iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. iPhone 16 Pro Max Spec Compared: Big Apple Battle

The iPhone 17 Pro Max is right here, packing quite a lot of upgrades from the cameras to the design. However how does it examine with its predecessor, the iPhone 16 Pro Max? Let’s take an in depth have a look at the specs and discover out. Remember the fact that specs do not inform the entire story so be certain to take a look at CNET’s ongoing protection of the iPhone 17 Professional Max — as effectively all the pieces else from Apple’s “awe-dropping” event — for extra info. 

Watch this: iPhone 17 Professional Arms-On: Greater Worth and Newish Design

03:41

Do not miss any of our unbiased tech content material and lab-based critiques. Add CNET as a most popular Google supply.

iPhone 17 Professional Max: Design and show

Each telephones are big, with 6.9-inch shows that will likely be equally troublesome to wrap your arms round and can stretch out your denims pockets in simply the identical means. The 2 telephones have largely the identical dimensions. They each use Apple’s Tremendous Retina XDR panels, so we do not actually anticipate to see any noticeable variations in general high quality right here, and each telephones have the Dynamic Island cutout on the prime. 

The 17 Professional Max’s design has had some large adjustments, although, with a brand new digital camera bar that stretches throughout the width of the again, and the cellphone is created from aluminum as a substitute of titanium. Apple says this design dissipates warmth 20 instances higher than the titanium design of the earlier mannequin, helped too by the brand new vapor chamber, which makes use of de-ionized water to actively cool the cellphone whereas in use. Regardless of that, the 17 Professional Max is barely 4 grams heavier than the 16 Professional Max. Will you ever discover 4 grams extra? Nearly definitely not. 

I suppose it isn’t a spec, however I do suppose it is price calling out the 17 Professional Max’s new cosmic orange color — like it or hate it, it is definitely a vibrant choice, and I personally love seeing a little bit of enjoyable being injected again into our telephones. I would personally decide it over one other shade of boring grey.

The 17 Professional Max has Ceramic Protect 2 on the back and front, which Apple says is 3 times extra scratch-resistant than earlier than. Each telephones are IP68 water resistant.  

iPhone 17 Professional Max: Processor and storage

The 17 Professional Max makes use of Apple’s newest A19 Professional chip, which the corporate reckons is considerably quicker, particularly for graphically intense duties like gaming, whereas its new neural accelerators are designed to assist it deal with AI duties with higher effectivity. The A18 Professional chip within the 16 Professional Max was already one thing of a beast, so it will be thrilling to see how these two carry out each on benchmarks and in real-world use. 

Whereas each telephones have a base capability of 256GB, the brand new 17 Professional Max can now be specced up with a whopping 2TB of storage. You will pay handsomely for the privilege at $1,999 for that configuration, however should you plan to movie plenty of ProRes Uncooked video with the cellphone, then it is likely to be price it. There’s additionally the choice to connect an exterior SSD when filming at that high quality.

iPhone 17 Professional Max: Cameras

Each telephones pack the standard trio of normal zoom, ultrawide and telephoto cameras, however the 17 Professional Max makes some key upgrades. Most notably within the telephoto digital camera, which now has an optical zoom vary as much as 8x, which is an enormous step up over the fastened 5x zoom of the 16 Professional Max. Its sensor is bodily larger too, and its decision has gone from a meager 12 megapixels on the 16 Professional Max to a way more beneficiant 48 megapixels on the 17 Professional Max. Good. 

All three rear cameras at the moment are 48 megapixels, though there are fewer {hardware} variations on the opposite cameras. 

The 17 Professional does have some upgraded video expertise, nonetheless. This consists of its skill to shoot in ProRes Uncooked, which captures unprocessed footage with none software program changes like sharpening to be able to give a lot higher flexibility in post-production. ProRes Uncooked is not on the 16 Professional Max, so it is presumably demanding sufficient that it requires the additional energy from the brand new A19 chip to handle it.

The 17 Professional Max additionally helps twin seize, which lets you movie with the entrance and rear cameras on the identical time if that is one thing you suppose you’d significantly need to do. Each telephones can shoot 4K video at as much as 120 frames per second, and if you wish to sluggish issues down much more, they may shoot 240 frames per second in 1,080p. 

The entrance selfie digital camera — or the Centre Stage digital camera, as Apple now calls it — has seen a lift as much as 18 megapixels on the 17 Professional Max, together with a brand new sensor design that enables for vertical or horizontal cropping and higher digital stabilization in video. 

iPhone 17 Professional Max: Battery and charging

Apple does not give particular battery specs, nevertheless it has mentioned that the iPhone 17 Professional Max has the largest battery ever seen inside an iPhone. That should imply it is larger than the battery within the 16 Professional Max, regardless that we do not know its precise capability. And that is smart as Apple reckons you will get a further 4 hours of video playback from the brand new mannequin. How they really fare in on a regular basis use stays to be seen. 

Apple additionally says that the 17 Professional Max will cost quicker. Its 40-watt wired charging velocity takes it from empty to 50% full in 20 minutes, a big increase over the 35 minutes the 16 Professional Max would take to do the identical. 

So these are a few of the key variations — and similarities — between the brand new iPhone 17 Professional Max and final yr’s iPhone 16 Professional Max. The upgrades will not really feel big should you’re already utilizing an iPhone 16 Professional, so these of you already rocking final yr’s mannequin virtually definitely will not must improve right here, however should you’re on a lot older handsets you then’ll positively discover the distinction within the cameras and energy — and, yeah, it’s also possible to have a brilliant orange Professional iPhone now, in order that’s one thing.