
Apple actually hit it out of the park with the bottom iPhone 17, making it one of many firms greatest worth iPhone fashions in fairly a while. With what number of unbelievable upgrades there are on iPhone 17, it really makes a comparability to final yr’s iPhone 16 Professional mannequin extra attention-grabbing than you’d count on.
Shows
As talked about within the headline, these two telephones each have extremely related shows.
iPhone 17 and iPhone 16 Professional each provide 6.3-inch OLED shows with ProMotion, help for an At all times-On Show, 1000 nits of typical max brightness, and 1600 nits when viewing HDR content material. In addition they provide the identical decision and distinction ratio.
The place they differ barely is in outside peak brightness. iPhone 16 Professional maxes out at 2000 nits, whereas iPhone 17 can go as much as 3000 nits. Exterior of that spec, they’re roughly the identical show – which is unbelievable for a base mannequin iPhone.

Chipsets
iPhone 16 Professional gives the A18 Professional chipset, whereas iPhone 17 gives the A19 chipset. Apple doesn’t publish direct comparability numbers for yr over yr silicon enhancements fairly often, however count on modest positive factors within the CPU division. Each of those telephones have 8GB of reminiscence, and can help the total array of Apple Intelligence capabilities.
The larger distinction is within the GPU division. Whereas the A18 Professional has a 6-core GPU (vs 5 cores on A19), the A19’s GPU cores have inbuilt neural accelerators, which might doubtlessly come in useful later down the street.
iPhone 17 additionally has the N1 chip, Apple’s first in-house Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Thread chipset.

High quality of life
iPhone 16 Professional has two key benefits over iPhone 17: a premium construct, and a few higher-end options to accompany it.
iPhone 16 Professional gives a brushed titanium end, which appears to be like fairly good. It’s additionally much more sturdy than aluminum, although it’s much less thermally conductive.
Moreover, iPhone 16 Professional gives a quicker USB-C port with USB 3 speeds. That’ll enable for 20x quicker transfers than the USB-C port on iPhone 17.
Each telephones additionally provide Apple’s digital camera management button.
Cameras
iPhone 16 Professional and iPhone 17 have extremely related 48MP principal and extremely broad sensors, so that you probably can’t go unsuitable with both cellphone in that regard. In addition they each provide 2x crop telephoto photographs from the principle sensor.
Nonetheless, iPhone 16 Professional has a devoted 5x telephoto digital camera, which may be extremely vital relying on what you’re taking pictures. For that reason, iPhone 16 Professional probably wins within the rear digital camera division.
That stated, iPhone 17 additionally has an unbelievable leg up on the subject of the selfie digital camera. Apple carried out a brand new 18MP Middle Stage entrance digital camera, permitting for a lot wider selfies, in addition to the flexibility to take panorama selfies with out rotating the cellphone – because of a brand new sq. sensor.

Battery life
iPhone 17 had a reasonably large battery leap over iPhone 16, going from 22 hours of battery playback to 30 hours. Nonetheless, when evaluating to the iPhone 16 Professional, the improve isn’t as huge – with iPhone 17 gaining 3 hours of video playback. That isn’t nothing, although it isn’t precisely a distinction I’d lose sleep over.
The larger distinction between these two fashions is charging velocity. iPhone 17 can quick cost as much as 50% in 20 minutes utilizing Apple’s new 40W Dynamic Energy Adapter with 60W Max – in comparison with 50% in half-hour with iPhone 16 Professional.
iPhone 17 additionally helps as much as 25W of MagSafe charging, versus 22W on iPhone 16 Professional. You’ll want a succesful 30W energy adapter for both cellphone.
Wrap up
To sum it up properly, iPhone 17 is a nicer package deal for the lots – although iPhone 16 Professional nonetheless has a variety of nice benefits, particularly within the digital camera division. Long run, I’m positive each of those telephones will maintain up equally as nicely, so finally the choice is in your palms.
I’d say the important thing purpose to go for iPhone 17 is if you happen to worth the selfie digital camera and having extra interesting colours, whereas everybody else ought to lean in direction of the iPhone 16 Professional.
iPhone 16 Professional additionally has a key benefit of getting a bigger variant, with the iPhone 16 Professional Max. iPhone 17 doesn’t have a bigger variant this yr, except you depend the iPhone Air.
As for pricing, you may presently choose up a 128GB iPhone 16 Professional on Amazon for round $736, a 256GB mannequin for round $819, and a 256GB iPhone 16 Professional Max for round $959. This all compares to iPhone 17 at $829 from Apple (or $799 if you happen to activate with a provider).
Which of those two telephones would you choose? Tell us within the feedback.
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