KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 9 — While Samsung has been invading my TikTok algorithm, ‘Hongdae guy’ Sean Solo and his ‘put your number in my iPhone 16 Pro Max’ catchphrase still managed to win the social media phone marketing game.
Sean now has upgraded to an iPhone 17 Pro Max so the question here is: should you?
Finally a redesign
Apple finally tweaked its Pro models’ design and the reaction has been mixed.
Why is there a big camera plateau on the rear, not even a small bump?
The whole slab sticking out from the top of the phone while housing the camera(s) got me so nervous I got a case that fully covered every surface besides the actual camera lenses.
There’s an upside to the design, awkward aesthetics aside: it does make the phone easier to grip.
With the bump it’s a little less likely to slide easily out of your hand but alas, my favourite phone size of the iPhone range (Pro Max) is also a maximum pain to carry around.
All the skinniness went to the iPhone Air while the 17 Pro Max trades sleekness for power.
If you’re a power user it might be something you could live with for the added battery life, larger screen and three cameras.
My very powerful BFF
It still feels amazing to me how current iPhones a decade or so later are even more capable — I don’t need a camera, camcorder, tape recorder or paper notebook on the job when my phone does everything now.
Having upgraded to Mac OS Tahoe and iOS 26, AirDrop now lets me easily transfer hundreds of photos and videos at a time in barely a couple of minutes.
I don’t miss the days when I would need a cable and a lot of spare time.
Of course it’s a new processor that’s probably helping it along — namely the A19 Pro with a 6-core GPU that runs faster but doesn’t heat up as much as previous models.
I was talking to a videographer last iPhone Day who said that he’d experienced his iPhone overheating when he needed it most, so he was hoping that the new 17 Pro Max would have better thermals.
So far the only time when I’ve gotten temperature warnings was while charging the phone after heavy use.
I got a warning screen that charging would pause until temperatures normalised but apart from that one time, I haven’t gotten the warning since.
Most importantly I can play Honkai Star Rail again without hiccups.
It is a fairly graphics-intensive game and on the iPhone 16 Pro Max with iOS 26 occasionally lagged though it’s more likely due to a lack of software optimisation.
As for battery life, I did feel the battery lasted longer than the iPhone 16 Pro Max, already hard to beat in the battery stakes.
The battery barely budged after leaving the phone idle while I slept.
My routine is usually charging my phone to around 80 to 90 per cent battery at night a few hours before bed.
Usually by the end of the day the iPhone 16 Pro Max would be dipping below the 20 per cent mark but the 17 Pro Max was still holding up to nearly 30 per cent.

Your concert companion
Day-to-day routines are one thing but if there’s one particularly taxing event to take a phone to, it’s a concert.
There’s the challenge of getting good photos in low light, dealing with lighting setups or being seated far away from the stage.
Serendipitously I got to go to two different concert venues at night and the iPhone 17 Pro Max truly felt like a big upgrade to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, at least zoom-wise.
The iPhone 17 Pro series has three rear cameras, all 48MP but with different focal lengths.
The ‘Fusion Main’ camera specs: ƒ/1.78 aperture/24/48mm focal length (1x/2x)/2.44μm quad-pixel (1.22μm individual)
Fusion Ultra Wide: ƒ/2.2 aperture/13mm focal length (.5x/macro)/1.4μm quad-pixel (0.7μm individual)
Fusion Telephoto: ƒ/2.8 aperture/100/200mm focal length (4x/8x)/1.4μm quad-pixel (0.7μm individual)
As for the front camera, it also gets bumped to an 18MP cam with ƒ/1.9 aperture, meaning higher resolution and allowing a lot of light in for both better quality and pleasing portrait shots.
I’ve managed to take nearly every iPhone series I’ve had for testing to a concert but the upgrade with the 17 Pro Max is satisfying in that I need to rely less on luck or where I’m sitting.
With the iPhone X, for the best pictures I would need to be up front and be very mindful about lighting.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max however surprised me by taking decent shots in dark indoor concert venues where the light would be concentrated mainly on the stage, which usually means a challenge getting the sensor to focus.
Perhaps it’s the larger sensor, maybe it’s the smarter processing of low light but I was fairly impressed with the lack of struggle in getting decent concert images, whether photos or videos.
I’m not even just saying that — head over to TikTok and search “iPhone 17 pro” and concert, you’ll see many people finding out just how usable even the digital zoom is.

While I stuck with the 4x-8x zoom for testing, surprisingly clear images can be found at 24x but you will need a lot more light and a steadier hand.
One of those nifty flat mobile phone tripods will probably be your best ally there.
Concerts aside, how was the 17 Pro Max in less challenging conditions?
All those extra megapixels did make a difference.
I didn’t have to fight with poor indoor lighting at restaurants, taking nice macro shots didn’t require too many bad takes first and my biggest surprise was this month’s Mid Autumn full moon.
My friend joked, “Well, it only took Apple 17 tries.”
The last time I got a really decent shot of a full moon was with my Pentax and its separate telephoto lens but that still needed a tripod, as well as ignoring my nosy neighbours.

So, should you get it?
It’s tougher this time to say whether or not you should upgrade from last year’s phone.
Of course if you take photos or videos for a living, the iPhone 17 Pro Max isn’t just a small incremental upgrade from the 16 Pro series.
All the cameras are better and the new front camera being able to take landscape shots while holding your phone upright? That’s a quality of life improvement.
If you have last year’s phone, then you could probably get a decent trade-in value for a new one and this isn’t something I usually recommend.
However if the cameras are a “nice to have” part of your phone and not absolutely necessary then there’s no rush to upgrade as the Pro models of the last couple of years are still beasts where battery and performance are concerned.
The 17 Pro Max feels like one and a half-step up from last year’s phones, considering for the last few years it felt more like the phones only improved by a half-step each time.
What I’m not as crazy about is the tweaks in iOS 26 in how you take pictures.
Having to relearn where all the settings and modes are is a pain but I will say that this year, for once, I didn’t feel like I got much better results from using third-party apps such as Halide.
I would say that the telephoto quality is decent enough to be impressive in a small hall.
Check out more photo samples below:
The iPhone 17 Pro Max is already on sale with three colour options: Cosmic Orange, Silver and Deep Blue.
Pricing for the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max are as follows: RM5,499/RM5,999, RM6,499/RM6,999 and RM7,499/RM7,999 for the 256GB, 512GB and 1TB models respectively with the Pro Max having an additional option of 2TB for RM9,999.
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