So far as annual upgrades go, we bought quite a bit within the iPhone 17 Professional Max — a redesign, a change of supplies, new colours, a battery improve, a processor made much more deliberately for AI, two massive digicam refinements, and a repair for final yr’s largest flaw.
However how does it match collectively in a single package deal, what’s it like to make use of, and is it definitely worth the improve? We’re right here to debate these questions, as we do yearly.
So far as iPhone critiques go, I’ve mixed my iPhone Professional and Professional Max critiques into one story for the final a number of years, as a result of the 2 have been so comparable. They’re extra comparable than ever this yr, with the one variations being the bigger display screen and bigger battery within the Professional Max.
So this yr, I am simply going to make my evaluation all concerning the iPhone 17 Professional Max. You may safely assume nearly all of this is applicable to the Professional mannequin as properly, if the smaller Professional is your jam.
I’ve upgraded iPhones yearly for the reason that first iPhone in 2007, and the Professional Max has been the iPhone mannequin I’ve upgraded to yearly for the reason that first one arrived with the iPhone 11 Professional Max in 2019. I additionally had the iPhone XS Max the yr earlier than, if you happen to consider that one as the primary Max.
And, in fact, I am not alone. The Professional Max has been the best-selling iPhone mannequin for the reason that iPhone 14 Professional Max, which started a reign of creating the most important, most costly iPhone the best-selling cellphone mannequin on this planet, in accordance with Omdia analysis.
This yr, Apple has already devoted 40% of its manufacturing capability to churning out the iPhone 17 Professional Max, with 25% going to the iPhone 17 Professional, 25% to the iPhone 17, and 10% to the iPhone Air, in accordance with The Info. So Apple is already anticipating the iPhone 17 Professional Max to be its No. 1 vendor, and by a much bigger margin ever. That is sensible contemplating there is not any Plus mannequin this yr, so the Professional Max is now the one big-screen iPhone.
Once more, I am going all-in on the Professional Max this yr for my evaluation. However, for the previous decade, I have never really helpful anybody to improve to the most recent iPhone in the event that they already had final yr’s iPhone — although I improve annually due to the work I do. Nonetheless, my shopping for recommendation is completely different this yr, so keep tuned for that on the finish.
What’s new within the iPhone 17 Professional Max
First, let’s do a fast lightning spherical on new options, however I will save what I take into account the 4 largest upgrades to speak about in only a second.
- The A19 Professional – One of many unsung heroes of the iPhone’s success and its broad enchantment is its highly effective Apple Silicon chips that make it really feel very snappy and responsive in on a regular basis use. This yr, it will get one other leg up. The A19 Professional within the iPhone 17 Professional Max has a 6-core CPU with 2 efficiency cores and 4 effectivity cores, and a 6-core GPU with upgraded “Neural Accelerators” added to every GPU core to make issues like computational images, language fashions, and different AI options run a lot sooner. Apple claims a 20% enhance in efficiency. This can be a arduous one to quantify in real-world testing (and I do not belief benchmarks as a result of these firms are sensible and know recreation them). Time is the best real-world check for efficiency, so I will withhold judgment till I can do a longer-term evaluation on the efficiency of the iPhone 17 Professional Max within the months forward. However for now, suffice it to say that the iPhone 17 Professional Max is powering by means of nearly every little thing I’ve thrown at it and might be ready for tougher AI workloads to completely stress-test it.
- New show – The display screen bought an improve from 2,000 nits of max brightness to three,000 nits, which makes it simpler to see while you’re outdoor in full daylight (and takes it over the Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely at 2,600 nits). The iPhone 17 Professional Max additionally bought a brand new anti-glare coating that makes it simpler to view underneath vibrant lights, whether or not you are indoors or outdoor.
- N1 chip for higher networking – Apple is now working its personal N1 chip with Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and a Thread radio. Bluetooth 6 brings higher precision-finding for FindMy and assist for Auracast, Threads is an improve for sensible house gadgets, and utilizing Apple’s personal chip for Wi-Fi 7 might presumably result in rather more power-efficient networking since Wi-Fi could be a main energy hog. This new chip can be geared toward enhancing the reliability of AirDrop, which might be big as a result of it is a terrific function when it really works.
- Quicker charging – Wired charging will get a slight improve to 36W (from 30W final yr), however nonetheless lags behind Samsung (45W) and the Chinese language cellphone makers that go wild with over 100W charging. Apple claims now you can get a 50% cost in 20 minutes utilizing a 40W or greater adapter. ZDNET remains to be within the means of battery testing, however anecdotally, that quantity feels prefer it’s in the best ballpark to date, and it is about 20% sooner than final yr.
- Higher wi-fi charging – This yr’s cellphone additionally now helps Qi2.2 wi-fi charging at 25W through MagSafe. The improve right here is that final yr’s mannequin might do MagSafe 25W charging however solely with an Apple charger. Now you can too use third-party Qi2.2 chargers to get most wi-fi charging speeds — versus beforehand being caught at 15W on these third-party chargers.
- RAM improve – It has 12GB of RAM, up from 8GB final yr, which can assist with multitasking and intensive AI functions.
- Extra scratch-resistant display screen – Apple says the display screen is 3x extra immune to scratches, due to Ceramic Defend 2. Truthfully, I do not belief that, not for the reason that iPhone 15 Professional Max bought a nasty scratch on the display screen moments after I took it out of the field, and it bothered me to take a look at on daily basis I used it. I now put a glass display screen protector on each iPhone once I take it out of the field. The one I might suggest for the iPhone 17 Professional Max is the Nomad ProShield Glass.
- 2TB storage choice – The utmost storage you should buy elevated from 1TB to 2TB, which can now price $1,999. That is big, particularly for videographers utilizing the iPhone as a professional digicam.
Now, let’s discuss concerning the 4 largest causes to improve.
1. Design overhaul fixes the most important flaw
With the iPhone 17 Professional Max, Apple brings the most important design change in seven years to its flagship iPhone. Each fall for the previous six seasons — from the iPhone 11 Professional Max to the iPhone 16 Professional Max — the most important iPhone appeared a lot the identical annually. That is not the case in 2025.
Apple has redesigned the iPhone 17 Professional Max from the within out. First, Apple has changed the titanium materials that was a signature function on the final two Professional Max fashions with aluminum. This transfer comes with a number of trade-offs.
After years of being criticized for its Professional telephones’ boring colours, aluminum allowed Apple to be much more daring on the Professional fashions. It went with one mild colour (Silver/White), one darkish colour (Deep Blue), and one enjoyable colour (Cosmic Orange).
The trade-off is that aluminum just isn’t practically as powerful as titanium, so we’re already seeing studies of the orange and particularly the blue iPhone 17 Professional Max getting dinged up fairly badly. My recommendation: if you happen to’re getting an iPhone 17 Professional Max and you do not plan to place it in a case immediately, then go together with the silver/white mannequin that is far much less prone to get dinged up. However I might suggest placing a case on it — my favorites are the Nomad Fashionable Case, the Spigen Nano Pop Magfit, and Apple’s new TechWoven Case.
Whereas probably the most noticeable modifications to the iPhone 17 Professional Max are on the skin, probably the most consequential ones are on the within. Switching again to aluminum additionally has a huge impact on thermal efficiency, as aluminum could be as much as 5-10 occasions higher at conducting and dispersing warmth than titanium.
And the most important Achilles heel I’ve run into with each the iPhone 15 Professional Max and the iPhone 16 Professional Max has been overheating. In 2023, I reported the intense overheating points I bumped into when the iPhone 15 Professional Max was launched. Whereas iOS 17.0.3 decreased the problems to a minimal degree, I continued to have issues with each the iPhone 15 Professional Max and its titanium successor the iPhone 16 Professional Max.
After I would do intense images and video with both cellphone, they have been commonly susceptible to overheating, the place they’d get extremely popular to the contact — even by means of a case — and at these occasions, the battery life would begin to drop dramatically, and duties on the cellphone would decelerate.
Equally, once I charged the telephones in my automotive on a MagSafe charger the place they have been additionally uncovered to the solar, they’d commonly overheat and flash a message on the display screen that they’d paused charging till the cellphone cooled down. For me, this grew to become a daily a part of life with the iPhone 15 Professional Max and the iPhone 16 Professional Max.
Along with switching again to an aluminum physique for the iPhone 17 Professional Max, Apple additionally tacitly acknowledged the thermal concern by including a vapor chamber cooling system that makes use of deionized water to chill the A19 Professional chip and run it at most pace by conserving it from overheating.
Greater than another function on the iPhone 17 Professional Max, I’ve tried to place the brand new cooling to the check as a result of the overheating concern has been the most important flaw I’ve skilled with the Professional Max for the previous two years. I am joyful to report that the early outcomes have been very optimistic for the iPhone 17 Professional Max — though not good.
It began with the migration from the iPhone 16 Professional Max to the iPhone 17 Professional Max. Throughout the a number of hours it took emigrate my knowledge from final yr’s cellphone to this yr’s cellphone, the 16 Professional Max bought very heat (109 levels) whereas the 17 Professional Max did a significantly better job of conserving its cool (86 levels), as you’ll be able to see within the thermal picture on the best.
In going about my day by day duties, together with heavy photograph and video use and MagSafe charging within the automotive, the iPhone 17 Professional Max has skilled little to no overheating. So this appeared like a giant win. Nonetheless, once I took the iPhone 17 Professional Max to Florida and began doing heavy video and images throughout a sunny day within the 90-degree warmth, the iPhone 17 Professional Max began performing like its final two predecessors and overheating (Brian Tong reported comparable overheating when he took the cellphone exterior within the Southern California warmth). Luckily, it cooled down pretty rapidly in my case.
However, I am satisfied that Apple has made important progress on the overheating concern with the iPhone 17 Professional Max — and the truth that it modified supplies for higher warmth dispersion and launched the brand new vapor chamber cooling function are big steps in the best route.
2. Apple reinvents the selfie digicam
Essentially the most thrilling new function within the iPhone 17 Professional Max is undoubtedly the reimagined selfie digicam, which each dramatically improves the standard of selfies and makes them simpler to take. Apple revealed that individuals took over 500 billion selfies with iPhones over the previous yr, so it is clear that we want it. The front-facing digicam has lengthy been the weakest hyperlink in iPhone images.
How did Apple pull it off? It upgraded the sensor on the front-facing digicam from 12MP to 18MP (outputting pictures vertically or horizontally), made it ultrawide, and switched from an oblong sensor to a sq. sensor. Apple has branded the brand new digicam as a Heart Stage digicam, however it’s much more highly effective than the Heart Stage video digicam that merely facilities you within the body throughout video calls on iPad or Mac.
Now you can maintain the iPhone vertically however swap between taking a vertical or horizontal photograph with a single thumb faucet on the brand new Heart Stage button that robotically pops up while you’re utilizing the front-facing digicam. And even cooler, if you happen to faucet the Heart Stage settings button on the prime of the display screen, and you’ll activate each Auto Rotate and Auto Zoom, then the digicam will use AI to acknowledge the faces in your group selfie shot and robotically swap between vertical or horizontal orientation to verify to get everybody within the shot.
To Apple’s credit score, it launched the brand new selfie digicam to the whole iPhone 17 lineup this yr. I would not be stunned to see plenty of different cellphone makers undertake sq. sensor front-facing cameras in 2026 as a result of as soon as you utilize Apple’s new selfie digicam, every little thing else seems like a step behind.
3. Zoom images will get much more professional
I really like zoom images, and I additionally dig iPhone images. I’ve taken over 100,000 iPhone images previously 18 years, however once I have to take telephoto photographs, that is once I nonetheless pull out my Sony mirrorless digicam. Whereas the Professional Max has had a 5x zoom lens for the previous two generations, it is not been nice. It is tremendous for taking a number of photographs to put up on social media, however the high quality hasn’t been on the identical degree as the opposite iPhone cameras. I by no means use it for photographs I could wish to print, flip right into a desktop or cell wallpaper picture, and even use for ZDNET hero pictures on tales.
Within the iPhone 17 Professional Max, Apple has elevated the sensor of its tetraprism zoom from 12MP to 48MP whereas altering the primary zoom lens to 4x. Apple has additionally created an 8x zoom lens choice that crops in and creates an optical zoom picture at 12MP. To this point, I have been impressed with the standard of this new zoom lens, particularly in full daylight. It may possibly create pictures which might be extra crisp and fewer grainy than I am used to on iPhone zoom images — and that is a welcome change.
Will it’s adequate that I can use it extra typically to seize extra skilled photographs? I am optimistic, however I’ll want extra time to take a greater diversity of photographs and consider them afterward. I additionally wish to evaluate it to the Google Pixel 10 Professional XL and different Android telephones which have lengthy had a giant benefit over the iPhone on zoom photographs.
Typically, to date I am additionally liking the photograph processing on the iPhone 17 Professional Max — it is a lot colder out-of-camera than the final couple of years — and the picture high quality is somewhat bit sharper and clear general. I will be doing a devoted evaluation of this yr’s professional digicam system in a few weeks, after I take a ton of various kinds of images in quite a lot of lighting situations with all the varied lenses on the iPhone 17 Professional Max.
4. Battery life lastly matches Samsung flagships
With the iPhone 17 Professional Max, Apple has put its largest battery ever in a cellphone — at 5,088mAh within the US model with no SIM card slot. The worldwide variations with a SIM card slot get a barely smaller 4,823mAh battery. Mixed with the efficiencies of the A19 Professional processor and the N1 networking chip, this provides the iPhone 17 Professional Max a considerable raise in battery life.
And do not underestimate the worth of getting a greater thermal design as properly. As I discussed above, one in all my largest challenges with battery life within the final two generations of the Professional Max has been that the battery would drain much more rapidly when it was overheating.
Apple now charges the iPhone 17 Professional Max as having 39 hours of video playback, in comparison with 33 hours for the iPhone 16 Professional Max. That is a 15% increase, and a large soar from one technology to the following. In real-world blended utilization, now you can count on about 15-20 hours of battery life.
The underside line is that the iPhone 17 Professional Max now matches gadgets such because the Samsung S24 Extremely and S25 Extremely. With the final a number of generations of Samsung Extremely telephones, I’ve merely by no means needed to fear about battery life. They’d generally get to the top of a enterprise day with practically a 50% cost. And since additionally they have super-fast charging, even when I ever did get low on cost with the Samsung flagship — often as a result of I hadn’t charged it in a single day — in lower than an hour of charging, it might get loads of juice to make it by means of the remainder of the day. In terms of battery life and charging, they have been the MacBook Professional of telephones. The iPhone 17 Professional Max is now in the identical league.
What I might wish to see in iPhone 18 Professional Max
1. Eliminate the digicam bump – I do not love digicam bumps, or digicam plateaus as Apple now deems its bump. That is principally as a result of a bump makes a cellphone extra awkward to slide out and in of your pocket or bag. It may possibly additionally make the cellphone sit a bit awkwardly on a flat floor. I do not love the aesthetics both, as a result of it provides the cellphone a extra cumbersome feel and appear. This yr, Apple not solely made the iPhone 17 Professional Max digicam bump bigger, however it’s now the most important bump on any of the premium flagship telephones. This has made me actually respect the Samsung S24 Extremely and S25 Extremely, the place the cameras sit utterly flush while you put a kind of telephones in a case.
2. Software program that catches as much as the {hardware} – As you’ll be able to inform by now, Apple has absolutely leaned into the design and {hardware} options within the iPhone 17 Professional Max this yr, and it has usually created a terrific improve. The cellphone additionally will get a software program redesign with the arrival of iOS 26, which is a little bit of a blended bag. The Liquid Glass design seems to be trendy, new, and flashy, however it additionally has readability points. I undoubtedly favor to flip the swap for Scale back Transparency in Settings.
However the greater software program problem for the iPhone 17 Professional Max is what’s not there. It is a cellphone that’s constructed to excel for next-gen AI options, however none of these options are right here but — a minimum of not from Apple. As quick because the broader AI ecosystem is evolving, the iPhone may have loads of instruments to make the most of its AI capabilities, however they will come from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and others. This can be a missed alternative, as a result of Apple might clearly combine the perfect of AI extra deeply into its flagship product in ways in which app builders merely cannot. On the very least, we want a significantly better Siri that takes benefit of the perfect prospects of generative AI in subsequent yr’s Professional Max.
3. A foldable iPhone 18 Professional Max can be superb – Samsung’s Galaxy Fold 7 confirmed me what’s doable with foldable telephones — a cellphone practically the identical dimension as a flagship when it is closed with the usability of a small pill when it is open. However what I would like is a full flagship cellphone with all the identical digicam capabilities, display screen dimension, and kind issue that matches a cellphone just like the Galaxy S25 Extremely or the iPhone 17 Professional Max.
Samsung practically bought there with the Fold 7, however the cowl display screen remains to be somewhat slimmer and the cameras nonetheless have compromises. Possibly Samsung will get there with the Fold 8. But when Apple might make a foldable iPhone that appears and seems like its common flagship cellphone when closed however unfolds into an iPad Mini, then it is going to have created its strongest system but. I might even put up with a digicam bump to get that.
ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation
Make no mistake — Apple has packed a ton of latest stuff into this yr’s iPhone 17 Professional Max. This may be probably the most substantial year-over-year improve we have seen to a Professional Max. Nonetheless, I might not sometimes suggest folks with both of the final two generations of the Professional Max improve for any of those options. However this yr is somewhat completely different.
Primarily due to the overheating drawback, I’ll suggest one thing that I usually wouldn’t. For those who have been like me and also you’re working into a variety of overheating points with both the iPhone 15 Professional Max or the iPhone 16 Professional Max, then I might suggest that you just take into account upgrading to the iPhone 17 Professional Max. I do know that may be an costly choice, relying on the place you’re along with your wi-fi provider. However in case you are due a cellphone improve or you’ll be able to improve for minimal price with a trade-in, then I believe you will be quite a bit happier with the iPhone 17 Professional Max.
In case your provider provides you grief about upgrading or needs to overcharge you for it, then one in all your choices is to contemplate switching carriers — as a lot of a ache as that may be — as a result of rival carriers will now typically pay any excellent balances or switching charges to entice you to make the soar.
When you have an iPhone 14 Professional Max or earlier and also you held off on upgrading to both of the final two Professional Max fashions, then your endurance has been rewarded this yr. You are going to be a cellphone with significantly better efficiency, significantly better battery life, a vastly improved digicam system, and one which’s prepared for the most recent AI options — irrespective of which firm is making them.
If the overheating concern has not precipitated you issues along with your iPhone 15 Professional Max or iPhone 16 Professional Max and you are still getting good battery life (test your battery well being), then keep on about your small business and hold an eye fixed out for the iPhone 18 Professional Max. Possibly we’ll even get a folding model subsequent yr, and it can save you your cash to place towards that one, as a result of it is in all probability going to be much more costly.
