iPhone 17 Pro Max

Apple swapped titanium for a heat-forged 7000-series aluminum unibody, added Ceramic Shield 2 on the front, and stretched the camera bump into a full-width 'plateau.' The two-tone back with its glass MagSafe cutout splits reviewers — some celebrate the function-over-form pivot, others find the design unfinished, the 233g weight unwelcome, and the soft aluminum vulnerable to scratching ('scratchgate'). Cosmic Orange is the headline color and a real departure from years of muted Pro tones.

• Apple has gone full function over form with the iPhone 17 Pro — chunky utilitarian phones that prioritize cooling, battery and durability over the slim premium feel of the iPhone 16 Pro.— Ars Technica
• The two-tone aluminum-and-glass design looks unfinished and prototype-y — the cell-signal cutouts and the glass MagSafe panel are clearly forced by physics rather than design choices.— Ars Technica
• The new Camera Plateau and two-tone aluminum-glass back add visual character — and the camera bar finally stops the phone wobbling on a table the way every previous iPhone did.— Wired
• At 233 grams the Pro Max is chunky and heavy — picking it up after the iPhone Air I yelled 'Holy crap,' and you'll definitely notice the heft coming from a 15 or 16 Pro Max.— Wired
• The aluminum unibody felt sturdy and scratch-resistant in two weeks of caseless use — even tossed into a bag with keys, badges and other phones, neither the Pro nor the Pro Max picked up a single scratch.— Engadget
• 'Scratchgate' is real — independent iFixit testing confirmed the anodization process Apple uses is more susceptible to scratching and flaking on non-flat surfaces like the camera-bump edges.— Ars Technica
• A part of the premium look and feel is lost — the new design has visible gaps between the aluminum and glass parts, and the soft aluminum compromises drop and scratch resistance versus titanium or steel.— GSMArena
• Apple's two-tone design adds character — the Camera Plateau gives the phone a more balanced look in hand, even if Google's Pixel did the cross-back camera bar first.— Forbes
• The iPhone 17 Pro is the most fully featured Pro model yet — not the best-looking Pro, but the trade-off for substance over style is genuinely worth it.— Trusted Reviews
• r/gadgets pulled no punches — the dominant view is that the iPhone 17 Pro is 'the most Un-Jony Ive iPhones Apple has ever made,' with the camera plateau called 'pretty ugly' and 'a nothing.'— Reddit r/gadgets

The 6.9-inch LTPO Super Retina XDR OLED carries over from the 16 Pro Max but gains Ceramic Shield 2 (Apple claims 3x better scratch resistance), a seven-layer anti-reflective coating, and a peak brightness boost from 2,000 to 3,000 nits in sunlight. Nearly every reviewer rates it among the best smartphone displays sold today, with Samsung's S25 Ultra still winning on outright anti-glare and a minority noting that auto-brightness rarely sustains the full peak.

• The 3,000-nit peak brightness and anti-reflective coating make the iPhone 17 Pro Max easier to read in direct sunlight than its predecessor, with significantly less indoor glare from artificial light.— Digital Trends
• The screen has the new Ceramic Shield 2 with anti-reflective coating for 'incredible legibility' in challenging lighting conditions, though Apple still owes its biggest scratch resistance claims to a stretch.— GSMArena
• There is still much more glare on the iPhone 17 Pro Max than on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra's Gorilla Armor 2 panel — Apple has improved it, but the S25 Ultra still wins outright.— Trusted Reviews
• The iPhone 17 Pro Max display stays brilliant and vibrant even under harsh California sun — it gets noticeably brighter than the iPhone Air's screen at maximum brightness.— Forbes
• The 6.9-inch ProMotion screen is exactly the same panel as last year's Pro Max — same size, same resolution, just slightly narrower bezels and the brightness/anti-reflective upgrades.— Notebookcheck
• The new screen on iPhone 17 Pro is great whether you choose the 6.3-inch or 6.9-inch panel — it's one of the best phone screens around with HDR, 120Hz ProMotion and always-on.— Trusted Reviews
• Liquid Glass animations on iOS 26 can be inconsistently applied and broken on the Pro Max — a shame because the underlying design is actually a step forward.— Reddit r/iphone

The A19 Pro with its fully-enabled 6-core GPU and Neural Accelerators is Apple's fastest mobile chip, paired with 12GB of RAM (up from 8GB) and a laser-welded vapor chamber that's a first for any iPhone. Sustained 3DMark performance is meaningfully better than the iPhone Air and last year's 16 Pro Max — Wired could play Assassin's Creed Mirage at max settings without the stutters or hot spots its predecessor produced. Ars Technica argues the CPU gain over the standard iPhone 17 is marginal and only the GPU gap is user-noticeable. GSMArena's stress test surprised some by showing the 17 Pro Max retaining only 65% of its CPU performance versus 77% on the 16 Pro Max.

• The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max are the most powerful smartphones around — the benchmark scores blew everything else out of the water, with sustained performance noticeably better than the iPhone Air thanks to the vapor chamber.— Wired
• Geekbench 6 single-core hit 3,870 and multi-core hit 9,994 — paired with 12GB of RAM, the A19 Pro is the kind of chip that makes easy work of any demanding app or game.— Trusted Reviews
• The iPhone 17 Pro delivered 35-40% better stability than its predecessor on 3DMark Wild Life Extreme, and roughly 35-40% better than the Galaxy S25 Ultra with Snapdragon 8 Elite — gaming temperatures stayed 4-6 degrees lower than the iPhone 16 Pro.— Digital Trends
• Playing Assassin's Creed Mirage at max settings on the iPhone 17 Pro produced significantly smoother performance than the iPhone 16 Pro last year — the heat was spread out over the entire back rather than hot-spotting on one side.— Wired
• The CPU performance of the iPhone 17 Pro is marginally better than the regular iPhone 17, but not by enough that it will be user-noticeable — the real gap is on graphics under sustained load.— Ars Technica
• GSMArena's stress test was a surprise — the 17 Pro Max kept only 65% of its CPU performance and 53% of its GPU under sustained load, versus 77% and 65% for the iPhone 16 Pro Max.— Reddit r/Apple
• The Pro Max ran much cooler than the iPhone Air during extended War Thunder gameplay at 60 fps — the vapor chamber genuinely keeps the new design cool under resource-intensive tasks.— TechCrunch
• The phone doesn't feel as fast or operate like a 'Pro' phone in daily use — rearranging Home Screen apps lags, Safari refuses to load pages, and Low Power Mode makes the phone operate like a cheap 2013 tablet.— Reddit r/iphone

All three rear cameras are now 48MP — the unchanged main, an upgraded ultrawide (48MP, f/2.2), and a brand-new 4x telephoto at 100mm with a sensor 56% larger than the 16 Pro Max's, allowing an 'optical-quality' 8x crop from the center. The 18MP Center Stage square selfie sensor is praised as the year's best camera feature. Where reviewers split: Wired says it's the smartphone camera king; Forbes, Engadget and GSMArena concede the Vivo X200 Pro, Xiaomi 15 Ultra and Pixel 10 Pro XL still pull ahead at the longest zoom range. Video — particularly ProRes LOG 2, Genlock, and Dual Capture — is unanimously called best-in-class.

• The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max are the current smartphone camera kings, at least in the US — photos a hair sharper than the Pixel 10 Pro XL and Galaxy S25 Edge across most environments.— Wired
• Vivo's and Xiaomi's highest-tier phones still have a superior zoom lens with larger sensors and more depth — the iPhone is good enough for most people but the Chinese flagships still win the long end of camera quality.— Forbes
• The 4x telephoto in 8x crop mode is the iPhone 17 Pro's favorite feature — the level of detail captured at distance is consistently impressive and it's the thing that comes closest to being worth the $300 premium over the regular iPhone 17.— Ars Technica
• All three rear cameras now use 48MP sensors — including a brand-new telephoto with a sensor 56% larger than its predecessor, offering 4x optical zoom at 100mm and 8x optical-quality zoom at 200mm.— Forbes
• Video performance is unparalleled — superior stabilization over the Pixel and Galaxy, smooth lens switching while recording, far less grainy low-light footage, and Dual Capture trounces Samsung's equivalent in low light.— Wired
• The 18MP Center Stage square selfie sensor is a stroke of genius — flipping into landscape automatically as more people enter the frame, and Apple's auto-rotate works well enough that 'every phone maker should copy it next year.'— Engadget
• iPhone-curious switchers on r/Samsung still call out the camera as one of the biggest reasons to consider the Pro Max — the new 4x telephoto closes most of the gap to Samsung's variable-aperture 200MP main.— Mrwhosetheboss
• The 4x lens quality can be unimpressive versus 1x, especially when you push to 8x — and the ultrawide lens continues to perform poorly with low overall resolution without bright high-contrast lighting.— Reddit r/iphone
• ProRes LOG 2, Genlock for multi-camera sync, and 4K 120fps Dolby Vision capture make the iPhone 17 Pro Max a genuine professional video tool — features the iPhone Air, regular 17 and most rivals can't match.— Forbes
• GSMArena hated on the camera but their own samples show Apple's fake-detail processing on the iPhone 16 Pro telephoto destroys photos — the 17 Pro Max's new sensor actually captures real detail at 8x.— Reddit r/Apple

The Pro Max's 4,823 mAh battery (5,088 mAh on the eSIM-only model) is the largest Apple has ever shipped, and Apple's 39-hour video playback claim is the longest battery life ever on any iPhone. Notebookcheck calls it a battery-life record-setter, Forbes gets 13-14 hours of heavy outdoor use with 20% to spare, and Ars Technica found overnight standby drop minimal. The flip side: GSMArena's web-browsing test actually came in shorter than the 16 Pro Max (a Liquid Glass / iOS 26 issue some suspect), and a heavy r/iphone user reports no meaningful upgrade over a fresh-battery 14 Pro Max. Wired charging finally goes to 40W, wireless to 25W via Qi2 with built-in magnets.

• Apple's 4,823 mAh battery on the Pro Max is the largest ever in an iPhone, and the company claims 39 hours of video playback — the longest battery-life claim Apple has ever made for any iPhone.— Wired
• The iPhone 17 Pro Max sets new battery-life records — Apple has put together a very convincing package and battery endurance is now the clear benchmark for the entire industry.— Notebookcheck
• The Pro Max can last a heavy 13-14 hour day outside with continuous use and still have over 20% left at the end — genuine all-day battery for the first time on a Pro iPhone.— Forbes
• After forgetting to plug it in overnight, the Pro Max still had 30 percent charge by morning — enough that you don't have to think about the battery at all anymore.— Ars Technica
• Got more than 5 hours of screen-on time consistently and 55% left in the tank — the Pro Max battery is now good enough that you might not have to charge it every day.— TechCrunch
• Wired charging hits a real 40W with Apple's new Dynamic Power Adapter — 50% in 20 minutes, and a full charge in about an hour. The first time iPhone charging speed feels competitive with Android.— Trusted Reviews
• Wireless charging jumps to 25W via Qi2 with built-in MagSafe magnets — the first iPhone to natively support Qi2 magnets rather than requiring a magnetic case like Samsung still does on the S25 Ultra.— TechCrunch
• GSMArena's lab measured web-browsing battery life actually *shorter* than the iPhone 16 Pro Max — the headline 'battery king' claim only holds in video playback and gaming, not all workloads.— Reddit r/Apple
• Battery life is not as impressive as everyone says — heavy real-world usage on a UK physical-SIM unit shows no noticeable improvement over an iPhone 14 Pro Max with a fresh battery.— Reddit r/iphone
• After four years on an iPhone 13 Pro Max, the Pro Max battery feels infinite — even on a heavy NY trip with photo and navigation use, it wouldn't drop below 85% by end of day.— 9to5Mac

iOS 26 with Liquid Glass is the biggest visual refresh in years and ships on every iPhone 17 — useful new features include call/message screening and ChatGPT-on-screen integration, but Apple Intelligence remains the consensus weakness. Reviewers from Wired, Trusted Reviews, TechCrunch and 9to5Mac all flag that Siri is still useless, Clean Up can't compete with Google or Samsung's eraser tools, and Apple barely mentioned Intelligence at the launch event. Long-time Android users on Reddit cite the keyboard, lack of a back gesture, and missing data-usage controls as reasons they go back. Apple is expected to provide at least 6 years of updates.

• There are no major AI features being shoved down your throat with the iPhone 17 Pro — Apple gave Intelligence a miss this year and the phone is just a better iPhone in every way without it.— Wired
• Apple Intelligence is still waiting for a reason to exist — the existing features are basic, the Clean Up tool just blurs subjects instead of removing them properly, and the writing tools produce robotic phrases that scream AI.— Trusted Reviews
• Apple Intelligence was hardly mentioned during the iPhone 17 launch — a stark contrast to last year and to rival phone launches like Google's new Pixel 10 lineup.— TechCrunch
• Liquid Glass is a significant refresh that matches the vibes of Apple's new hardware — and iOS 26 brings useful call/message screening that limits spam and robocalls.— Engadget
• Gemini on Android phones makes the phones better by working in the background — Apple Intelligence on iOS 26 can just be forgotten, which is fine if you don't want AI but a problem if Apple wants to compete.— Trusted Reviews
• Apple is expected to provide at least 6 years of iOS updates for the iPhone 17 Pro Max — the EU now requires 5 years minimum after end of sales, and Apple historically exceeds that.— Notebookcheck
• A lifelong Android user gave the Pro Max two months and went back to Android over iOS limitations — no data-usage controls, weak notification routing to Garmin watches, no back gesture, and a keyboard that is 'limited' versus Gboard.— Reddit r/Android
• Dictation transcribes over 50% of speech wrong with a standard British accent — Siri remains useless, and the keyboard 'autocorrects to the wrong word' on a regular basis.— Reddit r/iphone

At $1,199 starting (256GB up from 128GB at the same nominal price) the Pro Max is $100 cheaper than the Galaxy S26 Ultra and roughly matches the Pixel 10 Pro XL. Reviewers split on whether the year-over-year jump justifies upgrading from a 15/16 Pro Max — TechCrunch and Tom's Guide say no, the gains aren't compelling; Trusted Reviews, Forbes and Notebookcheck say the cooling + camera + battery combination is the most worthwhile Pro upgrade in years. The hardware is widely called Apple's best Pro Max in years; the software story (iOS 26 bugs, weak Apple Intelligence) is the consistent caveat. Anyone older than a 14 Pro Max will see substantial gains across the board.

• The iPhone 17 Pro Max is the phone to get if you love iOS and want a big screen and the longest battery life possible — but it's hard to recommend upgrading from a 15 Pro Max or 16 Pro Max because the enhancements aren't compelling enough.— Tom's Guide
• If you have an iPhone 15 Pro or 16 Pro Max, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is more of an iterative update — but if your phone is more than two years old you'll see substantial gains in battery, performance, screen and camera.— TechCrunch
• The Pro iPhones this year are the best and most capable iPhone hardware Apple has released in a few years — even relative to the best Android phones, the gap has closed dramatically.— Forbes
• The iPhone 17 Pro Max sets the benchmark in the Apple universe — the largest display, biggest battery, longest endurance, highest performance, and up to 2 TB of storage, and the base price didn't go up despite doubling base storage to 256GB.— Notebookcheck
• If you're already in the Apple ecosystem, shoot video seriously, or just want a phone that does its job without much thought, the iPhone 17 Pro Max makes a stronger case versus the Galaxy S26 Ultra than any recent iPhone has.— Digital Trends
• The Pro Max is for people whose phones are their most important camera, or for people who want the biggest screen — for everyone else, the regular iPhone 17 with the same display panel is the one to get for $300 less.— Ars Technica
• It's the most enticing Pro iPhone in years — Apple finally moved on substance over thinness, and the camera + battery + cooling combination makes this the most worthwhile Pro upgrade since the iPhone 11 Pro.— Mrwhosetheboss
• r/iphone owners are split — half say the Pro Max is the best iPhone they've ever owned, half say it's a software-ruined letdown despite great hardware.— Reddit r/iphone
• r/apple consensus on the Dave2D review thread skews strongly positive — '12 GB of RAM and 5000 mAh battery on the max completely SLAPS,' and the practical hardware improvements over the 16 Pro Max are widely appreciated even among the design skeptics.— Reddit r/Apple