iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. iPhone 16 Pro Max

This year’s iPhone Pros bring an almost unusual amount of changes, including an all-new build and two new cameras, in addition to the typical chipset upgrades. As is customary, Apple has discontinued the previous-gen Pros, but retailers and carriers have plenty of stock, so it’s worth exploring whether saving some money and going for last year’s iPhone 16 Pro Max is a good idea or the new 17 Pro Max is the go-to option. Plus, many 16 Pro Max owners are certainly considering an upgrade. Let’s see!

Table of Contents:

For starters, you can compare the complete specs sheets or directly continue with our editor’s assessment in the following text.

Size comparison

Perhaps the most obvious and in many ways most significant development this year is the iPhone 17 Pro’s build – titanium is out, aluminum is in (or back in, depending on how you look at it). That hasn’t affected size and weight in any major way, though – Pro Maxes are about as large as conventional non-bendy smartphones come (larger and heavier than some full-size foldables too).

While the 17 Pro Max is a few grams heavier, you won’t really be feeling the difference, but the smoother back edges just might make it a bit more comfortable to hold. There are sharp edges on it too, however – the camera plateau’s anodization layer may be prone to chipping off, so the new model might show more signs of use than the glass-titanium 16 Pro Max, given enough time (and/or neglect).

Both generations are IP68-rated for dust and water resistance and Apple says they should be good after being submerged as deep as 6m for 30 minutes. How long that will last does depend on how the phone’s body will take inevitable hits and drops and dings, but there’s no realistic way of telling which is better.

Colorways are different between the two generations, and the 17 Pro Max has that spicy Cosmic Orange that’s turning heads, the blue that’s both good looking and understated, and the most incognito of all three – Silver. The old model’s four colorways are more muted and there’s a black-ish variant, if you’re into that.

Display comparison

Not much has changed between these two generations when it comes to the display, though there is one key difference in what covers the panels – the new one’s Ceramic Shield 2 is harder to scratch than the first-gen on the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and in addition to that it has an antireflective treatment.

Other than that, it’s still a 6.9-inch panel with adaptive 120Hz refresh rate and Dolby Vision support. Apple has tweaked brightness somewhat, now promising 1600nits in HDR versus the 2000nits on the previous model, but potentially allowing 3000nits in some cases. In our testing, the iPhone 17 Pro was good for 800nits when adjusting the slider manually vs 900nits on the 16 Pro Max.

Last year’s model would also boost to 1800-ish nits under our test conditions while the 17 Pro Max would only do a thousand. That said, both phones will happily put out numbers way into the 2000s for smaller illuminated patches – we go to about 2,700nits on the 17 Pro Max and 2,200-ish nits on the 16 Pro Max, so maybe the new model does have an advantage, just not one you can readily measure. Regardless – great displays on either one.

Battery life

The iPhone 17 Pro Max got a minor battery capacity bump to 4,832mAh, up from the 4,685mAh powerpack of the 16 Pro Max. If you’re in the eSIM only regions (of which there are more this year), the increase is a bit more noticeable – to 5,088mAh. We’ve tested the 17 Pro Max that does have a physical SIM slot and thus the smaller battery.

In our experience, the 17 Pro Max brings modest to moderate improvements in endurance in video playback and gaming, at the expense of a minor decrease in web browsing (and a more significant but ultimately less important call time drop). Both Pro Maxes are generally better than anything Android has to offer, but between them the differences aren’t too major.

Charging speed

Charging speed on iPhones is rarely something we talk about with any degree of satisfaction but the 17 generation makes significant strides in that area. The adoption of a new standard (the AVS extension of the Power Delivery protocol) and the launch of a new adapter (’40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max’) are only part of the story though, and we can’t imagine they’re the operative part – Apple just finally decided to adopt more sensible charging curves.

We didn’t have that specific adapter for testing since it’s only available in limited parts of the world. But even with other makers’ Power Delivery chargers (and aftermarket ones too) we got a substantial improvement in top-up speeds with the 17 Pro Max, compared to the 16 Pro Max. We also did fall a little short of Apple’s promise for 50% in 20minutes (we got 47% at most), so it’s possible that the in-house adapter does take it that extra mile. Either way, a decisive win for the new model here.

There is also support for fast wireless charging for up to 25W via MagSafe as well as third-party Qi2-compliant chargers.

Speaker test

The two Pro Maxes have speaker systems that are the same in principle, with a dedicated bottom-firing unit and the earpiece teaming up to form a stereo system. The 17 Pro Max’s drivers are both that tiny bit smaller than on the 16 Pro Max and that may have something to do with the lower loudness results we’re getting from this year’s phone. Apple toned down the mids a bit (which could explain the loudness decrease), but if anything that just might have made the 17 Pro Max sound more composed and overall better. Both are great options, of course.

Performance

The iPhone 17 Pro Max is powered by the Apple A19 Pro chipset – that’s one more than the A18 Pro in the 16 Pro Max. It’s still got a 6-core CPU with a 2+4 core configuration but there are newer cores that are also clocked higher. The GPU is improved too, and so too should be the NPU, but both maintain the same core count as on the previous model.

The new generation comes with 12GB of RAM vs. the 8GB of the 16 Pro Max. The 17 Pro Max can be had with up to 2TB of storage while the older model maxes out at 1TB, and both have 256GB base versions.

Apple is also making a moderately big deal out of the newly implemented vapor chamber cooling solution, which works in tandem with the aluminum body to get heat away from the chips faster than the previous model’s setup could.

Benchmark performance

The iPhone 17 Pro Max showed significant improvements in performance over the already pretty powerful 16 Pro Max. The difference is most notable in GPU tasks, but there’s also an advantage in CPU performance. We observed a meaningful improvement in sustained load so long as it was specifically on the CPU – long-term GPU stability wasn’t as impressive. In any case, the new model is, indeed, more powerful – as it should be.

Camera comparison

The 17 Pro Max brings a couple of improvements to the camera system – a new telephoto camera and a new selfie shooter. The telephoto is now offering 4x zoom and features a 48MP 1/2.55″ sensor in place of the 5x 12MP 1/3.06″ configuration of the predecessor.

The front facing camera of the 17 Pro Max, on the other hand, will get you 18MP shots at 20mm in either portrait or landscape orientation without rotating the phone, while the 16 Pro Max’s 12MP 23mm selfies can only match the phone’s orientation – so last year.

Meanwhile, the main camera and the ultrawide remain unchanged this generation, at least looking at the specs.

What did change with iOS 26 on the 17 Pro Max is the camera app, but that’s also been rolled out to the 16 Pro Max, so it’s not something that will split the two. We’re not necessarily fans, but that’s beside the point.

Image quality

Daylight

Main camera comparison at 1x shows that the new phone is a bit more expressive with colors and contrast than the old generation (represented here by the iPhone 16 Pro non-Max and its identical camera system), and that’s probably why we like its photos better.

Daylight comparison, main camera (1x): iPhone 17 Pro Max • iPhone 16 Pro

At 2x zoom, the 17 Pro Max shows a meaningful improvement in sharpness over the previous generation, good as it may have been itself.

Daylight comparison, main camera (2x): iPhone 17 Pro Max • iPhone 16 Pro

The new telephoto camera isn’t necessarily an improvement over that of the 16 Pro (Max). While it can capture 24MP files, they look softer at 1:1, and even at 12MP they’re about as good as those from the 16 Pro, not better.

Daylight comparison, telephoto camera: iPhone 17 Pro Max (4x) • iPhone 16 Pro (5x)

You’d expect to see more of an advantage for the 17 Pro Max at 8x, but it doesn’t seem to be there. If anything, it’s almost like the iPhone 16 Pro’s results are sharper, if a little bit grainier.

Daylight comparison, telephoto camera (8x): iPhone 17 Pro Max • iPhone 16 Pro

Ultrawide camera comparisons reveal little improvement – you could argue that having the 24MP shots on the iPhone 17 Pro Max is an advantage all in itself, but we can’t spot a meaningful detail advantage, and if you use the new model’s 12MP mode, things will look the same.

Daylight comparison, ultrawide camera (0.5x): iPhone 17 Pro Max • iPhone 16 Pro

Selfies

It’s undeniable that it’s cool to be able to take landscape selfies with a phone held in portrait – the 17 Pro Max can do that, but not the 16 Pro Max. At 18MP you get more resolution, and it also goes with a wider lens – so you can have more people on the frame. Pixel-level quality is similar, but the 17 Pro Max wins big on versatility.

Selfie comparison: iPhone 17 Pro Max • iPhone 16 Pro

Low light

In the dark, both phones will get you similarly great shots at 1x zoom.

Low-light comparison, main camera (1x): iPhone 17 Pro Max • iPhone 16 Pro

But at 2x zoom, the 17 Pro Max shows a more easily noticeable improvement over the previous generation.

Low-light comparison, main camera (2x): iPhone 17 Pro Max • iPhone 16 Pro

Switching to the telephotos, the 17 Pro Max’s results don’t quite excite in comparison to the 16 Pro’s – dare we say that the previous generation might just be a little bit better?

Low-light comparison, telephoto camera: iPhone 17 Pro Max (4x) • iPhone 16 Pro (5x)

Neither phone is producing likeable results at 8x and we’re not really seeing an upgrade with the 17 Pro Max.

Low-light comparison, telephoto camera (8x): iPhone 17 Pro Max • iPhone 16 Pro

Video quality

Below we have a few framegrabs from the videos taken by the two phones at each focal length so it’s easier to compare to one another.

The two phones have wide-ranging video-recording capabilities, including 4K capture at either 60, 30, or 24fps with all of the cameras. The primary camera on the back can also do 4K120, at both 1x and 2x zoom. Dolby Vision recording is available in all modes on the new model, while the 16 Pro Max can’t do it at 4K120. ProRes is available on both models, while the 17 Pro Max also features ProRes RAW and Apple Log 2. On both phones some of the higher quality modes require saving to external storage in order to work.

Daylight videos are barely distinguishable between the two phones in terms of detail and those are some of the nicest videos you can have – from any of the cameras. Perhaps the iPhone 17 Pro Max has a minor advantage at 8x, if you insist on looking that closely. There are very subtle differences in color reproduction, with the new model leaning slightly warmer, and while we do appreciate that, it’s nowhere near being a meaningful difference.

Daylight video samples, iPhone 17 Pro Max: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 4x • 8x

Daylight video samples, iPhone 16 Pro: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 5x • 8x

In the dark, the iPhone 17 Pro Max has an advantage in sharpness on the ultrawide and on the main camera – at both 1x and 2x. It’s also superior when comparing the telephotos’ native focal lengths, as well as at 8x. So a win across the board for the iPhone 17 Pro Max for low-light video.

Low-light video samples, iPhone 17 Pro Max: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 4x • 8x

Low-light video samples, iPhone 16 Pro: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 5x • 8x

Verdict

New is better and the latest iPhone is always the best iPhone Apple’s ever made. That’s of course true with the 17 Pro Max and it’s in most ways superior to the previous generation.

The new design may be polarizing, but it does have a few advantages, not the least of which is that it’s actually fresh after so many years of same-ish looking iPhones. The orange and blue colorways are nice in ways that the bland hues of yesteryear aren’t. That said, the 16 Pro Max just might be the more… premium-looking option.

The 17 Pro Max makes a significant and long overdue improvement in charging speed – if you find yourself often forgetting to charge your phone and doing last-minute top-ups, the new model will serve you better.

A couple of improvements in the camera field will also make the 17 Pro Max the better option – and only one of them is obvious. That would be the selfie camera which comes with a wider field of view, more pixels and a potentially useful multi-aspect sensor. The other one isn’t the new telephoto camera, which at the end of the day is more or less like the old telephoto camera. No, it’s that we found the new iPhone to be more adept at low-light video recording – not a huge difference, but a meaningful difference we observed across the board.

All things considered, perhaps the iPhone 17 Pro deserves the relatively small premium over the mildly discounted last year’s model. Unless you have that big of a problem with the new build, but doesn’t a case solve that too?