Apple released its 2025 iPhones today. I was able to preorder an iPhone 17 Pro Max, and have spent the last couple hours setting it up. While the selling point of the iPhone 17 Pro Max was the increased battery life (something I obviously have not been able to test yet), I found myself surprised and impressed in other ways.
This year, Apple redesigned the Pro iPhones. The frame of the phone is made from a single piece of aluminum, giving the phone a singular, cohesive feel in the hand. While thermal conductivity is likely the reason Apple went back to aluminum, I find myself really liking the unibody design. Compared to the iPhone 16 Pro Max—where there is a noticeable difference in materials between the titanium frame and the back of the device—the iPhone 17 Pro Max has a much more unified and elegant feel.
Another big design change for the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max is what apple calls the ‘plateau’. The plateau is a rectangular area that extends slightly from the top-back of the iPhone and houses the cameras, A19 Pro processor, and other components. Where these components used to be, Apple has included a bigger battery. Think of a ‘camera bump’ but more elegant. The plateau extends across almost the entire width of the device and enough down the length to feel like an element of the design—rather than a solution to a problem.
Performance is, in one word, ‘zippy’. Coming from the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which itself runs iOS 26 quite well, I wondered if the iPhone 17 Pro Max would really feel that much faster. The answer is a resounding ‘yes’. Even just navigating the setup screen, VoiceOver was noticeably more responsive to my touch gestures. Whether this increased responsiveness is thanks to the A19 Pro processor, the boost to 12GB ram, or a little bit of both, the end result is that the iPhone 17 Pro Max is far and away the most-responsive iPhone I have ever used.
While I have had only very limited time with the device so far, my initial impression is that the speakers on the iPhone 17 Pro Max sound noticeably better than those on the iPhone 16 Pro Max; with more bass and high ends across the range of volume levels. This will likely come as good news to many, as the speakers on the iPhone 16 Pro Max left a lot to be desired. One last note about the speakers for now: the bottom speaker is now on the left of the device, whereas on recent models it was on the right.
Other things will require more testing. I tried taking a selfie with the new front-facing Center Stage camera, but it was unclear to me as a blind user if Center Stage was engaged and working properly. I was not able to test Center Stage with FaceTime yet but hope to do so for the full review. Speaking of calls, my first and only call so far on the iPhone 17 Pro Max was not the best, with a couple momentary dropouts. I have no idea what that was about—was it how I held the phone on my shoulder at that moment, something with my Verizon service, or just a fluke.
As for that all-important battery life? We shall see. I have high hopes.
Watch this space...
Comments
probably yes
I don't know about you but I believe in the, apple slows down older phones every update, intentionally, unintentionally, no difference, it just happens, otherwise nothing explains why would an iphone 15 be incredibly fast on ios 17, but by ios 18, you would notice some lag if you really focus enough, it's suddel, that's why you wouldn't notice unless if you're looking for it, I had an iphone 8 for 4 years, and it stayed with ios 11.3.1 all the while and I never complained about performance or battery life.
about the scratching, honestly I'm in a really big delemma. On one hand, it worries me that it might drop resale value, and I just don't like having the idea I paid for a $1300 phone that got scratched quickly, on the other, I tried hard to notice anything with my nails and the phone feels fine, that could just mean the differences are visual, I'm not sure. But that's also kinda an issue, if in 2 or 3 years the phone had a lot of scratchs, I went to apple and did trade in, will that drop the value even if it's not my fault?
kinda want to return it and take another color or something. But the setup was painful to be completely honest and I just don't want to go through it again, we have a lot of face scanning important apps, like a govrnment app and a banking app, and setting it up was a pain, not mentioning esim, which requires me to contact the carrier and possiblly do another face scan or something.
Downplaying issues
I don't think that the widespread launch day reports of round MagSafe scratches made by individual people as well as multiple news outlets have anything to do with the edges of the camera bump, so while I do respect people's freedom to believe whatever they wish, I draw a line when it comes to preaching. Therefore if you believe that the scratch problem is being overblown feel free to act accordingly, but at least don't try to dogmatize your personal opinions when your notorious lack of research makes you prone to spread misinformation.
@ João Santos
It does have to do with that camera bump.
This guy explains the problem well but it is really only a problem with the colored phones not the silver.
https://youtu.be/KrOBzFwVzwA?si=f15pkW0rdKUYYvOK
I’m running an iPhone SE through generation and an iPhone 15 wit
I don’t think Apple is slowing down older devices. If anything, my iPhone SE third generation is running just as well but I OS 26 and it was iOS 18. That’s why I was a performance of it. The iPhone 15 I just got in August so I don’t think that’s even running any different either because that’s still an older phone and I haven’t noticed any performance differences on that. I think Apple used to have some issues but they don’t do it anymore as far as I can tell.
Misinformation is the denial
The problem is that the video only focuses on the camera bump, whereas the reports are actually mostly about scratches left by MagSafe chargers, therefore the video cannot in any way be used to deny any of the reports, and any attempts to downplay the issue based on that video alone are not logically sound as both problems can be logically true at the same time. That video gives me a bit of confidence about the silver model though, since there's a chance that it might not actually have any anodized paint at all because as I mentioned silver is the natural color of aluminum, and thus the silver models might be completely immune to these scratches..
As for the scratches, I am no chemist, but in my head it does make some sense that rubbing something over an anodized paint coupled with a relatively strong magnetic field might loosen the magnetic bonds that hold the paint, potentially causing it to peel off and produce the reported round-shaped scratches that people observed at Apple Stores shortly after their launch day openings.
Singer Girl
Lucky girl. Some have issues. My is VO stopping on middle of reading notification. It has become more consistent with 26.