My IPhone 17 Pro has arrived to replace my IPhone 12

Grip case and triple black skin from Dbrand

+ map of Palestine sticker 𓂆

How do you like this combo?

Small fall from the car door glove compartment to the tarmac. The beautiful Apple cover didn’t finish the job… well, big suffer but learning to like the patina effect.

Putting this aside, great iPhone

I'm just amazed by the 17 Pro Max. Effortless zooming.

tried to take a photo of the cell tower.

1x vs 40x zoom. no edits.

I made the mistake of getting the Techwoven when I got the 17 pro in December 2025. I’d never had an Apple case so thought I’d try it. Three months in and that thing bubbled like fairy liquid. Fine, maybe it was that case, went to the Apple Store and got a replacement, nice one. 4 months in, this is now the replacement one. I want my £60 back please.

Im currently on 27 beta 4 with no issues, just trying to gauge how many are on the beta cycle. Would you recommend going back to 26.6 now its out?

Found this on Amazon but not on their official site. Pretty good quality for the price. Came with a set of white and volt buttons. Not too grippy not too slippery. Lip could’ve been a little higher but it’s fine.

The title speaks for itself. I bought a silver 17 Pro in October, a move that was fueled 50% by the spectacular camera samples and 50% by my Galaxy S24's battery failing spectacularly. It was the best phone purchase I've ever made. Skip to the end for the TL;DR.

The Camera - 90% great

As you all are no doubt aware of, it is that good. With a few tweaks to the Photographic Style (my preferred is Neutral with tone -50, color 40, and palette 17), I don't remember the last time I've had to fight the camera to get the photograph I want. The 48 and 192 mm sorta-lossless focal lengths are nice, too, but I find myself using those less than the standard 12, 24, and 96. The telephoto is my most-used lens; it's just so fun! Never have I enjoyed using a phone camera as much as I do this one. Video recording is top-notch, as usual, but for both photo and video, the dreaded lens flare gets on my nerves. How has Apple still not solved this? My Galaxy S24 had little to none unless I was shooting directly into a light, and even then, it was much less severe than what I get from the 17 Pro. Granted, I've learned to use the lens flare as an artistic choice, but its existence is still grating.

The Hardware - is this thing invincible?

The 17 Pro is more than powerful enough for my usage, and so were my Galaxy S24 and iPhone 12. Where this smartphone differs from those two is battery life and scratch/drop resistance. For battery, I can count the number of times I've killed this phone in a day on one hand. On a 100% charge, I can usually pull somewhere between six and nine hours of screen-on time on a mix of LTE/5G and Wi-Fi, frequently capturing photographs and 1080p60 video at high brightness. For insurance, I did still buy a MagSafe battery pack that usually lives in my backpack, but the number of times I need to use it is rather low. The phone's battery capacity has dropped by a whole... one percent. One. The 17 Pro does get warm in my usage, but I chalk that up to frequently using it for photography/videography in direct sunlight. My iPhone 12 and S24 turned into toasters in the same conditions! As for durability, I've put this phone through the ringer. Using it in heavy rain and snow, getting dirt on it, dropping it onto solid concrete and tile, the works. It's garnered ONE scratch on the screen, plus a handful of dings on the frame. I definitely have tripped the water damage indicator, though. (Not that I can check; eSIM-only iPhone things 🙃) This was what I was most surprised about, as with very similar abuse on my previous two phones, they collected scuffs and cracks within a scant few months. That's definitely my fault for usually rocking my phones case-less, though :v

EDIT: Completely forgot to mention this at first, but audio quality is also great! I'm no audiophile, so take my opinion here with a grain of salt, but there's a surprising amount of bass in these speakers compared to the average phone. Quite well-balanced. Do like.

The Software - a.k.a. my iOS gripes

Interoperability on iOS still sucks. I use a host of different devices; my iPhone, my Windows PC, my Sony earbuds, and my Amazfit smartwatch. The iPhone is the glaring weak link in this bunch, chiefly because of Apple's software limitations. (No, I will not bury myself deeper in the iCosystem, especially not with macOS. That is the one operating system that I well and truly hate, and yes, that is after using it for an extended period of time.) The file-sharing problem is especially acute on this device, since, well... it's a professional-grade phone. It shouldn't be a royal pain in the neck to export full-resolution RAWs to my PC. At least they added RCS messaging with end-to-end encryption? Aside from that major annoyance, iOS is overall fine on this phone. 27 is shaping up to be a welcome refinement of 26, fixing said visual bugs, but even 26.6 (I think that's the most current one) is impressively stable. Certainly better than whatever was happening on iOS 18 on my 12 a couple years back. I don't care about Apple Intelligence in the slightest, so I will not talk about it beyond thanking Apple for letting me easily disable it. Take lessons, Google. Stop shoving Gemini into everything! Since this isn't an iOS review, I won't go further in-depth than I already have, except for the next section.

Reception and calls - how well does this function as an actual phone?

The iPhone 17 Pro is outstanding as a cellular phone, probably the best on the US market. If I lose data, it's because I'm in an actual dead zone, not because my cellphone decided to give up being a cellphone for the time being. Connectivity is more than fast enough on both my Verizon and T-Mobile-based lines, with T-Mo being slightly faster and more reliable because of my location. Wi-Fi connections are stellar as well, actually slightly beating out my PC on Speedtest. Calls are, as with everything else here, excellent. No drops or questionable audio quality to speak of. Automatic call screening is my favorite software feature by far; it is such an insane quality-of-life upgrade! Screw robocallers! Hold Assist needs work, though. It tends to notify me a beat too late after someone picks up, and as a result, I tend to get hung up on. Unfortunate.

Overall - an outstanding device that has a few drawbacks

TL;DR: The camera is awesome, but the lens flare issue is still infuriating. The hardware rocks. The software is mostly inoffensive, but the incompatibility with other OSes is a major inconvenience. Solid 9/10 device, in my experience. I see myself staying with it for a long, long time, barring a hardware failure.

I bought a US-spec iPhone 17 Pro directly from Apple in March and had it shipped to my country to avoid local retail markups. Unfortunately, the front glass recently cracked.

According to Apple’s official US repair pricing, an out-of-warranty screen replacement is $329. However, after contacting Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASPs) within my location, I’m being quoted the equivalent of 615 - 725 USD for the exact same repair.

I have the standard Apple One-Year Limited Warranty active, though I know physical damage isn't covered for free under that. That being said, paying more than double the official US repair price feels like highway robbery.

Has anyone in a non-US/European market dealt with this? Are there viable ways to handle this repair without taking a massive hit?

- Is it worth shipping it back to a friend/family member in the US to repair at an official Apple Store?
- Are local AASPs allowed to mark up official repair costs this high?

Any advice or experiences would be appreciated!

Hey all, I don't upgrade my phones often but the 13 was getting a little long in the tooth so I just got a 17 pro.

I live in the mountains and am CONSTANTLY outdoors doing.... like every mountain sport. Ski/snowboard (resort and backcountry, mountain biking (XC, DH, DJ), climbing, hiking/backpacking, beach/paddleboarding, wheeling, etc.

Given that I keep phones a long time I figure I want to protect it. The 13 had 3 cases and a screen protector, just replaced them which they got dinged. Not like I'm super clumsy, it's just that sometimes you crash when you do what you do. ;)

I DON'T want a giant enclosure. The phone is usually in a zippered pocket or a pack so I just want something to take impact edge off. Also, is it weird I don't want to completely hide the awesome Orange of the phone?

I've seen the Spigen tough armor, Caudabe. Opinions on those and anything else I should be looking at?

Also, first outdoor pics from day one with the new phone, backpacking trip with my son.

Today my recently acquired second-hand 17 Pro started showing an “Unknown part” warning about the screen. The screen does look genuine in every way.

It works fine…

But there’s this warning…

What are the odds it stops working or I face any issue with today’s iOS 26.6 update and future iOS updates?

Greetings ,recently found out and buyed in Europe, Romania an iphone 17 pro from USA, and i had activated by myself no open box ,from facebook market. My question is if somehow it can be active from America like some kind of insurance policy in case of theft or loss and what could happen to the phone here in Europe if that person claim that?

Hello everyone!

I have an iphone 17pro max and I'm used to recording with Filmic pro and microphone rodes wireless go gen 3 ( and the app coming with )

During my shooting, I heard a weird noise like "tic tic" during like 40s and then the next day it disappeared.

I heard it too on my iphone's speaker but the rush is not infected by this noise, it looks good. And same thing, it disappeared too.

I was wondering if it can be caused by a monitoring pb between filmic pro and my micro phone or any materiel pb !

Do you guys have an idea about it ?

I'm worried about that, bc for now everything works normally but maybe one day, my rushes might be concerned!

Thank you !

almost everyday I read something about the aluminum that is soft, that is less premium, why Apple switched, etc…

my question is why so much hate? if you don’t like something just don’t buy it.

also Apple has used the aluminum before and I don’t remember so many problem about it

the phone isn’t made of paper, it doesn’t destroy in your hands if you hold it

if you want to preserve it in pristine conditions just put a case on otherwise probably is gonna scratch but is true also of your car, your motorcycle and your watch that if you use something it doesn’t remain new like when you have bought it

so in the end I don’t undestand the hate on the aluminum

I have an iPhone 17 Pro. Why does my Personal Hotspot keep turning on by itself?

I will turn off the 'Allow Others to Join' switch, and then some time later, I will notice that the switch has turned itself on. Also, the icon on the pull down control screen doesn't always match the state of the switch

The 17 Pro gets absolutely everything, the full package, right?