Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max: Making the ‘pro’ tag count by going the extra mile
For years, many have asked if the ‘Pro’ tag on top iPhones is about social validation. Apple finally gets it right with the iPhone 17 Pro Max
About 11 years ago, I was told by a then-colleague that Apple was one of the few consumer brands that took the ‘Pro’ moniker seriously. After all these years, spending time with the iPhone 17 Pro Max ( ₹1,49,900 for the 256 GB variant) felt like I could truly justify that statement. In its past five iterations, the ‘Pro’ version of the iPhone started veering toward being a social statement, rather than standing for the abridgement of the word ‘professional’. This year, the iPhone 17 Pro Max brought to the line a first differentiated design in five years—and a host of features that actually make sense of its ‘Pro’ branding.
This is driven by the fact that the base-line iPhone 17 no longer feels deliberately underplayed. While that is great, does this also mean that the iPhone 17 Pro Max is too differentiated to be suitable for everyone?
Beyond Just The Flagship Label
Take four features of the camera on the iPhone 17 Pro Max—‘raw’ photographs and videos for true-to-source details, support for Academy Color Encoding System (Aces) and Apple Log 2 to manage and add colour profiles to professional videos, and Genlock or generator locking that allows professional videographers to use a video rig by professional cinema brand Blackmagic Design for stylized videos of a single subject with multiple iPhones.
All of the above features, barring Aces (seen last year too), are new to the iPhone 17 Pro Max (and Pro as well). Together, they make the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s camera actually suited for professional filmmaking—and not a force-fit where professional video editing and colour-grading would be limited in ability and versatility.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max also allows users to shoot macro and 4x optical zoom photographs at full 48-megapixel resolutions, thanks to new camera sensors. For the most part, regular users shooting everyday moments would not need such high-resolution close-ups or zoomed-in shots. But, actual photographers using an iPhone as a second unit and content creators regularly broadcasting videos on YouTube or producing films for brands would rejoice.
To power all of this, Apple has added a thermal management system. While we did not use the iPhone 17 Pro Max long enough to stress-test the heat sink, playing four graphically demanding games—Genshin Impact, Asphalt 9, Oceanhorn 2 and NBA 2K25—did not produce any visible stutters in performance or unbearable heating issues. For pro mobile gamers, this is great news.
This brings us to the overall performance of the iPhone 17 Pro Max. The A19 Pro processor in the latter natively supports third-party artificial intelligence apps. For power users of top mobile graphic designing and illustration platforms such as the Adobe suite, the iPhone 17 Pro Max should deliver a seamless continuation of what Apple’s MacBook Pro laptops can achieve—without any performance limitation.
Benchmarks that we ran found the iPhone 17 Pro Max to be nearly 15% superior to the base iPhone 17 in graphic performance. While this is a theoretical approximation, actual pro users would be assured that as far as performance is concerned, this is simply the top-ranking smartphone in the market today.
The Trade-Offs
All of this extreme performance comes with collaterals. While the 6.9-inch ‘Oled’ display is Dolby Vision-certified and supports multiple colour calibrations, there’s no getting around the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s sheer size. With the basic clear case slapped on, it weighs over 250 grams. For long-term usage, discomfort of palms and wrists are clear concerns.
Then, there’s the question of how much storage should be enough. For professional gamers, photographers, videographers or developers, Apple now offers its top iPhone with 2TB storage. The concern—with Apple’s extended warranty, this 2TB variant of the iPhone 17 Pro Max costs ₹2.5 lakh.
Many may argue that the weight and the price would be well within a user’s consideration if they are actually considering the iPhone 17 Pro Max. The iPhone 17, with its much-awaited upgrade to a fast display this year, appears to be a more pragmatic choice as a lighter, easier-to-handle phone at nearly half the price.
The other trade-off is that the iPhone 17 Pro Max still evades 5G connectivity outside of the US. It does, thankfully, include Wi-Fi 7 support via Apple’s first custom connectivity chip—but the latter isn’t currently operational in India.
The Extra Mile
The phone’s additional battery stamina is worth it—its real-world battery boost over the iPhone 16 Pro Max is almost four additional hours. This gives it real-world usage time of 30 hours with an intensive workload, which alone may justify the purchase for many.
Armed with a subjectively polarizing redesign, the iPhone 17 Pro Max brings its heft of reputation to the table at the cost of a heavy body and price tag. It is undeniably recommendable as long as the buyer can justify the extra mile that Apple has gone this year—with a flagship phone that actually keeps the top-tier professional user as its top priority.
topics
