In my position as TechRadar’s Telephones Editor, I’m fortunate sufficient to have entry to most of the greatest telephones as they hit the market, and the iPhone 17 Professional is the newest piece of top-end smartphone {hardware} to return throughout my desk.
I’ve been utilizing Apple’s new greatest iPhone for simply over a month now, and I can confidently say that the hype is justified: the iPhone 17 Professional is an excellent all-rounder with an eye catching design, stellar digital camera efficiency, and spectacular battery life, whereas iOS 26 is steadily maturing into essentially the most intuitive software program bundle Apple has ever launched.
However my brief time with the iPhone 17 Professional has additionally made me notice an uncomfortable fact: I not must go Professional – and I’d urge you to ask your self whether or not you do both.
As I wrote after Apple’s September launch, the usual iPhone 17 may simply be the best-value iPhone ever, and our iPhone 17 evaluation confirmed that assertion to be true. So, when the time comes for me at hand this iPhone 17 Professional mortgage pattern again and purchase my very own iPhone with my very own, precise cash, I’ll be ‘downgrading’ to the common iPhone 17. Enable me to clarify why.
Closing the hole
The headline motive is the long-awaited (and fairly frankly long-overdue) show improve for the iPhone 17. Not solely does the newest base mannequin boast a 120Hz refresh charge, but it surely additionally will get Apple’s full-blown ProMotion show expertise, which dynamically adjusts that refresh charge between 1-120Hz, relying on what’s occurring on-screen. This helps to protect the telephone’s battery life and permits for an always-on show, whereas the total 120Hz charge delivers a a lot smoother scrolling expertise versus the iPhone 16.
Apple additionally slimmed down the show bezels on the iPhone 17, which facilitates an iPhone 16-beating 6.3-inch Tremendous Retina XDR OLED panel. Show-wise, then, the iPhone 17 is an identical to the iPhone 17 Professional – and what characteristic will we use on our telephones greater than every other?
Alright, alright – that final remark was just a little facetious, however let’s flip our consideration to the iPhone 17’s chipset, the place Apple’s base mannequin fares equally effectively.
Sure, the telephone’s A19 chipset is much less highly effective than the iPhone 17 Professional’s A19 Professional chipset on paper, and the latter is made extra environment friendly by the Professional-exclusive vapor chamber cooling system. However in actuality, solely hardcore cellular avid gamers and 4K video editors will discover the distinction. Heck, the A19 is extra highly effective than final yr’s A18 Professional, and we described that chipset as “a velocity demon” in our iPhone 16 Professional evaluation.
The tangible variations
I’ll concede defeat on battery life. As you possibly can learn in our latest battery life comparability, the A19 Professional chipset – coupled with the bigger 4,252mAh or 5,088mAh battery within the iPhone 17 Professional and Professional Max, respectively – nets Apple’s Professional and Professional Max telephones over 15 and 17 hours of battery life, respectively, whereas the iPhone 17 manages between 12 and 13.
The opposite apparent iPhone 17 Professional advantages are its 48MP telephoto digital camera and help for skilled video codecs like ProRes RAW. The iPhone 17 – with its Professional-equaling 48MP most important and ultra-wide cameras – is a powerful on a regular basis shooter, however it’s not top-of-the-line digital camera telephones, whereas the iPhone 17 Professional completely is.
All that is to say that the iPhone 17 Professional feels extra ‘professional’ than any iPhone earlier than it – and I imply that within the literal sense. It’s a telephone designed for energy customers and severe cellular photographers who regularly switch giant information (the Professional can switch at as much as 10Gbps), or who desperately want the additional battery life afforded by that extra environment friendly chipset. I’m not certainly one of these customers, and I’d wager that 90% of the iPhone-buying inhabitants aren’t, both.
Admittedly, I like taking footage with the Professional’s telephoto lens, and I’ll be unhappy to see it go once I change to the iPhone 17. However that characteristic alone is, for me, not well worth the $300 / £300 / AU$600 premium that Apple’s new greatest iPhone calls for.
And if that feels like an even bigger worth gulf than regular, that is as a result of it’s. A lesser-mentioned advantage of the iPhone 17 is that Apple removed the 128GB storage capability for all iPhone 17 fashions this yr, but it surely stored the beginning worth of its base mannequin the identical ($799 / £799 / AU$1,399). The beginning worth of the iPhone 17 Professional, in the meantime, elevated by $100 / £100 / AU$200 to $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,999.
In different phrases, there’s an additional $100 / £100 / AU$200 between this yr’s iPhones that didn’t exist between the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Professional, which makes the iPhone 17 Professional a fair tougher promote to informal consumers.
I’ll depart you with this roundup: along with its aforementioned show and two rear cameras, the iPhone 17 additionally will get the identical 18MP selfie digital camera, the identical customizable Motion button, the identical Digicam Management button, the identical scratch-resistant Ceramic Defend 2 show cowl, and all the similar iOS 26 software program options (together with the brand new Liquid Glass interface) because the iPhone 17 Professional.
The latter telephone gives you a 48MP telephoto digital camera, higher battery life, a vapor cooling chamber, quicker file switch speeds, the flexibility to shoot at 4K 120 fps and in ProRes RAW, and as much as 1TB of inside storage (or 2TB on the iPhone 17 Professional Max). These upgrades will value you, at a minimal, $300 / £300 / AU$600, and, at a most, $700 / £700 / AU$1,400.
Are they price that a lot to you? If that’s the case, go forward and take a look at the roundup of the most effective iPhone 17 Professional offers. But when, like me, you possibly can dwell and not using a telephoto lens and people different flagship trimmings, I’d urge you to think about the cheaper iPhone 17 this yr.
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