Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max in the detailed review

Strong, sharp, large-format OLED

With a large 6.9-inch diagonal, the iPhone 17 Pro Max boasts Apple's best display to date. Despite its large size, it achieves a high pixel density of 458 ppi for razor-sharp images. Added to that is the smooth 120 Hz refresh rate, which may slow down the screen but allows content to glide across the screen with exceptional smoothness.

In terms of brightness, the iPhone hasn't yet reached the level of its Android counterparts. While values ​​of up to 3,000 cd/m² ("nits") have been measured in the CHIP test center's checkerboard test, the iPhone 17 Pro Max only reaches this value with a tiny white area. However, even the 1,528 cd/m² ensures good readability on the iPhone screen in sunny conditions. We still prefer a stronger anti-reflective coating on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra level.

Max performance with max runtime

The iPhone 17 Pro Max not only sets new standards for Apple smartphones but also does so in terms of performance and battery life. The Apple A19 Pro processor performed flawlessly in our tests, allowing us to navigate smoothly through iOS 26, simple and complex applications, and graphically impressive 3D worlds at all times.

The redesigned cooling system really flexes its muscles. Even in the stress test with full load over extended periods, the case heats up only slightly, and the components slow down significantly less than most competitors. Our graphics benchmark's "worst score" remains very high, while Samsung and Xiaomi lose momentum here. However, their Snapdragon 8 Elite chips still deliver slightly better graphics performance than the iPhone for shorter runs.

However, it completely outperformed its competitors in our battery test. In the CHIP test center's standard procedure, the iPhone 17 Pro Max ran for an impressive 27 hours and 14 minutes at a 60 Hz refresh rate. This time includes chatting, scrolling, and surfing the web with an active display. A remarkable result that hardly anyone can beat, even among the bulky outdoor smartphones. This should get you through the day without any problems – even when driving at 120 Hz, with navigation, and full camera use.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max's high charging performance is also suitable for everyday use. After 30 minutes of plugging in, iOS already shows a charge level of over 60 percent, which means it can last for almost 17 hours. Alternatively, we can charge the iPhone wirelessly—optionally via MagSafe, which is also quite efficient.

Powerful cameras on both sides

The iPhone 17 Pro Max's triple camera setup features the familiar primary camera, ultra-wide-angle lens, and telephoto zoom lens. All three now boast 48 megapixels each, a significant advance, especially for optical zoom. Accordingly, Apple claims that the lens's 4x optical zoom also offers a virtually equivalent 8x zoom by intelligently cropping the high-resolution images.

Both the zoomed and normal photos look great. Colors, contrast, and details are perfect and among the best the phone camera market has to offer. However, there's a small disappointment for owners of the predecessor: Despite the improved sensors, we can't see any significant improvement over the iPhone 16 Pro Max (review) in our test images. Since the latter already took great photos and filmed in 4K at 120 frames per second, a significant improvement wasn't really necessary.

However, the leap is more noticeable with the redesigned selfie camera on the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Like its namesake and the slim iPhone Air, it uses an 18-megapixel square sensor. This means that no matter how we hold the iPhone, we can take photos both vertically and horizontally, and the quality of the shots is very good.

Ultimately, however, we particularly like the new features for self-portraits. These include an automatic follow mode that focuses the image on faces and widens the angle of view when more people are in front of the lens. Videos are also less shaky; if you want, you can film simultaneously with the primary and front cameras. It's a shame that the selfie video overlay can't be moved afterward, but only in real time.

State-of-the-art equipment with dusty Apple intelligence

The 231-gram iPhone 17 Pro Max isn't exactly lightweight. Given its size, the heavier weight is hardly surprising. Nevertheless, the XL iPhone feels relatively comfortable in the hand. This is due to the slim casing and the very comfortable aluminum, which replaces the titanium of its predecessor and creates a uniform look. The camera island has grown significantly.

Apple has installed more technology here, apparently creating more space for the cooling system and battery. In practice, the wide bar doesn't bother us. However, the transition could be smoother when resting the phone on our fingers. But this is no longer an issue once you put a case on the iPhone.

The internal technology boasts state-of-the-art standards. Apple equips the iPhone 17 Pro Max with the latest Wi-Fi 7 and 5G wireless connectivity, Bluetooth 6, and NFC for contactless payments. It also supports two eSIM contracts and a physical nano-SIM card. The internal storage can be configured up to two terabytes upon purchase, making this iPhone the highest-priced Apple phone at just under €2,500.

Apple typically releases long-term updates for its operating system. Unfortunately, there are no official details on this, but even the iPhone 17 series can be expected to receive updates for at least six years. Although the pre-installed iOS 26 already runs smoothly, offers a wide range of features, and delights with lively animations, the iPhone's AI is still not entirely convincing.

At the time of testing, Apple Intelligence handled many aspects directly on the device, such as text generation, Siri, and image editing. Still, the results lagged significantly behind those of Samsung, Google, and others. At least, with ChatGPT as Siri support, the voice assistant has improved dramatically, albeit nowhere near the level of Google Gemini on its Android competitor.

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