Apple iPhone 17 Review

In the past fewer years, the basal iPhone has been pushed to the sidelines arsenic Apple reserved the flashiest upgrades for the Pro models. This time, against the redesigned Pro and caller Air, the spread appeared adjacent wider. Except, portion the caller iPhone 17 looks the aforesaid arsenic before, it not lone catches up connected past year’s Pro additions, but besides goes toe-to-toe with the 17 Pro successful much ways than one.

The iPhone 17 brings respective long-overdue features that were missing connected its predecessor and person been disposable connected fund Android phones for generations. Most notably, the surface present has a adaptable refresh rate, which means it’s smoother and tin ever stay on. Paired with different quality-of-life upgrades, similar faster charging and a smarter and sharper selfie camera, this year’s entry-level iPhone feels acold much premium than ever, and astatine the aforesaid $799 starting price, an fantabulous worth among the champion smartphones you tin buy.

Apple iPhone 17 – Design and Build

Design is the 1 facet that’s a changeless reminder that the iPhone 17 is the basal variant of Apple’s 2025 lineup. Unlike the Air and the Pro, the iPhone 17’s exterior is astir indistinguishable from the 16. The 2 cameras connected the backmost are inactive laid retired vertically connected the apical near corner, and the assemblage is composed of the aforesaid brushed metallic sides sandwiched betwixt a glossy beforehand solid and a matte rear one.

Look closer, however, and determination are a fistful of giveaways. The iPhone 17 is simply a hairsbreadth taller, courtesy of the larger screen, and a interaction heavier. Because of the thinner bezels up front, though, this bump up successful size doesn’t impact its ergonomics, and it continues to beryllium a comfy signifier origin for astir people. I bash wish, though, that Apple had figured retired a mode to marque it little wobbly erstwhile lying connected a level surface. I’m not a instrumentality of the caller colour options, either, which are not arsenic punchy arsenic before.

One different quality is that the solid implicit the show is present stronger, and arsenic per Apple, 3 times much resistant to scratches. That seems to lucifer my acquisition – erstwhile I dropped the 17 connected a hard surface, it came retired unscathed.

While unchanged, the iPhone 17 looks cleanable and charming, but I bash anticipation Apple updates the plan adjacent year.

Apple iPhone 17 – Display

As an iPhone 16 user, the iPhone 17’s surface felt similar a important step-up. While it has the aforesaid crisp solution arsenic before, it’s present bigger astatine 6.3 inches, and since the bezels person been slimmed down further, watching contented feels much immersive. It besides gains a higher 120Hz refresh rate, making mundane operations, similar scrolling and playing compatible games, acold smoother.

Even though it seems similar a cosmetic upgrade, the 120Hz surface makes a immense quality successful day-to-day experience. Previously, erstwhile I returned to the iPhone 16 aft spending days with a 120Hz-capable phone, its show felt similar a relic and conscionable not arsenic amusive to use.

More importantly, the surface tin little the refresh complaint down to 1Hz to sphere artillery life, and enable, astatine agelong last, an always-on lockscreen – an quality that’s remained exclusive to the Pro for the past 4 years. In this mode, erstwhile you fastener the phone, it dims the surface and continues to amusement you the time, notifications, widgets, and wallpaper. This chopped down however often I unlocked my phone, arsenic I could conscionable glimpse astatine the clip and different accusation without picking it up portion it’s connected my desk.

The 1 diagnostic that I didn’t expect to admit arsenic overmuch arsenic I did was the screen’s caller anti-reflective coating. Coupled with the improved max brightness of 3000 nits, the iPhone 17’s surface present matches its Pro peers and is overmuch amended for speechmaking outdoors nether nonstop sunlight.

Apple iPhone 17 – Software

The iPhone 17 ships with iOS 26, which overhauls the software’s interface with a caller plan connection called Liquid Glass. It replicates the “optical qualities of glass,” bringing translucent elements that refract airy and colors beneath them and respond playfully to your input. I wasn’t sold connected iOS 26’s look erstwhile it archetypal arrived, but implicit time, I’ve travel to admit however entertaining it is to operate. I besides similar that successful definite ways, it makes the UI much practical, specified arsenic relocating the Settings app’s hunt barroom to the screen’s bottom.

What’s surprising, though, is that iOS 26 doesn’t dramatically upgrade the iPhone’s AI tools. Siri, successful particular, inactive feels similar it’s stuck successful a pre-AI epoch and redirects the much analyzable queries to ChatGPT, which tin instrumentality aggregate steps. AI editing successful the Photos app, too, isn’t arsenic almighty arsenic Google’s oregon Samsung’s counterparts, and struggles to erase objects from analyzable scenes.

The 2 highlights from my iOS 26 acquisition were the caller telephone screening tools. With Hold Assist, for example, the iPhone waits successful enactment for you connected a lawsuit enactment telephone and notifies you erstwhile the unrecorded cause is ready. Similarly, the “Call Screening” bot answers chartless callers connected your behalf, and erstwhile it collects details, similar their sanction and crushed for calling, it lets you know, and you tin determine whether you privation to prime it up. While these additions are not revolutionary and person been disposable connected competitors for years, they are useful to have, and I relied connected them astatine slightest a mates of times a day.

Apple iPhone 17 – Performance and Battery Life

Even aft a year, my iPhone 16 has hardly shown signs of slowing down, but that hasn’t stopped Apple from equipping the iPhone 17 with an upgraded A19 chip.

The caller processor isn’t each excessively antithetic from the 16’s A18, barring a mates of exceptions. Its GPU is outfitted with Neural Accelerators to boost AI tasks, and it shows successful real-life testing: the iPhone 17 takes little clip to process AI queries, similar cleaning up photos and analyzing scenes via Visual Intelligence. Though it has the aforesaid 8GB of RAM, the basal retention has been doubled to 256GB.

In addition, the iPhone 17 runs connected a caller Apple-designed wireless chip, the N1, which enables amended Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, arsenic good arsenic improves the show of features similar Personal Hotspot and AirDrop. These upgrades were sorely needed, arsenic some AirDrop and hotspot, astatine times, refused to enactment connected the iPhone 16. The 17 besides gains the Pro model’s dual‑frequency GPS for ensuring determination services enactment amended wrong buildings.

Apart from that, you’d beryllium hard-pressed to find a task that fazes the iPhone 17. In day-to-day use, from multitasking to scrolling resource-heavy websites, the A19 ran without breaking a sweat. Gaming show isn’t arsenic beardown arsenic the Pro's, and though it tin smoothly tally the bulk of games connected the App Store, immoderate of the heavier ones, similar Assassin's Creed Mirage, tin stutter astatine the highest graphic settings. The deficiency of a Pro’s vapor enclosure cooling strategy was apparent, too, arsenic the iPhone 17 routinely got overheated and uncomfortable to clasp during longer gaming sessions and wireless charging.

Speaking of which, faster 40W wired charging has trickled down from the Pro to the iPhone 17 arsenic good this year. The iPhone 17 present takes conscionable 20 minutes to spell from bare to 50%, compared to the iPhone 16’s 30 minutes. Wireless charging, connected the different hand, has mostly remained identical. You tin apical it up from zero to 50% successful 30 minutes connected a MagSafe/Qi2 wireless charger.

Thanks to the A19’s improved ratio and a somewhat larger battery, the iPhone 17 besides has longer endurance. On a azygous charge, it tin comfortably past a time and a small more, with astir 5 hours of surface time.

Apple iPhone 17 – Cameras

The iPhone 17 inherits its predecessor’s 48-megapixel main camera, but swaps retired the 12-megapixel ultrawide sensor for a higher-res 48-megapixel one. In astir scenarios, the iPhone 17 captures crisp and natural-looking photos. While its HDR isn’t arsenic assertive arsenic the Google Pixel's, it produces a balanced dynamic scope that handles agleam backgrounds well, without unnecessarily overexposing the frame. I didn’t announcement a full batch of quality successful the ultrawide camera’s quality, but it shows up successful low-light scenes, wherever the higher-res lens comes successful useful to amended seizure details astir the edges.

At night, the iPhone 17’s camera still, unfortunately, struggles with moving subjects and indoor lighting, wherever images deficiency sharpness and colour accuracy. More importantly, against agleam light, it inactive annoyingly produces flares successful shots. No dedicated telephoto lens either, yet, dissimilar Google, which added 1 to the Pixel 10 this year. Apple’s “optical-quality” 2x crop, though acceptable for speedy zoomed-in snaps, is nary lucifer for the extent oregon item you get from a carnal lens.

The upgraded 18-megapixel selfie camera, however, is different story. It present sports a quadrate sensor, which allows it to sprout a wider tract of presumption -- perfect for radical selfies. Its AI besides automatically detects erstwhile much radical articulation the framework and expands the tract of view, similar rotating from representation to landscape, without forcing you to play digit gymnastics. The summation of Center Stage is simply a invited change, too, and connected video calls, the iPhone 17’s camera volition way your question to support you successful frame.

On the iPhone 17, you tin besides grounds videos connected the beforehand and rear cameras simultaneously, albeit it limits you to 30fps. It’s a bully enactment trick, and my friends and I had amusive with it astatine a sports event, but since then, I mostly forgot astir it. It volition apt entreaty much to nonrecreational contented creators.

The Camera Control fastener is inactive here, too. Apple hasn’t made immoderate modifications to its flimsy mechanism, truthful I proceed to conscionable usage it to unfastened the camera app and ne'er to really power it.