iPhone 17 Pro Max Review

Every twelvemonth we get different slew of caller iPhones, and 2025 is surely nary different. And portion the iPhone 17 Pro Max isn’t arsenic overmuch of a caller plan arsenic the iPhone Air, it does travel successful a shiny caller chassis with a caller attack to cooling – a built-in vapor enclosure – adjacent if it’s mostly fluff.

But to facilitate this caller method, Apple changed up the chassis, switching backmost to an aluminum unibody plan to amended negociate thermal performance. Apple claims that this, combined with that vapor chamber, helps the telephone support up its show implicit agelong periods of time. This was moderately successful, but the caller colorways and camera improvements are the existent prima of the show.

Design and Software

While Apple has redesigned the iPhone 17 Pro a small bit, it’s inactive very overmuch an iPhone. This smartphone has a cleanable aluminum unibody chassis, measuring 0.3 inches thick, 6.43 inches gangly and 3.07 inches wide, and weighing successful astatine 8.2 ounces. For specified a almighty small phone, it’s an incredibly lightweight and portable instrumentality – but specified is the mode of smartphones successful 2025.

Apple sent america the Pro Max successful the Deep Blue colorway, but the telephone is besides disposable successful a caller Cosmic Orange hue, and besides the much ‘traditional’ Silver colorway. But careless of which colour you spell for, it’s not similar the telephone has 1 coagulated shadiness covering the full chassis. On the telephone I’m reviewing here, for instance, the chassis astir the edges is simply a deeper blue, portion the halfway of the backmost – coincidentally wherever the ‘vapor chamber’ is – appears to person a lighter shade.

On the apical of the chassis is an improvement of the camera bump. Rather than having a protrusion that houses the 3 camera lenses, there’s an full shelf, which the cameras lone instrumentality up astir a 3rd of. This attack seems astir ridiculous astatine first. After all, the camera bump was 1 of the things I disliked the astir about, say, the Galaxy Fold 7, truthful wherefore marque it adjacent bigger?

Well, Apple says it’s to location captious components, truthful it could marque the telephone thinner, but the existent effect is that yet I person a modern iPhone that I tin enactment down connected a array without it wobbling each clip I interact with it – that’s huge. If there’s immoderate portion of the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max that get distributed to different phones, it should beryllium this, we could extremity the epoch of wobbly phones.

The fastener layout is mostly the aforesaid arsenic the iPhone 16 Pro. You inactive person a fastener fastener connected the right, and the measurement rocker and enactment buttons connected the left. But returning from past year’s exemplary is the camera power fastener connected the bottommost close of the device. By default, pressing this fastener volition motorboat the camera app, and enactment arsenic a shutter erstwhile you’re successful there. But you tin spell into the settings and marque it overmuch much flexible. I person it acceptable to let maine to bash a treble airy property and bring up camera controls, which volition fto maine zoom, alteration vulnerability and different specified controls.

What I don’t similar astir this button, though, is that it’s highly casual to property by accident. Often, erstwhile I prime up a phone, I’m holding it by the bottommost 3rd of the instrumentality arsenic I unlock it and, well, usage it. That means that done musculus memory, my thumb accidentally rests connected the camera power button. And due to the fact that the actuation is truthful light, I’m often opening the camera erstwhile I don’t privation to, which is benignant of a symptom successful the butt. This is simply a happening I’ve dilatory been getting utilized to implicit the week oregon truthful that I’ve been utilizing this phone, but it’s thing that you’ll apt person to set to. Or you could conscionable crook it disconnected – that’s your call.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max besides has an fantabulous display. At 2868 x 1320, it’s not the highest solution show retired there, but it has a dense capable pixel density that it looks large regardless. The OLED sheet helps a batch here, delivering fantabulous colour and brightness – successful fact, with up to 3,000 nits of brightness, it’s 1 of the brightest displays I’ve ever seen connected a smartphone. There are a fig of times astatine nighttime wherever I’ve turned up the brightness each the mode and flashbanged myself with however agleam it got. I emotion it.

And erstwhile the brightness is nether control, watching videos oregon playing games connected the iPhone 17 Pro Max is wonderful. Especially successful bright, colorful games similar AFK Journey, colors popular successful a mode that makes maine not privation to enactment the telephone down. Luckily, the telephone is almighty capable to play immoderate crippled connected the App Store, and bash it well.

iOS 26

With a caller iPhone comes a caller iteration of iOS, and portion past year’s iOS 18 debuted Apple Intelligence, it didn’t motorboat with the feature. Now, iOS 26 has Apple’s AI features working, on with immoderate ocular updates that are going to beryllium divisive.

Just similar with a batch of different modern smartphones, the suite of AI features present look much similar gimmicks than thing really useful. You tin person Siri query ChatGPT, of course, on with having a sometimes hilarious summary of your substance messages successful the Notification Center. There’s adjacent an app called ‘Playground’ that lets you make small images. Though, this isn’t arsenic feature-rich arsenic akin apps offered by Samsung oregon Google – but it’s an casual mode to make amusive small images I guess.

You tin besides motorboat the ‘Visual Intelligence’ diagnostic by holding down the Camera Control button. This volition fundamentally instrumentality a representation of immoderate you’re pointing the telephone at, and past unfastened a ChatGPT punctual wherever you tin inquire questions astir what you’re looking at. This is astir apt the astir utile AI diagnostic that’s offered natively successful iOS 26, but conscionable beryllium alert that due to the fact that it’s based connected an LLM, it’s not wholly reliable.

The caller operating strategy besides has an wholly caller ocular design, called “Liquid Glass”. Essentially this makes galore app icons, trays and options bordered successful a semi-transparent border. This is going to beryllium divisive, arsenic it’s not arsenic visually wide arsenic erstwhile versions of iOS. Annoyingly, though, determination doesn’t look to beryllium a mode to crook this off, truthful if you don’t similar the mode this transparency mode looks, you’re benignant of stuck with it.

Liquid Glass has grown connected maine a small spot implicit the week oregon truthful I’ve been utilizing this phone, but I would inactive similar Apple’s aged ocular benignant – I’ll conscionable person to get utilized to it.

Performance

The iPhone 17 Pro Max is strapped with the A19 Pro SoC (system connected a chip). This processor is packed with 6 CPU cores and 6 GPU cores, and provides a decent measurement up successful show implicit past year’s iPhone 16 Pro Max.

For instance, successful Cinebench, the iPhone 17 Pro gets a azygous halfway people of 3540 points, compared to 3375 points from the 16 Pro Max. That’s conscionable a 5% boost, but the existent victor is multi-core show wherever the iPhone 17 Pro gets 9339 points to the 16 Pro’s 8237 points, making for a 13% leap successful multi-threaded performance. What’s fascinating, though, is however overmuch of an betterment this telephone has implicit the iPhone 15 Pro, which volition astir apt beryllium a much compelling upgrade for astir people.

That older phone, successful the aforesaid test, gets 2639 points for single-core and 6717 for multi-core, making for a 34% and 39% pb for the 17 Pro Max, respectively.

3DMark has a akin story, wherever successful the Wild Life Extreme test, the iPhone 17 Pro Max gets 4795 points to the iPhone 16 Pro’s 4144 points, making for a 16% boost successful gaming performance. That’s not a atrocious show betterment for conscionable 1 year. However, the iPhone 17 Pro Max doesn’t beryllium successful a vacuum.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, which is utilizing the Snapdragon 8 Elite, gets 8041 points successful the multi-core trial which trails adjacent the iPhone 16 Pro Max. However, 3DMark tells a antithetic story, with the Fold 7 getting 5141 points to the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s 4795 points. That’s not a immense lead, but it inactive means the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is the amended gaming telephone arsenic agelong arsenic it doesn’t overheat.

The Vapor Chamber

When Apple revealed the iPhone 17 Pro Max astatine its September iPhone event, it made a large woody of the vapor chamber, and however chill it would support the power-hungry A19 Pro. Well, the processor inactive throttles, but lone a small little than erstwhile iPhone Pro models.

Compared to the iPhone 15 Pro Max successful the 3DMark Steel Nomad Lite accent test, the 17 Pro got a stableness people of 69.1%, compared to 66.9% successful the older phone. That’s not a immense increase, but 1 happening that was absorbing was that it had a small spike connected its 12th run, suggesting that the cooler is astatine slightest effectual successful bringing down the somesthesia a small spot successful sustained workloads. What’s truly interesting, though, is that adjacent though show connected the 17 Pro does driblet aft the archetypal run, show flattens retired implicit the people of the accent test, alternatively than continuously getting worse connected the iPhone 15 Pro. And fixed that modern CPUs emotion to spike show aboriginal and past adjacent retired implicit time, that’s to beryllium expected.

Just don’t expect the caller vapor enclosure to prolong highest show each the time. Instead, it’ll person an archetypal burst of precocious performance, past dilatory down until it hits a plateau of sustained show – it conscionable happens that the plateau is higher than it would different be.

What I truly emotion astir the vapor chamber, though, is that it spreads the vigor passim the full device. So, during a dense crippled oregon photograph editing session, the full telephone gets a small hot, alternatively than having 1 truly blistery spot connected the backmost of the phone. That doesn’t dependable similar much, but it makes the telephone overmuch easier to clasp during agelong gameplay sessions.

Camera

Apple’s small 3-camera silhouette has returned for the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, and portion the main and ultrawide lenses are inactive 48MP, Apple has upgraded past year’s 12MP telephoto to 48MP. This means that each 3 lenses are 48MP, which means representation prime should enactment comparatively the aforesaid nary substance what you’re shooting (or however acold distant you are from your subject).

The selfie camera has besides improved, present with an 18MP sensor hidden successful the dynamic land successful the display. While the sensor upgrade unsocial is huge, what makes it amended is immoderate of the bundle enhancements Apple has implemented. The biggest of these is Center Stage, which keeps you centered erstwhile you’re successful a FaceTime oregon different video call.

This is 1 of the archetypal things my spouse noticed, arsenic she noted that my look kept moving to the halfway of the show erstwhile we were talking. However, during much pronounced movement, the bundle does conflict to support up sometimes, making things look a small uncanny – thing that’ll beryllium updated successful the aboriginal I suspect.

I’m not a large photographer, but adjacent successful the week I’ve spent with the device, I’ve noticed that photos are close and colorful without feeling similar they’re altered excessively overmuch by the software. Though, if you privation much bundle enhancement you tin usage AI features to further messiness with your photos.

Battery Life

Apple is claiming that the iPhone 17 Pro Max tin get up to 39 hours of artillery life. And portion I don’t deliberation it gets that far, I recovered that I lone truly request to complaint the instrumentality astir each time and a half. There were adjacent plentifulness of times erstwhile I was laying successful furniture playing mobile games with the artillery sitting astatine 10-15% – a unsafe gamble – and the instrumentality endured for an hr oregon truthful until I got the vigor to get up and plug the telephone in.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor astatine IGN and the PC components queen. You tin travel her @Jackiecobra