A Full Set of iPhones and Accessories:-
This is a very expensive package because inside is all the new iPhones, the 17, the Air, the 17 Pro, and the 17 Pro Max. And We been using this stuff for almost a week at this point. The things that are better than expected, but also the things that have made me feel pretty misled. Starting with the 17, which We got here in sage. This feels pretty identical to the unboxing experience last year. Same USBC cable with the same SM ejector.
iPhone 17: Small Wins Add Up:-
So, very first thing did was connect up the iPhone 17 and the iPhone 16 to the same ultraast charger. They started with dead batteries, but after 10 minutes, the 17 got to 26% compared to the 16’s 21. So, it’s nothing crazy, but the charging is faster enough that you’ll probably notice the difference versus before. The second test wanted to do was on this new anti-reflective coating that you get on the screen. So, here we’ve got the iPhone 16 next to the iPhone 17. And if you look at this part of the screen, you can see pretty clearly actually that the 17 is cutting out about a third of the incoming reflections.
The Square Selfie Camera: Surprisingly Clever:-
You can still sort of see what’s there even with the light shining on it. But then put it side by side with Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra and well, let’s just say that phone has nothing to worry about. Compared to the new iPhones, Sammy is getting rid of, would say, an additional third of the reflections. The new selfie camera on this phone is so much more useful than was expecting it to be.So, this is the iPhone 17. This is last year’s iPhone 16. And then this is the iPhone 14 from 3 years ago. So, let’s take the same shot on all of them. And there’s two key things you’ll notice between the 14 and the 16. The way that it processes my face makes me look better. skin is a little smoother and my skin tone has a bit more of that natural warmth to it. And then between the 16 and the 17, the main change is actually just how wide the shot is. And so when you zoom in up close, wouldn’t actually say it looks more detailed, but there is more detail overall because it is shooting wider. But yeah, wouldn’t really say detail is the main improvement here. So just so we’re clear, pretty much every single camera on every single other phone has a rectangular sensor like this designed to take rectangular photos that use that whole sensor. The iPhone 17’s front camera though is a square. This is the reason why you can take shots in portrait. So that’ll use this part of the sensor and then without rotating the phone also shots in landscape now just by instead using this part of the sensor. So this also means you can always hold your phone in the most comfortable position which is upright. And then when you use this orientation to take landscape selfies, they just look particularly good because it gives you this really wide shot, but also while cutting off your arm, which makes these photos feel less like selfies with the extra bonus of keeping your eyes looking close to where the camera is as opposed .
“Overscan” Makes Stabilization Better:-
So, we’re on a FaceTime right now, and what you notice is that the camera is now detailed enough so that when it’s just me on this call, the viewpoint is actually closer in on my face than it used to be on the old phones. But then some part of me was thinking, isn’t this new camera still just a bit wasteful? Cuz you got this big old square, but you’re only ever either using this to take portrait shots or this to take landscape. But that’s actually not true either. In reality, the full sensor is almost always being used. Cuz let’s say you take a shot that uses this part, then the rest of the sensor becomes overcan. Or in other words, just think of it as extra information that the camera can see beyond just the frame that you can see so that it can better anticipate movements and just leads to better stabilization. Then the final test We done on this thing is to find out how much more powerful its A19 chip is compared to last gen.
Performance Gains: A19 Outpaces the 16:-
So, this is me running the 3D Mark Extreme Stress Test, which is essentially 20 minutes of simulating highintensity gaming for the phones. And it’s pretty good news cuz the 17’s peak performance was 4,869, which is almost 30% higher than what the 16 got with also higher stability, meaning it retained more of that performance over the course of the test.
iPhone 17 Air: Thin, Light… and Underpowered?:-
So, we’ll see how this stacks up with the other iPhones as we go. And then, just before we unbox the Air, there’s also the Apple silicon case, which is pretty comfy. Give it a 7 out of 10. Probably the case ‘d go for if was going to get an Apple branded one. Okay, it’s air time. And got to say, was expecting something a little different with the packaging. You know, just something to maybe emphasize just how airike the thing is. But what you actually get is almost exactly the same unboxing as the 17, just with no SM eject at all, cuz every iPhone air is eim only. And this is the sky blue color.
A19 Pro Chip? In Name Only:-
So very first thing did with this one was the performance stress test. was just so curious to see how this thing’s technically superior A19 Pro chip is going to fare given that a phone this thin made of the not so heat conductive titanium is not a good environment for high performance. And well it’s a complete flop. This thing’s peak score was only 3,863.
Speaker Downgrade on the Air:-
The iPhone 17, the cheaper phone, which has the nonpro chip, was 26% faster than it. was actually so takenback by this result that was sure done something wrong. So, put the iPhone Air into the refrigerator to drastically cool it down. Tried the whole thing a second time, and did get a much higher peak score of 4717. But two things, one, that’s still a lower score than the 17. But also too, that level of performance only lasted for about a minute. And as soon as the cooling from the refrigerator wore off, it plummeted right back down to where it was in the first test, which is why the performance stability score is so low this time. So, am very curious to see if other people have the same findings with their airs. But this is not good. There is no world in which the A19 in this phone should be outperforming a chip that Apple is specifically labeling as the A19 Pro, cuz the average user is going to see Pro and just assume it is better. And they’re even going to base their buying decisions on it. The speaker on this iPhone Air, yes said speaker, it’s single, is a little bit different. You remember when all phones used to have a single speaker back in the day and it was downward firing, so you were kind of listening to music like this.
Air Accessories: Style Over Substance:-
So this is the Air and you can kind of it it really struggles to hit the low notes. Then this is iPhone 17. Historically, portrait mode has benefited a lot from your phone having a second camera, cuz kind of like having two eyes, having two cameras lets your phone better understand the depth of objects. Now, Apple says that they’ve redesigned how portrait mode works so that it is just as good on this phone as the 17, but in my testing, it isn’t. It’s often indistinguishable, but in those challenging scenarios, you can that this one camera is preventing it from properly understanding depth. And then finally, thought it was kind of interesting that the phone is so thin that the normal USBC port housing that you see on the other phones wouldn’t actually fit in here. So, the one on the Air is custom 3D printed in titanium, which is cool. But then you look really closely and you also realize that this port is not actually in the middle of the phone anymore. Maybe shouldn’t have told you that. And then the accessories for this phone are bit of a mixed bag. Like the standard iPhone Air case looks decent. It’s actually a little bit squishy. But the first time tried to take the thing off, without exerting a lot of force bent it out of shape permanently.So, can’t really give this one more than a three. The $40 bumper case, though, while not sure We ever tested something with a higher dollar cost per ounce of material, does feel a lot more premium and it does a good job of giving enough protection, but also while really genuinely preserving the feel of the air.
AirPods Pro 3: Big Leap, Tighter Fit:-
There’s also this new cross body strap, but think this is one of those fashion things that’s pretty lost on me.You just slide this up and down. Wait, what the hell? It’s a really nicely made accessory and it’s exactly the kind of thing We been looking for for one of my other phones. But it’s just buying this for the Air specifically feels like a bit of a contradiction to me because if you decided, do you know what? know’m giving up tons of things by choosing an iPhone Air, but just love it so much that ‘m doing it anyway, then fair play. Actually understand it. But if you then pay another $100 to buy this MagSafe battery to then also keep around with you just to get yourself to the same battery life that the iPhone 17 Pro Max has anyways. But while now being about 1.5 times thicker than that phone when you have the pack on, it just feels like an extremely poor lifestyle decision versus just buying the phone that you’ll never have to worry about the battery on. Oh, and then finally before the Pro phones themselves, the AirPods Pro 3. So these are the same $249 price as the Pro2s, just designed to replace them. And okay, the listening experience is actually way more of a step up than expected.
iPhone 17 Pro & Pro Max: Refinement Over Revolution:-
The sound stage is phenomenal. Like some sounds feel like they’re coming from way off into the distance and others feel like they’re being created inside of your ears. The bass is deeper than before, but also the noise cancellation is super effective. But just to give you an idea, this is what me typing on my keyboard normally sounds like. So now we’re going to put a pair of AirPods Pro 2 in. It’s cut around 50% of the noise. Now we put the Pro 3’s in. Like there’s 20% left of that audio. The problem is the primary way these things achieve so much noise reduction seems to be by just creating a tighter fit. Plus, these buds are also heavier. So, it’s a more immersive experience. But for long journeys, do think the AirPods Pro 2 are more comfortable. Still though, impressive earphones. would give them a nine. did also have a play around with the live voice translation these things can do, and think it’s got all the foundations of something that could be amazing. But right now, Apple has got to work on their speech engine. And that leaves us with the iPhone 17 Pro, which we’ve got in cosmic orange, and then the 17 Pro Max in deep blue. t is unusual that there’s no black option this time around, but mean, let’s be honest, probably wouldn’t pick it anyway. actually love the orange.
Pro Model Battery Confusion: eSIM vs. SIM:-
And then this Pro Max color is pretty toned down. The safer, more sophisticated option that would completely ignore. wasn’t super impressed by the accessories here. Like, this is the new tech woven case. So, guess this is Apple’s replacement for fine woven, which was super comfy, but a bit of a durability disaster. like the coloring in the sense that when you look from close up, what seems like one color is actually tons of colors threaded together. And when we durability tested this one, it is basically the toughest case Apple has ever made. But it kind of feels like they overcorrected a little bit from fine woven. It just doesn’t feel nice. It’s giving me um grandma’s itchy sweater vibes. And then there’s the clear case, which actually don’t understand why they’ve made this whole back section white. t doesn’t fit the phone’s colors and it’s also not clear. Four out of 10. So, first thing that surprised me about the phones themselves is how much more comfy they are to hold compared to the 16 Pros. guess because the metal bends around the sides as opposed to there being a sharp divide between metal and glass. Then tested signal strength and it seems a lot better than previous phones.
Cooling & Performance: Thoughtful, Not Groundbreaking:-
Guess this extra antenna band that you now have going all the way around the camera island and better networking hardware on the inside is more than countering that. Like first location tested this, managed to get 5G on my 17 Pro Max while my 16 Pro Max was only getting 4G. So my speeds were over 10x. Second location, both phones got 5G, but the 17 Pro Max was still faster 5G by more than enough to notice. And then we went remote where was still managing to get some signal on the new phone, but zero on the old one. Third finding though wasn’t as enjoyable. So Apple was pretty loud and clear about how the iPhone air is eim only. But what was not made as clear is that for the pros there are actually two versions. Ones with eSM which will be in the US and a few other countries and then the ones with physical SM like my UK one. And that the physical SM version has according to Apple 2 hours less battery life than what they referenced in their event. The only upside is these regional phones have a clean design all the way around whereas the US ones have to have this weird forehead thing to support millimeter wave 5G. The amount of thought that has gone into keeping these phones cool is kind of insane. Like as well as the big things like a design that has as much heat conductive aluminium as possible all around. Just lots of tiny things like instead of the chip being here on the last phone, it’s now in the middle which lets heat spread in all four directions better.
Camera Upgrades: Solid, Not Shocking:-
Or like how this new vapor chamber is laser welded instead of glued to the phone’s chassis. But all this stuff only matters if it actually delivers. So, let’s run the performance test. And we can also stick in the 16 Pro Max to see the generation on generation improvement. And solid result. The 17 Pro Max does have the highest peak score and stability. No surprises there. t’s good to see the smaller 17 Pro isn’t far off that either. And compared to last generation, we’re about where we expected. We’re looking at around 22% overall increased performance. Got to say, was kind of expecting the stability number to be much higher on the 17s versus the 16s, considering just how much Apple talked about the thermals and sustained performance, but in reality, the difference doesn’t appear to be paradigm shifting. What is kind of cool though is if you look at how the 16 Pro Max did, that’s actually lower than the base iPhone 17. So, in one generation, the $799 phone now actually outperforms the $1,199 phone. And then the key new camera upgrade is meant to be this 48 megapixel telephoto lens. And it’s a little bit underwhelming. Like in this example, compared to last year’s 16 Pro Max, this is the one time shot. Then we get to four times. So this will activate this new phone’s telephoto camera. But even then, there really isn’t that much in it. And then by the time we get all the way up until max zoom, actually think the older phone’s shot looks just as good, if not better. Now, don’t get me wrong, do think on balance the 17 Pro Max telephoto is an improvement. More often than not, you will get better shots when you’re very zoomed in, but this is just a PSA that you shouldn’t be expecting any kind of transformational change. Funny enough, the bigger change noticed is actually with portrait mode photos. With no change to the hardware, this is just software.
Bonus: The Insta360 Flow 2 Pro Gimbal (Sponsor):-
It looks like the image processing is now quite a bit better at getting detail out of the shots, and skin tones look spoton. t’s only when you see the new phone’s result that you actually realize the previous one wasn’t quite there. For an actually generational leap in camera performance though, the Insta 360 Flow 2 Pro, our sponsor, is insane.
Final Verdict: What’s Really Worth It?:-
Partly because all you have to do to start the thing is unfold it and it takes the already very stable footage to well, new heights. But mostly because this gimbal does everything. It’s also an extendable selfie stick. t’s your tripod. It’s your selfie mirror. It’s your teleprompter. The craziest bit is it can track you, right? You tap on a subject and the gimbal automatically moves. So, you’re getting ultra smooth footage. that’s trained on that subject. But because this is the only gimbal to natively support Apple Dockit, you can use this tracking in any camera app, including the default iPhone camera and Instagram.