Apple iPhone 17 Review: Close to Perfect

The screen is slightly bigger now, 6.3 inches, but more impressive is the display brightness, which can hit a peak of 3,000 nits. Even on the sunniest days here in New York City, I had no trouble seeing the contents of the screen. That’s perhaps also thanks to the new anti-reflective coating to help cut glare. And Apple’s new Ceramic Shield 2, supposedly three times more scratch-resistant than before, protects the screen. Glass is still glass—I already have a tiny scratch on my display. Use a case and screen protector!

I’ve been very impressed with battery life. After a week of use, I’m consistently hitting more than six hours of screen-on time, and some of those days involved using GPS navigation, music streaming, and hours of doomscrolling on Instagram Reels. I have yet to find myself worried that my phone is going to die. It easily bests the iPhone Air’s battery life and comes close to the iPhone 17 Pro, but if you want the absolute best run time, look to the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

If you’re coming from a phone older than the iPhone 15 (I hope you are!), remember that the iPhone now has a USB-C port. That means any Lightning accessories you have will require an adapter, but it’s a good time to switch everything over to USB-C. The only annoying bit is that Apple limits data transfer speeds to the same 480 Mbps, whereas the iPhone 17 Pro enjoys USB 3 speeds up to 10 Gbps. You probably transfer most of your data between devices wirelessly, so this isn’t something that impacts most folks. But other phones in this price bracket support faster speeds, so it’s a silly limitation.

The A19 chip powering the whole phone is an excellent performer. Seriously, for the vast majority of apps and games, this processor kills. Folks who routinely download the most demanding mobile games, like Assassin’s Creed Mirage, will find it a little limiting. I cranked the graphics to the max, and the game frequently stuttered and even froze a few times. Not to mention the iPhone 17 got really hot and nearly uncomfortable to hold. That’s because it doesn’t have the vapor chamber cooling system of the Pro models. Most games will be fine—Monster Survivor ran without a hitch—but heavy mobile gamers may want the A19 Pro chip that’s in the iPhone 17 Pro.