Apple iPhone 17 Pro review: Stunning design, and a camera system built for creators
The iPhone 17 Pro’s A19 Pro chip delivers smoother, cooler performance under heavy loads. Picture: Noel Campion.
Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro represents one of the most significant leaps in performance, durability, and camera technology the company has made in years. The design feels fresh, it’s powerful, and unapologetically Pro, but is it the right upgrade for you?
After years of iteration, Apple has completely redefined the iPhone Pro aesthetic. The iPhone 17 Pro moves away from titanium and returns to an all-aluminium unibody design. It might sound like a step backwards, but in practice, it’s a masterstroke. The aerospace-grade alloy conducts heat far better than titanium, allowing Apple to integrate a new vapour-chamber cooling system directly into the chassis. This results in sustained performance under load without the hot-hand feel some previous iPhones suffered from. That said, I loved the titanium on the 16 Pro, which I’ve been using for the last year. It’s unbelievably robust and stylish.
Despite being thicker and heavier than before, the 17 Pro is as premium as you’d expect from Apple. The precision-machined finish and anodised colour layer give it an industrial edge. The new “Cosmic Orange” option is particularly striking, but I’ve been rocking the blue colourway for the last few weeks, and it’s a refreshing break from Apple grey. The design also allows for a larger battery and more efficient thermal dissipation, making this the coolest and longest-lasting Pro model yet.
The ceramic shield now protects both the front and back, providing four times better crack resistance than the glass used previously. Apple has even improved scratch protection with a new seven-layer anti-reflective coating.
The iPhone 17 Pro’s camera bump has become a defining part of its design rather than just a technical feature. The raised, neatly arranged lenses give it a bold and modern look. It shows Apple’s focus on powerful photography while keeping a premium, polished feel.
While I never had any complaints about the comfort of the 16 Pro in the hand, the 17 Pro feels even better thanks to its more rounded edges.
The 6.3-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display remains one of the best on the market, but this year it’s been fine-tuned. With a peak brightness of 3,000 nits and a new anti-reflective coating, it’s far more usable outdoors, even under direct sunlight. More importantly, thanks to the improved cooling system, the display no longer dims aggressively when it gets hot.
As before, you get Apple’s 120Hz ProMotion adaptive refresh rate, which can scale all the way down to 1Hz for static content. Scrolling and animations feel fluid, and there’s a noticeable improvement in responsiveness.
Another welcome addition is PWM flicker reduction, an accessibility feature that reduces the screen’s flicker sensitivity, ideal for users prone to eyestrain. Combined with support for HDR10 and Dolby Vision, the iPhone 17 Pro’s panel delivers deep contrast, punchy colours, and an overall cinematic viewing experience.
If there’s one reason to go for the 17 Pro, it’s the camera system. All three rear cameras now feature 48-megapixel Fusion sensors, delivering higher resolution, better light capture and vastly improved detail across all focal lengths.
The main wide camera produces crisp, balanced images with accurate colours and a realistic dynamic range. Apple’s processing remains conservative compared to so many other brands, and I love it. It’s natural rather than overly saturated, and they’re not obsessed with eliminating noise at the expense of detail and a painterly look.
The ultra-wide camera benefits from the same resolution bump, delivering sharper night shots and naturally lower noise in dimly lit conditions.
The headline upgrade on paper is the new 48MP telephoto camera, offering 4x optical zoom at 100mm and up to 8x hybrid zoom at 200mm. While Apple markets this as “optical quality,” it’s technically an intelligent crop from the main 48MP sensor rather than an actual periscope lens. The result is impressive detail, though not flawless at higher zoom levels.
Comparing it to the 5x optical zoom of the 16 Pro, there’s little difference at a glance when viewed side by side. However, on closer inspection, sharpness and detail are vastly improved up to 25x — a range the older model can’t match. The 17 Pro also extends digital zoom to 40x. It’s the most versatile camera setup Apple has ever produced, effectively giving you eight focal lengths in your pocket.
Other improvements include faster autofocus, particularly in low light, and a shorter minimum focus distance, allowing closer macro shots with less vignetting and slightly better edge clarity.
Video remains unmatched. You can shoot in up to 4K at 120fps in Dolby Vision HDR or Apple’s new ProRes RAW format for professional-grade post-production. Features such as genlock support for multi-camera synchronisation and open-gate capture for more flexible framing make it clear that Apple is targeting the Pro models at video creators rather than everyday users who just want a simple point-and-shoot experience. Thankfully, both worlds coexist — whether you’re a casual shooter or a professional videographer, the iPhone 17 Pro has you covered.
The new 18MP Centre Stage selfie camera, featuring a unique square sensor, is equally impressive. When shooting in portrait orientation, there’s no need to rotate the phone for a landscape shot — the square sensor captures the same level of detail in either orientation. It delivers sharp, well-balanced shots with accurate colours and reliable autofocus. The wider field of view makes it perfect for group selfies, and portrait shots maintain consistent skin tones.
Powering everything is the new A19 Pro chip, a six-core CPU paired with a six-core GPU, each featuring built-in neural accelerators. While the raw numbers don’t sound drastically higher than before, the efficiency gains and improved cooling make a tangible difference.
During my few weeks of testing, the iPhone 17 Pro handled everything effortlessly. It never got uncomfortably hot, even during 3D benchmarking stress tests or long video captures. Benchmarks show sustained performance up to 40% better than the iPhone 16 Pro, but in day-to-day use, it’s the fluidity and responsiveness that really impress.
The phone feels quicker and more stable, likely due to refined power management and iOS-level optimisation rather than brute-force performance. Unless you’re coming from a much older iPhone, the difference might feel subtle, but it’s undeniably smoother.
Even with its brighter display and powerful internals, battery endurance is superb. In mixed use, I comfortably managed a full day and a half of moderate-to-heavy use. That’s partly thanks to the new A19 Pro’s improved power efficiency and a slightly larger battery. In the US, the iPhone 17 Pro is eSIM-only, which allows for a larger 4,252 mAh battery. Elsewhere, we get both an eSIM and a nano SIM tray, but the battery capacity drops slightly to 3,988 mAh.
Charging speeds remain modest by Android standards, but Apple has refined the process for better thermal management. Wireless charging is faster this year, but actual speeds will depend on the charger you use.
The iPhone 17 Pro ships with iOS 26, which Apple says is its most ambitious software update in years. The new Liquid Glass interface introduces rounded icons, semi-transparent layers and a softer aesthetic that feels modern without losing the iOS identity. It’s also the first iOS version built with Apple Intelligence deeply integrated, offering generative AI features like text rewriting, smart photo cleanup, and context-aware Siri suggestions.
The improved control centre layout and widget customisation bring a refreshing degree of flexibility. There’s also tight integration with Final Cut Pro Camera, Blackmagic Camera, and third-party creative apps that leverage the iPhone’s pro-level capabilities.
Apple promises at least five years of software support, so longevity is guaranteed.
The iPhone 17 Pro is a powerhouse of performance, endurance and creativity. Its refined design, outstanding camera system and exceptional thermal performance make it the ultimate iPhone experience, though many users may be perfectly happy with cheaper models.
From €1,339 Apple.ie
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