Amid all the fanfare around the super-slim iPhone Air and the all-singing, all-dancing iPhone 17 Pro, it’s easy to think of the standard iPhone 17 as the ugly duckling of this year’s iPhone lineup. But for my money, Apple’s latest base model is the best-value iPhone for some time.
Sure, it looks almost identical to the iPhone 16 in pictures, but this is a bigger and better device that’s as close to the Pro models as any entry-level iPhone has ever been.
For starters, there’s the long-awaited (and quite frankly long-overdue) display upgrade. Ahead of this week’s launch event, I wrote that I’d recommend the iPhone 17 over the iPhone 17 Pro if it got a 120Hz refresh rate, and Apple has delivered on that request and then some.
Not only does the iPhone 17 boast a 120Hz refresh rate, but it also gets Apple’s full-blown ProMotion display technology, which dynamically adjusts that refresh rate between 1-120Hz, depending on what’s happening on-screen. This helps to preserve the phone’s battery life and allows for an always-on display, while the full 120Hz rate will result in a much smoother scrolling experience versus the iPhone 16.
As a reminder, refresh rate refers to the number of times per second your phone can display a new image. The higher the refresh rate, the smoother a phone display feels. As I wrote in that aforementioned pre-launch piece, “that might sound like marketing mumbo jumbo if you’ve been perfectly happy with your 60Hz iPhone up until now, but take it from me – the difference between a 60Hz refresh rate and a 120Hz refresh rate is absolutely tangible for those who’ve experienced both.”
But Apple didn’t stop there. The iPhone 17 also gets a bigger screen than the iPhone 16, courtesy of slimmer bezels. The actual dimensions of the two phones are the same, but you’ll get an iPhone 17 Pro-equaling, 6.3-inch Super Retina XDR OLED panel on the newer model.
Then there are the under-the-hood upgrades. Apple’s new, more powerful A19 chipset might sound like an iterative improvement on the A18 – and in terms of raw performance, it likely will be. But the A19 will also bring tangible improvements to the iPhone 17’s battery life, if Apple’s bold promise of “eight more hours of video playback compared to the previous generation” is anything to go by.
Other seemingly meaningful improvements include Ceramic Shield 2 – Apple’s new, “three times as durable” screen protection technology – an upgraded ultra-wide camera, and a novel Center Stage selfie camera, which you’ll find on all four iPhone 17 models.
But even if you aren’t sold on the benefits of any of those aforementioned upgrades, the iPhone 17 is also objectively better value than the iPhone 16 in relation to its Pro counterpart.
Apple has done away with 128GB storage capacities on all iPhone 17 models, but rather than simply raising the iPhone 17’s starting price to the 256GB price of the iPhone 16, it’s stuck with the latter’s 128GB price ($799 / £799 / AU$1,399). In other words, you’re getting twice as much storage for the same money.
The iPhone 17 Pro, meanwhile, starts at $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,999 – that’s the same price as the 256GB iPhone 16 Pro, but it’s also $100 / £100 / AU$200 more expensive than the $999 / £999 / AU$1,799 starting price of that particular phone.
Still with me? To put it another way: the iPhone 17 is $299 / £299 / AU$600 cheaper than the iPhone 17 Pro, whereas the iPhone 16 was just $199 / £199 / AU$400 cheaper than the iPhone 16 Pro. There’s an extra $100 / £100 / AU$200 between the two models this year.
All this is to say that, despite seeming like a boring upgrade on the iPhone 16, the iPhone 17 is now, for my money, the best iPhone for most people.
Yes, the iPhone 17 Pro’s 48MP telephoto camera sounds mighty impressive, and if you’re looking for one of the best camera phones, you’ll likely find it in Apple’s latest flagship.
But for everyone else, I don’t see the iPhone 17 Pro being worth the $299 / £299 / AU$600 premium over the iPhone 17. And my TechRadar colleagues seem to agree.
“The iPhone 17 was the winner at Apple’s ‘Awe Dropping’ event,” Staff Writer Jamie Richards wrote as the curtain fell on this week’s showcase, while our Managing Editor for News, Jake Krol, claimed the iPhone 17 “could be the best standard iPhone in years” in his hands-on iPhone 17 review.
So, while the super-slim frame and impressive camera capabilities of the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro are certainly tempting, I’d urge you to sit down and consider whether the cheaper iPhone 17 might actually be a better fit for your needs.
