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ZDNET's key takeaways
- The new flagship iPhone brings two big photography upgrades, in the zoom camera and the front-facing camera
- The new A19 Pro processor, the N1 chip, and the thermal upgrades combine to rev up performance
- For the author, this year's upgrade choice boils down to overcoming a flaw in the past two Pro Max models
As far as annual upgrades go, we got a lot in the iPhone 17 Pro Max -- a redesign, a change of materials, new colors, a battery upgrade, a processor made even more intentionally for AI, two big camera refinements, and a fix for last year's biggest flaw.
But how does it fit together in one package, what's it like to use, and is it worth the upgrade? That's what we're here to talk about, as we do every year.
As far as iPhone reviews go, I've combined my iPhone Pro and Pro Max reviews into one story for the last several years, because the two have been so similar. They are more similar than ever this year, with the only differences being the larger screen and larger battery in the Pro Max.
So this year I'm just going to make my review all about the iPhone 17 Pro Max. You can safely assume virtually all of this applies to the Pro model as well, if the smaller Pro is your jam.
I have upgraded iPhones every year since the first iPhone in 2007, and the Pro Max has been the iPhone model I've upgraded to every year since the first one arrived with the iPhone 11 Pro Max in 2019. I also had the iPhone XS Max the year before, if you think of that one as the first Max.
And, of course, I'm not alone. The Pro Max has been the best-selling iPhone model since the iPhone 14 Pro Max, which began a reign of making the largest, most-expensive iPhone the best-selling phone model in the world, according to Omdia research.
Also: iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Google Pixel 10 Pro XL: I compared the flagship handsets, and there's a winner
This year, Apple has already dedicated 40% of its manufacturing capacity to churning out the iPhone 17 Pro Max, with 25% going to the iPhone 17 Pro, 25% to the iPhone 17, and 10% to the iPhone Air, according to The Information. So Apple is already expecting the iPhone 17 Pro Max to be its No. 1 seller, and by a bigger margin ever. That makes sense considering there's no Plus model this year, so the Pro Max is now the only big screen iPhone.
Again, I'm going all-in on the Pro Max this year for my review. Nevertheless, for the past decade I haven't recommended anyone to upgrade to the latest iPhone if they already had last year's iPhone -- despite the fact that I upgrade each year because of the work I do. However, my buying advice is different this year, so stay tuned for that at the end.
What's new in the iPhone 17 Pro Max
First, let's do a quick lightning round on new features, but I'll save what I consider the four biggest upgrades to talk about in just a moment.
- The A19 Pro - One of the unsung heroes of the iPhone's success and its broad appeal is its powerful Apple Silicon chips that make it feel very snappy and responsive in everyday use. This year it gets another leg up. The A19 Pro in the iPhone 17 Pro Max has a 6-core CPU with 2 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores and a 6-core GPU with upgraded "Neural Accelerators" added to each GPU core to make things like computational photography, language models, and other AI features run much faster. Apple claims a 20% increase in performance. This is a hard one to quantify in real world testing (and I don't trust benchmarks because these companies are smart and know how to game them). Time is the greatest real-world test for performance, so I'll withhold judgment until I can do a longer-term review on the performance of the iPhone 17 Pro Max in the months ahead. But for now, suffice it to say that the iPhone 17 Pro Max is powering through almost everything I've thrown at it and is probably waiting for more challenging AI workloads to fully stress-test it.
- New display - The screen got an upgrade from 2,000 nits of max brightness to 3,000 nits, which makes it easier to see when you're outdoors in full sunlight (and takes its past the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra at 2,600 nits). The iPhone 17 Pro Max also got a new anti-glare coating that also makes it easier to view under bright lights whether you're indoors or outdoors.
- N1 chip for better networking - Apple is now running its own N1 chip with Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and a Thread radio. Bluetooth 6 brings better precision-finding for FindMy and support for Auracast, Threads is an upgrade for smart home devices, and using Apple's own chip for Wi-Fi 7 could presumably lead to much more power-efficient networking since Wi-Fi can be a major power hog. This new chip is also aimed at improving the reliability of AirDrop, which would be huge because it's a great feature, when it works.
Orange is the new black for iPhone 17 Pro Max.
- Faster charging - Wired charging gets a slight upgrade to 36W (from 30W last year), but still lags behind Samsung (45W) and the Chinese phone makers that go wild with over 100W charging. Apple claims you can now get a 50% charge in 20 minutes using a 40W or higher adapter. ZDNET is still in the process of battery testing, but anecdotally that number feels like it's in the right ballpark so far, and it's about 20% faster than last year.
- Better wireless charging - This year's phone also now supports Qi2.2 wireless charging at 25W via MagSafe. The upgrade here is that last year's model could do MagSafe 25W charging but only with an Apple charger. Now you can also use third-party Qi2.2 chargers to get maximum wireless charging speeds -- as opposed to previously being stuck at 15W on those third-party chargers.
- RAM upgrade - It has 12GB of RAM, up from 8GB last year, which will help with multitasking and intensive AI applications.
- More scratch resistant screen - Apple says the screen is 3x more resistant to scratches, thanks to Ceramic Shield 2. Honestly, I don't trust that, not since the iPhone 15 Pro Max got a nasty scratch on the screen moments after I took it out of the box, and it bothered me to look at every day I used it. I now put a glass screen protector on every iPhone when I take it out of the box. The one I'd recommend for the iPhone 17 Pro Max is the Nomad ProShield Glass.
- 2TB storage option - The maximum storage you can buy increased from 1TB to 2TB, which will now cost $1,999. This is huge, especially for videographers using the iPhone as a pro camera.
Also: iPhone 17s are getting dinged up fast - how to protect yours from 'Scratchgate'
Now, let's talk about the four biggest reasons to upgrade.
1. Design overhaul fixes the biggest flaw
With the iPhone 17 Pro Max, Apple brings the biggest design change in seven years to its flagship iPhone. Every fall for the past six seasons -- from the iPhone 11 Pro Max to the iPhone 16 Pro Max -- the largest iPhone looked much the same each year. That's not the case in 2025.
Apple has redesigned the iPhone 17 Pro Max from the inside out. First, Apple has replaced the titanium material that was a signature feature on the last two Pro Max models and gone back to aluminum. This move comes with several trade-offs.
After years of taking flack for boring colors on its Pro phones, aluminum allowed Apple to get a lot more bold on the Pro models. It went with one light color (Silver/White), one dark color (Deep Blue) and one fun color (Cosmic Orange).
The trade-off is that aluminum is not nearly as tough as titanium, so we're already seeing reports of the orange and especially the blue iPhone 17 Pro Max getting dinged up pretty badly. My advice: if you're getting an iPhone 17 Pro Max and you don't plan to put it in a case right away, then go with the silver/white model that's far less likely to get dinged up. But I'd recommend putting a case on it -- my favorites are the Nomad Modern Case, the Spigen Nano Pop Magfit, and Apple's new TechWoven Case.
Apple introduced a new TechWoven case for the iPhone 17 Pro Max and a Bumper case for the iPhone Air.
While the most noticeable changes to the iPhone 17 Pro Max are on the outside, the most consequential ones are on the inside. The other big impact to switching back to aluminum comes in thermal performance, because aluminum can be up to 5-10 times better at conducting and dispersing heat than titanium. And the biggest achilles heel I've run into with both the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the iPhone 16 Pro Max has been overheating. In 2023, I reported the serious overheating issues I ran into when the iPhone 15 Pro Max was released. While iOS 17.0.3 reduced the issues to a minimal level, I continued to have problems with both the iPhone 15 Pro Max and its titanium successor the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
When I would do intense photography and video with either phone, they were regularly prone to overheating where they would get very hot to the touch -- even through a case -- and at those times the battery life would start to drop dramatically and tasks on the phone would slow down. Similarly, when I charged the phones in my car on a MagSafe charger where they were also exposed to the sun, they would regularly overheat and flash a message on the screen that they had paused charging until the phone cooled down. For me, this became a regular part of life with the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
In addition to switching back to an aluminum body for the iPhone 17 Pro Max, Apple also tacitly acknowledged the thermal issue by adding a vapor chamber cooling system that uses deionized water to cool the A19 Pro chip and run it at maximum speed by keeping it from overheating.
More than any other feature on the iPhone 17 Pro Max, I've tried to put the new cooling to the test because the overheating issue has been the biggest flaw I've experienced with the Pro Max for the past two years. I'm happy to report that the early results have been very positive for the iPhone 17 Pro Max -- although not perfect.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max at 86.4 degrees (top) and iPhone 16 Pro Max at 109.2 degrees (bottom) during a data migration from one phone to the other.
It all started with the migration from the iPhone 16 Pro Max to the iPhone 17 Pro Max. During the several hours it took to migrate my data from last year's phone to this year's phone, the 16 Pro Max got very warm (109 degrees) while the 17 Pro Max did a much better job of keeping its cool (86 degrees), as you can see in the thermal image on the right.
In going about my daily tasks, including heavy photo and video use and MagSafe charging in the car, the iPhone 17 Pro Max has experienced little to no overheating. So this looked like a big win. However, when I took the iPhone 17 Pro Max to Florida and started doing heavy video and photography during a sunny day in the 90-degree heat, the iPhone 17 Pro Max started acting like its last two predecessors and overheating (Brian Tong reported similar overheating when he took the phone outside in the Southern California heat). Fortunately, it cooled down fairly quickly in my case.
Nevertheless, I'm convinced that Apple has made significant progress on the overheating issue with the iPhone 17 Pro Max -- and the fact that it changed materials for better heat dispersion and introduced the new vapor chamber cooling feature are huge steps in the right direction.
2. Apple reinvents the selfie camera
The most exciting new feature in the iPhone 17 Pro Max is undoubtedly the reimagined selfie camera, which both dramatically improves the quality of selfies and makes them easier to take. Apple revealed that people took over 500 billion selfies with iPhones over the past year, so it's clear that we need it. The front-facing camera has long been the weakest link in iPhone photography.
How did Apple pull it off? It upgraded the sensor on the front-facing camera from 12MP to 24MP (outputting 18MP images vertically or horizontally), made it ultrawide, and switched from a rectangular sensor to a square sensor. Apple has branded the new camera as a Center Stage camera, but it's even more powerful than the Center Stage video camera that merely centers you in the frame during video calls on iPad or Mac.
Selfie with iJustine and Tim Cook at 2025 Apple Event.
You can now hold the iPhone vertically but switch between taking a vertical or horizontal photo with a single thumb tap on the new Center Stage button that automatically pops up when you're using the front-facing camera. And even cooler, if you tap the Center Stage settings button at the top of the screen and you can turn on both Auto Rotate and Auto Zoom then the camera will use AI to recognize the faces in your group selfie shot and automatically switch between vertical or horizontal orientation to make sure to get everyone in the shot.
Also: Why I'm recommending this iPhone 17 model to most people (and it's not the Pro Max)
To Apple's credit, it brought the new selfie camera to the entire iPhone 17 lineup this year. I wouldn't be surprised to see lots of other phone makers adopt square sensor front-facing cameras in 2026 because everything else now feels like a step behind once you use Apple's new selfie camera.
3. Zoom photography gets a lot more pro
I love zoom photography and I also dig iPhone photography. I've taken over 100,000 iPhone photos in the past 18 years, but when I need to take telephoto shots, that's when I still pull out my Sony mirrorless camera. While the Pro Max has had a 5x zoom lens for the past two generations, it's not been great. It's fine for taking a few shots to post on social media but the quality hasn't been on the same level as the other iPhone cameras. I never use it for shots I may want to print, turn into a desktop or mobile wallpaper image, or even use for ZDNET hero images on stories.
In the iPhone 17 Pro Max, Apple has increased the sensor of its tetraprism zoom from 12MP to 48MP while changing the main zoom lens to 4x. Apple has also created an 8x zoom lens option that crops in and creates an optical zoom image at 12MP. So far, I've been impressed with the quality of this new zoom lens, especially in full daylight. It can create images that are more crisp and less grainy than I'm used to on iPhone zoom photos -- and that's a welcome change. Will it be good enough that I can use it more often to capture more professional shots? I'm optimistic, but I'm going to need more time to take a wider variety of shots and evaluate them afterward. I also want to compare it to the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL and other Android phones that have long had a big advantage over the iPhone on zoom shots.
Example of a photo taken with the 8x zoom of the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
In general, so far I'm also liking the photo processing on the iPhone 17 Pro Max -- it's much less warm out-of-camera than the last couple years -- and the image quality is a little bit more sharp and clear overall. I'll be doing a dedicated review of this year's pro camera system in a couple weeks, after I take a ton of different types of photos in a variety of lighting conditions with all of the various lenses on the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
4. Battery life finally matches Samsung flagships
With the iPhone 17 Pro Max, Apple has put its largest battery ever in a phone -- at 5,088 mAh in the US version with no SIM card slot. The international versions with a SIM card slot get a slightly smaller 4,823 mAh battery. Combined with the efficiencies of the A19 Pro processor and the N1 networking chip, this gives the iPhone 17 Pro Max a substantial lift in battery life.
And don't underestimate the value of having a better thermal design as well. As I mentioned above, one of my biggest challenges with battery life in the last two generations of the Pro Max has been that the battery would drain a lot more quickly when it was overheating.
Apple now rates the iPhone 17 Pro Max as having 39 hours of video playback, compared to 33 hours for the iPhone 16 Pro Max. That's a 15% boost, and a sizable jump from one generation to the next. In real-world mixed usage, you can now expect about 15-20 hours of battery life.
Also: I replaced my Samsung S25 Edge with the iPhone Air - and my buying advice has changed
The bottom line is that the iPhone 17 Pro Max now matches devices such as the Samsung S24 Ultra and S25 Ultra. With the last several generations of Samsung Ultra phones, I have simply never had to worry about battery life. They would sometimes get to the end of a business day with nearly a 50% charge. And because they also have super-fast charging, even if I ever did get low on charge with the Samsung flagship -- usually because I hadn't charged it overnight -- in less than an hour of charging it would get plenty of juice to make it through the rest of the day. When it comes to battery life and charging, they've been the MacBook Pro of phones. The iPhone 17 Pro Max is now in the same league.
What I'd like to see in iPhone 18 Pro Max
1. Get rid of the camera bump - I don't love camera bumps, or camera plateaus as Apple now deems its bump. That's mostly because a bump makes a phone more awkward to slip in and out of your pocket or bag. It can also make the phone sit a bit awkwardly on a flat surface. I don't love the aesthetics either, because it gives the phone a more bulky look and feel. This year, Apple not only made the iPhone 17 Pro Max camera bump larger, it's now the biggest bump on any of the premium flagship phones. This has made me truly appreciate the Samsung S24 Ultra and S25 Ultra, where the cameras sit completely flush when you put one of those phones in a case.
2. Software that catches up to the hardware - As you can tell by now, Apple has fully leaned into the design and hardware features in the iPhone 17 Pro Max this year, and it has generally created a terrific upgrade. The phone also gets a software redesign with the arrival of iOS 26, which is a bit of a mixed bag. The Liquid Glass design looks modern, new, and flashy, but it also has readability issues. I definitely prefer to flip the switch for Reduce Transparency in Settings. But the bigger software challenge for the iPhone 17 Pro Max is what's not there. It's a phone that is built to excel for next-gen AI features, but none of those features are here yet -- at least not from Apple. As fast as the broader AI ecosystem is evolving, the iPhone will have plenty of tools to take advantage of its AI capabilities, but they'll come from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and others. This is a missed opportunity, because Apple could obviously integrate the best of AI more deeply into its flagship product in ways that app builders simply can't. At the very least, we need a much better Siri that takes advantage of the best possibilities of generative AI in next year's Pro Max.
Also: I'm skipping the iPhone 17 Pro this year - 3 reasons the base model makes more sense
3. A foldable iPhone 18 Pro Max would be amazing - Samsung's Galaxy Fold 7 showed me what's possible with foldable phones -- a phone nearly the same size as a flagship when it's closed with the usability of a small tablet when it's open. But what I want is a full flagship phone with all the same camera capabilities, screen size, and form factor that matches a phone like the Galaxy S25 Ultra or the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Samsung nearly got there with the Fold 7, but the cover screen is still a little slimmer and the cameras still have compromises. Maybe Samsung will get there with the Fold 8. But if Apple could make a foldable iPhone that looks and feels like its regular flagship phone when closed but unfolds into an iPad Mini, then it will have created its most powerful device yet. I'd even put up with a camera bump to get that.
ZDNET's buying advice
Make no mistake, Apple has packed a ton of new stuff into this year's iPhone 17 Pro Max. This might be the most substantial year-over-year upgrade we've seen to a Pro Max. Still, I would not typically recommend people with either of the last two generations of the Pro Max to upgrade for any of these features. But, this year is a little different.
Primarily because of the overheating problem, I'm going to recommend something that I normally would not. If you were like me and you're running into a lot of overheating issues with either the iPhone 15 Pro Max or the iPhone 16 Pro Max, then I'd recommend that you consider upgrading to the iPhone 17 Pro Max. I know that might be an expensive option, depending on where you are with your wireless carrier. But if you are due a phone upgrade or you can upgrade for minimal cost with a trade-in, then I think you'll be a lot happier with the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
If your carrier gives you grief about upgrading or wants to overcharge you for it, then one of your options is to consider switching carriers -- as much of a pain as that can be -- because rival carriers will now often pay any outstanding balances or switching fees to entice you to make the jump.
If you have an iPhone 14 Pro Max or earlier and you held off on upgrading to either of the last two Pro Max models, then your patience has been rewarded this year. You're going to be a phone with much better performance, much better battery life, a vastly improved camera system, and one that's ready for the latest AI features -- no matter which company is making them.
If the overheating issue has not caused you problems with your iPhone 15 Pro Max or iPhone 16 Pro Max and you're still getting good battery life (check your battery health), then carry on about your business and keep an eye out for the iPhone 18 Pro Max. Maybe we'll even get a folding version next year and you can save your money to put toward that one, because it's probably going to be a lot more expensive.
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