The biggest iPhone upgrade in years is not the iPhone 17 Pro

Apple’s “Awe Dropping” event is now behind us, and boy oh boy did we get a lot of changes this time around. The iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max now look radically different, and even though this “Extended Plateau” design might not be everyone’s cup of tea, it’s indeed the biggest redesign in years.

The same price, lots of upgrades

This doesn’t happen all that often. The iPhone 17 retains its $799 starting price, despite all the rumors about a potential hike, due to Trump’s tariffs, economic headwinds, inflation, and whatnot.

More base storage

The obvious one is that the iPhone 17 now starts at 256GB base storage. And while Apple kind of used that argument to justify the price hike of the Pro, the company somehow managed to avoid increasing the price on the vanilla model.

ProMotion for the masses

This one was long overdue, but it’s still a substantial upgrade, and one that could probably sway a lot of people into upgrading to the iPhone 17.

Actually, if we take a look at Apple’s own comparison tool, the iPhone 17 seems to feature the exact same screen as the Pro model. The size, resolution, pixel density, refresh rate, and peak brightness—they’re all the same. The screen tech used to be one of the big dividers between the Pro and non-Pro iPhones for such a long time that this feels a bit surreal to me.

Wait, we get a camera upgrade as well?

The iPhone 17 might be the biggest overall upgrade Apple has done in years, as there are upgrades everywhere.

The ultrawide camera is now 48MP and looking identical to the one on the Pro models. Apple lists both as “Fusion” Ultra Wide snappers, which further bridges the gap between the Pro and the regular iPhone 17. And furthermore, there’s macro support on the regular model for the first time.

Now the only thing separating the iPhone 17 and the Pro, camera-wise, is the telephoto lens (and the $300 price tag, but I’m pushing it here). If you don’t need that 4x optical zoom and can live with 2x crops from the main sensor, you can save those $300 easily.

Variety and styling

I know this one’s pretty subjective, but the iPhone 17 comes in more color options, including the classic Jet Black and White, which are both absent on the Pro models. The iPhone 17 is also the only model to keep the design intact from the previous generation, so if you’re not too sure about the new direction Apple is going design-wise, it’s a much safer bet.

The vanilla iPhone 17 is also substantially lighter than the Pro, and furthermore, the weight is probably distributed much more evenly, as this “Extended Plateau” camera housing looks pretty heavy on the Pro.

I personally really like the vertical dual-camera arrangement on the back and find it classic Apple, reminiscent of older and iconic models such as the iPhone X, for example. Again, that’s pretty subjective, and if you want an orange iPhone, I guess the Pro is your only option. But if you want a black iPhone, then you have to get the vanilla model. So, there are pros and cons in this section.

Charging

We still don’t have the exact battery capacities of the iPhone 17 series models, but looking at the charging situation, it seems that another big upgrade has taken place. Both the iPhone 17 Pro and the vanilla model are listed to get 50% charge in 20 minutes using 40W wired chargers.

So, we have bumped up charging speed compared to the previous non-Pro model, and also the same charging speeds between the current iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17. Another segregation point has been erased.

The iPhone 17 Pro is still better specs-wise, there’s no doubt about it. It comes with one additional telephoto camera, and its A19 Pro chipset is faster. But… that’s about it. Are these differences enough to justify the $300 price difference? For me, the answer is no. 

What do you think about it? Go Pro or opt for the base model? Share your thoughts and don’t forget to vote in our poll.