Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max review

That middle child iPhone Air feels like something Steve Jobs would’ve unveiled, light and simple enough to win hearts. But the 17 Pro Max? This is Apple flexing its engineering chops in ways the 16 Pro Max flirted with but never quite nailed. The Rs. 15,000 price gap between Air and Pro Max may not look massive, but it’s the difference between “nice phone” and “do-it-all weapon.” And for once, the Pro Max genuinely earns that title.

Cosmic Orange shouldn’t work, yet it does. Out on the street, it’s outselling every other shade three-to-one. Apparently, even spreadsheet warriors and camera nerds like a pop of colour. It also makes the phone instantly recognisable, like a traffic cone with taste. But let’s talk feel. Gone is the titanium frame of the 16 Pro Max. Instead, Apple’s gone with a unibody aluminium build that’s heavier in density but softer in hand. Curvier edges and a seamless back make it glide, and that wider “camera plateau” makes for a natural anchor point for your finger. Compared to the 16 Pro Max, even the slight increase in girth and weight vanishes in everyday use. And if you’re brave enough to go caseless, the two-tone finish from Ceramic Shield glass on the rear gives it a sharp silhouette.

Apple is bragging about an anti-reflective layer on the new Ceramic Shield 2 glass. Honestly? The change is subtle. What you do notice is the screen’s blistering 3000 nits of peak brightness, up from 2000 nits on the 16 Pro Max. This thing now competes with LED billboards for outdoor readability. Other tweaks include a repositioned lower speaker, antenna bands are shifted, and the LiDAR + flash modules have new spacing. Nothing dramatic, but it shows Apple’s obsessive refinement. India still avoids the eSIM-only drama and gets physical SIM support with a slightly smaller battery than the U.S. model, but still plenty at 4800mAh.

Apple has finally fitted a vapour chamber for cooling. That’s right, the same kind of cooling gaming laptops brag about. It’s a custom, laser-welded design with deionised water, and it keeps the A19 Pro chip cooler and faster for longer. Where the 16 Pro Max would throttle after prolonged gaming, the 17 Pro Max just keeps humming. Throw in 12GB of RAM, and this phone feels geared for the long haul. 

Benchmarks? Apple claims 40% faster CPU/GPU, and while that’s not obvious in Instagram scrolling, fire up Genshin Impact and you’ll see smoother sustained play. Image Playground AI stickers now pop out a second or two quicker than on the 16 Pro, but the real shocker is AirDrop. Thanks to the new N1 chip (handling WiFi 7, Bluetooth 6, Thread, UWB, you name it), a 1.5GB file zipped across in three seconds flat. Compared to the 16 Pro Max, day-to-day performance doesn’t feel like a revolution. But push it into video editing, AI workflows, or heat-heavy gaming, and the Pro Max’s extra muscle finally flexes.

As more AI features trickle their way into the mainstream, this added horsepower will come in handy. Live Translation is one such real-world use case and during my test call of French-to-English in real time, it did manage to capture the gist of the conversation with a little delay that wasn’t too bothersome. The AirPods Pro 3 pipe the translated audio right into your ears, but the iPhone 17 Pro Max also displays a transcript of that translation just to be sure. 

This year, the big story is the 48MP telephoto with 4x and 8x “optical-like” zoom. Against the 16 Pro Max’s 5x tele, the difference is clear. The 17 Pro Max’s 4x shots are sharper and less noisy, while the 8x, in good daylight, is usable without looking like a pixelated mess. Indoors, you’ll see some computational artefacts, but outdoors, it’s a real upgrade. On the video side, ProRes RAW with open-gate support is now in your pocket. Filmmakers using DaVinci or Blackmagic will care. Everyone else? Maybe not, but it’s proof this iPhone isn’t just for selfies.

Even the regular wide and ultrawide lenses feel improved, with deeper saturation and better punch without Samsung-style neon overkill. But the real surprise? The selfie cam. It’s now 18MP (up from 12), with ultra-stabilisation, smart Centre Stage framing, and the party trick of flipping to landscape mode when more people squeeze in. It feels like Apple remembered that the “front camera” is what most people actually use daily. 

Dual Capture video (front + rear cams simultaneously recording) tops out at 2.8K/30fps, but it’s executed neatly as a single file with a movable PIP window. The point-and-shoot ability is unrivalled and the iPhone 17 Pro Max just ensures this edge isn’t lost. iOS26’s glassy redesign and new arrangement of options might have a bit of a learning curve, but there’s no denying how effective each of the seven focal lengths can be in the right hands. Portrait mode segmentation keeps improving every year and with the granular control you get over the blur in edits, there are tons of editing options possible. Photographic styles bring Lightroom style curves to everyday users and can inject a whole load of life and personality into even ordinary images. Go beyond the 8x optical quality zoom though, and things quickly disintegrate, and the 40x digital zoom isn’t a patch on Google’s 100X ProRes Zoom on the Pixel 10 Pro. 

Here’s where the Pro Max stops being iterative. The 4800mAh cell, Qi2 wireless at 25W, and wired charging at 40W finally put iPhone charging in the modern era. Unlike the 16 Pro Max, you can now top up 10% in 10 minutes and not feel like your phone’s going to double as a handwarmer. In my mixed-use week which included video editing, photography, socials, email, YouTube, I consistently ended the day with more than 10% battery left. That’s something I haven’t been able to say since ever. For once, the “all-day iPhone” claim doesn’t feel like marketing.

Yes, it’s the best iPhone ever, but this year, that phrase actually means something. The iPhone 17 Pro Max isn’t just the “incremental upgrade” Apple gets accused of year after year. It’s the most well-rounded Pro Max we’ve had with a brighter screen, better cooling, faster AirDrop, legit telephoto gains, a better selfie cam, and battery life that inspires all-day confidence. Against the iPhone 16 Pro Max, it’s not a must-upgrade for casual users. But if you live in Apple’s “Pro” world of gaming, filmmaking, content creation, this is the iPhone where the Pro badge finally feels earned. Apple Intelligence and Siri’s long-overdue reboot remain the elephant in the room. But until then, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is the most comprehensive iPhone ever built.