So every year, when new iPhones are announced, the base iPhone model used to get a lot of criticism for bringing little to no improvements in each generation. But at the same time, the funny thing is, these base iPhone models are also the ones that sell the most. The iPhone 15 was the best-selling device in 2024. And the iPhone 14 was the second-best-selling phone in 2023.
And this year, we saw almost every Android phone maker launching a compact version of their flagship devices, which shows how the demand for compact phones is at its peak. And I think Apple has played this trend perfectly and made a really smart move with this year’s iPhone 17. They have pushed some much-needed upgrades on this phone, like 256GB of storage and a 120Hz refresh rate display, making it possibly the BEST value for money iPhone this year! Let me tell you all about it in my iPhone 17 review.
iPhone 17 review: Specifications
- Design, build: 149.6 x 71.5 x 7.95 mm, 177 gm, IP68 rating
- Display: 6.3-inch OLED screen, FHD+, 120Hz refresh rate (LTPO)
- Chipset: Apple A19 (3nm mobile platform)
- Memory: 8GB RAM, 256/512GB storage (non-expandable)
- Software & UI: iOS 26
- Rear Camera: Dual (48MP primary, 48MP ultrawide)
- Front Camera: 18MP “Center Stage” camera (Dynamic Island)
- Security: Face ID (via the front camera)
- Connectivity: Dual-SIM (Nano), WiFi 7 (dual-band), Bluetooth 6, GPS / Glonass / Galileo / BeiDou / QZSS / NavIC, USB-C, 4G LTE, 5G
- Sensors: Accelerometer, Barometer, Dual ambient light, Gyroscope, Proximity
- Battery: 3,692 mAh with 25W wireless charging (no power adapter in the box)
iPhone 17 review
Design
Alright, starting with the looks, this year, we get the same design language with the iPhone 17 that we got with the iPhone 16 last year. These phones are pretty much identical, except Apple has introduced new colour options for the 17, and the display size on the iPhone 17 is slightly bigger at 6.3 inches, over the iPhone 16’s 6.1 inches.
The build material is also the same, aluminium frames sandwiched between glass. Still, the good news is that we get the new Ceramic Shield 2 Glass on the iPhone 17, which Apple claims to be 3x more scratch resistant than before, and since I have been using it without a screen protector for over a week now, there’s not even a single scratch right now – which is incredible!
And just like the Pro models, Apple thankfully didn’t cheap out on the anti-reflective coating on the iPhone 17 either! If you don’t know, Samsung doesn’t provide such coating on the base S25; it’s only available on the S25 Ultra! But Samsung’s coating on the S25 Ultra is so much better at preventing reflections in a bright sunny environment vs what you get here.
Display
Anyway, I am happy that Apple has finally treated the entry-level iPhone 17’s display with the same love as the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max this year.
Not only the iPhone 17 finally has the same 120 Hz display like the iPhone 17 Pros, the display quality, the brightness numbers, the LTPO technology, everything is literally the same.
So, watching videos, scrolling to browsing, everything feels so good on the iPhone 17, as good as the iPhone 17 Pro that I have been testing simultaneously. And the stereo speakers are sufficiently loud, although they don’t sound as balanced as the iPhone 17 Pro, the highs on the iPhone 17 are a little more pronounced, but good for all kinds of multimedia, nonetheless. So no complaints.
Next, Apple has finally addressed the low-light display flickering issue on iPhones and included a new Display Pulse Smoothening Setting to reduce flickering in low brightness situations. They haven’t disclosed the exact PWM numbers like other Chinese manufacturers do, but it’s good to see that Apple has at least listened to everyone’s feedback. Although you have to know that disabling this setting might affect the display’s performance.
Performance
When it comes to performance, Apple has stepped it up this year with the new A19 chip. In my tests with benchmarks like AnTuTu and 3DMark, I saw a solid 15–20% boost in GPU and multi-core performance compared to last year.
Apple has also used the faster LPDDR5X RAM and NVMe storage, so needless to say, this is one of the fastest phones for the price! Like app opening, app loading, etc, finally feels extremely fast here compared to the sluggish 60Hz on the base iPhone before.
BTW, I am using both the iPhone 17 and 17 Pro with a more powerful A19 Pro chip, and honestly, I can barely feel any difference in normal day-to-day use.
In terms of gaming though, there is still a noticeable difference. Like if you are a pro gamer, you are better off getting the Pro iPhones because here on the iPhone 17, even though you can push higher than 60 fps, in my gaming tests, the fps has never reached more than 80 fps in games like PUBG.
To be fair, Genshin Impact runs very well at a constant 55-58 fps in the highest settings, and in both PUBG and Genshin, the 1% low numbers are also respectable, but I think Apple has deliberately limited the fps to prevent heating issues on the iPhone 17. Because when we tested PUBG here for around 35-40 minutes, we ended up with a 42°C temperature on the iPhone 17.
You see, while the 17 Pro and Pro Max come with a new Vapor Chamber Cooling system, which is really proving to be a game changer in terms of thermals on those phones, like I said in my review, the iPhone 17 still uses the same old Graphite sheets. That old technology, combined with this compact design, isn’t enough for efficient cooling in any way.
So, deciding not to push higher fps in games seems like a strategic move by Apple. But then again, I do feel like this is a bit unfair, considering cheaper compact Android phones like the OnePlus 13s can push 120 fps in games without heating up so much.
Other than that if you are someone who edits videos on your phone, you will have a great time doing so because here on the iPhone 17, you can navigate through the timelines and render videos even in 4k like a breeze, no lag, no stutters whatsoever.
The only thing that might bug you is that Apple is still using the same slower USB 2.0 here, so copying video files to and from this phone to your laptop or SSD will feel slower than other Android phones and also the Pro iPhones, which use a faster USB 3.2 protocol.
Software
And also, another thing that I have constantly faced is how buggy the new iOS 26 is despite months of beta releases, and the credit for most of those bugs goes to this new Liquid Glass design. Liquid glass does look very fancy while using, but it does drain a lot of battery. On the iPhone 17, I have noticed a lot of displacement of UI elements, like random stuff appearing out of nowhere.
Hopefully, Apple works on this and brings out a new version very soon. Until then, what you can do is just go to the settings and reduce the transparency of the liquid glass effect to make your battery last longer.
Battery and Charging
Talking of battery life, with the efficient 3nm processor, Apple’s optimization, and a slightly larger battery than last year’s iPhone 16, I was able to get a full day of usage from this phone, like about 7.5 hours of SOT, which I would say is good enough for a compact phone.
Although I would have appreciated it more if Apple had adopted the latest Silicon Carbon battery technology like other Chinese counterparts. Like the recently announced Xiaomi 17, which has a similar form factor, but it comes with a huge 7000 mAh battery.
Anyway, another good news is that there is 0% battery drain issue on the iPhone 17 while it’s kept idle. Although I did test the idle battery drain with AOD turned on overnight, and the phone lost around 5% juice, so if you want better battery life, do not turn on AOD.
Next, talking about charging, we get up to 40 watts of charging support here too, like on the Pro iPhones this year. And there’s 25-watt MagSafe Wireless charging support. I used my 100-watt Ugreen PD charger to charge this phone, and it took me around 1 hour and 37 minutes to get the phone fully charged.
Apple says that with their 40-watt charger, the iPhone 17 can charge from 0-50% in 20 minutes, but if you don’t want to spend $40 or some 4000 indian Rupees to get the Apple charger, you can use any PD-PPS supported charger. You have to know that the charging speed won’t be the same, it will be a little slower though!
Camera
Lastly, I know a lot of you guys are waiting to know how the camera performance on this phone is. So, this year, what’s new with the cameras is, we have a new 48MP ultra-wide camera and a newer and better 18MP selfie camera.
For the first time, Apple has given the selfie camera a square sensor. This means a wider field of view, so you can shoot portrait-style selfie videos like this—or go landscape without even rotating your phone.
And as someone who vlogs and makes Instagram reels, I feel like this is a very useful quality of life feature for creators like me since I don’t have to keep rotating the camera while filming anymore.
Moving on, other aspects of videography are similar to last time; there’s up to 4k 60 fps video recording support here from the back as well as the front, which results in really stable, smooth videos. I did notice a little bit of a highlight management issue in some instances, which I am hoping an update will solve. But besides that, I have liked the quality of videos that I got from the iPhone 17.
Of course, you don’t get Pro features like ProRes and 4K 120 fps recording here, but unless you are using an iPhone to make professional videos, I don’t think it will matter to a lot of people.
When it comes to photography, from the main camera, I don’t see a lot of improvement here exactly. The phone still produces close to natural colors with a hint of warm tones and a few HDR issues in a sunny environment like with previous iPhones. The main camera produces detailed images, though.
Even the ultra-wide camera produces better details than before with its upgraded sensor. And the good thing is, the color consistency between these lenses is absolutely amazing. The ultra-wide camera can shoot macros too, like on the iPhone 16, but I have never been a fan of the subject focus from any ultra-wide lens, so I found the output to be quite average.
Next, you don’t get a Telephoto lens here like the Pro iPhones, so naturally, there’s no option to shoot 4x portraits, but Apple does provide a 2x digital zoom option, and the portraits you can get from it have that classic Apple optimization with a lot of warm tones.
The main camera sensor actually has an f/1.6 vs f/1.8 aperture on the iPhone 17 Pro, so during the night, most times, I got slightly brighter portraits from the iPhone 17. During the day, or let’s say well-lit situations, the portraits look almost the same from the 17 Pro and the 17, just a teeny tiny color difference.
Selfies from the iPhone 17 are good too. Again, you will notice the warm tones, but there are photographic styles/ filters, so you can choose the tone of the pictures according to your liking. I just wish Apple fixed the highlight management issue though!
During the night, I like how Apple has improved the clarity in images, noise reduction works wonderfully well, and the colors come out nice and balanced too, especially the ultra-wide lens’s output is really good.
However, there still is a little bit of glare issue here when you shoot towards or against a direct light source. In fact, this problem persists even in the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
iPhone 17 review: Pros and Cons
Pros
- 120Hz display finally included
- Great value with 256GB storage
- Excellent compact size
- Improved cameras and performance
Cons
- Gaming performance limited, overheats
- Buggy iOS 26 software (for now)
- Slow USB 2.0 speeds
iPhone 17 review: Conclusion
This brings me to the end of this review, and after spending time with the iPhone 17, I think that Apple has cut the right corners on this phone. Like, if you compare it with the iPhone 17 Pro, for instance, there are 5 things it doesn’t have: a 4x Telephoto lens, VC cooling, a new design, a faster USB protocol, and a faster “Pro” performance.
All of these things, in my opinion, might not matter to a normal iPhone user. The iPhone 17 still has a great display, good performance, compact form factor, enduring battery life and nice cameras, and a much-needed faster refresh rate! So, for a common person, spending more than NPR 60,000 – 70,000 rupees more to get a “Pro iPhone” does not make sense.
In fact, the iPhone 17 is a really good upgrade for someone who is an iPhone 11 or iPhone 12 user. And after using it, I feel like it’s a much better option than the Galaxy S25 and the Pixel 10, too.
Then again, if you are not a fan of iPhones in general, you can get a lot of good Android phones with great specs at a similar or lesser price, like the S25 Ultra, the OnePlus 13, Pixel 9 Pro XL, or the Vivo X200 Pro!
- Meanwhile, check out our video review of the iPhone 17
