The 5 biggest changes Apple made with the iPhone 17 Pro

The wait is over for another year. On Tuesday September 9, Apple lifted the lid on four new iPhone models including the iPhone Air, the thinnest smartphone Apple has ever made.

That £999 model was joined by the £799 regular iPhone 17, which as a base model iPhone gets a 120Hz refresh rate screen for the first time. That tech is now on every new iPhone, rather than just the Pros.

And two new Pros did Apple announce in the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max. Here are five things Apple changed with these new Pro phones compared to previous Pro versions.

Might as well start with the most obvious change up top. Apple has made a ‘cosmic orange’ iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max, making it hands down the most vibrant Pro iPhone ever made.

Usually, Pro models are boring shades of black, grey or white, with a few muted greens and blues thrown in over the years. No messing around with that orange though. In fact, there are only three colour choices this year, with dark blue or silver your other options.

Apple has ditched the titanium it used on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro (and still uses on the new iPhone Air) in favour of an aluminium unibody design for the 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max.

That’s why there is a two-tone look, with each Pro having a rectangular glass back panel where the Apple logo is to allow for wireless charging, as this is not possible through aluminium. Usually, the whole back of the phone is glass, but now there is more metal back there for durability and, according to Apple, better thermal performance. It’s a bold look.

The camera bar is now the width of the phone, which Apple says “creates additional space for internal components” and makes room for a larger battery.

About that battery. Apple says you’ll get up to 37 hours of video playback on the iPhone 17 Pro Max, the longest promised battery life of any iPhone to date. That’s compared to 31 hours in the 17 Pro and 30 hours on the iPhone 17. The razor thin iPhone Air is rated at 27 hours.

“The unibody design creates space for a larger battery, and with the efficiency of A19 Pro and advanced power management of iOS 26, iPhone 17 Pro Max offers the best battery life ever in an iPhone,” Apple said.

“And, both models can charge 50 percent in 20 minutes with an optional high-wattage USB-C power adapter like Apple’s new 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max.”

Apple has boosted the specs of the iPhone 17 Pro’s cameras, with each of the main, ultra-wide and telephoto lenses 48MP this year. Apple’s line is that the versatility of these three lenses and the new selfie shooter is “equivalent to having eight pro lenses in a user’s pocket”. We’ll see! Hopefully true.

However, the 4x optical zoom is a technical downgrade compared to the iPhone 16 Pro, which had 5x optical built in. Apple markets the 17 Pro as having “optical-quality” 8x telephoto, but it is not technically an optical zoom past 4x, instead using cropping and digital zoom.

The Centre Stage selfie camera looks clever, as it's the first square front sensor on an iPhone. This means you can now tap a button to choose to shoot in portrait or landscape when holding the phone vertically, not having to turn the phone sideways. This will help keep you in the frame rather than all looking off to the edge.

The tech will also hold you in the frame when on a FaceTime call, porting over smarts seen in existing MacBooks and iPads.

The iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max have 6.3-inch and 6.9-inch displays respectively, and both are covered in Apple’s Ceramic Shield 2, an improved material compared to older iPhones that Apple says has 3x better scratch resistance.

These screens also come with a new anti-reflection coating “to reduce glare”. This follows Samsung’s choice to put an anti-reflective coating on its Galaxy S24 Ultra and S25 Ultra, which is very good. Hopefully it’s noticeable on the 17 Pros.

That’s our pick of the five things Apple changed with the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max, which cost from £1,099 and £1,199 respectively. The phones will be available for pre-order on Friday, September 12.