Apple has a big iPhone 17 Pro Max problem, and this poll confirms it
A recent PhoneArena survey essentially confirms what a SellCell report found about the iPhone 17 Pro Max's unusually high trade-in numbers.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max is large, undeniably handsome, and super-popular. | Image by PhoneArena
Is the iPhone 17 Pro Max a good phone? Clearly. Is it the best phone in the world? For many Apple fans, it undoubtedly is, and our rigorous and totally objective analysis of the top options on the market right now essentially ends in a tie for first place between this 6.9-inch Apple A19 Pro flagship and Samsung's hot new Galaxy S26 Ultra.
Unsurprisingly, the undeniable value of the iPhone 17 Pro Max has propelled it to the number four spot among the world's best-selling smartphones in 2025 after just a few months of availability, but somewhat surprisingly, the handset has also very quickly become the most traded-in phone around, beating the much older iPhone 15 Pro Max and 14 Pro Max in a report published by SellCell a couple of weeks ago.
Since then, we've asked you if you've recently sold your phone, and if so, what model was it, and while the vast majority of responses were "no", the iPhone 17 Pro Max received an... interesting number of "votes" from PhoneArena readers.
What exactly is wrong with this device?
Well, I'm here today to find that out, so after asking you if you've recently sold your phone, I want to discuss specifically with those who've already ditched their iPhone 17 Pro Max units in a new poll and the comments section further below.
Have you sold your phone recently?
SellCell analysts believe that the phone's apparent (and unusual) trouble retaining and loyalizing so many of its original owners might not come from those people's dissatisfaction or disappointment with the iPhone 17 Pro Max, instead having a lot to do with its impressive value retention.
Basically, the 17 Pro Max is so valuable on the "independent trade-in market" that many users might simply not be able to resist the temptation of selling it and cashing in on their "investments" while the ROI is still high.
Why have you already sold your iPhone 17 Pro Max?
Personally, I'm not (entirely) convinced by that explanation because no one is actually selling any used phone at a profit (duh!). That must mean something is in fact wrong enough with this device to cause many people to seek an escape of sorts.
And that brings me to a second new poll I'd like to start today.
What are all these iPhone 17 Pro Max deserters getting as a replacement?
Let's be honest, no one is selling their state-of-the-art 2025-released smartphone to start a new life away from modern civilization and technology.
And while I initially theorized that the smaller iPhone 17 Pro and the "vanilla" iPhone 17 might be at the top of this replacement list, a (slightly insulting) comment from PhoneArena reader "Romeo16" convinced me that the logic behind my theory may have been... flawed.
What did you replace your iPhone 17 Pro Max with?
Although I still don't find the possibility that some people are trading in their iPhone 17 Pro Max in favor of a "lesser" 17 or 17 Pro model completely preposterous, I'm definitely willing to entertain other product names as the potential top picks for these "deserters."
On that note, I also find it interesting that the "regular" iPhone 17 only received 0.79 percent of your votes in my initial poll about the handsets you've recently sold, which strongly suggests that the smaller and cheaper member of Apple's 2025-released smartphone family is not having similar issues as its big and expensive brother with user loyalty.
Your speculation that the majority of those selling their 17 Pro Max are swapping for 17 Pro, standard 17 fails to meet logic. Holding 74.6% of its value would make the 256GB worth $894. The 17 Pro starts at $1099, standard 17 $799 and refurbished 16 Pro Max in excellent condition are over $800. I can't imagine anyone who'd elect to lose money for less of a phone, and very few who would go through the effort of selling to recoup less than $100 in exchange for a much lesser or older and lesser phone.
Romeo16
It's also worth pointing out that the iPhone 17 Pro Max managed to surpass the entire Android product category in the above survey, which is quite the (negative) achievement for Apple. Unsurprisingly, the "older iPhone" group received more of your votes than the 17 Pro Max, but not by much, which is another little detail that should deeply concern the world's number one handset vendor right now.
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