Apple iPhone 17 hands-on review: Finally, it gets the upgrades I’ve been asking for

Instead of following the course it’s established the last few years, Apple has gone off script by ditching its Plus model and giving us a single iPhone base model. The iPhone 17 might look very similar to its predecessor, but there’s new upgrades that still make it the best iPhone for most people.

What makes the iPhone 17 still relevant is that it has some of the best color options in Apple’s lineup while still sporting the same $799 starting cost that makes it one of Apple's more attainable handsets. And while the hardware isn’t as impressive as what the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max have to offer, there’s still noteworthy additions that make the regular iPhone a worthwhile upgrade.

In my iPhone 17 hands-on review, I’ll detail all the big changes and how it has more of a value proposition than the Pros.

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Apple iPhone 17 hands-on review: Specifications

Apple iPhone 17 hands-on review: Price and availability

None of the price hike rumors for the iPhone 17 model materialized, as it remains at the same $799 cost as the iPhone 16. That’s fantastic news because there’s actually a lot of big upgrades that come with the phone — like how this year’s base storage option is now 256GB, double the amount found in the iPhone 16 base model.

Preorders for the iPhone 17 are available right now, but you can expect general availability starting on September 19. I can’t stress enough about how much I love that this model gets a storage boost while remaining at the same price as before.

Apple iPhone 17 hands-on review: Design

For the most part, Apple recycles the design with the iPhone 16 — with the exception of the color options. This time you have Lavender, Sage, Mist Blue, White, and Black. They’re all great in their own way, with Sage being my favorite of the bunch.

That said, the colors are a bit more subdued than what Apple offered last year. For example, the Ultramarine iPhone 16 has a deeper, much more robust tone than Mist Blue iPhone 17.

Apple has added its new Ceramic Shield 2 coating to the phone, which delivers improved scratch resistance compared to the original Ceramic Shield.

Apple iPhone 17 hands-on review: Display

Not only does the display grow to 6.3-inches, but the more important change Apple makes with the iPhone 17 is upgrading the panel's refresh rate. It’s no longer in the stone age with a 60Hz refresh rate, as it finally adopts a 120Hz one — and I notice the difference right away as scrolling and switching between apps on the iPhone 17 is much smoother.

Another noteworthy point about the refresh rate is that it can go down to as low as 1Hz, making it more power efficient with its Always-On display.

Brightness can hit 3,000 nits on the iPhone 17, according to Apple, improving from 2,000 nits on the iPhone 16. And that new Ceramic Shield cuts down on glare with better anti-reflection coating.

Apple iPhone 17 hands-on review: Cameras

Looking at the back of the iPhone 17, there’s still a dual-camera arrangement there — along with the same camera hump before. While the 48MP main camera is similar to last year’s model, the ultrawide lens sees an upgrade with a 48MP sensor that supposedly boosts macro performance, in addition to more detail capture.

This is a formidable setup I’d be confident using, with only the Pixel 10’s triple camera system seemingly offering more utility due to its optically backed telephoto camera.

There’s also the new Center Stage camera up front, an 18MP shooter that allows you to use the entire sensor to capture selfies. I got to try it out briefly, and it definitely has a wider field of view than most other phones I’ve tested. What makes it even better is that I don’t have to constantly go from portrait to landscape (and vice versa) because of the way it crops the image to get the same exact framing no matter how I hold the iPhone 17. Although it can be adjusted manually, there’s an option for auto-zoom to make it easier.

Apple showed off the superior optical stabilization with this new Center Stage camera, so I’m really eager to test it out. Additionally, the iPhone 17 actually gains the same Dual Capture features as the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max. It’s a nice addition, but technically not new because dual-capture has been available through third party camera apps — but now it’s natively available in the camera app.

Apple iPhone 17 hands-on review: Performance

Under the hood of the iPhone 17 is the new Apple A19 chip, which is built on a new third-generation 3-nanometer process consisting of a 6-core CPU and the 5-core GPU. Apple claims that it has a 20% performance boost over the iPhone 16’s A18 chip. I was extremely impressed by its performance while playing a couple of games that were preloaded.

At the same time, the level of responsiveness with basic tasks feels tighter thanks largely to that 120Hz refresh rate. Almost instantly, I can tell that animations look much smoother, like scrolling web pages and even switching between apps. Obviously there’s no slowdown that I’ve come across, but I’m curious what benchmark scores the iPhone 17 and A19 chip end up producing in our testing.

Apple iPhone 17 hands-on review: Battery life and charging

Thanks to its 3nm manufacturing process, the A19 is more power efficient. In fact, Apple says it gets 8-plus more hours of video playback than the previous iPhone 16. This calculates to around a 36% increase in battery life, so I’m hoping that also translates to our battery drain test.

Just as a reminder, the iPhone 16 averaged 12 hours and 43 minutes, so the iPhone 17 could in theory last long enough to win a spot on our best phone battery life rankings of devices that beat the 15.5-hour mark on our test. We’ll see, though.

Along with the boost in battery life performance, Apple claims that the iPhone 16 can reach 50% with 20 minutes of charging on a 40W charger — an increase over the iPhone 16’s time of 30 minutes to reach 50%.

Apple iPhone 17 hands-on review: Software and AI

Oddly enough, Apple didn’t devote much time to the software. That’s understandable since the bulk of iOS 26 was formally shown off during WWDC 2025 earlier this year, but I was still hoping for perhaps a couple of new things. Instead, the iOS 26 software running on the iPhone 17 doesn’t differ much from the iOS 26 beta I’ve been using.

What I’m really shocked about is the lack of any new Apple Intelligence features. I honestly thought Apple would introduce new ones with the iPhone 17 reveal, but Apple only rehashed the stuff the company showed off previously — like the updated Visual Intelligence and Live Translation.

Apple iPhone 17 hands-on review: Outlook

I can’t tell you enough about how thrilled I am with all the upgrades Apple’s giving the iPhone 17. Even though it looks identical to the iPhone 16, the hardware upgrades under the hood give this new iPhone a good boost.

Namely, the 120HZ refresh rate is an upgrade that’s long overdue — but nonetheless satisfying. There’s also the iPhone 17's upgraded 48MP ultrawide camera, A19 chip, 18MP selfie camera, faster charging, and a storage increase to 256GB.

All of these upgrades make the iPhone 17's $799 cost even more satisfying, especially now that it’s $300 less than the iPhone 17 Pro. This is the widest price gap I’ve seen between the base and Pro models, so it really shows the value proposition that the iPhone 17 offers. That could be further amplified after testing it out, so I’m hoping it exceeds expectations.

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