iPhone 17 Pro Max Review - Even BETTER Than You Think!
Dave Lee (Dave2D) reviews the iPhone 17 Pro Max, arguing its vapor chamber cooling and A19 Pro chip deliver the best sustained performance Apple has shipped.
- iPhone 17 Pro Max rated a two-day battery for typical use; still 1.5 days at 80% optimized charge cap.
- A19 Pro chip performance jump is larger than the already-unusually-large leap from last year’s A18 Pro.
- New vapor chamber works because the full-metal unibody shell conducts heat; would have been wasted in the glass/titanium iPhone 16 Pro chassis.
- Pro models get 12 GB RAM (up from 8 GB); likely needed to keep on-device Apple Intelligence models resident without memory swapping.
- Telephoto drops from 5x to 4x optical, but the larger sensor enables a sharp 8x cropped zoom, net improvement in real-world quality.
- All three Pro rear cameras are now 48 MP — first time Apple matched sensor resolution across the full triple-camera system.
- Front camera upgrades from 12 MP to 18 MP with a larger sensor and landscape selfies without rotating; ships on all four 2025 iPhone models.
- Samsung S25 Ultra still competitive on color in video; Pixel flagships still edge out iPhone in low-light stills.
2025-09-17 · Watch on YouTube
