This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.
More expensive does not automatically mean better for everyone | Image by PhoneArena
I see this all the time: someone who uses their phone mostly for texting and social media rocking the latest iPhone 17 Pro Max.
The irony is that for many of those people, the phone is actually less enjoyable to use, being awkwardly big and uncomfortable — I've seen plenty of people struggling to reach the top of the phone with one hand.
It's also ironic that people pay more for a phone that is heavier and less comfortable to use because of that too. Let me give you the numbers here: the iPhone 17 Pro Max weighs 233 grams or 8.22 ounces, while the iPhone 17 weighs 177 grams or 6.2 ounces, nearly 25% lighter!
Then there is the camera system.
That camera system has become somewhat of a status symbol for many people. Ask Pro owners how often they use that 4X telephoto camera. Some of them do, but great many don't (and that's one of the main selling points!). Most people typically take the vast majority of their photos with the main camera or with subtle zoom, which still relies on the main camera.
The iPhone Pro has some more advanced features, but do you really need them? | Image by PhoneArena
The same goes for the other "Pro" features.
The slightly faster chip? Nice to have on paper, but unless you play very demanding games on your phone, you probably won't notice the difference.
As for the features that actually matter, thankfully, Apple has now included them in the base model. The ProMotion 120Hz display, which gives you the smooth scrolling feel, is now finally on the iPhone 17. The display quality and brightness levels are the same too, and so is the storage, the software, and pretty much everything else.
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All of this makes me want to shout at anyone walking into an Apple Store: "Just get the base iPhone 17!"
It's the smarter purchase, and you can put the money you save with that toward more storage instead, which is something you will notice when you start running out. Not taking the perfect zoomed-in photo is less of a problem than having hundreds of photos with no place to store them, right? Often, that's exactly the tradeoff people make. And then you start getting into cloud service subscriptions, which is yet another recurring cost people don't think about when buying the phone.
And now, with rumored price increases coming to the iPhone 18 Pro family in just a couple of months, my typical advice of waiting for the new model at the end of the current one's product cycle actually flips. Don't wait for the iPhone 18 Pro! Buy the iPhone 17 instead!
The iPhone 16 Plus (on the right) will be missed | Image by PhoneArena
It's a shame that Apple makes no base iPhone model with a large screen. I'm not counting the extravagant iPhone Air here—it's a good phone for a few people (I actually happen to really like it), but it's not a phone for everyone, like the iPhone Plus series was.
It was all intentional, of course. People who simply want a large, normal iPhone are now nudged toward the Pro Max not because of the Pro features, but because it's the only big iPhone with big battery left. Apple faces you with a tough choice—you can either get a smaller phone with decent battery life, or an extremely premium phone with an extra large size that you might not need, but with the battery life you want. Many people want to avoid buyer's remorse and just end up overspending on the Pro Max.
None of this is to say the Pro or Pro Max are bad phones. These are the best selling phones in the world for a reason. If you are heavy into photography, gaming or video editing, you already know their worth. My point is that too many people buy one before asking themselves whether they actually need those power user features.
Still, if you are not absolutely determined you need the Pro features and you can live with a slightly smaller phone, the iPhone 17 remains an excellent purchase, even 10 months after its release.
Buying the best phone does not automatically mean buying the most expensive one out there. It means buying the phone that fits you (and yes, that includes the comfort of a lighter and more pocketable device). And for a surprising number of people, that phone would be the regular iPhone 17 and not the Pro.
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Victor, a seasoned mobile technology expert, has spent over a decade at PhoneArena, exploring the depths of mobile photography and reviewing hundreds of smartphones across Android and iOS ecosystems. His passion for technology, coupled with his extensive knowledge of smartphone cameras and battery life, has positioned him as a leading voice in the mobile tech industry.
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