The $1,199 Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max is the most powerful phone the company has ever made, and the most feature-rich, highest-performing iPhone you can buy. The refreshed hardware is more durable, the large screen is brighter than ever, and the battery lasts longer than the Pixel 10 and the Galaxy S25 combined—earning it a PCMag Lab Award for longest battery life. The 17 Pro Max is laudable for these basics alone. Toss in one of the most capable camera and video capture systems on a phone and combine it with exceptional software, and you have a winning formula for creators on the go. While most people should save money and stick to the Editors' Choice-winning $799 iPhone 17, the 17 Pro Max is worth its high price if you plan to make use of its broader feature set.

Design: Apple Takes It to the Max

Apple is pushing into some fresh territory with the iPhone 17 Pro Max this year. The iPhone Air is a brand-new model, and the iPhone 17 is a rehash of the iPhone 16. But the Pro? Apple carries over the essentials, but the rear panel is a significant departure from the design of previous Pro models. And the color palette is polarizing. Cosmic Orange is a bold choice that feels seasonally appropriate here in the mid-Atlantic states, where the leaves are starting to change with the approach of fall—but the leaves don't change everywhere. The phone also comes in Deep Blue or Silver. There's no black, which is likely to upset more than a few people, but the Deep Blue is quite nice.

(Credit: Eric Zeman)

As expected, the 17 Pro Max is a big phone. It measures 6.43 by 3.07 by 0.34 inches (HWD) and weighs more than half a pound at 8.22 ounces. It's just a tick larger and weightier than last year's 16 Pro Max (6.42 by 3.06 by 0.32 inches, 7.99 ounces). It's certainly the biggest and heaviest of the new iPhones. The iPhone 17 is the smallest (5.89 by 2.81 by 0.31 inches), but the 17 Pro Max is close (5.91 by 2.83 by 0.34 inches), while the iPhone Air is the lightest (5.82 ounces).

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Standing next to its Android competitors, the 17 Pro Max measures pretty close to the $1,199 Pixel 10 Pro XL (6.41 by 3.02 by 0.33 inches, 8.18 ounces) and the $1,299.99 Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra (6.41 by 3.06 by 0.32 inches, 7.69 ounces).

Part of the Pro's redesign includes an entirely new frame. Apple drops the titanium of last year's phone and returns to aluminum, which takes the form of a unibody chassis that flows from top to bottom. The raised camera module now stretches across the entire width of the rear panel. It's so huge that Apple calls it a plateau. Measured at the camera lens, the Pro Max swells to 0.53 inches, a gain of 0.19 inches over the rest of the phone's thickness. Below the camera plateau, you'll note a large glass panel insert. The Apple Ceramic Shield protects the bulk of the phone's rear panel and is complementary in color to the rest of the phone. It's a somewhat busy look that some may dislike. The good news? You can hide it with a case.

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But you probably don't have to. In addition to the thick aluminum frame and Apple Ceramic Shield rear panel, the front is protected by Apple Ceramic Shield 2, which Apple says is three times more scratch-resistant than the first-generation glass. The phone also has an IP68 rating for protection against dust and water. The Pro Max feels every bit as tough as it looks. It's the first iPhone since the all-metal iPhone 8 I'd use without a case.

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Anyone who's used an iPhone Pro Max before will know exactly where to find the buttons, controls, and ports. The left edge features the Action Button near the top with two distinct volume keys further down. These big buttons are easy to find and produce satisfying clicks when pressed. The combined screen lock/power button on the phone's right edge is 0.70 inches long, so you can't miss it. The Camera Control is slightly more refined than last year's and can be harder to locate quickly, but its action is just as good.

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Apple centers the USB-C (v3.0) port on the bottom edge. I like that the small screws on either side of the port are color-matched to the frame. You'll also see the speaker grille on the bottom edge and some antenna lines around the outer edges of the frame. A sizable RF window on the top edge allows the phone's mmWave 5G signals to pass through. It's a small strip of what appears to be plastic. My review unit has no SIM tray because it's a US model and is limited to eSIM only. International models still include a SIM tray.

Display: The Biggest You Can Get on an iPhone

Apple has aligned the core display specs and features across the iPhone lineup. That means all four phones have excellent screens. The iPhone Pro Max has the biggest of the bunch, and that's a large part of what makes it a popular choice.

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The Pro Max display measures 6.9 inches compared with the Air's 6.5 inches and the Pro and iPhone 17s' 6.3 inches. All the screens have the same pixel density of 460 pixels per inch, which means they appear about the same level of sharpness to your eye, even though they have different resolutions. The screen carries over its 1Hz to 120Hz ProMotion technology, which allows it to ramp up the refresh rate for smooth scrolling or slow it down to save power. The brightness now runs from 1,000 nits (typ) to 1,600 nits (HDR) and 3,000 (peak) nits for excellent visibility under even the harshest glare. This is up from a peak of 2,000 nits on the 16 Pro Max. I was always able to see the screen no matter the lighting conditions.

The TrueDepth camera for Face ID remains a core part of the Dynamic Island atop the display. Face ID is a fast and easy way to secure and unlock the phone, and authenticate purchases and apps. The Center Stage selfie camera is there, too. The Dynamic Island is larger than the punch hole cutout common on Android phones, but it mostly disappears even when you're watching videos. Other things that make the screen great include the oleophobic coating to ward off fingerprints, the 2-million-to-1 contrast ratio, the automatic white balance tool, and the eye fatigue features.

(Credit: Eric Zeman)

Performance: You Don't Need More Speed Than This

The most expensive iPhone should also be the fastest, right? Not in the case of the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Puzzlingly, the smaller iPhone 17 Pro notches slightly better scores across benchmarks, but that's far from the whole story.

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The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max have Apple's new A19 Pro processor. Like the A18 Pro before it, the A19 Pro includes two performance cores and four efficiency cores in the CPU; six GPU cores, each with its own Neural Accelerator; and 16 Neural Engine cores (the NPU). Apple says the Neural Accelerators boost AI performance by 30%. The iPhone Air has an A19 Pro, too, but its chip has five GPU cores. The base iPhone 17 has an A19 chip, also with five GPU cores. For media creators, the A19 Pro's power means advanced features unavailable on the iPhone 17 and Air.

The Pro Max has 12GB of RAM, like the rest of the lineup except the base 17, which has 8GB of RAM. The phone is available with 256GB ($1,199), 512GB ($1,399), 1TB ($1,599), or a staggering 2TB ($1,999) of storage.

New this year, Apple created its first vapor chamber. Android phones have been using vapor chambers to help manage thermals for years, but the 17 Pro and Pro Max are the first two iPhones to have one. This tool helps whisk heat away from the processor and spread it across a greater surface area. This, in turn, makes the heat easier to dissipate and allows the phone's A19 Pro to run at a higher rate for longer. The chamber is incredibly thin. It contains a single drop of ionized water that is able to circulate through it to transfer heat.

I ran a batch of benchmark apps to quantify how the 17 Pro Max churns through some calculations. As expected, it does really well. In fact, it crushes the Android competition. You can see how the Pixel 10 and Galaxy S25 do in comparison on CPU performance. The Pixel and Galaxy show stronger GPU performance in these benchmarks, but it appears as though Apple is capping GPU speeds at 60fps across the board, so its scores look artificially low on these tests. The phone handily beats last year's 16 Pro Max.

What surprised me most was that the 17 Pro posts better results than the Pro Max. I ran Geekbench 6 half a dozen times, and the 17 Pro came out ahead each time, even if only by about 1%. The 17 Pro also did better on 3DMark, but I think we can write that off to the higher number of pixels on the Pro Max display, which requires more effort to push.

Benchmarks aside, I couldn't perceive any difference day to day between the 17 Pro and Pro Max. The phones run fluidly and deliver fast and ferocious gaming performance. I tested them with War Thunder Mobile and came away impressed. This game supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing, which brings the lighting effects to life. Apple Intelligence features work wonderfully. The phone deleted distracting background items from my photos in a blink; in fact, this is one area where the Pro iPhones feel a bit quicker than the iPhone 17 and iPhone Air.

Battery: The Longest-Lasting iPhone Ever

The Pro Max contains the best-performing battery of any iPhone I've ever tested.

Apple says the iPhone 17 Pro Max battery can play a local video file for up to 39 hours or stream one for 35 hours. These numbers are up from the 16 Pro Max's 33 and 29, respectively. In our battery test, in which we stream an HD video over Wi-Fi with the screen brightness set to the maximum, the 17 Pro Max pushed through an incredible 32 hours and 11 minutes. That's an astounding 10 more hours than the 16 Pro Max and simply light years ahead of the competition. In comparison, the S25 Ultra ran for 14 hours and 15 minutes, and the Pixel 10 Pro XL lasted 12 hours and 35 minutes. It's almost hard to believe that the iPhone 17 Pro Max battery lasts 20 hours longer than the Pixel 10 in our battery test.

When compared with the rest of the iPhone 17 series (see chart above), it handily bests the rest of the lineup. The nearest result is the iPhone 17 Pro's battery life of 27 hours and 42 minutes. Not only does the iPhone 17 Pro Max outlast its peers, but it also cruises to victory past all other phones we've tested. Because of this, the iPhone 17 Pro Max earns a PCMag Lab Award for longest battery life.

The Pro Max supports better charging tech year over year. Using Apple's new 40W charger, it can reach a 50% charge in 20 minutes, which is fantastic. If you have a 30W adapter, it takes 30 minutes to reach a 50% charge. You can charge wirelessly at up to 25W using Apple's MagSafe charging accessory. The phone also supports Qi2 wireless charging if you can't find a MagSafe charger. It took the phone 55 minutes to recharge fully when plugged into Apple's new adapter and a bit longer, 75 minutes, using MagSafe and the same charger.

Some Android phones recharge faster, but I'd take 18 to 20 hours more battery life over faster charging any day of the week.

Connections: The Quickest Way to Get Online

The iPhone 17 Pro Max includes all the most recent radio specs, which means you can stay connected to almost every type of network, no matter where you are.

For cellular connectivity, the iPhone 17 Pro Max packs sub-6GHz, C-band, and mmWave 5G. Apple hasn't named the modem company, but my guess is Qualcomm. The iPhone 17 and 17 Pro use this same modem, but the iPhone Air relies on Apple's custom-designed C1x radio. I was able to run some speed tests on AT&T's fastest 5G service, and the Pro Max put up some impressive numbers: a peak download speed of 688Mbps and a peak upload speed of 291Mbps. You can see how the 17 Pro Max compares with the other iPhones in the chart below:

Wi-Fi 7 support means the Pro Max is ready for the fastest networks of today and tomorrow. Using my older Wi-Fi 6e connection at home, the phone managed to hit 708Mbps down and 266Mbps up in testing. When tested on the same network, the other iPhones scored speeds in the same range.

You get Bluetooth 6, which is excellent, since it's a brand new spec and accessories are just starting to hit the market. I tested the connection with a pair of AirPods Pro 3 and encountered no issues. Moreover, the phone's new ultra-wideband chip made the AirPods easy to find and pair with. This chip also interacts with Apple's AirTag trackers.

Apple combined these last two radios onto a single chip along with Thread, the smart home networking standard. This new custom-designed chip, called the N1, should help your Apple devices work better together, particularly when you're using tools like AirDrop or the mobile hotspot.

Audio: Clear Sound That's Not Just for Listening

The Pro Max is one of the best phones I've used for making calls in recent memory. It creates clear, precise audio that flows from the earpiece at volumes reaching 76.6dB, which is loud enough to hear in most environments where you're likely to make a call. Apple is doing a good job of ensuring that both callers can hear the conversation. The speakerphone works well, too, pushing out volumes as high as 86.9 dB.

(Credit: Eric Zeman)

Like most modern flagship phones, the 17 Pro Max produces stereo sound when you combine the earpiece with the bottom speaker. Our test track, The Knife's "Silent Shout," pulses from the speakers with intense energy. Moreover, the speakers don't lose the low notes while keeping the highs clean. The 17 Pro Max speaker reached an intense 91.1dB at maximum volume and didn't distort like the speakers of the iPhone 17 and iPhone Air. It's not as good as a Bluetooth speaker, but it's impressive for a phone.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max is also a terrific audio capture device. Four built-in microphones support audio zoom, spatial audio capture, stereo recording, and wind noise reduction. The Audio Mix tool combines information from the mics and processes it with AI so that you can edit out background noises from recordings later.

Cameras: The Professional Creator's Swiss Army Knife

The Pro Max camera system is the (real) reason you buy this phone. Whether you're shooting stylistic street scenes or recording a cinema project for film class, the iPhone 17 Pro Max has all the tools you need to get the shot.

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The phone has a triple 48MP Fusion camera system, with the same main and ultra-wide cameras as the iPhone 17, paired with a telephoto camera with optical zoom. The main camera has an aperture of f/1.78 with optical image stabilization and can take "optical-quality" 2x telephoto shots at 2x. The ultra-wide camera has a 13mm equivalent lens, an aperture of f/2.2, a 120-degree field of view, and can shoot at the full 48MP resolution if desired. Last, the telephoto camera has a 100mm equivalent lens with 4x optical zoom (which is less than the 5x optical zoom of the 16 Pro Max), and 8x "optical-quality" zoom by using the central 12MP portion of the sensor. The phone supports digital zoom up to 40x.

The feature list is nearly endless. It carries over the Adaptive True Tone flash, Deep Fusion, Smart HDR 5, portrait lighting, focus and depth control, night mode, panorama, and photographic styles. You can capture in ProRAW, HEIF, JPEG, and DNG files, and the camera has an automatic macro mode for shooting close-ups.

If you want to just point and shoot, you can do that, too. Press the Camera Control to launch the camera app and keep pressing to fire off a photo. Or, use the simplified on-screen photo and video buttons to capture the scene quickly. Advanced tools are just a swipe away in the new Camera application.

The results are a noticeable step up from the iPhone Air and iPhone 17. The images I captured look sharper, have more detail, and deliver a little more visual pop compared with similar shots taken with the iPhone 17. Any shots you zoom in past 2x or 4x are demonstrably clearer and have far less noise. Shots zoomed as far as 8x look right, but digital zooming past about 10x starts to lose detail and resolution. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

(Credit: Eric Zeman)

(Credit: Eric Zeman)

(Credit: Eric Zeman)

(Credit: Eric Zeman)

(Credit: Eric Zeman)

(Credit: Eric Zeman)

(Credit: Eric Zeman)

The Pro Max shares its selfie camera with the rest of the iPhone 17 lineup, which means it's the new 18MP Center Stage system. This is a totally brand new front camera from Apple. It has a square sensor (1:1 rather than 4:3), which allows you to take vertical or sideways photos no matter how you happen to be holding the phone. Further, the lens supports a short range of digital zoom, which brings wide and standard fields of view to both landscape and portrait shots. It's far more flexible than most other selfie cameras, though there is a slight learning curve to master its controls.

(Credit: Eric Zeman)

(Credit: Eric Zeman)

Serious videographers should not bother with any other phone. The 17 Pro Max has more video capture tools than most and consistently produces superior results.

The phone can record 4K Dolby Vision footage at 24, 25, 30, 60, 100, or 120fps from the main camera. It supports Cinematic Mode (which introduces portrait-style bokeh) at 4K30, and Action mode with stabilization at 2.8K60. It handles ProRes recording at 4K120 if you attach the phone to an external storage device. The phone supports ProRes RAW, Academy Color Encoding System (ACES), Apple Log 2, Genlock, macro capture in slow-motion and time-lapse, night mode, and QuickTake video in Dolby Vision at 4K60.

The footage simply looks fantastic. While Google and Samsung phones can capture higher-resolution 8K30 content, they don't support as many video modes or frame rates, nor can they handle color standards like ACES for post-processing flexibility.

Software: Liquid Glass

iOS 26 is preinstalled on the iPhone 17 Pro Max. This fresh platform constitutes the most significant visual change to iOS, perhaps going all the way back to iOS 7. Apple calls the new design language Liquid Glass, and after looking at it for a few days, I think that name fits. In addition to the new look for home screen icons, the biggest design change impacts the lock screen, which can now dynamically fit widgets around your chosen wallpapers. It's a neat visual trick.

The phone should receive at least five years of system updates from Apple, if not more. Pixel phones from Google and Galaxy phones from Samsung will see seven years of updates over their lifetimes.

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Only a few new Apple Intelligence tricks are on board the Pro Max. The one bearing the most impact is Live Translation. This tool, which is rolling out across iPhones and AirPods, makes it possible to speak with someone in a select few other languages. At launch, English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish are available, with Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin to follow later this year. It's only available in English-speaking countries for now, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the US. Apple hasn't said how quickly it will reach other regions.

The camera-based Visual Intelligence feature can provide search results when you share a photo of your search query, and the Apple Photos app is now better at selecting and removing unwanted distractions from your photos, like power lines, people, or other objects.