In my function 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 most recent piece of top-end smartphone {hardware} to come back 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 a superb all-rounder with an attention-grabbing 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 reality: 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 assessment 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 cause is the long-awaited (and fairly frankly long-overdue) show improve for the iPhone 17. Not solely does the most recent base mannequin boast a 120Hz refresh price, but it surely additionally will get Apple’s full-blown ProMotion show expertise, which dynamically adjusts that refresh price 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 complete 120Hz price 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 equivalent to the iPhone 17 Professional – and what characteristic will we use on our telephones greater than some other?
Alright, alright – that final remark was slightly 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 cell players and 4K video editors will discover the distinction. Heck, the A19 is extra highly effective than final 12 months’s A18 Professional, and we described that chipset as “a velocity demon” in our iPhone 16 Professional assessment.
The tangible variations
I’ll concede defeat on battery life. As you possibly can learn in our current 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 assist for skilled video codecs like ProRes RAW. The iPhone 17 – with its Professional-equaling 48MP foremost and ultra-wide cameras – is a formidable on a regular basis shooter, however it’s not among the finest 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 critical cell photographers who steadily 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 one in every 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 after I swap 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 appears like an even bigger value gulf than normal, 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 12 months, but it surely saved the beginning value of its base mannequin the identical ($799 / £799 / AU$1,399). The beginning value 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 12 months’s iPhones that didn’t exist between the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Professional, which makes the iPhone 17 Professional a good more durable promote to informal patrons.
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 the entire 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 inner storage (or 2TB on the iPhone 17 Professional Max). These upgrades will price you, at a minimal, $300 / £300 / AU$600, and, at a most, $700 / £700 / AU$1,400.
Are they value that a lot to you? If that’s the case, go forward and take a look at the roundup of the perfect iPhone 17 Professional offers. But when, like me, you possibly can reside and not using a telephoto lens and people different flagship trimmings, I’d urge you to contemplate the cheaper iPhone 17 this 12 months.
Observe TechRadar on Google Information and add us as a most popular supply to get our professional information, opinions, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure that to click on the Observe button!
And naturally it’s also possible to comply with TechRadar on TikTok for information, opinions, unboxings in video kind, and get common updates from us on WhatsApp too.
