One of the big upgrades Apple announced during its ‘Awe Dropping’ event for the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max was a new telephoto camera for its Pro models. On paper, the 48MP Fusion Camera with 4x zoom looks much more formidable than the 12MP camera found on Apple’s previous Pros. And just like last year’s models, the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max share the same identical cameras.
However, one tidbit that has gone under the radar involves the optical zoom range for this new telephoto camera. According to Apple, the telephoto cameras on the iPhone 17 Pro models offer both 4x and 8x zoom. Those claims are accurate, but there’s more to it than that. The iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max offered a 5x optical zoom with its telephoto camera, so what’s going on?
You might be thinking that Apple “downgraded” the telephoto camera for the iPhone 17 Pros, but that may depend on who you ask. Other companies made similar moves, like how the Galaxy S23 Ultra featured a telephoto shooter with 10x optical zoom, only to see it “downgraded” to a 5x optical zoom with the Galaxy S24 Ultra. I’ll break down the details about the iPhone 17 Pros’ 48MP telephoto cameras, so you understand exactly how this new lens compares to the previous one.
iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max: Camera specs
|
iPhone 17 Pro & 17 Pro Max |
iPhone 16 Pro & 16 Pro Max |
|
|
Main Camera |
48MP (f/1.78) |
48MP (f/1.78) |
|
Ultrawide |
48MP (f/2.2) |
48MP (f/2.2) |
|
Telephoto |
48MP (f/2.8) |
12MP (f/2.8) |
|
Optical Zoom Options |
0.5x, 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x |
0.5x, 1x, 2x, 5x |
|
Digital zoom |
40x |
25x |
|
Selfie |
18MP (f/1.9) |
12MP (f/1.9) |
Before I dive into whether this 48MP telephoto is a downgrade for the iPhone 17 Pros, it’s worth looking at the phones’ camera specs first. As you can see above, there are two major differences this year with the iPhone 17 Pro cameras: the 48MP telephoto and 18MP selfie cams.
Due to that new telephoto, Apple claims you’re getting five optical zoom options with the iPhone 17 Pros — 0.5x, 1x, 2x, 4x, and 8x. This is one more than what you’re given with the iPhone 16 Pros. Another important thing to note here is how the aperture values (f-stops) with each camera are identical to last year, so the only meaningful difference here should come out of that new 48MP telephoto camera.
Optical versus optical-quality performance
I’ve seen many other phones tout zoom levels beyond their actual noted optical zoom level. In recent years, though, there’s been this debate about optical performance and optical-quality performance. Apple’s no stranger to using this terminology, as it mentioned the iPhone 15 to have “three optical-quality zoom levels” despite not having a dedicated telephoto shooter.
In order for the iPhone 15 (and iPhone 16) to achieve their 2x optical-quality zooms, they lean on capturing them with the 48MP main camera, but at 24MP by isolating the capture to the middle of the sensor. And since the iPhone 15 natively captures photos at 24MP out of the box, it’s not wrong that Apple claims to have “optical-quality” at 2x zoom.
This is essentially the same premise with the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max. Apple goes on to say that the “new 4x optical zoom at 100mm offers a classic lens for portraiture, while the 8x optical zoom at 200mm, the longest ever on iPhone, provides longer reach and more creative choice.”
By default, the iPhone 17 Pros are set to capture at 24MP across 0.5x, 1x, 2x, and 4x. At 8x zoom and beyond, however, the resolution drops down to 12MP. But don’t think for a moment it’s a downgrade because you have to bear in mind the camera sensor at play here.
iPhone 17 Pro camera still captures more detail
By switching to a 4x optical zoom with the iPhone 17 Pros, Apple gives us that classic trade-off between the camera’s sensor resolution and optical magnification. Yes, the 4x optical zoom of the iPhone 17 Pro is less than the 5x optical zoom with the iPhone 16 Pro — but this new 48MP telephoto still captures more detail.
Just remember that the iPhone 17 Pro uses the entire 48MP camera sensor to capture photos at 4x zoom. You’ll obviously get closer to a subject with the iPhone 16 Pro’s 5x optical zoom camera, but you’re getting four times more pixel information from the iPhone 17 Pro’s 48MP sensor at 4x zoom. This means you could digitally crop the 4x photo and likely end up with a more detailed image than the native 5x shot from the 12MP camera.
But what about at 8x zoom when the capture goes down to 12-megapixels with the iPhone 17 Pro? Now this is interesting because it’s leaning more on computational photography to achieve that “optical-quality that Apple’s known for. And no, it’s more than just a crop. In fact, Apple’s Greg “Joz” Joswiak told us in our interview that “it’s a disservice to call it a crop, because it’s way more than that.”
To put it another way, you’re not just taking a static photo and then zooming in to achieve a specific zoom level. Instead, the magic comes from the sensor cropping technique that uses its native 4x optical telephoto lens to get physically closer to the subject. This results in the 4x lens projecting the image onto the 48MP sensor, which then isolates the central 12 megapixels of the 48MP sensor to get that 8x optical-quality zoom.
It’s also worth pointing out that you now get a maximum digital zoom of 40x with the iPhone 17 Pros, versus 25x with the iPhone 16 Pros. That’s a big difference.
Enhancements with updated Photonic Engine
The iPhone 17 Pro’s new telephoto camera also benefits from an updated Photonic Engine, Apple’s computational photography model. That powers the photo processing that happens in the background while you’re taking a photo, resulting in enhancements such as reduced noise, more preserved details and better color accuracy.
I’m confident that the zoom performance will noticeably improve with the iPhone 17 Pro, especially at the same zoom levels against the iPhone 16 Pro. On top of that, I’m eager to test the iPhone’s zoom against some of the other best camera phones out there, like the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Pixel 10 Pro XL. The latter camera phone uses generative AI to enhance images at 10x zoom and beyond, so the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max have its work cut out to top Google‘s zoom capabilities.
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