The iPhone 17 Pro Max is Apple’s top handset for 2025, and what a phone this is, packing more power than ever thanks to not just a new and top-end A19 Pro chipset, but also more RAM at 12GB, and a vapour chamber to keep it cool – which is something you won’t find in previous iPhones, and which allows it to retain peak performance for longer.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max also has a new 2TB storage capacity at the top end, which dwarfs what you can get with most Android phones, and it has some new cameras, the highlight of which is a 48MP telephoto camera capable of 4x optical zoom and 8x optical quality zoom. That replaces a 12MP 5x zoom camera on the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
That’s not the only camera upgrade though, as this also has an 18MP front-facing camera in place of its predecessor’s 12MP one, while the other two excellent iPhone 16 Pro Max lenses return here – specifically a 48MP wide snapper (also capable of 2x optical quality zoom) and a 48MP ultra-wide one (with a 120-degree field of view).
The iPhone 17 Pro Max also has remarkably good battery life, with Apple claiming it can be used to view up to 37 hours of video before it needs a charge – that’s up from an already impressive 33 hours with the iPhone 16 Pro Max. And the new phone charges faster too, reaching 50% in just around a 20-minute charge with a 40W charger.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max also has a new design, with the camera block on the back having a totally different appearance, freshening things up.
Plus, it has a superb 6.9-inch 1320 x 2868 Super Retina XDR OLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, 460 pixels per inch, and a high peak brightness of 3,000 nits.
Elsewhere, you’re also getting the same superb water and dust resistance that we’ve come to expect from iPhones, along with three times better scratch resistance on the screen, and handy features like Face ID, an Action button, and a Camera Control button. As you’d expect, the iPhone 17 Pro Max also runs iOS 26 at launch, so its software is up to date.
