The Most Un-Jony Ive iPhones Apple Has Ever Made

I felt a way of déjà vu as I picked up the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max—in Cosmic Orange, in fact—on the “Awe Dropping” Apple Event and tried to pin down what about these new Apple smartphones felt so acquainted. Then it hit me as I left the Steve Jobs Theater in a drained daze final night time: the iPhone 17 Professionals remind me of the MacBook Pros with M1 Pro and M1 Max chips.

Like these first “professional” MacBooks, the iPhone 17 Professionals are literally constructed for professionals. It’s not simply “professional” for advertising and marketing. The iPhone 17 Professionals are barely thicker and heavier, have the longest-lasting batteries of any iPhones ever, the very best cameras, and are an entire lot extra highly effective than the iPhone 16 Professionals. You are feeling all of the pro-ness as quickly because the brick slabs are in your arms. All the things, together with the massive digicam bump or plateau, screams “skilled,” similar to these 2021 MacBook Professionals. And they need to as a result of Apple lastly prioritized operate over kind, similar to these MacBook Professionals, which introduced again the SD card slot and MagSafe charging charging. Professional customers need an uncompromised gadget—or at the least the closest to it—and Apple delivers it this yr.

Not like the iPhone Air that I couldn’t assist however ogle with my jaw on the ground, the iPhone 17 Professionals elicited much less awe from me. In each means, they’re beefed-up variations of the iPhone Professionals that got here earlier than them. The aluminum unibody design has a Ceramic Protect cutout on the bottom for wi-fi charging, and the digicam plateau stretches throughout the entire high third. It’s not probably the most stunning iPhone design (that award nonetheless goes to the iPhone 4 or iPhone X, for my part), nevertheless it’s purposeful. I even seen that the antenna traces that minimize into the facet of the frames now bleed across the digicam plateau. It’s similar to the antenna traces that wrap across the show on the Apple Watch Ultras. Once more, purposeful design first—this supposedly improves mobile and wi-fi connectivity, in keeping with Apple.

I’ve touched the Cosmic Orange iPhone 17 Professional. Right here’s your first look #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/HUiB8dxC8l

— Ray Wong (@raywongy) September 9, 2025

Even with a heftier design, the iPhone 17 Professionals don’t really feel cumbersome. The truth is, the iPhone 17 Professional Max—the Professional Max mannequin has all the time been too huge and heavy for me—felt lighter and thinner than it really is. For the primary time ever, I felt I may use the iPhone 17 Professional Max each day and my arms wouldn’t damage from gripping it like an previous Recreation Boy. The curved metallic body positively helps to make the iPhone 17 Professionals really feel thinner than they are surely. Its dimension nonetheless isn’t nice if you happen to care about pocketability, although.

Similar to I mentioned in my iPhone Air hands-on, I’ll have to check the iPhone 17 Professionals to see how properly the efficiency and battery life are, and the way good the cameras are. That being mentioned, the thicker designs additionally meant Apple was in a position to enhance the thermals for sustained efficiency when the A19 Professional chip is pushed exhausting for 3D cell gaming and GPU-intensive duties like capturing RAW pictures and movies (and enhancing them). If that’s not prioritizing operate first over kind, I don’t know what’s. Who remembers the darkish days when the thermals on Intel-equipped MacBook Professionals had been so dangerous? Apple, post-Jony Ive, appears to provide a sh*t about this now, and I’m all for it.

The Middle Stage digicam is definitely my new favourite digicam characteristic. The flexibility to carry the iPhone 17 Professionals vertically and take horizontal selfies (works for video, too) is a game-changer if you happen to ask me. No extra contorting my hand right into a claw to carry my iPhone sideways to shoot a selfie or vlog. I additionally actually favored the “Twin Seize” characteristic, which helps you to report video from each the rear and entrance cameras. The entrance digicam seems as a picture-in-picture field which you could transfer to any nook of the display. It’s going to be nice for response movies.

I additionally did a desk wobble take a look at. Right here’s how that went:

iPhone 17 Professional desk wobble take a look at! Does it go? Let’s discover out! #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/jhUv1zxR3K

— Ray Wong (@raywongy) September 9, 2025

iPhone 17 hands-on

The iPhone 17 was the least thrilling mannequin for me, and I spent the least period of time enjoying with it. It’s a simple replace with an A19 chip, a bigger 6.3-inch 120Hz show, a brand new dual-camera system with twin 48-megapixel important and ultrawide lenses, and a few new colours. The Sage inexperienced colorway is my favourite of the brand new bunch, however additionally they lack the vibrancy of the colours from the iPhone 16 sequence.

There’s actually not a lot to say in regards to the iPhone 17… it appears like an iPhone 16 Professional, with the identical dimension display, however with an aluminum body. It’s light-weight, however not the thinnest or thinnest within the iPhone lineup. It’s the everyperson’s iPhone, and I don’t foresee that altering.

The most effective half might be that the iPhone 17 nonetheless begins at $799, now with 256GB of storage.

Additionally touched the iPhone 17 on this Sage coloration. Right here’s your first have a look at the Middle Stage digicam characteristic too #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/20n1KSYZNX

— Ray Wong (@raywongy) September 9, 2025