The best iPhone value in years

Basic design

Take the iPhone 16 design, extend it to some extent, and you will get iPhone 17. This may seem harsh, but that’s true: IPHOne 17 is 5.89 inches for 5.81 inches iPhone 16. It is unlikely that you feel heavier 0.24 ounces, either; I was not.

If you hope for more material change, you will be disappointed. I don’t think it is worth take off because iPhone 17 feels comfortable in the hand. Most people will not care because they will slap more.

Apple holds a kind of aluminum and curved sides that melts in the cap and posterior glass. The back has a vertical grain of pills for double cameras. What you cannot see with the naked eye is to resist the improved scratching of the screen. Apple Scheield 2, a second -generation coverage with increased durability, which claims Apple 3X is more resistant to scratching than the first -generation ceramic shield screen of the first generation of iPhone 16. says Apple Ceramic Shield 2 says the glow. It does not remove reflections from what I can see, and any decrease in glow is the minimum at best. However, I will resist the increased scratching. I asked Apple if Ceramic SHILD 2 now means that the keys, sand or pocket lint will not scratch them easily, but the company made it clear that durability is not a single example as there is an unfortunate contact with some rough organisms; It is time. Take this to what you want.

Self -colors, but if you ask me, I think the iPhone 17 colors are boring. Besides black and white, there are lavender, wise, and blue fog. Sage looks best for me, but it’s still silent green. I think it is time for Apple to restore red, coral or calm blue. Give the regular iPhone some spirit To stand out between iPhone Air and iPhone Pros.

More “professional” view

0.08 inches from the additional height means that Apple was able to press a slightly larger screen of 6.3 inches for a 6.1 -inch screen on the iPhone 16. This is the same screen as iPhone 17 Pro, with the same resolution, the same 3000 sets of peak external brightness, the same rate of “promotion” 120 Hz, and the display itself always. Finally, the regular iPhone chain of Apple is not installed at the update of 60 Hz.

For my eyes, there is no clear difference between the screen on iPhone 17 and 17 Pro. Super Retina XDR is brutal, and has excellent and wide width angles, and gets more than bright enough enough at home and abroad. I neglected to mention this in my country iPhone Air and Pros iPhone 17 reviewBut I really hope that Apple will include something closer to the “Aqua Touch 2.0 technology” in OnePlus 13 that makes the touch screen more responsive when there is a liquid on it or your fingers are wet. The lowest drop of water on iPhone 17 confuses the screen in thinking that you touch it when you are not.

Almost supportive performance

Unlike Android phones, the performance can take a great slowdown if the Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek, etc.) has problems in architecture or production, the APPLE SERIES from Apple is steadily improving year after year.

I have long stopped focusing a lot on artificial standards such as Geekbench 6, but only to see how much the iPhone 17 A19 chip is compared to A19 Pro in iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pros, I performed the CPU test. The results really shocked me. Using average three tests conducted on iPhone 17, iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 was 1.6 % stronger than air and 1.3 % less power than 17 Pro per tasks.

A19 Pro Chip advances before A19 for multiple applications, but not much: the air is 5 % stronger and 17 Pro is 9.48 % stronger than iPhone 17. I thought of certainty with GPU less (five instead of six) that iPhone 17 will be more powerful by a larger difference, but this does not seem to have been.

This is great news if you are worried about getting FOMO that there is no A19 Pro Chip in iPhone 17. But there is something else to consider: thermal and continuous performance. Compared to the positives of iPhone 17, which contains a steam room that keeps temperatures down and the heat spreads over the phone more uniform when GPU apps strongly, iPhone 17 becomes much more warm. If the atmosphere is very hot, it takes a little longer to calm down. In general, my iPhone 17 did not get at all, but if you plan to play 3D games like Genshin Effect Or photograph a lot of 4K video with the phone or either under the sun in hot environments, it may collide with the reputable “iPhone” sooner.

Camera of the lead stage legitimate

IPhone 17 also contains some solid camera upgrades. The dual rear camera is now a “Fusion” camera consisting of a 48 -megapixel main camera and now a high 48 -megapixel (higher than 12 megapixel on iPhone 16). The pictures look the same for me compared to the same shots taken with iPhone 16 Pro. Even the high shots look almost identical; Well, it’s a little brighter, but this is nothing asking the brightness scrolling bar in the image of images that cannot be treated easily. There is no phone lens on iPhone 17; If you want it, you will need to climb to Pros iPhone 17, which contains a 4X phone lens that can also be able to “8X” “light quality” shots. You can get the 2x “quality” lens from the main 48 -megapixel photo sensor, but it was already an advantage over the iPhone 16.

As I said in the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 PROS review, the top center camera is the largest upgrade for photography and video because Apple added a front camera for the first time to iPhone 4. The 18 -megapixel center center is a picture box sensor, it can take horizontal personal photos even if you hold the phone in general. You can also take vertical photos if you carry iPhone 17 horizontally. The feature also works to record video. It is a very great feature that everyone appreciates, not just Gen Z Tiktokers. The dual capture mode that records from the front and rear cameras is very enjoyable, especially for the reaction type videos.

Since iPhone 17 is not the iPhone “Pro”, it does not have the most advanced registration features in Pros iPhone 17, such as the Prorw shots, or PRORES for video, Apple Log 2 or Genlock. Slow video recording is limited to 1080 pixels at 240 frames per second compared to 4K at 120 frames per second. Finally, do not get the “studio quality” microphones in the 17 positives. I don’t think any of these “missing” features makes iPhone 17 are deals, but it seems that Apple could have guaranteed them if it wanted, unlike their display on high -end iPhone devices.

As I said in the Pros iPhone 17 review, I think the camera control is still largely lost. It exists, but it is not more useful than a shortcut to launch the camera application. I prefer greatly to shorten the camera on Android, which was something for more than a decade: a double -click on the power button.

More battery to Doomscroll

There will be no amount of battery life enough, but I will take more hours than a gene. In the case of iPhone 17, the battery life increased by 8 hours compared to the iPhone 16 – 30 hours against 22 hours (to play local video, which is how Apple measures the battery life). It is 3 hours lower than iPhone 17 Pro, which reaches 33 hours.

Using iPhone 17 as an ordinary person (because who is crazy enough to watch local video for 30 hours in a row), I found that iPhone 17 continued as long as the iPhone 16 Pro, which says Apple says up to 27 hours to play the video. I was given or taken, I managed to get out of the charger from 8 in the morning to 6 pm on one charge with leaving about 20 to 25 % in the tank. This is a great life in the battery and you can go easily two days using light.

More for the same money

If all this does not seem like good value enough, then what about poor storage (256 GB for 128 GB) against iPhone 16 – for the same $ 799? This is a good deal. Yes, inflation and all of that, but this still is a good deal for everything you get.

There are 300 dollars between iPhone 17 and 17 Pro this year, which is $ 100 more than last year. For most people, iPhone 17 contains more than enough, and an additional $ 300 can be placed or placed towards an accessory like New worth of $ 250 airPods Pro 3.

I couldn’t really find a lot of complaint on iPhone 17. IOS is iOS. If you don’t like the “walled” Apple garden, there is nothing new to report it here, because it is the same deal. Unfortunately, Apple Intelligence is still frustrating and we have to wait until next year to watch the new Siri Acting. If there is anything that should really put it out, I hope the USB-C Transport speed speeds are the fastest USB 3 on the iPhone 16 and 17 Pros.

If you have reached this point and you have nodded your head in all new things and do not feel a desire to jump to the 17 positives, congratulations, IPhone 17 may be suitable for you. If you still have the iPhone from recent years and it has no problems, just Update to iOS 26 ((Unless you really hate liquid glass). The best thing in iPhone is that it lasts for a long time and supports them Apple with annual software updates for at least five years, and safety updates for a few years yet. You can get a lot with the new iPhone 17, but you may also not need one if you have fine. For people who turn from Android – you will love or hate the Apple ecosystem and crawl.