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Review: Apple iPhone 17 - The best choice

For most people who need a new iPhone, the iPhone 17 is the best choice.

Published 9 December 2025 - 16:33

Most people reading a review of a new iPhone are probably well acquainted with the iPhone and its system in general. It might be time to buy a new mobile and you're wondering if the iPhone 17 or 17 Pro is the best choice. Or maybe you're wondering what you're missing out on if you choose an older iPhone to save money.

This year, I think the choice is unusually easy: the iPhone 17 is the best choice for most people. It has a starting price of 11,000 kronor, 4,000 kronor less than the iPhone 17 Pro, while the differences between the regular iPhone and the Pro model have become smaller. The iPhone 16 continues to be sold for 1,500 kronor less, but with 128 GB of storage compared to 256 GB, which is on the small side for today's needs. The iPhone 17 also has some clear improvements compared to the iPhone 16, actually more than in a long time.

Much better screen

The most important news is the screen. The iPhone 17 has received the same screen as the iPhone 17 Pro, which marks a departure from recent iPhone models where the base model had a worse screen. If you place an iPhone 16 next to an iPhone 17, you notice the difference immediately. The iPhone 16 has a slightly smaller screen with fairly thick black borders around it. The screen on the iPhone 17 also has higher maximum brightness, but you only notice that in strong sunlight. The most important difference is that the screen on the iPhone 17 is of the so-called LTPO type. This means that the screen's refresh rate can be changed dynamically up to 120 Hz. On an iPhone 16, the image on the screen becomes blurry as soon as you pan or scroll, on the iPhone 17 it stays much sharper. Thanks to the refresh rate being able to be lowered really low, the iPhone 17 also has an Always On function, meaning even when the screen is off, you can see the time and date without having to wake the screen.

These are features that have been available for many years in phones at half the price of what the iPhone 17 costs in the Android world, so it's not about any technical breakthrough but rather a deliberate downgrade that Apple has made in its cheapest model so that it won't be as good. That Apple is now scrapping the inferior screen in its base model is an embarrassment that has been corrected, and the iPhone 17 has a screen worthy of a mobile phone costing over 10,000 kronor.

Finally, the screen on the iPhone 17 has received an anti-reflective treatment that the iPhone 16 lacks. You notice the difference if you have the phones side by side, the reflections are more subdued on the iPhone 17, but the difference is not great.

The iPhone 17 has a new generation of Apple's chipset, albeit a slightly slower version than in the Pro models. It's hard to see that the difference makes any impact and what the extra computing power is used for. In the system and user interface, the iPhone is as fast as it has been allowed to be for many generations, and Apple's system has fewer AI features that require processing power than most Android manufacturers' top models.

Camera with surprise

Perhaps you can notice the difference in the cameras. The iPhone 17 does have the same main camera as the iPhone 16, and when I take photos with both phones without zooming in, the pictures look as if they came from the same camera. However, when I zoom in, the pictures from the iPhone 17 become significantly sharper. It is noticeable that the sensor's higher resolution is being utilised and perhaps that multiple exposures can be processed. In the iPhone 16, the pictures are no better than if they were digitally enlarged. This means that even though the iPhone 17 lacks a telephoto camera, you can take pictures with two times magnification before the sharpness seriously diminishes, and I think even pictures with four times magnification work, then the quality noticeably suffers.

Apple has a standard special 18-megapixel mode that provides sharper and more detailed images without the image files becoming too large. This means that everyday photos when you just point and click become more detailed than most other manufacturers' images, and the colour reproduction is mostly excellent. However, when you zoom in or take photos in the dark, the iPhone 17 switches to 12-megapixel images.

The wide-angle camera is significantly upgraded in the iPhone 17 and it shows in the image results. The selfie camera is also upgraded and it has an almost square sensor and the image can be cropped in different directions so that you can take portrait or landscape photos without rotating the phone.

Small differences upwards

Nowadays, both the regular iPhone and the Pro model have features like Dynamic Island where the camera island on the screen displays certain information in a playful way, the new programmable button that replaces the slider to mute the sound, and the virtual camera button. This means that the main difference between the iPhone 17 and the iPhone 17 Pro, apart from the design, is that the Pro model has slightly better cameras, particularly a telephoto camera that provides better zoom from four times and up.

There's not much to say about the system in the mobile. Not because iOS 26 doesn't contain new features, but because everyone with an iPhone 11 or later has already received it, and therefore it is the same as in the absolute majority of all iPhones. The appearance was revamped with the new system, but anyone expecting as dramatic a change as the last time the user interface was replaced will be disappointed; the icons have become a bit rounder and more transparent, and have gained a slightly glossy edge. At their worst, the new effects mostly look as if the graphics consist of several layers that don't quite match up.

The screen, performance, cameras, and amount of storage for the money are all improvements that speak for the iPhone 17 compared to the iPhone 16, and if you look at even older iPhones, they need to be considerably cheaper to justify choosing them. The difference up to the iPhone 17 Pro also feels unusually small, and the big jump in price is hard to justify. Most people looking to buy a new iPhone might first look at the cheapest variant of the latest iPhone, and this year they are right to do so.

Questions and answers

What USB support does the iPhone 17 have? It has a USB port for charging, and it comes with a braided USB cable that you will likely appreciate if you previously had an iPhone with a Lightning connector. However, the port only supports USB 2.0, which provides slower data speeds than the iPhone 17 Pro, which supports USB 3.2.

How is the battery life? It is slightly improved compared to the iPhone 16, but below average when compared to Android phones in the same price range. The iPhone 17 Pro has better battery life.

Is the iPhone 17 available in a larger variant? No, this year the Plus model has been replaced by the iPhone Air, which does have a larger screen but is also thinner with some resulting compromises.

An alternative

A refurbished iPhone 16 Pro offers better cameras at the same price, but in a slightly heavier format.

Camera example

Colour reproduction is almost always excellent, and the 18-megapixel mode for photos is something I wish more mobile manufacturers would adopt, the extra sharpness is really nice.

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