iPhone 17 Pro Max Review: 8 Months Later!

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:01]As one would expect, this is the best iPhone you can get right now. Sorry for stating the obvious, but I struggled to come up with an intro for this video.

[00:00:08]And in addition to that, I'm starting to question whether or not this is the iPhone I even want to carry around anymore. Let's talk about it.

[00:00:17]All right, so this phone does not let you forget that it exists. It is beefy.

[00:00:21]Apple added a bigger battery. I love seeing that for a top-of-the-line Supermax Ultra Pro Plus Turbo smartphone. I wish other OEMs weren't so hesitant to do the same.

[00:00:32]And I always found it funny when people complain about the big and heavy phone they bought being big and heavy. Like, a man, the cheeseburger I ordered has cheese on it. Sorry. Anyway, the trade-offs for switching from grade 5 titanium back to aluminum makes sense, albeit a divisive move. Better heat dissipation, it's lighter, and it's easier to work with and process. But man, shortly after I got the phone, I was at a friend's house and my caseless phone slipped through the cushions of her couch and onto the floor. And uh yeah, >> that ain't no problem, >> huh? That ain't no problem.

[00:01:06]>> I know. Boohoo, right? I got over this pretty quickly, but it was a bummer when it happened. So, yeah, it's not as scratch resistant this time, and I will say that it doesn't feel as premium as titanium or stainless steel, but it still doesn't feel cheap and it's comfortable to hang on to. I remember at launch this unibody design was polarizing to say the least. I was unsure about it at first, but it's grown on me and I like it now. It's the first true redesign the iPhone has gotten in a while. It's bold, recognizable, and people definitely notice it. And what a better way to get people to notice a phone than to make one bright orange.

[00:01:44]Personally, I think silver is the best color, but who cares? I'm pretty sure the orange one is the most popular one anyway. Now, I've been asked, "Is that the 17 Pro?" More times than I ever did with previous iPhones. The exception being the iPhone Air when people would ask, "What is that?" This whole two-tone look is something I didn't see coming.

[00:02:06]But overall, it's a striking design that, minus the little gash over there, has held up well, especially the display thanks to that ceramic Shield 2 putting in work. still don't use the camera control button for anything other than launching the camera app. And something I would really like to see would be Touch ID making a comeback, getting integrated into the power button. They could throw in a couple of swipe gestures to open and close the notification panel while they're at it.

[00:02:32]I know they've already tested Touch ID in the power button, but I think they need to try again. It'd be way more practical than a camera control button in my opinion. Other things like cellular connectivity has been fine for me, and both the speakers and haptics are pretty great as expected. So, no notes there. The display is awesome, too, as you would expect. Uh, the thinner bezels didn't really jump out at me until I got this B-roll shot a while back where I opened visual intelligence, and yeah, that's when it really registered. It's a great look. The screen gets nice and bright outdoors.

[00:03:04]There's an anti-reflective coating that I completely forgot was even there. Uh, it's nowhere near as effective as what the S26 Ultra has, but it's a step in the right direction. And there's even a PWM dimming toggle in the settings, which is nice to see.

[00:03:23]Question. How many times have you stood at your front door, arms full of groceries, doing the key jingle shuffle?

[00:03:30]You know the one. Bags all over the place, phone in teeth, dignity somewhere on the porch. Well, the Accara Smart Lock U400 would like a word. Using ultra wideband technology with centimeter level precision, the U400 knows exactly when you're at the door.

[00:03:46]Not your neighbor, not some random walking by you. No tap, no code, and no teeth involved. It even uses spatial awareness to tell if you're approaching the door or just hovering nearby. So, it won't unlock just because you're watering your plants 6 ft away. iPhone and Apple Watch users get super quick or completely hands-free unlocking straight from Apple Wallet. and everyone else.

[00:04:09]Fingerprint, passcode, NFC, the application, Alexa, Siri, take your pick. You can even use a regular key because we love our parents dearly. And we're not going to argue about having to download another application. It's Matter and Thread certified. It works with Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa, Smart Things, Home Assistant. It supports a Lero NFC unlock via Samsung wallet. It'll add UWB unlock on Samsung phones in the future, and the rechargeable battery lasts up to 6 months. The Accara U400. Yep, got it.

[00:04:39]Your keys called. They said don't even bother. Check it out using the link in the description. And a huge thanks to Accara for supporting the channel and sponsoring this portion of today's video. Honestly, not a whole lot of notes on performance. It's so quick that it's almost boring. That A19 Pro chip and that new vapor chamber cooling system are putting in work. And RAM management has been pretty solid. Any hiccups I experienced were mainly software related. Now, I'm no benchmark fiend. You should know this by now. But in practice, you are going to notice how well equipped the phone is for sustained workloads before it begins to dip, especially if you're doing heavy creative work or gaming, which this phone is an absolute beast for. The phone does get warm, but it hasn't done so to a concerning degree, and it certainly hasn't overheated in my experience. And we'll see how this holds up during peak Texas summer heat coming up pretty soon, but I'm not too worried about it. Now, battery life has been one of the best things about my experience with this phone. For a phone without a massive silicon carbon battery, something I've been spoiled by in other phones, it held its own admirably in comparison. So much so that my charging patterns ended up changing more than I'm used to with iPhones. On a single charge, I can get through a day and some change with moderate general everyday usage, no problem. I often found myself plugging in to charge in the early afternoon the day after I unplugged, if that makes sense. On heavier days with lots of camera use, maps, navigation, high brightness levels, etc., a full day is still no sweat. On average, I was able to clock in anywhere between 7 to 9 hours of screen on time, and even more with lighter use. Standby time is super impressive, and I've even left the house with less than 20% without an ounce of charging anxiety. Now, I did experience a noticeable dip in battery performance after a couple of updates, which was a letdown at those times, but as of now, I would say things are smooth sailing and battery life is back to normal.

[00:06:37]Everyone's results will vary, of course, but I think it's safe to say that you'll be satisfied with battery life here on this phone. I do wonder how long Apple will hold out on switching over to silicon carbon batteries. I really want to see that happen. Oh, and after eons of sub30 watt wired charging speeds, they finally made the leap up to 40 watts. That's still behind the Pixel 10 Pro XL's 45 watts and the S26 Ultra's 60 watts. And I have 100% been spoiled by 80 watts, but dude, for an iPhone, I'll take it. It goes from zero to 100% in around an hour and a half. and from zero to 80% in about 45 minutes, which funnily enough is almost exactly how long it takes my OnePlus 15 to charge its 7300 mAh battery from zero to 100%.

[00:07:24]I'm really going to need to see Apple bump it up to at least 60 W. It was overdue for Samsung. So, what do you think it is over here? And when you do, Apple, put the stinking wall adapter back in the box, will you? Goodness.

[00:07:39]Needless to say, the cameras here are great. This is one of the biggest reasons, if not the biggest reason, to get this phone. It's a pretty versatile setup. You'll get great results in just about every scenario and lighting condition. There's good consistency between all three cameras. The main camera is still the same one we've had for a while, but the telephoto lens now matches the others at 48 megapixels. Uh, it's 4x instead of 5x this time around, and it's been good. I also didn't notice as many lens flares in low light shots compared to previous generations, so that's good as well. Uh, that square sensor in the front-facing camera they switched over to has been a bit of a gamecher for group photos and recording videos. And dual capture is a neat feature, though I never really used it myself. It works well, though. Now, I'm not a professional by any stretch of the imagination, but I want to learn and improve. And this is a great platform for beginners and pros alike, chiefly for creative work with a great selection of first and third party tools to mess around with. The full granular control you have over photos and videos has never been better. Genlock, Apple log 2, ProRes RAW video, all kinds of stuff.

[00:08:48]And yes, the iPhone still produces the best video capture in any phone in my opinion. both from a hipfire and ready to post perspective and a fully curated and manually polished perspective. I think you get the point. Basically, ever since I got started doing YouTube, I've been asked what equipment an aspiring content creator should buy when starting out. For years, the answer in regards to cameras has been just use your phone.

[00:09:14]That is not only still the correct answer these days, but that route has never been easier to recommend than it is right now. You can absolutely do social media work with other phones, and I love seeing OEMs like Samsung continue to level up, adding things like the APV video codec with bakedin lots to get you started. But if you're looking for a one-stop shop with an ecosystem to support it, this is still your best bet at the moment. I mean, who wouldn't want the phone that was launched into space and the phone that was used to capture a live MLS match with equipment worth more than a small house? iOS is still trying to find its footing these days. Though, it has seen some improvement over time, just not enough for the masses, it seems. A lot of us are still experiencing all kinds of bugs. The keyboard still kind of stinks and Siri is still Siri, but hopefully with iOS 27, we'll get what was promised long ago. I'm not super high on Liquid Glass.

[00:10:12]I think it's cool from a technological standpoint. It's certainly gotten better visually since it debuted. I've admittedly grown fond of the clear home screen icons, but overall, it just is what it is. I don't hate it, but I don't love it either. It's just kind of cool.

[00:10:27]I really like the addition of call screening and screening unknown messages. Those have been very welcomed features. They definitely help make things more peaceful. It's nice being able to copy and open links directly from a screenshot. This is super handy for when you come across an uncclickable plain text URL. Oh, and I don't know why it took them so long, but you can finally change the snooze duration of an alarm in the clock app. You can send MP3s as ringtones directly from the files app. And more recently, RCS endto-end encryption started rolling out, too. So, thumbs up. Thumbs out.

[00:11:02]Thumbs up for that. Now, I simply cannot hop on the apps just work better on iOS than they do on Android bandwagon. It's true in some areas. I'll give it that.

[00:11:11]But Google Drive still occasionally gives up on photo uploads and YouTube's picturein picture still freezes from time to time. Things that I don't experience on Android. It's also pretty mind-boggling how Apple still hasn't implemented true split screen multitasking or clipboard history or a universal back gesture. Now, you can do the back gesture from just about anywhere on the display. Now, you don't have to start from the far left side, but this doesn't work well in every app.

[00:11:40]I can agree with things like the third party application scene being generally better compared to Android. It's not completely bleak over here. In fact, there's a really cool camera app that just launched that I'm really looking forward to trying out. But yeah, you get the point. There are some great applications and neat projects that people are working on on the iOS side.

[00:12:01]It's great to see. There's plenty to like here, but all in all, iOS 26 hasn't been my favorite. It's slowly moving in the right direction, but it still needs a lot of work, and it's been a bit of a let down on older devices. Here's to hoping they can get it right with future iterations.

[00:12:18]This has been the case for a while, but you really don't have to spend $1,000 plus to get a great phone. The base iPhone 17 is a no-brainer at its $800 price tag, and for most people, that's all the phone they need. This is not some wildly innovative, groundbreaking device. It's certainly not perfect, and that price tag is a tough pill to swallow, but the refinements are there inside and out. This phone checks a lot of boxes and in some ways it leaves few boxes unchecked. And even with the base iPhone getting 120 Hz inching it closer to being a prolike phone itself, the Pro Max feels a little more isolated than it has been. And that's a good thing. Like the Pro Max feels even more utilitarian as Apple continues pushing it further into living up to that Pro moniker. In totality, the 17 Pro Max is excellent.

[00:13:11]Apple seems to have regained its balance a little bit after 2 years of touting things like Titanium and built for Apple Intelligence as main selling points. I'd say it's worth looking into regardless of what phone you currently have, even with the 18 lineup just a few months away. Now, one more thing before I get up out of here. As someone who's been messing around with what a more mindful daily workflow and tech setup could look like during my time with the 17 Pro Max, I could not help but pick up my iPhone Air fairly regularly. As great as the Pro Max has been, especially as a creative tool, I do miss the Air. I have zero problem admitting how impractical the iPhone Air truly is, especially for $1,000. But its simplicity ignites my pre-existing craving for a more decentralized and intentional setup.

[00:14:02]Something I've actually been exploring behind the scenes for years at this point. Maybe I'll talk about that more in a future video, but I can't help but wonder if my preferences are beginning to change once again. I guess there's only one way to find out. I want to hear from you. What do you think of the iPhone 17 Pro Max and the current state of the iPhone as a whole? Have any thoughts on the iPhone Ultra? Let's talk about it in the comments. If you made it to this point of the video, you are awesome. You know what to do. Drop a potato, leave a like, and subscribe. I would love to reach 300K before the year is over. Your support means a lot. Thank you so much for watching.