pro will notice the changes made to the Photonic Engine, which help further enhance colour and detail accuracy in video, even in lower resolutions like 1080P. This is especially true in low-light situations, and while I’m yet to test this element extensively, I will update this section again once I’ve had a chance to do a late-night city walk.

Finally, when you’re recording video, I noticed a significant increase in audio quality from the internal microphones. It uses four studio-quality mics with a low noise floor, and when combined with Spatial Audio capture default in video mode, it does an incredible job of simulating a mic, like the DJI Mic 2 that I typically use to film social media videos.

I’m yet to explore the Audio Mix options, but they include:

• Standard (Spatial Audio)
• In-Frame (isolate voices on camera)
• Studio (simulates a pro studio mic)
• Cinematic (film-like voice centring)

There’s an intensity slider and wind noise reduction via ML algorithms, which you can toggle in settings.

Battery Life and Charging

With up to 39 hours of video playback (record for iPhone), the iPhone 17 Pro Max I’ve been using offers the most significant jump in battery life Apple has ever delivered.

By the numbers, that’s a 5-hour per charge increase vs. a brand-new iPhone 15 Pro (with average use) and a significant leap over the iPhone 16 Pro, which I never had any issues with. I use my phone more than most because I manage multiple social media accounts and shoot a ton of 4K videos. Even then, the battery easily lasts more than a day.

This increase in battery life will be even more noticeable if you have an older iPhone and the battery health has degraded, so keep that in mind.

If you need a quick top-up, the new iPhone 17 Pro supports fast charging up to 50% in 20 minutes with a high-wattage adapter and MagSafe wireless charging up to 20W. It also supports reverse charging via USB-C, which lets the iPhone charge smaller devices (AirPods, Apple Watch, or other USB-PD accessories) up to 4.5W. Before I sleep every night, I put it on my wireless charging stand, which fully charges before I wake up.

Power and Performance

With a new A19 Pro chip, this is the most powerful iPhone ever. However, it’s also the least interesting feature of the latest iPhone, so I’ve buried this information at the bottom of this review.

The iPhone Pro models have always been powerful enough for 99.9% of users’ needs. The new chip can help make the things we actually care about better and more efficient, including battery life, cameras, AI, and displays. Still, ultimately, most people don’t care about the performance numbers.

If you’re one of the few people who do care about raw stats, here are the key specs for the new iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max:

• CPU
  • 6-core design (2 performance + 4 efficiency cores).
  • Up to 20% faster than iPhone 15 Pro’s CPU.
  • Optimised for Apple Intelligence features and everyday tasks.
  • More efficient to help deliver longer battery life.
• GPU
  • 6-core GPU with built-in Neural Accelerators in each core (first time).
  • Up to 50% faster than iPhone 15 Pro’s GPU.
  • Boosts AI compute performance by 4x vs A18 Pro.
• Neural Engine
  • 16-core Neural Engine.
  • Enhanced for Apple Intelligence and on-device large language models.
  • Increased memory bandwidth for faster generative AI processing.

Like I said, it’s the most powerful iPhone… in the world *Jeremy Clarkson voice*.

Connectivity and Everyday Use

Now that we’ve discussed performance, let’s return to the interesting stuff.

This is the first time Apple has introduced a new chip for networking purposes, as is the need in the modern wireless era. It’s called the N1, and while it doesn’t really mean anything to most users as it works in the background, it allows the following features, which enhance the phone’s usability:

• Supports Wi-Fi 7 (up to 2x faster than Wi-Fi 6).
• Supports Bluetooth 6.
• Supports Thread for smart home and IoT connectivity.
• Improves reliability for tasks like AirDrop while running other workloads.

It’s that last feature that I’ve noticed the most during the first week of testing. I’ve yet to encounter an issue with AirDrop, which I often feel frustrated about with my iPhone 16 Pro Max. In addition to the N1 chip, there’s a new second-generation Ultra Wideband chip, enabling Precision Finding for AirTag and other UWB-enabled iPhones.

Verdict

Phew! I’ve written more than 2,500 words about the new iPhone 17 Pro Max that I’ve been testing, and I’ve only had the phone for a week.

I will continue to test out the new Apple flagship over the next few months, so if you have any questions, please let me know in the comments section below, and I’d be happy to answer them.

It’s a little too early to give a specific verdict, but if you’re on the fence between the standard iPhone 17 and the 17 Pro or Pro Max, I would consider how much you value the photography and video elements. Having the 4x and 8x telephoto lenses has been fun, but I question how many users would get stuck into these features to quantify the price gap. Still, if you’re searching for a new iPhone and have always purchased the flagship, this is a fantastic smartphone. iPhone 12 Pro, 13 Pro, and 14 Pro users will notice a substantial difference, and I highly recommend upgrading for the battery life, cameras, and everyday usability features.