iPhone 17 Pro Number of hardware issues on the Pros this year is unacceptable

[Contact_Feanor]

I just got a new Pro Max and it’s fine, I’m not looking for problems with it but I didn’t have to on the previous one. Maybe you could venture to tell me why you’re stalking my profile and how you came to the conclusion I’m “not being serious” after doing that?

Also, I’ve had no problems on my Air. So not sure what you mean by “only talking about problems”

Every time apple releases a product there's these threads about how they're horrible. sometimes they're serious, most of them are from new profiles that never posted before and then are never to be seen again. Usually a good indication that it's a troll. I'm not "stalking" you, I'm checking if a "don't feed the troll" sign was needed or if I was going to genuinely engage in the conversation.

 

[uacd]

Sorry but statements like "all new iPhones take very blurry images" (especially when made by folks that do not even own iPhone 17 Pros) are not "buyers who report issues," they are simply sensational lies. Your words "when said products fail to live up to Apples typically high standards" also imply that there is some wholesale failure, when there is no such wholesale failure going on.

Meaningful comments are those from real buyers reporting their experiences after going through the return process that Apple makes so easy (at least in the USA). But the most noise seems to come from non-owners, perhaps wanting to justify their non-purchase to themselves, IDK.

Individual product failures of course will occur. And when millions of devices hit the street in 48 hours the number of expected defective devices is expected to be a significant number. The important question to me is how well the process for replacing those defective products does or does not work.

Ugh. Again, I planned to upgrade this year. But I just cannot justify wasting that much money on something that won’t even perform as I wish it to. Why buy something and regret after?

I had already done this mistake of just blindly upgrading, and not just once, without reading what the common issues are or doing basic research, and in fact I then had issues that people have already written pages about.

And Apple should be thankful I am not grabbing every new model and then returning each until I find the one that “is not blurry”. I am not buying because I don’t wanna play this lottery and then having the hassle of making the returns.

Why if I was to pick any camera, like Sony A7 or Nikon Z5 + some sort of lens, I have 99% of manufacturer’s guarantee there will be no such flaws. Why when shopping for a smartphone I should go thru all of that stuff? And bad lens quality is not something I can justify because for me iPhone is 95% camera 5% communication device. I don’t really care about all their camera upgrades if their new 17 Pro shoots blurrier pictures than 14 or 15 Pro, it is something impossible.

And just for the fact: in 2026 they will release a phone where they quietly fix this issue and then every reviewer will be like “WOOOW look how sharp it is compared to 17 Pro!!”.

They kinda do it in cycles to make people justify upgrades. This happened with 6s to 7, because due to more megapixels in 6s it had awful night performance (which was fixed in 7), or for example when XS and XR had some awful plastic HDR bug which was fixed only in 11 and 11 Pro. It is not some sort of conspiracy theory but just their sales tactic (which I don’t get though)

 

[kenta_]

IMO iOS 26 is still in beta but Apple acts as if it is not. Frankly it offends me that Apple forces buyers of iPhone 17s into effectively being beta testers. And it denigrates the great hardware of the iPhone 17 Pros.

Agreed. iPhone 17 with iOS 18 would have been a better launch experience.

 

[marzfreerider]

My 17 PM makes the faint sound when opening the camera, really have to listen for it, but does not affect picture/video quality. The more annoying one for me is when charging and using the phone, the buzzing coming from the speaker. I've never had that issue before on any other of my iPhones. It's almost like they went cheap on the material metals.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

I don’t, but have 24/7 access to 16 Pro. Their cameras are nearly identical (minus the telephoto). I’ve tried ProRAW and honestly had not seen much difference in processing and rendering. I was eyeing at 17 Pro at first and as it turned out, many units have some sort of manufacturing defect with their lens and images come out blurry. If your unit is unaffected then probably you got a good one

• FYI image capture on the 17 Pros is not "nearly identical (minus the telephoto)."

The net image capturing result 17P over 16P is very different; noticeably better. That capture is not simplistic; the iPhone is not an ILC and (probably thanks to computational photography) the three lenses operate synergistically. What Apple calls the 48 MP Pro Fusion camera system really does capture imagery more as a coordinated unit than any previous iPhone did, by a lot.

• I strongly disagree with the implication of your statement:
"many units have some sort of manufacturing defect with their lens and images come out blurry. If your unit is unaffected then probably you got a good one."

I do not have the data, but IMO relatively very few "units have some sort of manufacturing defect with their lens." Obviously with millions sold there will be some (easily returned) defective units, but your implication that there some kind of widespread lens flaw is disingenuous.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Agreed. iPhone 17 with iOS 18 would have been a better launch experience.

Yes, iPhone 17 with iOS 18 would have been a better launch experience. My guess is that iPhone 17s need the new OS. Apple's responsible behavior would be to move up the timeline of OS developments relative to hardware releases. We should get each new OS months before the hardware requiring the new OS.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Ugh. Again, I planned to upgrade this year. But I just cannot justify wasting that much money on something that won’t even perform as I wish it to. Why buy something and regret after?

I had already done this mistake of just blindly upgrading, and not just once, without reading what the common issues are or doing basic research, and in fact I then had issues that people have already written pages about.

And Apple should be thankful I am not grabbing every new model and then returning each until I find the one that “is not blurry”. I am not buying because I don’t wanna play this lottery and then having the hassle of making the returns.

Why if I was to pick any camera, like Sony A7 or Nikon Z5 + some sort of lens, I have 99% of manufacturer’s guarantee there will be no such flaws. Why when shopping for a smartphone I should go thru all of that stuff? And bad lens quality is not something I can justify because for me iPhone is 95% camera 5% communication device. I don’t really care about all their camera upgrades if their new 17 Pro shoots blurrier pictures than 14 or 15 Pro, it is something impossible.

And just for the fact: in 2026 they will release a phone where they quietly fix this issue and then every reviewer will be like “WOOOW look how sharp it is compared to 17 Pro!!”.

They kinda do it in cycles to make people justify upgrades. This happened with 6s to 7, because due to more megapixels in 6s it had awful night performance (which was fixed in 7), or for example when XS and XR had some awful plastic HDR bug which was fixed only in 11 and 11 Pro. It is not some sort of conspiracy theory but just their sales tactic (which I don’t get though)

What in the heck are you saying: "just cannot justify wasting that much money on something that won’t even perform as I wish it to." ?? If you do not want to buy an iPhone 17 Pro, just do not buy one. But do not allege widespread flaws in the 17 Pro cameras saying things like "new 17 Pro shoots blurrier pictures than 14 or 15 Pro" without some real live proof. E.g. pick one up, set to RAW, hold the iPhone still, and carefully release the shutter. Do that test with multiple iPhone 17 Pros (like I did before I bought one).

When the OP first posted one of his "17 Pro blurry" threads I wondered if I might have missed some truism, so I walked out on my patio and shot a handheld pic of some plant berries (no flowers at this time of year). The unedited pic attached below does not seem blurry to me, but you decide. < Edit: I posted a pic but the forum software made the sharp original not very sharp, so I deleted it. Folks will just have to take my word for it that my 17 PM is capturing very sharp images.>