iPhone 17 Pro Max review: Best camera yet with 8x zoom worth the upgrade
The new iPhone 17 Pro series promises to revolutionise mobile photography even more with its 48MP big zoom camera, but is it enough to win back Android converts?
Years ago, choosing the best mobile phone wasn’t that hard, especially if you had always been an iPhone user.
Most people went for the one with the latest camera, great performance and good battery life.
The advent of generative AI has added another curveball into the process.
With companies like Samsung and Google making exceptional phones, even if you’re generally an Apple fan, you’re tempted to make the switch.
When Samsung released the Galaxy S25 Ultra this year, and its flagship folding phone the Fold7, I was ready to change my daily driver to Android.
And I did, switching finally to the Fold7, which I have absolutely loved.
So when Apple unveiled its new line-up, I was resolved that the phones had to be pretty damn good if I was to switch back, even for a time.
Two of the line-up definitely are.
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, which start at $1999 and $2199 respectively, are exceptional phones, especially if you are into taking great photos and videos.
I’ve been giving the Pro Max particularly an intense workout for about 10 days.
The display is beautiful, the range of photographs and video you can take are definitely a big step up, and the battery life is what you would expect from a flagship phone.
I’ve also been playing with the super thin and light iPhone Air which I love for the form factor, while the basic iPhone 17 model, starting at $1399, offers a lot of bang for buck.
The new heat-forged aluminium unibody design of the iPhones are designed more for performance, battery capacity and durability.
It’s the sort of phone that you don’t have any trouble taking to the beach, the snow or on a rugged adventure trip.
The same can’t be said for the Fold7, for example, which is definitely more delicate. It’s not dust proof and getting sand or dirt in the hinge can be a real issue.
To me the changes in the iPhone cameras are worth the upgrade, particularly if your phone is a few years old.
There are now all 48MP rear cameras for the first time with an ‘optical quality zoom’ over 8x – which is equivalent to 200mm on an DSLR camera.
Looking at videos comparing the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max photography with DSLR cameras costing thousands, you are hard pressed to find real differences, unless you blow up pictures super large and zoom in on the details.
The 48MP sensor is 56 per cent larger than the previous generation with Apple describing the changes as like getting the equivalent of eight pro lenses in your pocket.
Doing photo and video shoots on the beach and other scenic locations, I found the four times zoom often the best option in capturing scenes, while the 8 times was great when you were trying to capture a surfer in action or the full impact of a stunning orange sunrise.
Photographic styles, which was previously released on iPhones, allows you to change the settings to achieve the look of photos you like.
Gold and amber, for example, are great for reproducing really vivid sunrise photos, while dramatic is also a favourite when you are looking to make a photograph really pop.
There are also a good range of more subtle styles. You can set a favourite default setting, knowing you can always change it later in editing.
Portrait photography continues to get even better for everything from people to pets while macro photography for super close ups of flowers, insects and other objects continues to delight.
For taking selfies, the 18MP centre stage front camera is definitely a game changer.
It offers more field of view, better stabilisation, and more flexibility with zoom and rotate options.
It orients automatically to fit everyone in frame and automatically keeps you in the frame during video calls.
Another feature, which the Samsung phones have had for some time, is dual capture, where you can shoot using both the front and rear captures at the same time.
It’s great for when you might be shooting a birthday party, a holiday moment, or the pets on the beach and want to capture your reaction as well as the scene.
For those using their iPhones for professional photography and videos, there is now support for ProRes RAW capture and genlock which enables precise synchronisation across cameras, displays, and other inputs.
It means the sort of stuff you see in the Apple ads, with movie makers using multiple iPhones, is not just hype but an exciting possibility.
The 6.3 inch and 6.9 inch displays on the Pro and Pro Max are even brighter with a 3000 nit peak brightness outdoors.
Apple says the phones are now protected by Ceramic Shield 2 for three times better scratch resistance.
On the battery front, Apple says there’s been another big leap forward with the Pro Max now capable of up to 37 hours of video playback while the Pro model claims 31 hours.
I did tests with the Pro Max where I shot plenty of video and photos in the morning, left the video on standby for shooting for a couple of hours and still had 42 per cent battery later in the day.
With a 40W charger (which is not supplied), you can get your battery up by 50 per cent in just 20 minutes.
The move away from titanium back to aluminium has surprised some Apple reviewers but it’s no biggie.
Apple says the new aluminium alloy is lighter than titanium and more than 20 times more thermally conductive.
An integrated vapour chamber has been laser-welded into the chassis to quickly move heat away from the components that generate it.
Apple says this allows iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max to deliver up to 40 per cent better sustained performance over the previous models.
The difference will certainly be most noticeable from people upgrading from earlier models of iPhone.
It means everything from video and photo editing, gaming and how quickly apps and other content load is improved.
The new iPhones come with the latest iOS which features some really cool improvements, including a liquid glass display, which is super classy. It’s one of the things I most love about the new phones.
There are also some great changes to wallpapers which allow you to feature a photo which moves as you pick up your phone. It looks very cool.
At the heart of the new phones is a faster A19 Pro chip which offers a faster six-core CPU with two performance and four efficiency cores, a 16-core Neural Engine, and a new 6-core GPU with neural cccelerators in each core for the first time, improving the computing power for AI workflows.
When it comes to AI, there are no big improvements yet to Apple Intelligence with Apple definitely still trailing behind Samsung and Google in that space.
That said people already using Google Gemini and ChatGPT can obviously do that from any phone, though the integration into phone apps is definitely better on other Android phones.
As you would expect, the new Apple phones come with a range of new accessories, including a beautiful techwoven case, which we’ve been using on the Pro Max, which has a really nice feel to it.
It’s designed to cater for a new crossbody strap to carry iPhone hands-free, something which is great for travelling or even going hands free on the beach while holding onto the dogs.
So has Apple shot ahead again in the race for phone supremacy? Probably not completely, but if you’re an iPhone user, there’s a lot to love about the new phones.
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Originally published as iPhone 17 Pro Max review: Best camera yet with 8x zoom worth the upgrade
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