At first glance, the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max seem like a drastic upgrade over their predecessors. They have a fantastic new look—one that adds more character with a two-tone design highlighting the blend of the aluminum chassis and glass. The “Camera Plateau,” as Apple calls it, elongates the camera module and gives it a more balanced appearance and feel. (Although I have to say, Google did it first.)

The specs might not read as revolutionary on paper: a bigger battery, a brighter screen, better performance, and a new telephoto zoom camera. There’s no singular feature that’ll make you go, “Wow!” But when you actually experience these individual improvements, they combine to become more than the sum of their parts. There are no major AI features being shoved down your throat (for various reasons). It’s a better iPhone in every way.

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The Cosmic Orange color was calling my name, but alas, Apple provided me with the Silver iPhone 17 Pro Max and Deep Blue iPhone 17 Pro. I switched to these phones after using the iPhone Air for several days, and I yelled, “Holy crap,” after picking them up. They are heavier than the iPhone 16 Pro models, and they feel like bricks compared to the thin and light Air.

I like the Camera Plateau. The two-tone separation of glass and aluminum just makes it more visually interesting. You might say, “It’s just a phone,” but when a gadget looks and feels great, it makes using it all the more enjoyable, and I think Apple has done a nice job here. The phone also no longer rocks on a table as much as before, so, yay!

Apple switched from titanium to aluminum to make these chunky phones lighter, but the material change also improves thermal conductivity. Talking about heat dissipation isn’t sexy (it is hot), but it’s a key improvement in the new iPhones. When you’re playing a graphically intensive game, your iPhone will start to get very hot as the processor does its job. At a certain point, if things get too hot, the processor starts to throttle itself so it doesn’t overheat, but it means your performance suffers, resulting in stuttering and skips in your gameplay. With the iPhone 17 Pro models, Apple is finally using a vapor chamber cooling system to help dissipate heat.