iPhone 17 vs iPhone 17 Pro: The base iPhone suddenly makes a lot more sense

 
We ran both phones through our usual tests for battery life, camera quality, display performance, and overall speed. Then we spent time using them side by side to see how they hold up in everyday use. Here's how they compare.

iPhone 17 Pro: $0.00/mo. at Verizon

$0 /mo

$30 ⁵⁵

$31 off (100%)

The powerful iPhone 17 Pro is finally here! You can now get the new Pro with an upgraded design and a brilliant display for as low as $0.00/mo. at Verizon. You must set up a new line on an Unlimited Ultimate plan and trade in a device to take advantage.

Buy at Verizon

iPhone 17 Pro Max: $2.77/mo. at Verizon

$2 ⁷⁷ /mo

$33 ³³

$31 off (92%)

The impressive iPhone 17 Pro Max is available at Verizon. Right now, you can save up to $1,100 on the premium device when you activate a new line and trade in an eligible device. The promo is only available with an Unlimited Ultimate plan.

Buy at Verizon

iPhone 17: $0.00/mo. at Verizon

$0 /mo

$23 ⁰⁵

$23 off (100%)

Get the iPhone 17 and enjoy improved design, better battery life, and top-tier performance. Right now, you can get the phone for $0.00/mo. with Unlimited Welcome, Unlimited Plus or Unlimited Ultimate plan.

Buy at Verizon

iPhone Air: $0.00/mo. at Verizon

$0 /mo

$27 ⁷⁷

$28 off (100%)

The slimmest iPhone is here! You can now buy the powerful iPhone Air at Verizon for $0.00/mo. with a new line activation on select Unlimited plans and a trade-in. This is an online-only offer.

Buy at Verizon

Unlike the Pro model, the iPhone 17 has the same look as its predecessor. It's also still rocking an aluminum frame and a glass back, but introduces Ceramic Shield 2 on the front, which Apple says is three times more scratch resistant than before. The back remains reinforced glass.

The iPhone 17 Pro moves away from last year’s titanium and also adopts an aluminum body. Apple highlights this as a lighter, stronger, and more thermally efficient approach, as it integrates the new vapor chamber cooling system directly into the frame.

Unlike the base model, the Pro is protected by Ceramic Shield 2 on both the front and the back, making it more resistant to scratches and cracks. That said, you'll quickly come to find that anything besides the glass part on the Pro's back is pretty easily chipped and scratched, so if you want it to stay prestine and keep its resale value, you better slap on a case on it.

The Pro also debuts a redesigned rectangular "camera plateau", which houses its triple 48 MP camera system and sets it apart visually from the dual-camera iPhone 17.



When it comes to size and weight, the iPhone 17 comes in at 149.6 x 71.5 x 7.95 mm and weighs 177 grams. The iPhone 17 Pro is slightly taller, wider, and thicker at 150.0 x 71.9 x 8.75 mm, and it’s also noticeably heavier at 206 grams. You can feel the Pro's heft when you hold it, but both feel similar in the hand as far as ergonomics go.

The iPhone 17 and 17 Pro colors:

• iPhone 17: Black, Lavender, Mist Blue, Sage, White
• iPhone 17 Pro: Black, Silver, Gold, and a new standout Orange

One of the biggest upgrades this year is that the iPhone 17 now has a 120Hz ProMotion OLED display. Apple withheld this feature for years, leaving the base iPhones stuck at 60Hz, but it’s finally here. The result is smoother scrolling, animations, and gaming.

Both models use 6.3-inch OLED panels with the same resolution (2622 × 1206, 460 ppi) and peak brightness of 3000 nits outdoors, making them much easier to read under sunlight compared to the 2000 nits of the iPhone 16 series. In HDR content, both peak at 1600 nits, and typical brightness remains 1000 nits.

Apple even added LTPO technology to the new base model, allowing the refresh rate to scale down to 1Hz. This unlocks Always-On Display support and greater power efficiency.

Apple has added a seven-layer anti-reflective coating to the iPhone 17 series.

It is not quite as effective as the coating on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but it noticeably reduces reflections compared to the iPhone 16 series.

Display Measurements:

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In our lab results, both models achieved above 2,600 at 20%APL and roughly 1,050 nits while the screen is completely white. Color accuracy remains top-tier, with Delta E values below 1.2 in True Tone mode.

Both phones run on Apple’s latest 3nm chips, but the Pro uses the more powerful A19 Pro. The A19 chip inside the iPhone 17 has a 6-core CPU (2 performance, 4 efficiency), a 5-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine. The A19 Pro adds a 6-core GPU, giving it more headroom for gaming, creative work, and Apple Intelligence features.

The Pro also gains a vapor chamber cooling system, allowing it to sustain peak performance for longer without overheating, which will be noticable when gaming or doing a lot of video recording and editting, for example. That said, Apple’s vapor chamber is a passive system, which means it doesn’t actively cool the phone, but rapidly spreads heat across the chassis to delay throttling under sustained loads.

The iPhone 17 comes with 8 GB of RAM and storage up to 512 GB storage, while the Pro is equipped with 12 GB of RAM and offers storage up to 1 TB (both start at 256 GB). That makes the Pro better suited for workflows that include larger files.

CPU Performance Benchmarks:

The iPhone 17 Pro performed only marginally better than the standard iPhone 17 in our Geekbench tests, showing little to no benefit of going for the A19 Pro chipset when it comes to CPU performance.

GPU Performance

In our testing, the iPhone 17 Pro maintains 65–70% performance stability in the 3DMark stress test — far better than the regular iPhone 17, which begins throttling sooner under load. That translates to smoother sustained frame rates in demanding games like Resident Evil 4 and Death Stranding, both now playable at nearly 50fps on the Pro.

Another important difference is the USB-C port. The iPhone 17 only supports USB 2 speeds, meaning file transfers are limited. The iPhone 17 Pro supports USB 3 at up to 10Gbps, making it much faster for moving ProRes video or large files.

On the software side, both models ship with iOS 26, which introduces the new Liquid Glass design language, Live Translate, Call Screening, and the first wave of Apple Intelligence features.

Apple finally upgraded the base iPhone’s secondary camera: alongside the 48 MP main image sensor from last year, the iPhone 17 now uses a 48 MP ultrawide. Image quality has improved mostly when it comes to detail, which also affects the Macro mode.

The new 48 MP ultrawide now defaults to 24 MP images. The good news is that the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max also get 24 MP default photos with the iOS 26 update.

At the front, both phones share Apple’s new 18 MP Center Stage selfie camera with a wider field of view, auto-expanding/auto-rotating framing for group selfies, and noticeably better video stabilization, even in 4K HDR.

Where the Pro truly separates itself is the new 48 MP telephoto camera. It uses a tetraprism design and a larger sensor (56% larger than before) to deliver 4x optical zoom at 100 mm and an extended 8x at 200 mm, with up to 40x digital for photos. There is an obvious step up in detail at 4x, and even at 5x the new 48 MP telephoto produces cleaner, higher-resolution results than the old 5x image sensor.

At 2x, the Pro also shows better detail thanks to cropping from its larger main sensor. The 4x lens can focus a bit closer than the previous 5x, which helps for product shots and food pics, but the focus distance still doesn't seem to be close enough for true telephoto-macro shots.

Portrait mode sees a substantial improvement on both models: the 48 MP pipeline now preserves facial detail and skin texture far better than the iPhone 16 generation, avoiding that waxy look.

There aren't many notable changes to video recording on the base model, but the Pro adds new tools for creators like ProRes RAW (requires an external drive), Apple Log, Opengate, and Genlock.

For video, both support Dolby Vision HDR, Cinematic mode, Action mode, and Dual Capture. The Pro, however, unlocks more advanced tools: 4K120 ProRes, ProRes RAW, Apple Log, Academy Color Encoding System, and Genlock support, all of which are features aimed squarely at professionals.

PhoneArena Camera Score:

In our lab testing, the iPhone 17 Pro scored slightly higher overall thanks to sharper zoom detail and improved main-camera consistency. Both models performed similarly when it came to color acuracy and HDR performance, though the Pro holds an advantage in low-light conditions due to its larger main  image sensor.

Main Camera

Zoom Quality

Ultra-wide Camera

Selfies

Both iPhones use stacked battery technology for better energy density and durability. The iPhone 17 comes with a ~3,692 mAh battery, while the iPhone 17 Pro is slightly larger at  ~3,988 mAh (Nano SIM) or ~4,252 mAh (eSIM). Keep in mind that battery sizes are not confirmed yet, so take these with a grain of salt.

Apple rates the iPhone 17 for up to 30 hours of video playback (27 streamed), while the Pro lasts up to 33 hours (30 streamed). These are Apple’s best runtimes yet for this size.

PhoneArena Battery and Charging Test Results:

In our tests, the iPhone 17 delivered around 16 hours and 47 minutes of web browsing and 7 hours and 19 minutes of YouTube streaming. The iPhone 17 Pro extended that slightly with about 17 hours and 10 minutes of browsing and 8 hours and 25 minutes of video streaming. Both, however, are good enough for a day of normal use.

Charging speeds have also improved. With Apple’s new 40W Dynamic Power Adapter, both models can reach 50% in about 20 minutes. Wireless charging remains capped at 25W, but both phones now support Qi2, so third-party magnetic chargers can finally match MagSafe’s top speeds.

Both models support reverse wired charging, but still no reverse wireless charging, even on the Pro.

The iPhone 17 produces clean, full audio with a good sense of depth and bass, making it enjoyable for music, videos, and podcasts. The iPhone 17 Pro sounds equally clear, but it doesn’t reach quite the same maximum loudness as last year’s Pro model. That said, it still sounds somewhat better than the standard model.

Haptics are identical on both phones. Apple’s Taptic Engine continues to set the standard for precision feedback, with tight, well-tuned vibrations that make notifications and gestures feel immediate and satisfying.

Here's a quick overview of the iPhone 17 vs iPhone 17 Pro specs.

In previous years, you might have leaned toward the Pro model for its better display or faster charging, but with the iPhone 17 series, you no longer need to pay extra to get those. That leaves the iPhone 17 Pro as a more focused product, built for users who want everything a modern content creator could need from their phone.

Of course, you don’t have to be a creator or professional to benefit from what the iPhone 17 Pro offers. The real point is that you no longer need to spend more just to get the full flagship experience.

If you already use, or plan to use, the Pro-exclusive features — like the extra camera modes, faster data transfer speeds, or improved durability — then the iPhone 17 Pro is the right choice.

But if you mainly use your phone for everyday things like capturing moments with family and friends, gaming, or scrolling through social media, you won’t feel like you’re missing out with the regular iPhone 17.

The one thing that could have made the iPhone 17 truly perfect is a dedicated telephoto camera. The 2x sensor crop is nice, but having a 3x optical zoom would have completed the camera setup. Of course, that would also remove the last real reason for most regular users to move up to the Pro, so it’s safe to assume Apple won’t be in a rush to change that anytime soon.