iPhone 17 Pro Max — rumored release date, specs, price, colors and more

Update: Follow our iPhone 17 event live blog for all the big news as it's announced!

The iPhone 17 Pro Max is launching today, and we expect it to bring a wide range of upgrades to Apple's biggest flagship phone. The most noticeable change is likely to be the design, with a wide camera bar that stretches across the top third of the device and a glass area on the back that accommodates reverse wireless charging.

Other iPhone 17 Pro Max rumored upgrades include a new 48MP telephoto lens with up to 8x optical zoom, vapor chamber cooling for better sustained performance, A19 Pro chip and a brighter display with an anti-reflective coating. Here's everything we know so far about the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which could be the best phone yet.

iPhone 17 Pro Max cheat sheet

• New model tipped to cost more than the iPhone 16 Pro Max
• New back panel design may stretch the camera array across the top of the phone
• The Dynamic Island cold be smaller on the iPhone 17 Pro Max's 6.9-inch display
• A19 Pro silicon to power the iPhone 17 Pro Max
• Vapor chamber cooling to combat overheating
• 12GB of RAM
• New telephoto sensor could feature higher resolution and up to 8x zoom
• All iPhone 17 models expected to get a 24MP front camera
• Dual video capture could come to the Pro lineup

iPhone 17 Pro Max: price and release date

Apple's Awe Dropping event will take place on September 9, and that's the venue where we're almost certain to see the iPhone 17 Pro Max turn from a rumor to reality. If you want to hear the news yourself, you can watch the iPhone 17 event live.

If the company follows its yearly pattern, pre-orders will open as soon as the phone is announced, and would go on sale around 10 days later — potentially arriving in stores on September 19th.

When the iPhone 16 Pro Max launched in September 2024, it cost $1,199 for the entry-level 256GB model. Ordinarily, we wouldn't expect much of a price hike, but that was before all of the chaos caused by President Trump's import tariffs.

Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, has reportedly been attempting to exclude Apple from these extra costs, but the picture still isn't clear on how these tariffs will work. But the uncertainty it's caused means that prices have already risen on a lot of products.

In the past few week's, we've seen predictions that Apple will increase prices on the iPhone 17 range, including a possible $50 bump on the iPhone 17 Pro Max. The most recent reports suggest the figure will be closer to $100, so a starting price of $1,299.

If so, it would be the second Pro Max price increase in three years. When Apple introduced the iPhone 15 Pro Max, the cost went up $100 to $1,199, though Apple did increase the base model to 256GB of storage.

iPhone 17 Pro Max: design & display

We’re not expecting any major changes with the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s display, but that’s not to say we may not see other things change with the new phone. One rumor claims that the iPhone 17 Pro Max could come with a narrower Dynamic Island, thanks to the inclusion of new, slimmer components.

Leaker Digital Chat Station specifically calls out a smaller Dynamic Island for the iPhone 17 Pro Max with the help of a "metalens" design for Face ID. However, analyst Jeff Pu doesn't think that feature will be an iPhone 17 Pro Max exclusive; instead, he says the metalens feature is coming to all iPhone 17 models.

It’s also been claimed that we will see a new “Low-Dialectric TEE display” that promises better performance, energy efficiency and screen durability. Leaker Instant Digital has also claimed that the iPhone 17 series display panel will be made with “a super-hard anti-reflective layer” that will make it “more scratch-resistant than you think.”

A more recent report, though suggests Apple is dropping that feature due to production limitations. As for the design of the iPhone 17 Pro Max, things are starting to clear up. Multiple rumors now indicate that Apple is going to redesign the back of its Pro models.

Early iPhone 17 Pro renders suggest we're getting a two-tone design similar to the one found on Google’s Pixel 9 where the camera array is a different color from the rest of the phone's back. (For what it's worth, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says the camera bump won't differ in color from the rest of the Pro model.)

But whatever approach Apple takes to color, it seems the design of that camera array is definitely changing on the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Another set of renders shows the iPhone 17 Pro Max retaining the same triangular camera arrangement as before while relocating the LED flash, microphone, and LiDAR scanner off to the opposite side of the array.

These CAD designs have been transformed into physical dummies, like those shown off by AppleTrack as well as in a hands-on video with an iPhone 17 Pro Max dummy unit. That video, in particular, suggests that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will be 0.5mm thicker than the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

And just a few days ago, a new leak surfaced on Weibo which also seemed to confirm this horizontal arrangement. The video only included the briefest glance at the phones, and there's always the possibility it's not a legitimate leak, but given that it aligns with all the other rumors we've seen, it looks like this design is all but confirmed.

There’s been some disagreement among leakers as to whether the iPhone 17 Pro Max will have a titanium frame this year. Some argue that nothing is changing with the iPhone 17 Pro materials, while another report claims that only the iPhone 17 Air will offer a titanium frame.

The latest iPhone 17 Pro Max color rumors indicate you'll be able to get the phone in black, white, gray, dark blue or orange. One leaker claims that black won't be an option for the iPhone 17 Pro Max, but we find that idea hard to swallo.

iPhone 17 Pro Max: performance

Since Apple introduced it's A-series chips, they've led to big performance improvements for each iPhone generation since. We're expecting that to continue, with the iPhone 17 Pro Max set to include the new A19 Pro chipset.

While there had been rumors that Apple could upgrade to a 2nm process, which would make the A19 Pro even smaller than the 3nm A18 Pro, it now sounds like next year's iPhone 18 Pro models will be the first to use a 2nm process.

Instead, A19 series chips are now expected to be made using an upgraded version of TSMC’s 3nm process. So there'll be the now-expected performance and energy efficiency boosts, but the most significant increases will likely come to the iPhone 18.

But this increased performance means that the chip will get hotter, and that's why we've heard that Apple may introduce a vapor chamber cooling system, which uses liquid inside miniature copper pipes to move heat away from sensitive components.

We've now seen leaked photos of the vapor chamber as well as a diagram of the feature, suggesting that this feature truly is coming to the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Finally, Jeff Pu and Ming-Chi Kuo both believe that Apple could include 12GB of RAM in the iPhone 17 Pro Max. That’s a 50% upgrade compared to the iPhone 16 series and would likely be so that Apple can offer even more on-device AI in future incarnations of Apple Intelligence.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max apparently won't get the C1 modem that Apple launched with the iPhone 16e. Only the iPhone 17 Air is supposed to add that component. But the Wi-Fi chip on the iPhone 17 Pro Max supposedly will be a new model built by Apple — a first for the iPhone's connectivity.

iPhone 17 Pro Max: cameras

Those of you tired of Apple skimping on the camera resolution will be very happy with iPhone 17 Pro Max rumors so far. According to one leaker, Apple may up the resolution of the telephoto lens to 48MP in 2025 — meaning we could see a trio of 48MP lenses on the phone for the first time.

There could be some bad news, though. One leaker agrees that the telephoto lens will feature a 48MP sensor, but that the iPhone 17 Max's camera would only support a 3.5x optical zoom. That's a downgrade from the 5x zoom delivered by the telephoto lens on the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

In a more encouraging report, a leaker claims the iPhone 17 Pro telephoto lens will instead offer an 8x optical zoom. Other rumored improvements in that report include a dedicated Pro camera app and another Camera Control button on the top of the phone.

The front camera may also be in line for an upgrade, although the resolution may top out at 24MP, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The Information claims that we may see the first variable aperture lens on an iPhone. But it’s unclear how much control users will have over the aperture and the resulting depth of field.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has also claimed that Apple could specifically court videographers and content creators with iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max. While he didn't specify what kind of upgrades to expect, we will likely see a mix of hardware and software upgrades coming with this year's Pro-tier iPhones.

To that, Jon Prosser of Front Page Tech has claimed that both the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max will support dual video capture. That allows both the front and rear cameras to record video simultaneously.

iPhone 17 Pro Max: battery & charging

Based on the notion that the A19 Pro will operate more efficiently and that Apple will include a bigger battery, we'd expect longer battery life in the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Considering the iPhone 16 Pro Max lasted more than 17 hours in our testing, that would be a pretty spectacular sight to behold.

As for the battery, Chinese regulator filings claim the iPhone 17 Pro Max will either have a 4,823 mAh or 5,088 mAh capacity battery, depending on whether the model offers a physical SIM or eSIM. In either case, that's larger than the iPhone 16 Pro Max's 4,685 mAh power pack.

We’ve also heard rumors that Apple could make iPhone 17 batteries easier to remove, thanks to a new kind of glue. It’s likely that this is the same "ionic liquid battery adhesive” used on iPhone 17, which allows repair technicians to remove the battery with a few volts of electricity. That makes it a lot easier to remove than older adhesive strips, which were awkward and often required solvents to fully remove.

Rumor has it that Apple may be building its own batteries, intending to debut them on iPhone 17 models. While we don’t know many specifics about this work, it’s said that Apple wants to offer "significantly improved performance compared to the existing one." Which you’d expect because the last thing we want is for battery life to get worse. But it’s still a good thing if Apple can pull it off.

In addition to new or Apple-made batteries, a rumor claims that Apple might bring reverse charging to the Pro models of the iPhone 17. Reverse charging lets your phone charge other devices, usually headphones like the AirPods 4 or the heavily-rumored AirPods Pro 3 that could launch on Tuesday too.

Finally, regulatory filings indicate that an upgraded Qi2 wireless charging standard could be in place by the time the iPhone 17 Pro Max and other models come out. That could boost wireless charging speeds to as fast as 50W.

iPhone 17 Pro Max: software

Apple is changing the naming convention on its software, going with the year following the software's release instead of a version number. That means iOS 26, not iOS 19, will be the software running on the iPhone 17 Pro Max when the phone lands in the fall.

Thanks to a WWDC preview and releases of both developer and public betas for iOS 26, we know that an interface overhaul dubbed Liquid Glass by Apple is the primary focus of iOS 26, with translucent menus and a glassy look characterizing the new software. There are improved features slated for many existing apps, though, along with the arrival of a dedicated Games app.

Apple Intelligence was a big focus with iOS 18, and while iOS 26 doesn't offer as big a push into AI features, there are some prominent new capabilities. AI will screen your phone calls in iOS 26, offer on-the-fly translations in multiple apps and allow the Visual Intelligence feature to do searches based on content on your iPhone screen. The big Siri revamp isn't likely to show up until 2026, though.

iPhone 17 Pro Max: outlook

Now the event is just hours away, all of the leaks and rumors are starting to point in the same direction; the iPhone 17 Pro Max will have performance upgrades, a new chip, maybe new charging tech, and possibly a new rear camera setup.

Upping the resolution of the telephoto lens would seem like a positive, though that rumor about a shorter optical zoom has us worried. The ability to more easily remove batteries would prove to be invaluable should you ever need to take advantage of it.

I’m unsure about the possible design changes, though all those renders seem to suggest they're happening. At least the new look would help Apple's phones stand out from the rest of the crowd.

More details could emerge in the hours remaining before Apple's event, including firmer ideas about iPhone 17 Pro Max pricing. But we'll soon see how many of these rumors are actual improvements.

More from Tom's Guide

• iPhone 17 Air rumors — everything we know so far
• Apple's likely to release lots of iPhones this year — which one should you plan to get?
• iPhone 16e announced — release date, specs, size and surprisingly high price