iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max Launch With 8x Zoom, A19 Pro Chip, new Vapor Chamber Cooling, and more

Apple has unveiled the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, pushing design, performance, and imaging to new heights. This year’s Pro models are defined by a stronger build, an overhauled camera system, and new hardware engineered for sustained power and speed.

The design shifts to a seamless aluminum unibody with Ceramic Shield covering both the front and back. Apple claims the front coating, Ceramic Shield 2, delivers three times better scratch resistance, while the rear offers four times more crack protection than previous iPhones. Despite the rugged build, the devices remain slim while delivering brighter displays that peak at 3,000 nits, ensuring readability even in harsh sunlight.

Photography and video production remain central to the Pro line. A redesigned rear plateau accommodates three 48MP Fusion cameras with improved optics, highlighted by a Telephoto lens capable of up to 8x optical zoom, surpassing the 5x limit of last year’s Pro Max. Professional creators will also benefit from expanded formats like ProRes RAW, Apple Log 2, and genlock, features that support multi-camera filming setups. On the front, an 18MP camera introduces Center Stage for adaptive framing in selfies and video calls.

Performance comes courtesy of the A19 Pro chip, featuring balanced six-core CPU and GPU clusters. Apple promises up to 40 percent better sustained performance, aided by a new vapor chamber cooling system designed to handle intensive workloads like gaming and video editing. Connectivity is strengthened by the N1 wireless chip, which integrates Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread for smoother networking across Apple’s ecosystem.

Battery life has also taken a step forward. The iPhone 17 Pro Max now leads the lineup with up to 39 hours of video playback, the longest runtime Apple has ever claimed for an iPhone. Both models benefit from a larger internal battery, partially made possible by removing the physical SIM tray in markets where eSIM is standard.

Color choices expand to Silver, Deep Blue, and Cosmic Orange, with storage configurations now reaching up to 2TB. Pricing begins at $1,099 for the iPhone 17 Pro and $1,199 for the iPhone 17 Pro Max, with pre-orders opening September 12 and availability beginning September 19.