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Video: iPhone 17 Pro Long Term Review

It’s fine. I like the new telephoto camera, the battery life for the smaller model, and having a vibrant colorway on a Pro model. The giant plateau on the back is annoying. I find myself sticking a finger in there more often because I lose track of which way I have it oriented and smudging the camera more often than I have with any other iPhone. The faster wired charging speed is also noticeable. I find myself not always charging my phone at night now since the battery is so good, and so then if I need to charge it up real quick before going out I can get it from 10% to 60% in the 20 minutes it takes me to shower, groom and get dressed.
 
In many ways, the 17 is a huge step backwards: in particular the N1 chipset is not fit for purpose - it simply refuses to roam between access points and keeps falling off the network altogether. Apple support have been precisely zero help. I'm on the verge of rejecting it as not fit for purpose.

The camera is generally better, but the 8x interpolated 'zoom' is useless.
 
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Have it since it’s release day and pretty happy with it. Not a groundbreaking update over the 15 pro that I used before but it’s a very very good and solid phone.
Took over 1300 pictures on a trip to Japan last year in October and was really impressed with the camera.
 
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Technomad42 said:
In many ways, the 17 is a huge step backwards: in particular the N1 chipset is not fit for purpose - it simply refuses to roam between access points and keeps falling off the network altogether. Apple support have been precisely zero help. I'm on the verge of rejecting it as not fit for purpose.

The camera is generally better, but the 8x interpolated 'zoom' is useless.
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17 pro or do you really mean the base 17?
Calling the base 17 a step backwards is simply false as it could be. The base 17 is the best regular iPhone that Apple released since years.
 
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code-m said:
Since titanium is a more premium material than aluminum then my iPhone 16 Pro is the love child of an iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air with a dash of terminator timeline where the child is born before the parents. 😝
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Haha the Titanium / Aluminium talk. Thanks that was missing here so far.
 
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Yes love it so far, best battery life I've ever had in a phone. Almost 72 hours in between charge to 20% sometimes, but reliably around 65 hrs and mine is the UK version with 4000 Mh battery (US version has larger battery).

Cameras are excellent and take great pics of my 2 cats. Also the anti reflective screen makes a noticeable difference to me, just looks crisper.

Would have preferred it in 6.1” like the 15 Pro but at least the 6.3” has improved screen to body ratio.
 
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@Taq'aix don’t like these new phones :)
What’s the reason? Because they are new? Not the end of the world if you use an older one, also fantastic phones and no need to upgrade that often.
Is it because of the titanium stuff? Come on :)
 
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kuck said:
Nothing of this phone makes me want to upgrade to it. I am still on an iPhone XS and just replaced the battery for the first time. I am happy with it and won't upgrade until Apple offers a true AI companion on the phone itself, ideally has a foldable version of the iphone (then i can ditch my ipad mini) and adopts solid state batteries for longer battery life.
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Could all happen this year…
Xs is a beautiful phone. Was my first Apple phone. Battery life was average but but phone overall with its design… beautiful 😍
 
Love-hate 🍏 relationship said:
i am very unhappy with the camera
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On the other hand, in daylight it seems to produce much more natural photos than all older iPhones. Comparing side-by-side with 16 Pro it is night and day, they seem to have toned down some processing. Though crunchiness of the sharpening algorithm still stays there. Sometimes it fails to focus in low light but “lidar hack” kinda helps when you close lidar with your finger and let PDAF shine (if it ever does, it often fails).

For me though, I still cannot justify shelling 2k$ for something that will let me shoot at 4x and 8x… way too expensive imo. However I am sure it is a nice upgrade for many photographers coming from much older iPhones and willing to bring their capabilities up
 
Technomad42 said:
The camera is generally better, but the 8x interpolated 'zoom' is useless.
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Why so?

It seems to be very nice to capture distant things. I can see lots of uses for this crop zoom when hiking in nature, in the mountains. It is a crop but on the other hand there are no devices on the market capable of reaching similar performance, except Pixels and Galaxy phones. Unfortunately point-and-shoots are dead, those that exist cost about as much as a new iPhone 17 Pro, and they don’t even have basic water resistance and have only one purpose: shoot.

1769514185134.jpeg

This example is 200mm/8x. I shot it in a moving car in passenger’s seat. Quite impressive work of both image stabilization and in terms of color reproduction. Level of detail is about the same as on the main camera of older iPhones like 11 or 12. Unlike Pixels, it doesn’t use any AI upscale so it is all coming from the sensor
 
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In my experience the cameras produce good portraits and images of still objects but fall apart when the subject is moving unless it is very bright.

It seems to favour low shutter speeds, which makes sense, because the image quality would likely fall apart at higher speeds. My tests with Halide’s manual mode certainly showed that. It also explains why it’s better at shooting still subjects.

Regardless, it is the best iPhone camera. And it’s better than nothing. I was a bit disappointed that it couldn’t beat my 2012 apsc dslr, but my 70-300mm full frame tamron lens is as tall as my iPhone and 3-4x the thickness— that’s without the camera body attached. I can’t fit that into my pocket.

Edit: for those who don’t have any frame of reference (which is probably most 17 pro customers counter to what Apple want you to believe) the camera is likely excellent.
 
newyorksole said:
bruh. I take great great of all of my electronics, especially my iPhone… this screen is scratched to HELL tho.

it’s been this way since like October. no drops, no sliding across tables, no pocket with my keys…

idk how this thing has gotten so scratched/scuffed. otherwise, it’s fine.
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I don't understand why people refuse to use a $3 screen protector on their phones. You can barely tell it's there, it feels the same and it will protect your $1,100+ phone from screen scratches... What's the downside? I could understand not using a case because of the added bulk, but a screen protector is a must, no matter how much Apple hypes up the improved glass scratch resistance BS they feed people
 
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Unggoy Murderer said:
Yup, I’m super unhappy with it too. It’s competent hardware just absolutely gimped with garbage software. I’ve never felt like I’ve downgraded when getting a new iPhone.

However, I have found a great camera app called No Fusion, it gets rid of the AI / ML nonsense being applied, and gives a far better photo than any out of the default camera app.
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You might also want to update to iOS 26.2.1 as well. There's a lot more going on with this seemingly minor update than at first glance - including some changes to the photo and video processing pipeline.

 
Very pleased with all aspects of my iPhone silver 17 Pro Max 2TB. I wanted the same 48MP camera for all three lenses. I have had nearly every top model iPhone with max memory since the iPhone 4 came out with CDMA and worked on Verizon (continuous Verizon customer since September 1988).

Last fall, I acquired a Leica M-11 camera with six prime lenses and a Leica Q3 43 camera. I downloaded beta software that implements Leica camera characteristics for the iPhone camera system. Getting amazing shots that bypass Apple's tweaking software. The three iPhone lenses are really quite good using different software.

As Steve Jobs said, I use the camera I have with me and an iPhone is always with me when dressed in it"s a leather belt pouch. I have a Zagg screen protector which has been replaced once so no damage to the screen, Zagg lens protectors and a cover. The only silver seen is the camera mound which is no big deal.

I expect this much iPhone capability to require both size and weight. Apple currently also makes a light model with much fewer features and capabilities. The customer not only has the extremes of the range but two models in the middle to choose from when they buy into the Apple system. I still have my iPhone 13 mini 512GB that has a sim card slot for international travel. Short term eSIM is not an option in the most of the world where I have traveled.

If one does not like these four Apple choices, they can go find some other brand, most of which use Android software that is not supported as long as iPhone software.

Every body can be happy with their choice or not.
 
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