If you’re looking to join the Apple family, and you’re planning to do so with the top-of-the-line smartphone models, then you obviously want the iPhone 17 Pro. As we found in our review of it, it’s solid and comes with the year-on-year upgrade that fans would expect.
But what if the standard 17 Pro isn’t big enough for you? What if you’re a bit of a size queen, and you want something bigger? Enter the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Specifications
Looks and Functionality
Because it’s been said before by my colleague who spent time reviewing the iPhone 17 Pro, I’m just going to be echoing much of what has already been established. Firstly, the two-tone design of the new series makes the iPhone 17 Pro Max look and feel a little awkward.
Mind you, it’s an even weirder feeling on a personal level, because the colour scheme of Deep Blue? It doesn’t really gel or sit well with me, and I’m getting the feeling that Apple did it on purpose to really sell the Cosmic Orange option to the masses.
The new camera island certainly makes it stand out.
Then there’s the new design of the main camera island, or plateau, as my confederate calls it. If you thought it was huge on the standard Pro model, it’s huge on the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Once again on a personal level, I don’t dislike the design as much and if you actually pair it with the official casing, it does stand out in a right way. Just not in Silver or Deep Blue. Sorry Apple, but I truly believe you missed the boat on the colour options when you launched it.
Moving past that, the overall design and chassis of the iPhone 17 Pro Max remains iconic and in line with the fashion statement it is – the Power button that double as your access to Wallet; the multi-functional Camera button that’s situated too far into the side, making it far too difficult to use it as a Shutter button; the volume rocker and Action on the other side of the phone, but let’s be honest, none of us use the latter for anything more than a way to mute and unmute your phone.
The display isn’t anything special or new. On paper, it’s like its predecessor; there’s the same 6.9-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display with ProMotion, along with the same Always On and Dynamic Island design. Content on the video looks deliciously crisp for the most part, but more on that later.
The trade-off for Apple’s belle of the season is the use of aluminium instead of the titanium frame it introduced with the iPhone 15 Pro series. Granted, it’s heat-forged aluminium, and the brand swears that it’s much better at dissipating heat and, as a result, improves the performance of the phone.
Of course, there’s the USB-C port that Apple has implemented since the iPhone 15. This is definitely one move I’m glad Apple conformed to and not being stubborn with its proprietary Lightning Connector.
Performance and Battery
Before I go any further, I need to make one detail absolutely clear: the iPhone 17 Pro Max marks the first time I’ve used an iPhone. On a whole, this marks the…I want to say third? Yeah, the third time I’ve actually used an Apple device, but this is the first time that I’ve used an iPhone as my daily driver.
Gaming on a mobile phone isn’t an activity that I gravitate to, but I do some light gaming here and there. There are obviously some more graphically intensive titles, such as Warframe and the recently launched Where Winds Meet, both of which can maintain the 60 fps average, but honestly, I can’t get used to the whole touchscreen control scheme. I do have a detachable mobile controller, but again, if I wanted to game, that’s what my ROG Xbox Ally X or my laptop is for.
Super Retina XDR display looks good as always, but isn’t groundbreaking.
The phone’s XDR display isn’t groundbreaking at this point, and what I do appreciate is the Adaptive mode that is in constant regulation of blue light being emitted. That said, the whites on-screen tends to look a little warm, at the best of times.
The one element that continues to surprise me in Apple’s devices are their audio output, and the iPhone 17 Pro Max is no exception. I’ve said this in a previous review: I don’t know what kind of sorcery they’re casting, but the noise that comes off this phone is borderline magical. It’s no Macbook Pro, but blasting music from it sounds more full, complete, and detailed than any Android device I’ve used.
What I regularly use my iPhone 17 Pro Max for, though, is to stream videos, both from YouTube, Netflix, and now that I have an iPhone, AppleTV. On a non-stop binge, the phone and its 5,015mAh battery surpassed 24 hours before dropping into the single-digit life. As my daily driver – messaging, checking mail, photography, the occasional episode from streaming services – it’s a good day and a half of use. I can stretch it to two days if I try, but responding to messages and emails makes it a little difficult.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max supports fast charging up to 30W fast charging and 15W wireless, but given that its Android rivals are capable of far quicker charging rates, and the fact that they have battery capacities exceeding the 7,000mAh at this point, it’s far from impressive.
Camera
The iPhone 17 Pro Max can boast a triple 48MP main camera module, which is an update from the 16 Pro Max. Considering that I am a long-standing Android user, and the fact that the flagships tend to be heavy-handed with their use of HDR seeing images from the lens of the iPhone 17 Pro Max, let alone an iPhone, feels a little muted.
What I mean by that is that every image looks and feels natural and less saturated, and the colours look a lot more accurate and closer to what our eyes see in real life.
Low-light, or night photography, isn’t necessarily its strong suit. The camera tends to pick up a lot of noise, even when there are adequate light sources around, and God forbid you zoom into a subject, at which point, the image looks terrible. Also, AI doesn’t appear to play a part in post-processing; most flagship Android phones would automatically enhance the details of the moon when it is captured at maximum zoom. With the iPhone 17 Pro Max, all I get is a moon lacking details, although its craters are seen.
Sample Images
Conclusion
Much like its predecessors before it, the iPhone 17 Pro Max retains the same solid performance that you’d expect of an iPhone. Of course, the new chip and vapour chamber cooling also adds to the allure, more so if you’re the kind of person that like playing mobile games or if you’re playing games on the downlow.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max starts at RM5,999, with my model costing RM6,999. I won’t tell you that that’s a fortune for a phone; it’s a flagship, and a plus-sized one at that, so you really need to manage your expectations.
I would certainly recommend this phone, but only if you’re coming from an iPhone model that is older than two generations, or if you’re transitioning from the Android ecosystem. For obvious reasons, Apple isn’t about to schlep you, especially when you’re paying them a small fortune.
Photography by John Law.
