Apple iPhone 17 review: The iPhone you should actually buy

The iPhone 17 is, without the shadow of a doubt, the signature new iPhone device in 2025. Forget the iPhone 17 Pro Max and the iPhone 17 Air; the affordable new iPhone 17 is the one that offers the best value by a mile.

For the first time in literally ever, I don't feel tempted by the iPhone 17 Pro Max or the iPhone 17 Pro, even the Air's svelte body fails to entice me; it's the base iPhone 17 all the way this year!

iPhone 17 Design and Display

From a visual standpoint, the iPhone 17 is pretty much identical to the iPhone 16; there are no major differences that separate the two generations. You get the very same fairly compact phone (albeit marginally taller, wider, and heavier), but now with an even more scratch-resistant Ceramic Shield 2 at the front as well as an aluminum frame once again. Like the iPhone 16, the iPhone 17 features matte glass in the back, which is soft to the touch and holds no fingerprints, just like on the iPhone 16.

Personally, I've never had an issue with how simple and rudimentary a base iPhone looks. In a world where most Android phones engage in an arms race to score cool differentiating hardware features, the understated appearance of the iPhone feels strangely appealing.

This year, Apple really popped off with the pastel color selection for the base iPhone, which is available in Black, Mist Blue, Lavender, Sage, and White. Not a bad selection at all, though I'll admit I miss the rich Ultramarine color option that was available on the iPhone 16. Among the new ones, it's the Sage color that is my favorite this year.

Where things really start getting exciting for the iPhone 17 is the display. Not only is the new screen larger at 6.3 inches in comparison with 6.1 inches on most previous iPhones, the screen is now finally ProMotion-capable.

Thanks to that, it can refresh itself between 1 and 120 Hz depending on the on-screen context, maximizing both battery savings and delivering a smooth scrolling experience. It also enables always-on functionality on the iPhone 17. This finally addresses one of Apple's most glaring omissions. I honestly can't remember what the last small Android flagship with a 60Hz screen was, and chances are neither can you. The fact that it's now 2025 and the iPhone 17 only now scores this standard display feature is pretty telling of Cupertino's stubbornness.

But that's not all! The display of the iPhone 17 now has some anti-reflective properties that promise less glare and reflections in diverse lighting conditions. While the effect is not as extreme as on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, there are certainly fewer reflections observed on the iPhone 17 screen as opposed to a previous iPhone, and that's pretty great! We appreciate the inclusion of this feature.

iPhone 17 Camera

It's difficult to criticize the iPhone 17's camera. Sure, it lacks a crazy zoom and almost all the professional features available on the Pro models, it doesn't even have a dedicated telephoto lens, but the consistent and reliable image quality its camera delivers is pretty hard to beat at this price point.

The iPhone 17 comes with the same 48MP F1.6 main camera from the iPhone 16 but scores a new ultrawide camera. Now clocking in at 48MP in comparison with the 12MP ultrawides found on multiple previous iPhones, the iPhone 17 can take either 24MP or 48MP images with a fairly wide 120º field of view. It's also fairly fast at F2.2, suggesting a pretty strong low-light performance.

Another highlight is the FaceTime camera, which has been upgraded to 18MP and now features a square sensor. That's a pretty big deal, as it allows you to capture landscape selfie videos while holding the phone in portrait mode, or vice versa. Thanks to Center Stage, a feature found on the iPads, the camera can now intelligently keep your face in the center of the frame as you move around during video calls.

There's a completely new shooting mode that makes use of this. Thanks to dual capture, you can record footage with both the rear and front cameras at the same time, with the front video superimposed over the rear footage, which might come in handy for those who vlog a lot.

iPhone 17 Performance & Benchmarks

The iPhone 17 comes with the 3nm Apple A19 chipset, which comes with dual performance and quad efficiency cores, a five-core GPU with Neural Accelerators for better AI task handling, ray tracing support, and the familiar 16-core Neural Engine. While the Pro iPhones come with a beefier A19 Pro, the regular chip in the iPhone 17 easily meets the average user's needs without breaking a sweat.

In terms of performance, we are used to each and every Apple chipset generation scoring significant performance and efficiency gains in comparison with their predecessors, and the A19 is no different. In real life, it's snappy, quick, and leaves the impression of having vast reserves of spare performance at all times. Exactly what a 2025 phone should feel like.

The phone comes with 8GB of RAM, which is apparently the bare minimum necessary for all the Apple Intelligence features on deck to function properly. The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max get 12GB of RAM, mind you.

Our benchmarks are pretty clear: it's the iPhone 17 that dominates the Geekbench 6 single-core test by a significant margin over the iPhone 16 and its Android rivals. Yet, the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset beats it in the multi-core test, where the Qualcomm chip edges gracefully past it. One thing is for certain: performance-wise, the iPhone 17 is up there with the best flagships.

When it comes to graphics performance, the iPhone 17 impresses in the 3DMark Extreme stress test. While the Galaxy S25 achieves a higher peak result, it's actually the iPhone 17 that delivers the better sustained result and decidedly beats the Galaxy S25, iPhone 16, and the Pixel 10.

iPhone 17 Software

The iPhone 17 ships with iOS 26, which is the biggest software update for iOS in more than a decade. With one fell swoop, Apple laid rest to the flat design language that ruled the landscape since iOS 7 and introduced Liquid Glass. The latter tries to be a fresh new design that promises a representation of how glass, fluids, and light could interact in a digital interface.

iPhone 17 Battery

Battery life has quickly proved to be the running theme with the iPhone 17 generation, mostly due to the iPhone Air, which pushes the boundaries with its thin design and the heightened necessity for efficiency. The iPhone 17 also benefits from the improved efficiency of the new A19 chipset.

Equipped with a modest 3,692 mAh battery, the iPhone 17 actually performs very similarly to the iPhone 16 in terms of overall battery life. In our web browsing test, the iPhone 17 and iPhone 16 perform nearly identically to one another, and the same generally applies to the video-streaming test. Overall, the iPhone 17 delivers dependable results.

The iPhone 17 can charge at up to 40W with a compatible charger. That's double the charging speeds of the iPhone 16. Apple promises a 50% charge in just 20 minutes.

MagSafe and Qi2 are both supported here. The wireless charging speed caps out at 25W, so just a bit slower than wired charging.

iPhone 17 Audio Quality and Haptics

The iPhone 17 delivers a superb audio experience. There's an improvement in terms of quality from the iPhone 16, which is great to hear! The sound is loud and clear, with a hefty amount of bass and richness, as well as depth in the mids. You will definitely enjoy whatever you listen to, be it a podcast or a YouTube video.

However, more premium devices like the iPhone 17 Pro Max and Galaxy S25 Ultra deliver slightly more oomph with richer, bassier sound that might be a bit more enjoyable, but the iPhone 17 is perfectly fine here.

iPhones have always had great haptics, and the iPhone 17 is no different. There isn't an actual difference between the new device and the older iPhone 16, do have in mind. The vibrations are strong and precise.

Should you buy it?

Yes, you absolutely should.

If you've been holding off on upgrading from your older iPhone, now is the perfect time to do that, as the iPhone 17 finally addresses most of the hardware elephants in the room. We finally get a very bright and super-smooth display on the base iPhone, which had been limited to 60 Hz for far too long.

The wired charging speed also scores an important upgrade that cuts down the time your iPhone has to spend plugged in. The camera continues to be extremely dependable and consistent, and you now get a plentiful 256GB of storage to house all those pictures and videos you capture.

Pair all that with the fairly sensible pricing, and what you're left with is pretty much the perfect iPhone for just about anybody.