iPhone 17 Pro Max vs iPhone 16 Pro Max: Here's the biggest differences

The iPhone 17 Pro Max is here with a new look and lots of new features, and many will be wondering if it’s time to upgrade. While this is a fairly easy choice if you’re still rocking an older phone, like the iPhone 14 Pro Max, it becomes more complicated when you’ve got the much more recent iPhone 16 Pro Max.

There’s no doubt that the iPhone 16 Pro Max remains one of the best phones you can buy, and with good reason. In our testing we really liked the large 6.9-inch display and super-long battery life along with the handy Camera control. But the iPhone 17 Pro Max takes things to the next level.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max has a lot more more going for it than just new colors (including a very bright orange). It also features a new A19 Pro chip with vapor chamber cooling, new 48MP telephoto lens with up to 8X zoom and other upgrades. So, let's break down all the major iPhone 17 Pro Max vs iPhone 16 Pro Max differences.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs iPhone 16 Pro Max: Specs

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs iPhone 16 Pro Max: Price and Availability

The iPhone 16 Pro Max launched with three different storage options. At launch, the 256GB version cost $1,199, the 512GB version cost $1,399, while the 1TB option cost $1,599. While the iPhone 16 Pro Max is technically discontinued now by Apple, there are some great iPhone 16 Pro Max deals that you can grab to lessen the price.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max features the same storage options as its predecessor alongside a new 2TB option, a major boon for those seeking more room for storing video. For the most part, the models cost the same as the prior iPhone, so the 256GB, 512GB and 1TB versions will cost the same as the iPhone 16 Pro Max. The 2TB version costs a steep $1,999..

The phone is available for preorder September 12, and availability will begin on Friday, September 19.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs iPhone 16 Pro Max: Design and Display

Apple has been guilty of making its phones look pretty similar from one generation to the next, with the iPhone 16 Pro Max looking a lot like the iPhone 15 Pro Max. But the Phone 17 Pro Max features a whole new design, with an expanded camera block that goes from end to end on the back of the phone. There's also a new back panel that adds a bit more contrast to the phone.

Apple has switched from titanium for the iPhone 16 Pro Max to a aluminum unibody design for the iPhone 16 Pro Max. This was done to help dissipate heat. The iPhone 17 Pro Max also has the improved Ceramic 2 glass on the front display. This new glass is reported to be 3x more resistant to scratching. And the back is also made of Ceramic Shield with 4x more resistance to cracks.

Speaking of the display, the iPhone 17 Pro Max features the same 6.9-inch screen as the prior model with a 1-120Hz refresh rate. Apple claims the iPhone 17 Pro Max can comfortably reach 3,000 nits of brightness (up from 2,000 nits), and promises much better antiglare support in direct sunlight.

There are only three color options available for the iPhone 17 Pro Max: Deep Blue, Cosmic Orange and Silver. So there's no Black option. The iPhone 16 Pro Max came in Black, White, Desert and Natural Titanium.

Unfortunately, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is thicker and heavier than the iPhone 16 Pro Max. The iPhone 17 Pro Max weighs 8.22 ounces and is 8.75mm thick, while the iPhone 16 Pro Max is 7.99 ounces and 8.25mm. This is likely due to the new Pro Max having a larger battery.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs iPhone 16 Pro Max: Cameras

Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro Max features a pretty substantial change to the camera system. The iPhone 16 Pro Max, features a 48MP main camera, a 48MP ultrawide and a 12MP telephoto lens with 5x zoom.

It's a solid camera selection that easily managed to outperform the Galaxy S24 Ultra, although it came up short when we compared it to the Galaxy S25 Ultra. So, how has Apple improved the cameras?

The iPhone 17 Pro Max is the first iPhone to feature three 48MP cameras, including a main, ultrawide and a telephoto lens with 4x zoom capability. However, the real kicker is the new Fusion camera system, which allows you to take shots at 2x, 4x and 8x zoom with ease. However, it should be noted that both the 2x zoom and 8x zoom are digitally created by using the best pixels from the other cameras, and the 8x zoom is limited to 12MP.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max also features the new 18MP Center Stage selfie camera that utilizes a square sensor instead of a round one. This new design comes with the advantage of being able to switch from portrait to landscape without needing to turn the phone, while also featuring more megapixels that it can use to gather information for a wide or tall shot. This means that group and landscape shots are much easier to take.

As we found in our hands-on, it all looks very impressive, but we’ll need to do more testing to see if if the iPhone 17 Pro Max is the best camera phone overall.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs iPhone 16 Pro Max: Performance

The iPhone 16 Pro Max launched with the A18 Pro chip, which remains one of the most powerful you can buy, especially when it comes to single-core performance. This chip, which was built using a 3nm process, managed to outcompete many of the best Android phones in CPU performance, although it did fall behind in graphics.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max is launching with the new A19 Pro chip, which, when combined with the new vapor chamber, is stated to offer up to 40% better sustained performance than the prior phone.

While it was also built using a 3nm process, the A19 Pro chip features a 6-core CPU that Apple claims is the fastest CPU seen in any smartphone. The 6-core GPU architecture includes Neural Accelerators built into each core, which means a larger data cache and more memory than the A18 Pro.

So what does all this mean? it looks like the iPhone 17 Pro Max will offer better sustained performance when playing games, while also improving the phone's ability to run any Large Language Models and other on-device AI processes.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs iPhone 16 Pro Max: Software and AI

The iPhone 17 Pro Max is launching with iOS 26 included, which means access to the new Liquid Glass design, as well as a host of Apple Intelligence features like Live Translation and updates to Visual Intelligence. The iPhone 16 Pro Max will also have access to iOS 26 and all the same new features.

The big question will revolve around how the improved chip and design impact the experience. Ideally, we’ll see faster speeds when trying to complete tasks and using Apple Intelligence.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs iPhone 16 Pro Max: Battery life and charging

Apple’s iPhones are no slouches when it comes to battery life, with the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s 4,685 mAh battery managing an impressive 17 hours and 38 minutes when put through the Tom’s Guide battery test (web surfing over 5G). Apple has claimed to increase this even more in the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max is rated for 39 hours of video playback, compared to 33 hours for the iPhone 16 Pro Max. We’re hoping to see some impressive numbers when we test the phone, and have little doubt it will make an appearance on our best phone battery life list.

Apple says that the iPhone 17 Pro Max can reach 50% power in only 20 minutes with a 40W charger. We found that the iPhone 16 Pro Max managed to reach 55% in 30 minutes, so it will be interesting to see just how big the gap is.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs iPhone 16 Pro Max: Outlook

The iPhone 17 Pro Max is arguably one of the biggest shakeups we’ve seen in a modern iPhone, with a new design, improved cameras, a brighter display and (hopefully) even longer battery life. However, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is by no means a slouch, and it can still easily pull its weight in most areas.

We're very interested to see whether the iPhone 17 Pro Max can offer better sustained performance, thanks to the new vapor chamber cooling and how much longer it lasts on a charge. The iPhone 17 Pro Max is heavier and thicker than the iPhone 16 Pro Max — and we wish Apple didn't ditch the black color option — but overall the new iPhone 17 Pro Max looks like a fairly big step up.