iPhone 17 Pro Max vs iPhone 16 Pro Max: Main differences to expect
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Intro
September is nearly upon us, and how haven't we already deemed September "iPhone month" already? After all, it's Apple's favorite time of the year as its yearly iPhone crop gets announced and launched. This year will be no different: the iPhone 17 series is just two weeks away from finally becoming official, and we seem to know pretty much every aspect of the upcoming phones' hardware.
Although we'll see some shakeups in the lineup and welcome the iPhone 17 Air while simultaneously bidding goodbye to the iPhone Plus range (for now), the most exciting and advanced new iPhone will, of course, be none other than the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
This one will continue the tradition of being the best and most advanced iPhone carrying the highest price tag (at least until the foldable iPhone breaks cover), and this year around, Apple is playing things fairly safe… which has honestly been the case for the past few iPhone releases.
We are getting some notable external and internal changes, but nothing too extraordinary, just a healthy amount of new features that would nicely fit into that bento grid at the end of the Apple event.
Would any of these novel features leave the older iPhone 16 Pro Max in the dust? Of course not, but it's nonetheless worth detailing all the changes.
iPhone 17 Pro Max vs iPhone 16 Pro Max expected differences:
| iPhone 17 Pro Max | iPhone 16 Pro Max |
|---|---|
| New dual-tone design with a Pixel-like camera strip at the back | Flat design language with a large but conventional camera island at the back |
| Slightly thicker 8.7mm aluminum frame | Thinner at 8.2mm, with a titanium frame |
| Triple 48MP cameras at the rear | 48MP main and ultrawide, but a 12MP periscope camera |
| New 48MP periscope camera, likely with 4X native and up to 8X lossless zoom | Standard 5X periscope camera |
| 24MP FaceTime camera | Lower-res 12MP FaceTime camera |
| Apple A19 Pro chipset, 3nm | Apple A18 Pro chip on board, 3nm |
| Upgrade to 12GB of RAM | 8GB RAM |
| Brighter 6.9-inch screen (3,000 nits) | Dimmer 6.9-inch screen (2,000 nits) |
| Smaller Dynamic Island punch-hole possible | A standard Dynamic Island cutout |
| Likely a 5,000 mAh battery | A 4,685 mAh battery |
| Possible reverse wireless charging | No reverse wireless charging |
| New copper and deep blue color options joining the selection | Four colors: Black Titanium, White Titanium, Natural Titanium, Desert Titanium |
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Design and Size
Taking a page out of Google's book
Here's what the iPhone 17 Pro Max will look like next to its closest of kin (Image Credit-Weibo)
The iPhone 17 Pro Max will be pretty different from its predecessor. The phone is scoring an enlarged camera island at the rear, which will span side-to-side. It reminds us of the camera strips on Google's Pixel phones, just wider.
That would be a stark change in comparison with the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which used a refined yet mostly familiar and largely unchanged design language in comparison with its predecessors. But hey, a little change never hurt anybody. We only hope that Apple nails the weight distribution so that the iPhone 17 Pro Max doesn't feel too top-heavy.
iPhone 17 Pro Max render (Image Credit-@asherdipps)
In terms of size, the iPhone 17 Pro Max might get slightly thicker at 8.73 mm versus the iPhone 16 Pro Max's 8.25 mm size. It appears Apple will be filling all that extra space with battery, which is always welcome.
| iPhone 17 Pro Max | iPhone 16 Pro Max |
|---|---|
Thickness 8.73 mm | Thickness 8.25 mm |
Build materials might also get changed up a bit.
There are rumors claiming that Apple might turn its head away from titanium and come back to aluminum with the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which would make the whole assembly slightly lighter and more cost-effective, albeit at the cost of lowered "premium" street cred. The frame will be more expansive now and stretch, more to the back, contributing to a sort of dual-tone design at the rear of the device.
There are rumors claiming that Apple might turn its head away from titanium and come back to aluminum with the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which would make the whole assembly slightly lighter and more cost-effective, albeit at the cost of lowered "premium" street cred. The frame will be more expansive now and stretch, more to the back, contributing to a sort of dual-tone design at the rear of the device.
The Camera Control and Action Button keys will remain a staple here, with Apple not expected to make any major changes to the layout.
In terms of colors, Apple is rumored to be exploring a slightly more intriguing color selection for the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which will reportedly feature an intriguing copper-like color and a deep blue hue, which honestly sounds like a very decent color selection, especially when you compare it against the more drab colors on the iPhone 16 Pro Max/iPhone 15 Pro Max.
At the same time, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is available in Natural Titanium, Desert Titanium, White Titanium, and Black Titanium.
iPhone 17 Pro Max reported color selection
Display Differences
The iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature a 6.9-inch Liquid Retina XDR display once again, with the now standard on Pro models 120Hz ProMotion technology for the smoothest scrolling experience. These key specs are also shared with the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
However, the iPhone 17 Pro Max might feature a slightly smaller Dynamic Island notch. Historically, this wouldn't be the first time Apple has minimized the cutout at the front: back with the iPhone 13 generation, Apple diminished the display notch by 20% in comparison with the previous generations, leaving more screen real estate accessible to the user.
The Dynamic Island is yet to undergo such a change, and that's a logical stopgap before we get an uninterrupted screen on a future iPhone model.
| iPhone 17 Pro Max | iPhone 16 Pro Max |
|---|---|
Screen size 6.9-inch | Screen size 6.9-inch |
Peak brightness ~3,000 nits | Peak brightness 2,000 nits |
Another possible upgrade could be Apple's adoption of Samsung's M14 OLED panel, which could vastly increase the potential peak brightness from 2,000 nits currently to nearly 3,000 nits in the right ambience. At the same time, the minimum brightness will still gravitate around 1 nit, like on the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
We'd definitely love it if Apple considered putting an anti-reflective coating on the screen, which would largely eliminate reflections and boost the legibility under bright outdoor conditions. However, no such rumors exist, which is certainly a pity.
Performance and Software
Even better performance thanks to a third-gen 3nm chipset
The upcoming iPhone 17 Pro Max will certainly use the Apple A19 Pro chipset, which would be Apple's third-gen 3nm chipset, and we expect improved performance and efficiency as compared to the Apple A18 Pro and the A17 Pro chips.
However, we don't expect to witness a major performance increase over the A18 Pro that's inside the iPhone 16 Pro Max. the differences might be smaller, so you probably won't gain that much if you upgrade.
| iPhone 17 Pro Max | iPhone 16 Pro Max |
|---|---|
Chipset Apple A19 Pro | Chipset Apple A18 Pro |
| Manufacturing process 3nm | Manufacturing process 3nm |
Memory 12GB | Memory 8GB |
What you might notice, however, is the extra memory that could make it inside the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Rumors put 12GB of RAM inside, a notable increase over the 8GB of RAM on the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
This upgrade is likely to bolster the device's future-proofness as far as on-device Apple Intelligence processing goes. Yes, artificial intelligence requires many resources, but multitasking could potentially see an improvement as well. Interestingly, Apple Intelligence was one of the key reasons why the iPhone 16 Pro Max got 8GB of RAM in comparison with its predecessor as well. We can't say we have any issues with this yearly memory improvement: the more, the merrier.
Update: Apple has unveiled iOS 26, scheduled for a debut in the fall, which means we have a few months to get used to the idea of iPhones looking decidedly different.
The recurrent theme is the drastic "Liquid Glass" redesign, which Apple is touting as its most significant visual change in a decade. You can embrace the chaos and enable the "Clear Look" – a fully transparent, glassy theme if you wish, and you will get something that looks a lot like it crawled back from the Windows Vista days, or you can just stick with the more toned-down and traditional style.
The most practical changes are aimed at communication. A new Call Screening feature arrives to save us from calls about our non-existent car accidents, a public service if ever there was one. This handy filtering will also apply to spammy texts.
Aside from looks alone, there are some genuinely useful-sounding updates. The Camera app is being decluttered to just photo and video by default, a quiet relief for the minimalists among us. And Apple is promising to finally sort out the Photos app mess, making albums easier to find.
Naturally, there are other bits and bobs. You’ll get polls in group chats so that your friends can finally decide on a restaurant and custom backgrounds to liven up your chats. It all sounds perfectly sensible.
Camera
Triple 48MP cameras and possibly a longer periscope
Aside from the larger camera island at the back, which might soon rival the Las Vegas Strip in terms of size, the rear camera assembly is reportedly getting some upgrades.
It seems Apple will finally move to a higher-res periscope camera, allegedly a 48MP one, a definitive upgrade over the 12MP one that debuted with the iPhone 15 Pro Max and was also used on the iPhone 16 Pro Max. With a higher-res periscope camera, Apple will be able to use in-sensor cropping for enhanced hybrid zoom, which essentially means potentially longer zoom with lossless optical quality.
How long, exactly?
Well, the rumor mill says we should expect up to 8X optical zoom on the iPhone 17 Pro Max, and that sounds like a stretch for Cupertino. What's a bit more likely is for the new 48MP periscope to feature a 4X native optical zoom, but thanks to in-sensor cropping, the camera will most probably offer 8X "lossless" zoom.
That'd be mostly similar to how the regular iPhone offers a 2X toggle even though it lacks a telephoto lens: it's the in-sensor cropping that does the magic.
| iPhone 17 Pro Max | iPhone 16 Pro Max |
|---|---|
| Main camera 48MP F1.8 | Main camera 48MP F1.8 |
| Ultrawide camera 48MP F2.2 | Ultrawide camera 48MP F2.2 |
| Periscope 48MP F2.8 8X | Periscope camera 12MP F2.8 5X |
| Front camera 24MP | Front camera 12MP |
There are rumors that Apple will also introduce a new Pro camera app with expanded camera controls, which will also allow you to take vlogger-style videos with both the rear and front cameras simultaneously (which is something many Android phones have been capable of doing for more than a decade).
Apple might also include 8K video recording for the first time on the iPhone lineup. This feature will most certainly remain exclusive to the Pro models, though.
A major change could take place at the front: the iPhone 16 Pro Max's 12MP FaceTime camera might get upgraded to 24MP on the iPhone 17 Pro Max for higher-quality selfies and video calls.
Battery Life and Charging
Possibly a larger battery on board
The iPhone 16 Pro Max is the current title holder when it comes to battery sizes on iPhones, but rumors claim that glory might soon come to its swift end. The 4,685 mAh battery on board could be overtaken by the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which is reportedly scoring a 5,000 mAh battery, or thereabouts.
That would easily make the upcoming device the one with the largest battery in the history of iPhone… so far.
The hinted depth increase could allow for a larger dual-stacked battery at the rear of the iPhone 17 Pro Max, but the perfection of the "stacking" technology might be the main reason we could potentially see a denser battery here.
| iPhone 17 Pro Max | iPhone 16 Pro Max |
|---|---|
| Battery 4,700-5,000 mAh | Battery 4,685 mAh |
| Wired charging 30W (up to 40W) | Wired charging 30W (up to 40W) |
| Wireless charging 25W | Wireless charging 25W |
We currently don't expect any major changes or improvements to the charging speeds. While it officially supports up to 30W of wired charging, the iPhone 16 Pro Max could draw up to 40W of wired charging in certain scenarios, while its MagSafe 2.0 charging speeds top out at 25W. We expect the same to be true of the iPhone 17 Pro Max as well.
Specs Comparison
Here's how the iPhone 17 Pro Max will most likely compare against the iPhone 16 Pro Max specs.
| iPhone 17 Pro Max | iPhone 16 Pro Max |
|---|---|
| Size, weight 163.0 x 77.6 x 8.73 mm | Size, weight 163.0 x 77.6 x 8.25 mm 227 gr |
| Screen 6.9" OLED 120Hz ProMotion 3000 nits peak brightness | Screen 6.9" OLED 120Hz ProMotion 2000 nits peak brightness |
| Processor A19 Pro 3nm | Processor A18 Pro 3nm |
| Versions: 12GB/256GB 12GB/512GB 12GB/1TB LPDDR5 | Versions: 8/256GB 8/512GB 8/1TB LPDDR5 |
| Cameras: 48MP main 48MP ultra 48MP 5X zoom 24MP front | Cameras: 48MP main 48MP ultra 12MP 5X zoom 12MP front |
| Battery: ~5,000 mAh | Battery: 4,685 mAh |
| Charging: USB-C 30W wired 25W MagSafe 2.0 | Charging: USB-C 30W wired 25W MagSafe 2.0 |
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Summary
Overall, it appears that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will deliver a ton of improvements in most key areas, including the display, design, performance, and battery life, positioning itself as a big upgrade over the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
However, this doesn't mean that the iPhone 16 Pro Max will automatically become outdated, no. It will still be a potent and capable device for years to come. Тhat's natural to expect: as consumers now upgrade every three years or more seldom, the latest top iPhone is usually not aimed at those who bought last year's best model.
This is why iPhone 16 Pro Max users will most certainly find little reason to upgrade to the newer device; it's more or less aimed at holdouts of iPhones older than the iPhone 14 Pro Max, where it will definitely present a significantly better value.
However, there's no denying that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will be the cream of the crop for the second part of 2025, at least in the Apple camp, and Android's best phones better prepare.
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