Kicking Off the iPhone 17 Pro Max Experience:-
An iPhone 17 Pro Max and an iPhone Air. They could go absolutely anywhere because we don’t have much time to make them, but this is the first one. This is the iPhone 17 Pro Max first impressions, but also made a note of some of the stuff that people have found in the other reviews that have gone out already. Really excited about this one. Have not been excited about an iPhone unboxing or or if completely honest, an iPhone review for ages. If you’re thinking about picking up the iPhone 17 Pro Max, you obviously do not want to on protection. This hits that sweet spot between protection and usability. You’ve got an 11 ft drop protection, which can confirm works. Reinforced corners and raised edges around the screen and the camera.
The Unboxing: Cosmic Orange Hits the Mark:-
ESR has also taken note of that larger camera bump this year with a zinc alloy camera guard. The camera control button is also fully covered, but still easily accessible. But the real highlight for me is that built-in stash stand. It works in portrait and landscape mode and has 15 to 69° of adjustability. And yes, Mag Safe works perfectly as well, and it feels really secure thanks to the 1500g magnetic strength. Then there’s the Cyber Tough Case. This one’s a bit of a beast. It’s got 23 ft of drop protection, which once again can confirm works, and a three layer design that includes shock absorbing pon lining. t’s definitely the one that take if traveling or doing anything energetic.
Apple’s Unspoken Design Details:-
You get the same dual camera bump protection and the camera bar and the guard and the stash stand, just with a more rugged build. And a very quick shout out to their Ultra Fit Amorite Pro screen protector. t’s made with Corning Glass, which offers 10 times the impact absorption compared to generic screen protectors, and the install was so easy. t’s a two-step process, and it took me less than 30 seconds. And it has an anti-reflective coating as well. All the links are down below. Go and check them out. What did order? forgotten. So, went for the iPhone 17 Pro Max and went for the 512 gig version. And yes, went for the orange one. You have to go for the orange one, don’t you? Very quickly, while ‘m opening this, don’t get the iPhones early. And the the thing that had with this this cosmic orange iPhone Pro Max was that was thinking it’s going to either be amazing in person or it’s going to be a massive disappointment. We had that with Apple stuff in the past where the the color on the website looks incredible and then you get it and it’s like, that’s a bit rubbish.
Setting Up & Returning to Dynamic Island:-
We don’t get the plug obviously because that disappeared with the with the ice age. We have a SM card tray tool thing because we do get physical SMs on the iPhone. Well, most of the iPhones in the UK still. know if you’re in the US and probably certain other locations, you don’t get that. But over here, we do. We get a lovely braided a lovely braided cable. Look at that. There’s little things that Apple don’t mention quite often in keynotes and things that are just a nice surprise when you get them. And over the last couple of years, they’ve been they’ve basically been giving us better cables. Very pleased with that. And then you just get all the normal things. No stickers. Let’s do the peel. Here we go. Now, very quickly, if you’re new to this , that’ve been using the iPhone 16e for the last few months since it came out. No one believes that went from the iPhone 16 Pro Max to this, but did. It’s an aluminium unibody frame. So, this is the first ever unibody iPhone that we’ve ever had. It’s one piece of aluminum aluminum, however you want to pronounce it. , the orange. Look at the orange. Just look at the orange color. It’s not as brash as this Nomad strap for the Apple Watch, for instance, but it’s very it’s very pro. It’s it’s the it’s the classic kind of Apple iPhone Pro lineup color, which means they don’t go for those really really piercing, bright, exciting colors, which kind of wish they did. They go for a a slightly muted, slightly more professional looking, guess, in their eyes.
The New Square Selfie Camera: Practical Genius:-
And if you’re thinking between the orange and the other colors that you can choose from with the with the Pro Max or or the Pro, think if you’re leaning towards the orange, but you’re not sure, get it. don’t think it’s going to be a disappointment. And it’s got this kind of this thing here which again wasn’t expecting any of this. didn’t know what to expect really. This thing here is like it’s a different texture. think it looks good. Then we have the plateau. Apple has to do this. They have to have these names for their kind of design elements. And that is the camera plateau. What want to know immediately is does it wobble on the surface of the table? And no, not really. mean, compared to the 16 Pro Max, for instance, that wobbles horrendously, that wobbles a bit, but not as much because it’s got more of a a surface area. There’s more surface area to the camera bump. First impressions of the orange, spot on. Really happy with that. The plateau, think, looks good. And the more look at it, the more it looks like it’s such a different phone to the 16 Pro Max.
This is such a change, isn’t it? Something always brings you crashing down to earth, doesn’t it? did wonder if they’d got rid of the camera control. Maybe they didn’t mention it because of course it’s there. And of course, keep pressing it by mistake. Anyway, do have a partially setup iPhone 17 Pro Max. Now, the display is lovely. And guess my my first impressions of this are not tainted, but they’re they’re governed by the fact that ‘ve been using the iPhone 16e for the last few months, and that doesn’t have promotion. t has a 60 Hz display. And it doesn’t even have dynamic island, which means seeing that again, that little thing at the top of the screen is actually a bit of a quite nice. , hang on. used to moan about dynamic island, didn’t ? t’s weird how things change when you’ve been using a different device for so long. But anyway, the display. What can say about the iPhone 17 Pro Max display? t’s lovely. t’s fantastic. iOS 26. One thing will say about that, because at this point in the year, a lot of people will be upgrading their previous iPhone to iOS 26. And as much as people have, let’s be honest, been a little bit unkind about liquid glass and all that sort of stuff, it does make your iPhone feel completely new. One thing really want to try and think this is quite ironic that this is the the main thing that want to try as soon as unbox this very expensive phone is the new selfie camera and it’s the first ever square sensor up here.
Review Roundup: What Others Found:-
The reason it’s square is because it means that you can take a photo like that, a selfie just holding holding the phone like that and from that photo you can have it either portrait or landscape. You never again have to go like that and then to get other people into the frame do that. We’ve all done this, that horrible thing where you have to really stretch your arm and then someone’s missing and the dog’s down here somewhere. And this is the Apple that love. They choose these features, which will have a genuine benefit on the people using them. honestly think that this new selfie camera across the new iPhone lineup is possibly the biggest feature. So, we go into the camera. This is brand new for me. So that button there, the the bottom right one, that goes to from landscape. Got no one here to do a group selfie with cuz have no . But what happens if you do that? So, you can still do that obviously, but you don’t need to because you’ve got this sudden switch. Apple, love you when you do these things. It’s utterly lovely. Okay, to save you some time, ‘ve done some scouring of the reviews that have gone live about the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max. And there’s a few things ‘ve picked out.
Testing the 8x Optical Zoom:-
Okay, the actual frame itself is thicker and heavier apparently than the 16 Pro Max. And going back to this kind of test, they don’t feel any different. Maybe a little bit, but again, not too much. So, if you’re worried about the phone being heavier than your 16 Pro Max or whatever you’re coming from, wouldn’t. The telephoto lens. Yes, we have an 8 time optical zoom. Let’s give that a go as well. Okay. nto camera. And yes, we have 1 2 4 and 8. No, five. So, my big thing with the 16 Pro Max and the 15 Pro Max was that five times optical zoom. t’s lovely. So to not see five times there anymore is a little bit okay. But let’s try this. Let’s focus on let’s focus on that over there because that is very dark over there. So there’s the wide angle. There’s the 24 mil. There’s the two times. want to focus on that over there. There’s the four times. These are quite harsh conditions to be fair. And there is the eight times. And if want to go right up to 40 times, that’s the maximum zoom.
Battery Life Expectations: Can It Reach 2 Days?:-
The battery from people who have had this phone for a lot a lot longer than me. ‘ve had it for about 30 minutes is apparently better than the 16 Pro Max. Apple claims that it is. t says it’s got 37 hours versus the 33 hours on this. n real world testing, people are finding that they’re getting to about 20 to 30% left at 10 p.m. Now, my thing with the battery on phones like this, expensive phones that are big enough to have a decent size battery in there, is that you should get 2 days really on normal use. And by that, mean using it as your your main phone, calling people, texting people, browsing the web, watching stuff. think if you can get about 2 days out of it, that’s good. And ‘ve not really been impressed with the Pro Max battery since the iPhone. Think the iPhone 14 Pro Max for me was the that was the highlight. That was such a good performer in terms of battery life.
Is the Pro Max Still Worth It?:-
The 15 and the 16 haven’t been that impressive compared to the Android competition. So, compared to things like the S24 and S25 Ultra, the 16 Pro Max and the 15 just weren’t that impressive batterywise. ‘m very interested to see how this does on that. And and from the looks of the the other reviews that have gone out already, we’ll see. will give that a go. The other thing is the pricing. This is still a very expensive phone, incredibly expensive. And quite a few people have pointed out that it’s now hard to justify the Pro Max or the Pro because the the standard iPhone 17 now has promotion. Apple can’t win with this, can they? Because they do it and then people start saying, “Well, but now why would you buy the Pro or the Pro Max?” And if you’re thinking between this and the regular iPhone 17 and possibly the iPhone air, this Pro and Pro Max lineup has become more geared towards pro usage. There’s two types of buyer. The first one is the Apple fan.
Now It’s Over to You:-
It’s the person who just loves Apple stuff. And you may not be using this for professional video production, but you want the best iPhone. So, get you completely. No one can tell you any differently. t’s your decision. The other type of person, and think the person which Apple is gunning for now with this range, is the professional. is the person who is going to be using this for work, who needs either video capture or possibly photography elements of this and they need to use it for tasks which end up with money entering their bank account and the time it takes to get those tasks done. The the lack of barriers and and trouble in getting those tasks out of the way, you know, with the device that you’re using, that is what drives them towards this rather than the entry-level iPhone 17 or the 16e or the iPhone Air. So, think we’ve reached this point now with the Pro Max and and the Pro lineup where it’s very definitively probased.
Conclusion:-
Don’t think that’s a bad thing from my perspective recommending the iPhone to a new buyer or someone who’s upgrading from a you know two or three two or three year old phone. It makes it a bit easier because would only recommend getting this think if you are a pro or if you’re just someone who wants the best of the best in which case you don’t need me to tell you that. You’ll just buy it. And you might be thinking, what on earth am going to do with it? Because not going to switch from the 16e to the 17 Pro Max. Actually going to switch from the 16e to the iPhone Air. However, this is mine. Going to keep it and want to take it with me over the next 2 or 3 weeks to various things that doing, various work related stuff and use it as a professional phone. And will be returning with much more comprehensive thoughts about the 17 Pro Max?