iPhone 17 Pro - First Impressions

Hardware
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  • I picked up my iPhone 17 Pro last weekend at the Grand Central Apple Store. I also bought the Apple Dynamic Power Adapter which is supposed to charge the iPhone faster.
  • The setup process was smooth, I had it copy everything from my 15 Pro. I just set the two phones down next to each other on a table and after about 1.5 hours it was pretty much done.
  • The tech woven case is much better than the fine woven disaster that is still on my 15 Pro. We’ll see how well it holds up over time, but can’t be worse than fine woven.
  • I’m really impressed with the new cameras, so I decided to write a separate post about that, so I can include the photos I took this week. I’ll post a link to that here after I write it.
  • I bought the fast charging brick. It went from 60% to 82% in 20 minutes. I’m not sure if that is better or not. I read the claim of getting to a 50% charge in 20 minutes as going from X% to X+50% charge in 20 minutes which is clearly not the case and I don’t think that is their claim either.
  • I read the fine print on the Apple website and this is what it says

Fast-charge testing conducted with drained iPhone units. Times measured from the appearance of the Apple logo as the unit started up. Charge time varies with adapter, settings, usage, and environmental factors; actual results will vary.

  • On Friday I decided to see how good the battery is. I woke up at 5:30 am and took my phone off the charger at 100% and didn’t plug it in the whole day. I used it pretty heavily all day, taking pictures, listening to music, podcasts, watching videos. I normally split my time between the iPhone and iPad. I normally watch videos on the iPad, but today I didn’t touch the iPad, I did everything on the iPhone. At 10 pm my battery was finally down to 19%. I didn’t turn on low power mode, trying to see if I can fully drain the battery before I go to bed. By 11 pm the battery was still at 15%, but I was too tired to stay awake any longer. So with 17.5 hours of heavy use, the battery lasted all day with room to spare.
  • Call screening works well. I set it to “Ask Reason for Calling” and twice I received two calls from people who said their name which I recognized and then picked up the call.
  • I like the new context menus that pop open instead of being an endless horizontal scroll.
  • I set the time on my lock screen to be as tall as possible and now I can see the time from much further away.
  • I really like the new Liquid Glass design. In Safari I was worried I wouldn’t like the new compact toolbar, but I think it works really well. The two taps to get to the All Tabs button doesn’t bother me and there is actually a button to create a new tab or a new private tab, which is what I do most often anyway. I like how when I scroll a webpage it shrinks down to a lozenge and I really do see more of the page flowing around it.
  • I played around with the different icon styles, but kept them as the default. One exception is when my Sleep focus kicks in a half hour before I go to sleep, it switches to the clear icons. I think this works well to get me ready for sleep.
  • For my lock screen and Home Screen I went with one of the new Dynamic screens. I don’t like putting photos on my lock screen.
  • All around the combination of the new design and features of iOS 26 and the new iPhone 17 Pro adds up to a delightful upgrade this year.
7 Likes
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Good review, thanks! I’m still trying to decide between the Air and Pro (I have them both for 2 weeks). I didn’t care for the woven cases myself and just went with 3rd party.

I’m eager to read your review of the camera. I’ve never thought much of cellphone cameras (I carry a point and shoot instead) and am still hoping for the day when the phone camera is actually good.

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Here is the camera review:

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This may be different on the latest tech, but as standard for lithium ion (Li-on) batteries, the lower the amount of charge, the faster they accept charge, so if you were going from 20-40% it would take a lot less time than from 60-80%, and once you get above 80% the charging curve really flattens out so that portion takes a lot longer.
Incidentally, the first 20% is equally flat.

This is why when talking about electric car charging, claims often talk about gaining 80% of charge in x minutes, as it’s the bit that charges the fastest.

so if you want to get a real idea, try discharging to 20% and then put your phone on charge to 20 minutes.

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It seems like Apple have finally delivered on longer focal lengths. Every year I read fawning reviews of the “amazing” camera system (not least from Apple themselves) only to later find out the performance is pretty mediocre. Now I’ve seen multiple real people actually using the phone and giving an unvarnished opinion. And good example photos.

I long ago said “wake me up when they get to 100 mm equivalent” but while they technically delivered that in years past, it was at the expense of quality. This year they seem to have delivered in spades. The fact they can crop out the centre for a 200 mm equivalent (at lower megapixels) and still show good quality says they’ve finally nailed the 100 mm length.

I only upgraded last year from 11 Pro to 16. Perhaps by the time I next upgrade (19 or 20 I expect) they will have pushed even further.

I’d also love if they’d, somehow, address the ergonomics (including ditching the silly, overloaded camera control button). I don’t drop my phones. Never have, but if it were ever to happen, it’d be when I’m taking a photo.

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I think the camera control button will go away over time, as evidenced by the default setting not really using its full potential. That being said, I would prefer they keep the camera button’s functionality. I like having the options it provides, but I’m very glad they have made it easy to dial back its functionality to suit whatever the user wants/needs.

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So I did this experiment tonight. Used the dynamic charger when it got to 20% battery. After 20 minutes it charged to 60%, another 10 minutes it got to 73%. I think that’s good, 53% of charge in a half hour. Considering how well the battery performs, that would be enough to keep you going for another 12 or so hours. Another thing is that the new charger is pretty small and easily fits into my pocket, so a good thing to have when traveling.

1 Like