29 Sept 2025
The latest iPhone 17 Pro represents a significant departure from previous designs, addressing past criticisms regarding repetitive features. This iteration delivers the desired advancements in internal architecture and performance, even with a few minor imperfections.
The reviewer previously refrained from reviewing iPhones due to perceived repetitive design, a lack of meaningful features, and unconvincing justifications from Apple.
The iPhone 17 Pro, despite prior negative sentiments, proved to be the desired product, delivering significant advancements.
Lipak store provided the iPhone 17 Pro Max for review, offering a comprehensive range of digital products, accessories, installment plans, and a 7-day money-back guarantee.
The iPhone 17 Pro or Pro Max features a new unibody aluminum design, which contributes to improved weight and heat dissipation, and a seamless structure simplifying battery replacement. The larger camera area, referred to as 'Plato', centrally positions key components.
The 'Plato' camera design creates internal space, allowing for a heatsink that effectively dissipates the A19 Pro's heat and accommodates a larger battery, sometimes leading to the removal of the physical SIM card option.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max, equipped with a single SIM, has an approximate 5100 mAh battery capacity, providing up to 13 hours of screen time in tests, surpassing its main competitor, the S 25 Ultra, by about an hour. Moderate use typically yields 8-9 hours, translating to about a day and a half of operation.
The A19 Pro chip, featuring 6 CPU and 6 GPU cores, delivers processing power comparable to an M chip found in Apple desktop computers. This capability enables it to run demanding applications like Adobe Premiere and graphic-intensive games such as Resident Village 4 and Doyle McCrae.
Benchmarks reveal the A19 Pro chip's processing power aligns with desktop chips previously seen in MacBooks, demonstrating Apple's ability to integrate an exceptionally powerful ARM-architecture chip into a smartphone.
Daily activities such as internet browsing, social media scrolling, messaging on platforms like Telegram, playing Call of Duty Mobile, and recording long videos are effortlessly managed by the A19 Pro processor and 12 GB of RAM.
The phone's cooling system utilizes a vapor chamber and an aluminum body, which boasts 20 times better heat dissipation than titanium, effectively managing overall temperature under heavy loads and preventing overheating issues seen in previous models.
Despite Apple's claims of Ceramic Shield 2 being three times stronger than the iPhone 12 for the 6.9-inch 120 Hz display and a portion of the back, initial reports show the iPhone 17 Pro Max is prone to scratches, dents, and breakage from simple drops, suggesting aluminum's softness is a potential drawback compared to older stainless steel or titanium models.
The iPhone 17 Pro introduces a 24-megapixel square sensor, yielding 18-megapixel photos and enabling the Center Stage feature for video calls, which automatically keeps subjects centered and adjusts framing for multiple people. This square sensor also facilitates vertical or horizontal selfies without physical phone rotation.
The main camera utilizes a 48-megapixel sensor, with Apple's 'Fusion Camera' marketing referring to its ability to provide acceptable quality at both 1x (48MP) and a 2x cropped output (12MP, ~48-52mm focal length), simulating a 2x telephoto.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max's large sensor captures high-quality photos in diverse lighting conditions, featuring natural colors, preserved details, accurate skin tones, and excellent low-light performance without producing a watercolor effect.
The ultrawide camera retains its 48-megapixel sensor from the previous generation, including autofocus and macro image capture capabilities for detailed close-up photography.
The phone features a 48-megapixel telephoto sensor with a 100mm focal length, offering 4x optical zoom. Apple's 'Fusion Camera' marketing also extends to an 8x zoom, achieved by cropping the sensor 2x to produce a 12-megapixel image with a 200mm focal length.
In 4x mode, images exhibit detail and accurate colors in both good and low-light conditions without watercoloring. While 8x zoom may show some detail loss, it is generally unnoticeable when shared on social media.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max offers the equivalent of 8 different focal lengths: Macro (13mm), 1x (24mm), 2x (28mm), 3x (35mm), 4x (48mm), 4x (100mm), and 8x (200mm), with true optical zoom for the 1x and 4x settings.
This year's camera system received the most significant updates, making it, alongside the new design, a primary reason for purchasing the Pro series.
The iPhone 17 Pro series is recognized for its improved design, enhanced cooling, superior battery, and advanced cameras. While the Pro Max's size might be a consideration, the standard iPhone 17 is also highly recommended for users not requiring the most advanced camera features, with the orange color being particularly praised.
Power equivalent to an M chip in an Apple desktop is no small feat.
| Aspect | Detail | Key Insight |
|---|---|---|
| Design & Build | Unibody aluminum body, seamless design, 'Plato' camera module. | Improves weight, heat dissipation, simplifies battery replacement; centralizes key components for focus. |
| Performance (Chip) | A19 Pro chip (6 CPU + 6 GPU cores), 12 GB RAM. | Delivers M-chip equivalent power, effortlessly runs desktop-grade applications and heavy games. |
| Cooling System | Vapor chamber + aluminum body. | Effectively manages temperature under heavy loads; aluminum's 20x better heat dissipation than titanium prevents overheating. |
| Battery Life | ~5100 mAh (Pro Max, single SIM). | Offers ~13 hours screen time in tests, surpassing its leading competitor by ~1 hour; provides ~1.5 days of moderate use. |
| Durability | Aluminum body, Ceramic Shield 2 display/back (claimed 3x stronger). | Reports of easy scratches/dents contradict strength claims; perceived as less robust than older stainless steel/titanium models. |
| Selfie Camera | 24MP square sensor (18MP output). | Enables Center Stage for video calls and allows vertical/horizontal selfies without phone rotation. |
| Main & Telephoto Cameras | All three main cameras are 48MP; utilizes 'Fusion Camera' for zoom (often involving sensor cropping). | Captures high-quality, color-accurate photos in varied lighting; features 4x optical zoom and 8x digital zoom for telephoto. |
