iPhone 17 vs iPhone 17 Pro: How big will the gap be this year for new iPhones?
Apple has spent the previous few years giving its iPhone Professional fashions that further little push with options not obtainable on the customary iPhone. However that wasn’t the case with the iPhone 16, which added sufficient new capabilities to sprint almost any FOMO you’ll have felt by not paying up for the iPhone 16 Professional.
Will that development proceed this year with an iPhone 17 vs. iPhone 17 Professional comparability?
Preliminary rumors about Apple’s iPhone 17 plans paint a combined image. Whereas the customary iPhone is about to realize a long-awaited show enchancment that will match what the Professional fashions have delivered for years, the iPhone 17 Professional is about to see the extra vital adjustments, mainly to its design and cameras.
And Apple may be planning a processor shock, too, that will have an effect on the way you weigh the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Professional.
We’re a couple of months away from the iPhone 17 launch, since Apple usually rolls out new telephones in September. However sufficient rumors about all the new fashions in the works have emerged to provide us a great sense of how the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Professional may examine.
This is how a possible iPhone 17 vs. iPhone 17 Professional face-off is shaping up, with a particular give attention to the greatest variations in addition to key similarities.
iPhone 17 vs. iPhone 17 Professional: What’s completely different
Design
Save for the variety of digital camera lenses on the again of every mannequin and the display screen dimension, each iPhone in Apple’s lineup tends to look the identical. That will be altering with the iPhone 17.
Based mostly on leaked renders and CAD drawings, the iPhone 17 will look so much like previous fashions, although it could have a extra distinguished digital camera array than the present iPhone 16. The 2 rear cameras will nonetheless be stacked vertically, although.
Apple appears to be taking a unique strategy with the iPhone 17 Professional, stretching the digital camera array horizontally throughout the again of the cellphone. The three rear cameras will proceed to be organized in a triangular array on the proper facet of the cellphone, however different sensors and the flash will be moved to the left.
At present, Professional fashions include a titanium body, and there is some discuss of Apple dropping that characteristic with the iPhone 17 Professional. I am undecided I completely imagine that at this level, given how prominently titanium figures into the branding of Apple’s Professional telephones.
iPhone 17 vs iPhone 17 Professional: Cameras
The usual iPhone contains a essential digital camera and an ultrawide lens on the again, whereas the Professional handsets add a telephoto lens to that setup. That is not altering with the iPhone 17 lineup, although it seems like the iPhone 17 Professional is in line to get a a lot greater enchancment to its digital camera setup.
Together with the 48MP Fusion Digicam that serves as the essential shooter and a 48MP ultrawide digital camera, rumors tip the iPhone 17 Professional to undertake a 48MP telephoto lens. That is a better decision than the 12MP zoom lens on the iPhone 16 Professional, although the trade-off for that greater decision might be a shorter zoom.
The iPhone 17 Professional telephoto digital camera will reportedly solely provide a 3.5x optical zoom in comparison with 5x on the present mannequin, which does not make sense.
In the meantime, the iPhone 17 will nonetheless need to depend on its 48MP essential digital camera to approximate a 2x optical zoom, as there is no zoom lens slated for that cellphone. The truth is, it is extensively assumed the rear digital camera setup on the iPhone 17 will be the identical as what the iPhone 16 provides.
The iPhone 17 Professional can also be anticipated to select up a new characteristic not obtainable on the customary iPhone 17. A rumor claims Professional telephones will assist dual-video seize, permitting you to report video from each the back and front cameras concurrently.
One different digital camera change may affect each the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Professional. All new iPhones are in line to get a 24MP selfie digital camera, changing the present 12MP shooter.
iPhone 17 vs iPhone 17 Professional: Processor
You’d anticipate Apple to keep up a minor distinction between the customary iPhone and the Professional mannequin this fall by giving these telephones barely completely different chipsets.
If Apple sticks to its sample from the previous couple iPhone releases, the iPhone 17 would get an A19 system-on-chip whereas the iPhone 17 Professional would profit from an A19 Professional that provides just a little extra processing energy notably in terms of graphics.
The variations may be much more stark with the iPhone 17, although. One analyst believes the customary iPhone 17 will proceed to make use of an A18 processor, repeating what Apple did with the iPhone 14.
If that is the case, the efficiency distinction between an A18-powered iPhone 17 and an iPhone 17 Professional with an A19 Professional chip may be moderately stark.
iPhone 17 vs iPhone 17 Professional: Reminiscence
Like the iPhone 16, the iPhone 17 is predicted to characteristic 8GB of RAM to assist with all that on-device computing that Apple Intelligence options require. However the iPhone 17 Professional may get a lift in that space.
Particularly, a number of analysts are forecasting that the Professional fashions will get a bump to 12GB of reminiscence, as Apple appears to provide the iPhone 17 Professional a efficiency edge.
iPhone 17 vs iPhone 17 Professional: Worth
iPhone 17 pricing is up in the air, given the ever-fluctuating insurance policies about tariffs popping out of Washington. Even earlier than tariffs threatened to boost the value on gadgets manufactured in China like iPhones. Nonetheless, there was discuss of some iPhome 17 fashions costing greater than their predecessors.
No matter how iPhone pricing shakes out in the fall, it is a protected guess that the iPhone 17 will value lower than the iPhone 17 Professional. At present, the iPhone 16 begins at $799 whereas the iPhone 16 Professional has a $999 asking value.
That gap in pricing is a reasonably good information, although there’s a probability it’d widen if the Professional mannequin sees a value hike and the customary cellphone does not.
(*17*)iPhone 17 vs. iPhone 17 Professional: What is going on to be the identical
Show
After years of retaining its customary iPhones with refresh charges locked at 60Hz, Apple sounds prefer it’s lastly going to ship a characteristic that is fairly customary on flagship telephones nowadays — a fast-refreshing show.
A number of stories have the iPhone 17 adopting an LTPO panel for its show, a swap that will allow the cellphone to supply refresh speeds of as much as i20Hz. Which means smoother scrolling and extra immersive graphics, and it could match a characteristic the iPhone Professional fashions have supplied since the iPhone 13 Professional.
The iPhone 17’s fast-refreshing show might not be fully on par with what the iPhone 17 Professional provides, as some stories recommend the refresh fee on the customary mannequin might not be capable of scale all the means all the way down to 1Hz. Nonetheless, this is one space the place the gap between the common iPhone and the Professional mannequin might shut significantly.
The iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Professional shows might have one thing else in frequent. Some expect Apple to extend the panel on the iPhone 17 to six.3 inches, matching a lift in display screen dimension launched with the iPhone 16 Professional final year.
Nonetheless, one new distinction in shows may emerge. The iPhone 17 Professional might shrink the dimension of the Dynamic Island characteristic, releasing up extra display screen actual property. It is unclear if that change is coming to the common iPhone 17. Then once more, a more moderen report claims all fashions will shrink the Dynamic Island.
A new vapor chamber
The iPhone 17 Professional fashions are thought to be adopting a vapor cooling chamber as a substitute for the customary heatsinks present in present iPhones. The best is that the new chamber would hold the iPhone operating easily whereas stopping overheating throughout processor-intensive duties — an issue that is flared up with some latest releases.
Opinion is split amongst rumor mongers as as to if this characteristic is unique to the Professional telephones or whether or not all iPhone 17 fashions will profit from the swap. We’ll listing this characteristic right here for now, although it may shift over to the variations column as we get extra info forward of the iPhone 17 launch.
Software program
All iPhone 17 fashions debuting in the fall will ship with the identical software program on board. And now that Apple has held its WWDC 2025 convention, now we have a reasonably good concept as to what that software program will ship.
iOS 26 largely focuses on introducing a new Liquid Glass interface to Apple’s telephones, unifying the look of Apple’s software program throughout its telephones, Macs and different gadgets. However there are Apple Intelligence updates included with iOS 26, too, equivalent to a extra succesful Visible Intelligence characteristic and new additions to Genmoji and Picture Playground.
Whereas Apple may all the time shock us at the iPhone 17 launch with some Professional-specific software program capabilities, the identical iOS 26 options ought to work equally nicely on the iPhone 17 as they do on the Professional.
iPhone 17 vs. iPhone 17 Professional: Outlook
Make no mistake — the iPhone 17 Professional goes to proceed to supply extra premium options than the iPhone 17, even when the fast-refreshing show coming to Apple’s entry-level flagship ticks off a big field that had been separating the two telephones.
The Professional nonetheless figures to have the higher digital camera setup, with extra video seize options at your disposal. And if the rumored variations in chipsets pan out, there may be a notable efficiency gap between the two fashions as nicely.
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