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iPhone 17 Pro vs iPhone 16 Pro: 7 biggest upgrades you need to know

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By Tom Pritchard

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iPhone 17 Pro vs iPhone 16 Pro: Cheat Sheet

Brand new iPhone 17 Pro design with the “forged plateau” camera bump
All-new vapor chamber cooling system inside iPhone 17 Pro
Ceramic Shield 2 display brings improved scratch resistance and anti-glare design to iPhone 17 Pro
Peak display brightness jumps from 2,000 nits on iPhone 16 Pro to 3,000 nits
New A19 Pro silicon claims 40% better performance than iPhone 16 Pro’s A18 Pro
12MP TrueDepth camera replaced by 18MP Center Stage selfie camera
New 48MP telephoto lens with 4x optical zoom and 8x optical quality zoom joins iPhone 17 Pro’s 48MP main and ultrawide cameras
iPhone 17 Pro vs iPhone 16 Pro: Specs

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Row 0 – Cell 0

iPhone 17 Pro

iPhone 16 Pro

$1,099 / £1,099 /mAU$1,999

$999 / £999 / AU$1,799

6.3-inch OLED ProMotion with 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rate

256GB, 512GB, 1TB

128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB

Rear Cameras

48MP main (f/1.78), 48MP ultrawide (f/2.2), 48MP telephoto (4x, f/2.8)

48MP main (f/1.78), 48MP ultrawide (f/2.2), 12MP telephoto (5x, f/2.8)

Front camera

18MP (f/1.9)

12MP (f/1.9)

Up to 33 hours streaming video

Up to 27 hours streaming video

5.9 x 2.8 x 0.34-inches (150 x 71.9 x 8.75mm)

5.9 x 2.8 x 0.32 inches(149.6 x 71.5 x 8.25mm)

7.27 ounces (206 grams)

7.03 ounces (199 grams)

Silver, Cosmic Orange, Deep Blue

Black, White, Desert and Natural Titanium
iPhone 17 Pro vs iPhone 16 Pro: Price & availability

(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)
The iPhone 17 Pro has a starting price of $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,999, and that covers the 256GB base model. Officially, that’s $100 more than the iPhone 16 Pro’s starting price, but Apple’s older Pro featured 128GB. If you got a 256GB iPhone 16 Pro, you’d pay the same price as you would for the 17 Pro.

iPhone 17 Pro preorders open on September 12, ahead of an official release on September 19. The iPhone 16 Pro has officially been discontinued and is no longer available to purchase at the Apple Store. However, you can still get it from wireless carriers and retailers.
iPhone 17 Pro vs iPhone 16 Pro: Design & display

(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)
The biggest change with the iPhone 17 Pro’s design involves the back of the phone. Apple has extended the camera bar across the width of the phone, leaving it with something Apple calls a “forged plateau” — which is just a fancy way of saying camera bump. The two models are essentially the same size, though the 17 Pro is fractionally thicker.
Like the rest of the phone’s frame, the plateau is made from a lightweight “aerospace grade” aluminum alloy, which creates a two-tone effect when combined with the glass panel below it. Apple also confirmed that this panel has the new Ceramic Shield glass, for added durability and scratch protection.

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Meanwhile, the iPhone 16 Pro has the same square camera bump that Pro iPhones have always had, which accompanies the standard glass back panel. One key difference is that the 16 Pro has a brushed titanium frame, which was designed to offer better durability. However, it’s unclear how much stronger the old titanium frame might be compared to this new blend of aluminum.
We do know that the switch from titanium to aluminum contributed to a weight gain for the iPhone 17 Pro, as it’s 7 grams heavier than the iPhone 16 Pro.
The front of both phones doesn’t look that different, as each phone features a 6.3-inch displays. However, the iPhone 17 Pro does have the new Ceramic Shield 2 display glass, which offers increased protection from scratches and improved anti-glare capabilities.
The iPhone 17 Pro’s screen should also be brighter than the iPhone 16 Pro, as Apple promises 3,000 nits of peak brightness. That compares to 2,000 nits on the iPhone 16 Pro. We will have to do some testing to see if the iPhone 17 Pro outshines its predecessor.
Other display specs, including the 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rate, are unchanged.
iPhone 17 Pro vs iPhone 16 Pro: Cameras

(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)
For the first time, Apple has offered a trio of 48MP rear cameras, thanks to the upgraded resolution on the iPhone 17 Pro’s telephoto lens. Not only is the resolution increased from 12MP, the sensor is now 56% larger than last year — offering better clarity and sharpness, especially in low light.
But the upgraded camera on the iPhone 17 Pro does come with a downside, since the optical zoom has officially dropped from the iPhone 16 Pro’s 5x to 4x. That said, the new telephoto lens is a fusion camera, which means it can also provide an 8x “optical quality” zoom. For those that don’t know, this is essentially a digital zoom feature cropped to a smaller resolution — giving the illusion of increased magnification without the loss of quality you’d normally see with standard digital zoom. Apple has used that to great effect on its standard iPhone, which doesn’t have a telephoto lens.
While the main and ultrawide lenses on the iPhone 17 Pro haven’t changed since last year, the front camera lens has been upgraded to a “Center Stage” camera, with an 18MP sensor and increased field of view, plus a bunch of smarts to improve the selfie experience. One such feature is the ability for the camera to switch from Portrait to Landscape mode without the user having to physically flip it around.
The iPhone 17 Pro boasts another advantage over the iPhone 16 Pro when it comes to video capture — the rear and front cameras on the new phone can work in tandem to record video simultaneously. Apple has also added support for ProRes RAW, Log 2 and Genlock to its new phone.
iPhone 17 Pro vs iPhone 16 Pro: Performance

(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)
As you’d expect, the iPhone 17 Pro features a more advanced chipset than the A18 Pro inside the iPhone 16 Pro — it’s the A19 Pro. And while we haven’t been able to benchmark the new phone to see any improvements for ourselves, Apple has told us that the A19 Pro has a 6-core CPU and GPU, with Neural Accelerators built into each core for improved AI performance. You’d expect gains over the A18 Pro as a result.
The real benefit will likely come from the thermal management measure Apple has put in place on board the iPhone 17 Pro. A new vapor chamber cooling system transfers heat away from critical components inside the phone, allowing the iPhone 17 Pro to continue high-performance tasks for longer.
The design itself is also built to help the iPhone 17 Pro better regulate heat, including the choice of aluminum over titanium. As durable and lightweight as titanium was, people reported issues with overheating since its introduction on the iPhone 15 Pro two years ago. Switching to aluminum will apparently help to avoid similar issues.
The forged plateau on the iPhone 17 Pro is also designed to help further dissipate heat. Less heat means better long term performance.
All in all, Apple claims that its new phone’s sustained performance is 40% better than the iPhone 16 Pro.
iPhone 17 Pro vs iPhone 16 Pro: Battery life & charging

(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)
The actual battery specs in the iPhone 17 Pro are still unknown, as Apple doesn’t disclose how big the batteries inside its phones are. Teardowns revealed the iPhone 16 Pro used a 3,582 mAh cell, while leaked specs suggest that the battery in iPhone 17 Pro is a 3,988 mAh cell. eSIM-only models are also reportedly getting even larger batteries than the 17 Pros with physical SIMs.
Apple itself claims that the 17 Pro will have 33 hours of video playback, which is 6 hours longer than the 16 Pro. We’ll see if our own battery test shows similar gains.
Charging is also supposed to be faster on the iPhone 17 Pro, with the phone reaching a 50% charge in 20 minutes. On the iPhone 16 Pro, that took 30 minutes.
iPhone 17 Pro vs iPhone 16 Pro: Software and AI

(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)
The iPhone 17 Pro is shipping with iOS 26, though iPhone 16 Pro owners can upgrade to that version of the Apple’s iPhone software, too. A public beta is already available, with the full release coming September 15.
Like the iPhone 16 Pro, the iPhone 17 Pro supports Apple Intelligence features, which we’d imagine will run faster on the new phone thanks to the neural architecture of the A19 Pro and the improved thermal management.
iPhone 17 Pro vs iPhone 16 Pro: Outlook

(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)
The iPhone 17 Pro feels like a big change from the iPhone 16 Pro, particularly because of the radical new design. Some of the interior changes may be less pronounced, but this isn’t what I’d call an incremental update. Apple’s made a huge number of hardware changes that should (hopefully) make the iPhone 17 Pro a much better phone.
Whether we’re talking performance upgrades from the A19 Pro chip, the improved thermal management from the vapor chamber, a larger battery, or something as relatively small as the addition of Ceramic Shield 2’s anti-reflective properties, it all adds up to make an impressive-sounding phone.
That’s not to say the iPhone 16 Pro is obsolete. The cameras continue to produce outstanding photos and the A18 Pro remains a top-performing chipset. But the iPhone 17 Pro seems like a clear upgrade, especially if you’re coming from an older device.
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Tom is the Tom’s Guide’s UK Phones Editor, tackling the latest smartphone news and vocally expressing his opinions about upcoming features or changes. It’s long way from his days as editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the table. He’s usually found trying to squeeze another giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining about how terrible his Smart TV is.

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