Apple “started from scratch” to design all-new iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max

CUPERTINO, Calif.—Apple's basic iPhone 17 is the one most people will use, and the new iPhone Air will get attention for its thin design and novelty. But the iPhone Pro series is still the absolute best the company has to offer, and that continues to be true of the new iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max that Apple announced today.

The new phones start at $1,099 and $1,199 for the Pro and Pro Max, respectively, each with 256GB of storage. Preorders start this Friday, and the phones will be available on September 19.

While the best feature of the iPhone 17 is its screen, the screens are virtually the only thing not to be overhauled for the iPhone 17 Pro, though they do get the more scratch-resistant, anti-reflective Ceramic Shield 2 coating. The new designs have a new aluminum unibody enclosure, with a glass cutout on the back to allow for wireless charging and a huge new camera bump that Apple calls the "camera plateau," stretching all the way across the back.

All three of those lenses on the camera plateau are now 48MP Fusion Cameras. At the default zoom levels, these condense 48MP images into smaller photos, using "pixel binning" to improve quality. But at the higher zoom levels—and the telephoto lens can now go up to 8x—the phone can simply crop a native-resolution chunk out of the center of the image, delivering what Apple calls "optical-quality zoom." Apple has used Fusion Cameras for the Pro's other sensors before, but this is new for the telephoto sensor, which Apple says is also 56 percent larger than the old telephoto sensor.