This photo of the iPhone 17 Pro Max in Cosmic Orange was taken with the telephoto lens on an iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Jason Hiner/ZDNET
The idea of “tyranny of choice” says that having a set of good choices is supposed to let everyone find exactly what makes them most happy, but the reality is that having so many good choices can often lead to anxiety, indecisiveness, and discontent. If we apply this concept to the iPhone 17 lineup, then Apple is quite the tyrant this year.
After all, the base model iPhone 17 is more pro than ever and offers the best value-for-money in 2025. The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max have addressed the two biggest weak spots of last year’s Pro models. And the iPhone Air gives you a chance to use tomorrow’s technology today.
Also: I tried Apple’s 2 big AI features announced at the iPhone 17 event – and both are game changers
I’ve upgraded my iPhone every year since the first iPhone in 2007 and I’ve spent hands-on time with all four of this year’s iPhone models. And yet, my buying advice this year is wildly different than any other year in the past. And there are several reasons why.
Let’s unpack it by looking at each of the product lines, as well as who I’d recommend as the ideal upgrader for each one.
The $799 iPhone 17 suits more people than ever
Do not sleep on the base model iPhone 17 this year. In recent years I mostly relegated my recommendations of the base model iPhone to kids, teenagers, first-time iPhone users, and people who just needed a phone that would work because their old phone had a cracked screen or a battery that wouldn’t hold a charge — and they wanted to limit how much they spent on a phone.
Not so this year.
The fact that Apple poured so many upgrades into the iPhone 17 was the surprise of the 2025 Apple Event for me. First of all, Apple finally did a major facelift to the iPhone 17’s screen technology, kicking it up to 6.3-inches (from 6.1 last year) with thinner bezels, 120Hz ProMotion display, 3000 nits of peak brightness, an anti-reflective coating, and an always-on display.
Apple also upgraded the cameras on the iPhone 17, moving to a 48MP dual fusion camera with a 48MP main camera and 48MP ultrawide. Plus, the iPhone 17 gets the same upgraded selfie camera technology as the Pros and Air get this year. That’s a 24MP square sensor that effectively shoots 18MP images in either portrait or landscape mode and can now automatically switch between the two without forcing you to flip your phone. Even better, you can let the camera use machine learning to find all the faces in the shot and automatically use portrait or landscape mode to get the best photo. Kudos to Apple for not keeping this new camera tech in the Pro phones only this year.
The base model iPhone 17 compares very well to last year’s iPhone 16 Pro.
Nina Raemont/ZDNET
Apple also kept the price of the iPhone 17 at $799 while raising the base storage from 128GB to 256GB. Last year, 256GB of storage on the iPhone 16 would have put the price of the phone at $899. From that perspective, Apple effectively gave the iPhone 17 a $100 price cut. Likewise, the iPhone 17’s two biggest Android competitors, the Pixel 10 and the Samsung Galaxy S25 still start with 128GB of storage on their base models and both cost $799.
Also: I compared the iPhone 17, iPhone Air, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max: Here’s who should upgrade
From another perspective, this year’s iPhone 17 is nearly identical to last year’s iPhone 16 Pro, except that it doesn’t have the telephoto zoom, but it adds the next-gen selfie camera and the dual capture camera. And last year’s iPhone 16 Pro started at $999 for 128GB of storage and $1,099 for 256GB.
As a result, there are people I would have previously recommended to opt for the iPhone Pro line that I’m very happy to recommend the iPhone 17 base model this year and save a couple hundred dollars. If you’re someone that doesn’t use the telephoto zoom very much and you’re coming from an iPhone 14 Pro or an iPhone 13 Pro (or earlier), then I’d recommend considering the iPhone 17 this year. It’s a much more powerful and serious phone now.
The iPhone Air offers a taste of the future
The iPhone Air steps into a bit of a cursed place in the iPhone lineup between the base model and Pros — a place where the iPhone 12-13 Mini and the iPhone 14-16 Plus models all struggled to generate much interest over the past half decade. Like Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge, the iPhone Air is considered a technology demonstration of just how thin its engineers can make a phone as a precursor to a leap forward in foldables — the Fold 7 in Samsung’s case.
Here’s the iPhone Air in one of the new bumper cases that Apple is making.
Jason Hiner/ZDNET
So the iPhone Air isn’t just haunted by the past, it’s also standing in the shadow of the long-awaited foldable iPhone that’s widely expected to launch in the fall of 2026.
Also: iPhone Air vs. Samsung S25 Edge: I compared both ultra-thin phones to decide a winner
Still, the iPhone Air is undoubtedly the one that generated the biggest wow factor when holding it in my hands. It’s super impressive how thin, light, and futuristic it feels. I’d encourage you to go into an Apple Store or one of the wireless carrier stores starting on September 19 to see if you get the same emotional reaction to holding a phone that is basically the width of a USB-C port.
There’s no doubt that it’s one of the most impressive technological achievements of 2025. But should you buy it?
Korean pop star Jeong Yunho and Tim Cook look at the iPhone Air at the September 2025 Apple Event.
Jason Hiner/ZDNET
For the vast majority of iPhone upgraders, I’m still going to say no — not when the base model iPhone 17 has better cameras and costs less. And if you’re a true power user, then you’re not going to be satisfied with the battery life or the cameras on the iPhone Air.
But if you’re someone who loves to live on the cutting edge of tech and run ahead of the pack, you’re probably going to be pretty giddy when you put your hands on the iPhone Air. You’re probably someone who would have loved to wear Google Glass or the Apple Vision Pro and you’re one of the leading candidates to get the iPhone Fold in 2026. The iPhone Air will let you live in that future. Just make sure you order the if you regularly use your phone for more than about four hours a day.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max solves big problems
The iPhone 16 Pro Max and the iPhone 15 Pro Max are two phones that I’ve loved using during the past two years. I especially loved using the main camera on these phones to take more photos than any other smartphone camera or even my professional Sony mirrorless camera over the past two years.
But I also struggled with the same two problems on both of those phones.
First, the zoom camera was simply not up to the same standard of quality as the main camera — as much I wanted it to be because I love zoom photography. Shots taken on the 5x telephoto (first introduced on the iPhone 15 Pro models) were okay for social media, but the quality would typically fall apart when I started editing them. So I regularly had to reach for my Sony mirrorless whenever I wanted high quality zoom shots. Meanwhile, I’ve been printing high quality photos from the iPhone’s main camera for over a decade.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max in Deep Blue.
Jason Hiner/ZDNET
The other big problem I had with the two titanium iPhone 15 and 16 Pro Max phones over the past two years was regular overheating. Whenever I was doing a lot of photo or video shooting, when I was in crowded urban areas with weak wireless signals, or when I had the phone out in the sun for extended periods, these two Pro Max phones would get incredibly hot. And when they overheated, the battery would start to drain very quickly.
That’s definitely not the dynamic you want to see from an expensive, high-end phone.
I was thrilled that Apple has addressed both problems in the iPhone 17 Pro Max — as well as the iPhone 17 Pro, which is the same exact phone except that it has a 6.3-inch screen instead of a 6.9-inch screen as well as a smaller battery.
Also: Should you upgrade to an iPhone 17 Pro from last year’s model? I am – here’s why
Let’s talk about the thermals first. Apple has replaced titanium and gone back to aluminum for the casing of the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Aluminum can be up to 5-10 times more effective at conducting and dispersing heat than titanium. But Apple also added a vapor chamber cooling system that uses deionized water to cool the phone’s A19 Pro chip and allow it to run at maximum strength while not overheating. I need to do a lot of testing of this over a period of weeks and months, but I’m very encouraged that the iPhone 17 Pro Max addresses the overheating issue head on in its design.
When it comes to the telephoto zoom camera, I’m also encouraged by the way Apple has addressed this in the iPhone 17 Pro Max. First, Apple upgraded its teraprism zoom from a 12MP sensor to a 48MP sensor, matching the 48MP sensor on the main camera. Then, Apple made this a 4x sensor (rather than 5x), which appeared to be a curious downgrade at first. However, by having more pixels this enabled an 8x zoom cropped to 12MP and Apple boldly called this an optical quality 8x. Fortunately, I got to try it out and I’m impressed by what I’ve seen so far. Below is an example of what the 8x zoom lens is capable of, and it’s higher quality then any zoom shot I’ve taken with an iPhone before.
Example of a photo taken with the 8x zoom of the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Jason Hiner/ZDNET
Of course, I’ll need to do a lot more testing with the zoom camera before I can say whether it’s ready to take on more of my everyday zoom photography. I’m also going to compare it with the Pixel 10 Pro XL zoom, which I’m also testing. Like last year, I plan to do a dedicated review of the new iPhone 17 Pro camera system. So keep an eye out for that in early October.
Nevertheless, I’m now going to make a recommendation that I’ve never made before — with an asterisk. If you were like me and ran into lots of overheating and zoom problems with the iPhone 15 Pro Max or even the iPhone 16 Pro Max, I think you may want to consider the possibility of a more-rapid-than-usual upgrade to the iPhone 17 Pro Max this year. Again, I’m going to do more testing before I definitively make that recommendation, but I want to put it on your radar. I’ll be doing more rigorous testing over the coming weeks and I’ll report back. I’ll also keep an eye out for some good trade-in deals that might ease the blow of a rapid upgrade.
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